Hacienda Apartments -

I would love to review Hacienda Apartments and given a good review - had I actually stayed there! Let me explain...

I'd booked a three night stay at the Hacienda approximately four months before my stay in Manchester. My reason for staying at the venue was purely, solely because of the buildings rich and famous musical history. As I am sure you are well aware, the Hacienda was once a world famous nightclub and has had movies, documentaries and books dedicated to it. As a huge fan of the whole scene, where else would I want to stay on my first trip to Manchester? I was very excited to secure a one bedroom apartment for three nights and was eagerly anticipating it.

Medlock Apartments finally made contact with me as I was travelling from London to Manchester on May 12 regarding the check in process. I was told to meet a Medlock representative outside the Hacienda. Upon arriving at Piccadilly Station I caught a taxi to the Hacienda. 15 minutes later a Medlock representative arrived and quite rudely asked 'what are you doing here? You are meant to be at spinningfields!'

As a first time visitor to Manchester, of course I did not know wha spinningfields was and pulled out my email confirmation of my Hacienda stay, assuming he had made a mistake. But no, I was informed that there was a problem with the hot water at Hacienda and I had to be moved elsewhere. I expressed my disappointment at having not been informed of my apartment's unavailability - despite Medlock having my mobile number and email address - and was not given an explanation.

I was then told that if I didn't want to go to Spinningfields I could cancel the booking... Which was out of the question given I was carrying 25kg of luggage, was tired and cold and in a foreign city.

So I was taken to spinningfields. There was nothing wrong with my 3 night stay - it was a high standard apartment and I was comfortable there. However, three weeks after returning to Australia I am still disappointed about what happened. I understand that things go wrong and apartments can become unavailable due to circumstances beyond Medlocks control, but I question why I wasn't informed about this when the rep told me the Hacienda had been unavailable for a week or longer. Had I known in advance I would have most certainly cancelled my booking and found somewhere to stay in the Northern Quarter, where i knew I would be spending most of my 4 days. As I said, my sole reason for booking the Hacienda was to stay in such a famous building with importance to me - not to just stay in any 'nice' apartment anywhere in Manchester.