I will fully admit that I was very excited for a stay at a football themed hotel. Little did I know, the place was a complete disaster. I checked in to my room at Hotel Football and was informed that my space was on the 5th floor.
Much to my surprise, and disappointment the room had two twin beds. Since I am 6’5’’ I rang the front desk, saying that I wanted to be in a larger bed, which was what I had ordered. The woman at the front desk told me that I had not booked a room with a larger bed and I was supposed to push the two beds together.
I told her that was not true, that I would have ordered a room with a larger bed because I was so big. When I asked for another room, she said that all rooms were sold out. I told her that there are 133 rooms in the hotel, there are no games going on and it was not possible that the hotel was fully booked.
At that point I realized that it was fruitless to continuing arguing with her — she was just not going to give me another room and she was being completely dishonest to me in terms of room availability. In terms of the size of the room, it was extremely small for Europe standards. The room’s decor reminded me of a cheap Holiday Inn or Ramada. The one chair in the room was even more uncomfortable than it was ugly. I’ve stayed in all kind of rooms in Paris, London and Rome that were easily twice the size of this shoebox. The room itself is extremely narrow so it literally gives you a feeling of being boxed in. Fortunately I am not claustrophobic.
The bathroom was extremely small and spartan, with very cheesy slogans etched on the glass. This also was not football themed by any means. The room did not have any football memorabilia. Bathroom products were not marked by any brand so you had no idea where they came from. This is not consistent with somewhere with a 4.5 star rating.
The ‘netting’ themed backboard was also extremely cheap looking and poorly done. Being a stones throw from Manchester United I was shocked there were no jerseys or any memorabilia in the room — quite literally nothing related to Manchester United that stands only a few hundred meters away from the hotel. The room was not dirty but it was very sterile. It would have been very easy for them to place a jersey, or something actually football-themed on the wall. Instead they took the lazy, cheap approach in terms of the decor. Walls were paper thin as I could hear my ‘neighbors’ having sex.
There isn’t really a lobby or space for any place to sit in the ‘lobby’ as the lobby is more of a breezeway. I entered Cafe Football for a drink and ordered a scotch on their menu which they said they were out of. Instead I ordered another one on the menu that I didn’t really want. There were several people there with their pints but there wasn’t anywhere to sit at the bar.
Sleep wasn’t easy to come by on the incredibly uncomfortably firm twin mattress but I did manage to push these two beds together as the front desk worker graciously suggested.
Hotel Football, Old Trafford has somehow been given a 4.5 Star rating by Marriott. Ratings must have been completed by people who have never stayed at this Ramadaesque motel located right outside Old Trafford. I was very excited to visit this supposed football themed hotel but my stay at Hotel Football was a thorough disappointment from start to finish.