The 10 best budget hotels in Manchester

Fast becoming the UK’s second city, Manchester buzzes like the worker bee that serves as its emblem. Home of The Smiths, Joy Division, Oasis and The Hacienda club, it’s a city of music. Featuring more than five theatres, it’s a city of the arts. Birthplace of Emmeline Pankhurst, atomic theory, and the world’s first stored programme computer, it’s a city of innovation.

And it’s also a city that refuses to stand still. New openings, from the 43,000 square foot Aviva Studios entertainment venue to the 23,500-person Co-op Live music arena, have been happening in rapid fire over the past few years. With so much to experience, visitors might rightly want to save money on accommodation to make room in the budget for more tours, tickets, drinks, and dinners.

Fortunately, Manchester has more than its fair share of affordable places to stay, and we’ve picked 10 of the best.

1. Moxy Manchester City hotel

The nine-storey red-bricked building that houses Moxy Manchester City used to be a hat factory, and there are nods to this backstory all over the hotel – bedroom cushions are printed with slogans like ‘you can leave your hat on’ and Panama hats and 80s visors are used as wall decorations. Visitors are welcomed to the hotel with a free drink of gin and tea, which sets the tone for the stay. The pulse point of the Moxy is the bar, where there are games like giant Jenga and table football and live music on Saturdays. It’s here where the breakfast buffet is served in the mornings, followed by an all-day menu of bar snacks and 24-hour sourdough pizza. There’s more fun to be found right outside the hotel’s doors. This Moxy is located in the centre of the Spinningfields district – home to some of the city’s best restaurants, rooftop bars like 20 Stories and The Ivy, and the Opera House theatre.

Address: 8 Atkinson St, Manchester

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2. Yotel Manchester hotel

Yotel Manchester drops its pin in the Deansgate area of the city, putting big brand shops, entertainment options like Electric Shuffle shuffleboard bar, and dozens of restaurants and drinking joints within a five to 10-minute walk. The hotel bar, Motley, is worth a look, too – all velvet seating, faux foliage, and quotes in neon lights – and serves cocktails like dirty chai martinis and mango coconut margaritas, and a food menu of small and large plates. Yotels are known for their clever use of space in bedrooms, and the Manchester location is no exception. You’ll find laptop-sized safes under beds instead of inside cupboards, for example, and floating bedside shelves with just the right amount of room for the essentials – a mobile phone and a glass of water.

Address: 2 John Dalton St, Manchester

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3. The Abel Heywood, Manchester hotel

Named after a former mayor of Manchester, the Abel Heywood calls Manchester’s Northern Quarter its home. A 10-minute walk from Piccadilly Station, this part of the city is known for its kooky boutiques, independent bars and restaurants, and knock-out coffee shops. Featuring finishing touches like record players or vintage radios, the 15 boutique rooms are located above a traditional pub. With its dark wood bar, leather seating, and wooden floors, the pub has a drinks menu that showcases locally-brewed cask ales and world beers alongside wines and cocktails. Its all-day food menu, meanwhile, is distinctly red, white and blue, featuring British classics like breakfast fry-ups, steak and ale pies, and Sunday roasts.

Address: 38 Turner Street, Northern Quarter, Manchester

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4. Maldron Manchester City Centre hotel

With a sunshine yellow colour scheme and wall art that depicts scenes of the surrounding city, the rooms at Maldron Manchester City Centre are available as deluxe doubles, deluxe doubles with an extra single bed, and executives, which come with extras like fluffy robes and slippers and espresso machines. A four-minute walk from Oxford Road train station, the hotel is within easy reach of Chinatown, The Palace Theatre, and countless bars and restaurants. Guests who’d prefer to get fed and watered on site, though, can take advantage of the Red Bean Roastery coffee shop and The Grain & Grill Bar, the latter of which serves small plates like shrimp tacos alongside mains such as slow-braised feather blade of beef. This is also where Maldron’s Vitality Breakfast – a mix of continental and full English dishes – is served, from 6am to 10.30am on weekdays and 6.30 to 11am on weekends.

Address: 60 Charles St, Manchester

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5. Roomzzz Manchester hotel

Just around the corner from Chinatown, and a 10-minute walk from both Piccadilly and Oxford Road train stations, Roomzzz Manchester fuses the freedom of an apartment stay and the service of a simple hotel. Featuring design flourishes like exposed wall beams, window shutters, and wooden floors that speak to the history of the Victorian Corn Exchange building they’re in, the 59 apartments come with fully fitted kitchenettes and the typical hotel room fixings. Guests also get a 24-hour reception service and a hot drink and a pastry for breakfast between 6.30 and 10.30am each morning. In addition to ‘smart’ studios and slightly larger ‘grande’ rooms, Roomzzz offers family studios that can sleep up to two children free of charge, or an extra adult for £10 a night, a Liberty Suite that comes with dual sinks, and a Loft where a spiral staircase connects the sleeping and living levels.

Address: 36 Princess Street, Manchester

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6. The Reach at Piccadilly hotel

Backing onto the Rochdale Canal, less than a five-minute walk from Piccadilly train station, The Reach is aptly named after a term which describes the stretch of water between two canal locks. The hotel’s décor pays homage to the role Manchester’s canals played in shaping the city during the Industrial Revolution. Rooms are styled with natural materials such as limestone, wood, cotton and wool, which were commonly transported along the waterways in the mid-18th century. The menus at the in-house restaurant, Lock 84, which overlooks the water, also nod to the hotel’s heritage and setting. The breakfast offering includes floddies – breakfast potato cakes that were the breakfast of choice for canal workers 200 years ago – whilst the dinner menu features a Northern Chicken Burger with Vimto chilli jam (Vimto was invented in Manchester in 1908).

Address: 7 Ducie Street, Manchester

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7. Whitworth Locke hotel

Occupying three renovated 19th-century mill buildings near the Rochdale Canal, Whitworth Locke goes over and above most standard aparthotels. It complements its collection of studios and suites with a free residents-only gym and its own outlet of The Foundation Coffee House, a locally-born coffee chain that has become a bit of a Manchester institution. The rooms are pretty spaces, with a blush pink colour scheme and Art Deco-inspired touches. Each one comes with a kitchenette, and room sizes range from the capsule Underground, which is 26 metres square, to two-bedroom duplex suites, which are 80 square metres and can sleep up to five. Location-wise, Whitworth Locke feels like it’s in the middle of everything. Piccadilly Station, the Palace Theatre, Canal Street, and Chinatown are all less than a 10-minute walk away.

Address: 74 Princess St, Manchester

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8. Cow Hollow hotel

Located in Manchester’s buzzy bar and boutique-infused Northern Quarter, the Cow Hollow hotel is set inside a restored turn-of-the-century textile mill. The hotel’s looks celebrate its history. Set against a backdrop of exposed stone walls and polished wooden flooring, the furnishings include everything from Victorian travel chests and antique writing desks to gilded mirrors and Chesterfield sofas. Each of the 16 rooms is different, but common features include porcelain and bronze bathrooms, rainfall showers, and goose down duvets. There’s no restaurant at the hotel – guests are given a list of local recommendations on arrival – but Cow Hollow does offer breakfast bags that consist of granola, orange juice, a croissant, and fruit. The hotel has a cocktail lounge that puts on complimentary prosecco and antipasti every evening for guests.

Address: 57 Newton St, Manchester

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9. Native hotel

Less than a five-minute walk from Piccadilly Station, Native offers a mix of apartments with self-catering facilities and traditional double hotel rooms. Wrapped up inside a Grade II-listed warehouse building, the rooms make use of original features such as exposed stone walls and steel ceiling beams. The hotel hub is Ducie Street Warehouse, a social space with a lounge, bar, outdoor terrace, 36-seat mini cinema, and restaurant, which serves dishes like pinsas (a type of flatbread pizza), loaded fries and burgers. A bottomless brunch takes place here every Saturday during the day, and DJs take to the decks every Friday and Saturday night. If you’d rather hit the gym than the dance floor, Native is also home to BLOK gym, which offers classes in everything from calisthenics to yoga.

Address: Ducie Street Warehouse, Ducie St, Manchester

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10. Manchester Marriott Victoria & Albert Hotel

Set within a converted warehouse, the Manchester Marriott Victoria & Albert overlooks the River Irwell in the Spinningfields area of the city. Key sights like the People’s History Museum, The Museum of Science & Industry and dozens of shops, bars, and restaurants are all within a 10-minute walk of the lobby. The hotel restaurant, Chop & Plant, serves hearty dishes such as steak or pies and plant-based options such as butternut burgers. Bedrooms at the hotel celebrate its setting. The red brick walls of the warehouse have been left exposed, original beams line the ceilings, and the walls are adorned with black and white images of local landmarks and life on the River Irwell in the 19th century. In the adults-only Treble Suite, the decor is inspired by the year Manchester United became the first English football club to win the Premier League, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League in the same season.

Address: Water Street, Manchester

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