In the know
- Our favourite rooms
- The split-level penthouse suites are like your own mini apartment – equipped with a dining table (and filled fruit bowl), sofas, a spiral staircase leading up to a bed-filled space and an extra loo. The hunter-inspired Room 25 is a private country cabin in the middle of Manchester – checked wallpaper, wooden ceilings and a vast wooden bed. Room 32 feels like a Victorian garret, with sloping electric windows, Victoriana wallpaper and a painting of ill-fated poet, Thomas Chatterton. If you’re planning on joining in with the revellers downstairs, book a third-floor room with its own terrace overlooking the activity by the canal.
- Packing tips
- Colourful glad rags – you’re in the flamboyant gay quarter.
- Also
- Spa treatments are available either in rooms or in the local spa, 10 minutes down the road.
Current offers
- Smith card offer
- Two glasses of sparkling wine on arrival
More photos
Velvet
Manchester, United Kingdom[view map]
- Style
- Fringed with frivolity
- Setting
- Buzzing by the canal
Velvet is a decadently camp boudoir-styled boutique hotel with a central setting on Manchester’s Canal Street. This old textile mill has a whole series of indulgent interiors – each room is individually designed with epic beds (including sleigh ones fit for Santa), graphic wallhangings (bordering on S&M, but settling for gently erotic) and statement chandeliers. They’ve taken a liking to exposed brickwork and wooden ceilings, and, in some rooms, huge square baths.
Need to know
- Rooms
- 19, including three suites.
- Rates
- £99–£169, not including breakfast (£9.50 each for Continental, £13.50 for full English).
- Check-out
- 11am but flexible until 1pm for £10 per hour. Earliest check-in, 3pm.
- Facilities
- Free WiFi throughout, DVD library, off-site gym (five minutes away). In rooms: flatscreen TV, DVD/CD player, iPod dock, Hypnos mattress and Ren bath products.
Food & drink
- Hotel restaurant
- The Velvet restaurant existed when the hotel was just an apple in the old textile mill’s eye. It spills out onto a canal-facing terrace, which gets lively in the summer. Inside, you have to step over a glass fish tank at the top of the stairs to enter. It’s open for modern Mediterranean food right up until 10pm. You can expect dishes such as spicy prawn risotto, seabass and Asian greens with chilli and soy sauce, and crispy pork belly with black pudding mash.
- Dress code
- A hint of Moulin Rouge, but leave the PVC for the ones who know how to do it best.
- Top table
- The street-side tables by the canal for a steady stream of people to watch.
- Last orders
- 10pm for food, 12.30am for drinks (2am on Fridays and Saturdays).
- Room service
- Pick from the full menu until 10pm, then an abridged version is available through the night.
- Hotel bar
- The opulent bar has exposed brickwork, plum-coloured walls, gilded mirrors and a hint of bordello in its decor. It’s liveliest on Friday and Saturday nights. There are two house cocktails – the Velvetini (vodka, dry Martini, crème de cacao and chocolate sauce) and Velvet Sensation (Baileys, Amaretto, Tia Maria, vodka, milk and cream).
Also worth knowing
- Children
- This hotel is better suited to couples - leave the children at home!
Smith members offer
Two glasses of sparkling wine on arrival
Our members get a little something extra at every hotel they book with us. Just show your Mr & Mrs Smith card at check-in to claim.
Not a member? Join now
Book online
To book this hotel please click here, or contact our travel team on 1 866 610 3867. We guarantee you'll get the best available rates, and we don't charge a booking fee.
