General Overview:

In the heart of the city is the Mercure Manchester Piccadilly, a 4-star business hotel with a mix of facilities and servcies for bothe leisure and business markets. The location and the number of flexible meeting spaces make the hotel an ideal location for local and national meetings.

The facilities of the Mercure are located over many floors with the reception located on the 1st floor the bar and restaurant meeting space and fitness facilities all located on separate floors.

Location and Setting:

The hotel is adjacent to the main bus station and tram stops of Piccadilly Gardens, and just minutes from the main Piccadilly train station that has direct links to London, which can be reached in 2hrs 10 minutes. The city of Manchester is serviced by the M5, M6, M56 and M62 motorways which provides strong links to the North, Midlands and South of England.

The hotel does have a Car Park for up to x80 cars but is provided by an external company, so parking may not be included in your stay.

Design

The Mercure Manchester Piccadilly was purpose built in the early 60’s and presents a 'post war modernist' exterior that dominates the skyline with impressive panoramic views from the public areas such as the bar and restaurant and some bedrooms. The hotel is part of the Piccadilly Plaza, or Piccadilly Exchange, made up of a large amount of modern office space, the Mercure, high street restaurants and shops. Inside the hotel has been modernised with a modern contemporary feel.

Adjacent to the Plaza is Piccadilly Gardens, which was redesigned in 2002 and offers pathways and grassed areas and a large fountain and is home to summer festivals and concerts. This is visible from the Bar and Restaurant area.

Meeting Space:

The first to fourth floors are dedicated meeting floors with a total of 11 meeting rooms, which can be used individually or together for larger meetings. The International Suite is the largest hotel meeting space in the city and can accommodate 800 delegates in a theatre layout or 414 in cabaret style and is ideal for promotional conferences and investigator meetings. Small exhibits can be located in the small foyer area located by the International suite and the bar area is often used for registration and holding of larger groups using the international.

Regulatory code sensitive meetings packages are available and can be requested and for internal meetings themed breaks can be provided.

Bedrooms:

There are 280 bedrooms available across three categories. The Classic (standard) rooms are decorated in an executive class with bright contemporary styling in suitable for business travellers. There is WIFI, HD TV without films and no minibar. The Privilege and Superior rooms are substantially larger and in the case of Superior rooms have a separated bedroom and lounge. Décor is similar in these rooms to the Classic rooms and upgrades include a Nespresso Machine, robe and slippers.

All bedroom categories have the potential for city view rooms however, with 130 rooms in the Classic category, lower floor classic rooms would be most appropriate for HCP meetings that are residential. The use of bedroom categories labelled Privilege and Superior would need to be considered if being used for HCP meetings.

Restaurant and Bar

'Level 3' is the only restaurant and is located within the same space as the hotel bar on the 3rd floor adjacent to the International suite. With panoramic views of Piccadilly Gardens, the décor is typical of a business venue with space for up to 450 persons in a modern contemporary location with a modern contemporary menu with a range of pub style dishes with twists to the presentation to personalise the experience. Level 3 would not be considered as fine dining but does attempt to individualise the dishes served to an executive level.

The bar is located adjacent within Level 3 and uses partitions to individualise the two locations. The bar is a large space which serves snacks during the day and can act as a central point to the hotel. Décor is almost pub style with dark colours and a number of spaces around a large central bar area.

Experience

Utilising its location, flexible meeting spaces and business positioning, it has already played host to healthcare association and corporate conferences, day and dinner meetings and in our opinion, may be considered appropriate for a wider range of activities from small advisory board meetings for 12 persons to larger investigator meetings in the International Suite for up to 414 in a cabaret layout with another 10 meeting rooms across three floors that can support larger meetings as breakout rooms

Fitness

Being a city-centre property, it does not have grounds for any external activities; however, it does provide a well-equipped fitness/gym studio. There is no pool or spa treatments and therefore leisure or spa packages are not fundamental to the venue’s onsite offering.

As a Mercure branded property, it is part of the Accor group who position the hotel as a four-star mid-scale hotel suitable for business and leisure groups.

The hotel’s own Mercure branded website home page, focusses on the potential for in house activities however, the imagery and description position these as stylish and comfortable and not “luxurious or deluxe” which would be misleading considering the modest facilities of the venue.

This is not a venue that uses a leisure message to position the hotel as high end with distracting messages from the core meeting purpose of the venue.

External travel sites support the hotels 4-star rating and the overall offering is unlikely, in our opinion, to raise any compliance concerns for any risk adverse company or association that might conflict with the sector understanding of an appropriate venue.