Etrop Grange Hotel, Manchester Airport

I'd read funky chicken's review but decided to book anyway as I had a great deal so it was worth finding out for myself. Glad I did; the booking hadn't got through to the hotel so they apologised even though it probably wasn't the hotel's fault; I was given a superior room instead of the standard double I had booked; and they honoured the internet rate I had found too.The receptionist was extremely helpful and amenable, and this was consistent across all staff. In the morning I was 30 mins late after breakfast was no longer served, but I could still get all the breakfast I wanted and they went out of their way to make sure everything was catered for.I received the same service from the reception manager upon check-out.At their rack-rate the the quality and service make it appropriate value for money. Any discount rates on that make it a no-brainer choice. I will definitely stay here again.

Found a number of problems with the hotel and room at Etrop Grange Hotel.

1. On arrival there wasn't a bell boy available, or any offer to take our heavy bags to our room, we had to drag them through the hotel to the bridal suite (including a number of steps). In my opinion, this is not 4 star standard, or being treated like a newly married couple! Also please tell me how disabled people gain entrance into this hotel as this is not clearly marked on arrival and we actually would have like to use this entrance with our heavy luggage.

2. The heating facility was out of order in our room, there were wall heaters, but they didn't seem to work. Thank god it was quite warm (however in the morning it was pretty chilly!)

3. I thought the light fixings in the room were extremely poor with wires on display.

4. There wasn't a shower curtain in the bathroom, the water went straight out of the bath and onto the floor, we had to use our towels to mop up the water!

5. We got the impression that the bridal suite was going through a make-over and was not finished (my husband is a Director in the construction industry and has specialised in hotel building and renovation). I shouldn't have been assigned a room (especially one as special as the bridal suite) when it is not complete. If they can tell me it was complete then I think they need to re-evaluate their standards.

6. The telephone in the room was not connected! (More on this to follow)

7. We were in the bridal suite, we had one robe (we couldn't call housekeeping the telephone didn't work!)

8. We were offered on arrival a table for dinner, we were not sure if we would eat at that time and said we would phone from the room to book (again phone wasn't working so we couldn't)

9. Room service - We couldn't see any hotel information, menu or fire safety information in our room (again couldn't phone for room service as phone was dead)

10. As we couldn't phone for room service, we decided to get changed and go to dinner. We asked for a table and the restaurant manager asked if we had booked. Perfect time for us to report the telephone issue in the room and that we only had one robe. He assured us this would be sorted during dinner. It wasn't!! I'm sure you can understand that we didn't want to wander up and down the corridors asking for things twice on our honeymoon!

11. Dinner - We were looked after extremely well in the restaurant, we asked for a recommendation of wine and the gentlemen had an extremely good knowledge of his wines, this was perfect. However we felt the steak meat in the restaurant was very poor on our visit. We have a good knowledge of fine dining and quality, to receive a fillet steak with fat running straight through it is not four star hotel standard.

12. We rang the hotel to be collected from the airport on Tuesday 3 June (7:30am), when the phone was answered the guy I spoke to said that he had no knowledge of us returning today! After a night flight back from Chicago, the last thing you want to hear is that!! I told him that he had better not let me down as we had received amazing standards of service in the States and that we definitely gave details of our return. When he picked us up he said that we had not put morning or afternoon return on the card; Surely this is a check reception should make on our departure from the UK?