Charles Hope Apartments - Manchester Centre

I booked two rooms on 24th December. Today, 1st of December, I received an automated email saying both had been cancelled because there was no availability. That’s two days before check-in. In ten years of booking hotels for work, I’ve never experienced anything like this.

The apartment itself was fine, but the service at Charles Hope Apartments Manchester Centre was disorganised and stressful from the start. We were left waiting outside because their required pre-arrival form wouldn’t work. After our long, tiring journey, staff dragged out check-in by repeatedly asking for things already covered by our reservation, including whether I was travelling alone and for copies of ID. The bigger problem came at checkout. The day before, I was emailed to choose a checkout time, with options through 8:00 PM. I selected 8:00 PM in their portal, and it showed as confirmed. I have screenshots. But while we were out on our last day, Angelo from customer service called in an aggressive, rude manner and demanded we return immediately to leave, threatening to remove our belongings without consent. When I tried to explain the confirmed late checkout, he kept interrupting and wouldn’t listen. He even threatened to leave me a negative review on the booking portal, which was completely unprofessional. Then Maria called. She said she didn’t know what had gone wrong, but still told us to hurry back and leave because the next guests were arriving, even though I said we were already on our way. There was no apology, understanding, or responsibility for what was clearly their system’s mistake. They dismissed the proof of the confirmed 8:00 PM checkout entirely. The way they handled this was unacceptable. There was no care or basic courtesy, and no understanding of their legal responsibility to provide services with reasonable skill and care under consumer law. I don’t recommend this place unless you’re willing to risk being disrespected, stressed on your final day, and disregarded as a paying customer. Absolutely shocking customer service.

The apartment was modern, well maintained, secure, and had lovely views. It comfortably fit our group of three and had everything we needed, including a high seat for children. The hosts kept in touch throughout and made sure check-in went smoothly and we were comfortable. I was impressed as soon as we arrived. One thing they could consider is leaving one or two bottles of water in the fridge, especially for guests coming from far away. On our last day, the shower was scalding hot even when turned all the way to cold, and we couldn’t regulate the temperature. I’m not sure why. I couldn’t have asked for more overall.

Getting into the apartment took nearly seven hours, and I didn’t get access until 10 PM after threatening to cancel through Booking.com. The delay ruined my first day. Several calls were diverted, and a woman at a third-party company asked for my personal details, saying Booking.com doesn’t share information because of GDPR. That was clearly false, since she later used my contact details to send the access code by SMS. Once inside, I found there was no additional door lock. With electronic access, I felt unsafe and barricaded the door with furniture overnight. The apartment was extremely hot, the AC didn’t work, and opening the windows didn’t help with ventilation. There was also a strong eggy smell from the kitchen sink. I submitted two late checkout requests as prompted, but got no reply. After I emailed to complain, they said they’d let me know on the morning of checkout, which defeats the point of asking in advance. As expected, it was declined. Support was unresponsive and discourteous. Every email got the same response about forwarding it to the relevant team, instead of a direct answer. The listing had looked promising, but the experience was far from smooth. They may have stopped me from writing on Booking.com, but I’ll keep posting elsewhere after being ignored.