Staycity Manchester Piccadilly accessible apartment review

There’s a difference between booking an accessible hotel room and finding somewhere that actually works for family life.

For our latest Access Manchester trip, there were four of us, two children, a wheelchair, a fairly full itinerary and all the usual bits and pieces that somehow multiply whenever you travel as a family.

What we needed wasn’t simply somewhere I could get into.

We needed space.

Somewhere the children could have their own room. Somewhere Martin and I could still sit and relax once they’d gone to bed. A kitchen we could actually use. A bathroom that worked properly for me. Somewhere central enough that we could leave the car behind and head out into Manchester together.

Staycity Manchester Piccadilly gave us all of that.

And what surprised me most was that the accessible two-bedroom apartment was actually considerably better in practice than the information online had led me to expect.

Our stay at Staycity Manchester Piccadilly was hosted with Visit Manchester, as part of our Access Manchester Destination series. As always, inclusion and editorial opinion remain independent.

Booking the accessible apartment

The booking process was refreshingly straightforward.

Among the different accommodation options, the two-bedroom accessible apartment was clearly identified as accessible.

No searching through separate accessibility PDFs. No booking a standard apartment and leaving my requirements in a notes box. No phone call simply to establish whether an accessible option existed.

It was there.

Clearly marked.

I could see photographs of the accessible bathroom and wheelchair-friendly kitchen, alongside some basic information about the apartment, and make a decision from there.

You can also arrange things such as bed configuration and housekeeping preferences ahead of arrival, so by the time we reached Manchester, much of the practical side had already been dealt with.

The information was enough to give me confidence to book.

What it didn’t quite prepare me for was just how much thought had gone into the apartment itself.

Possibly the easiest parking I’ve had in central Manchester

Arrival was the first pleasant surprise.

Manchester and convenient city-centre parking haven’t always been natural bedfellows for me.

Unless somewhere offers valet parking, this was probably the easiest parking arrangement I’ve experienced during a Manchester stay.

There’s a large car park directly opposite Staycity with disabled bays, so we could park, unload and get everyone inside without turning arrival into the first logistical exercise of the weekend.

Both the front and rear entrances we used were step-free.

Which sounds like a fairly casual observation but, in my experience, having a choice of entrances without a detour served on the side gets a definite tick from me.

Inside, reception had both a standard-height desk and a lowered accessible check-in section.

And it was actually being used for its designed purpose.

Another small thing, perhaps, but accessible check-in desks have an unfortunate habit of becoming very convenient homes for leaflets, plants, card machines and anything else looking for somewhere to live.

Here, I could simply roll up and check in.

We completed my PEEP information, collected the key cards and had a good chat with the team, which is pretty standard practice for me.

What stood out was how comfortable they were with the practical side of access. The questions that needed asking were asked with warmth and confidence, without any awkwardness or making the conversation feel more clinical than it needed to.

Friendly, confident and completely at ease with it.

Then we were on our way upstairs.

Simple.

Exactly as check-in should feel.

Then we opened the apartment door

The first thing I noticed was the space.

Not the artwork.

Not the furniture.

Space.

A proper bright, wide hallway where I could manoeuvre my wheelchair without narrowly avoiding the skirting boards while everybody else formed a polite single-file queue behind me.

There was room for all four of us to arrive.

And yes, it passed the spin test!

For the uninitiated, this is my highly technical method of establishing whether I can turn a full circle in my wheelchair without taking out a chair, wall or unsuspecting family member.

The hallway passed.

The open-plan kitchen and living space passed.

The main bathroom passed.

Our bedroom passed.

It immediately made the apartment feel easy.

There were two bedrooms, two bathrooms and an open-plan kitchen, dining and living area.

It gave us something that can be surprisingly difficult to find when one member of a family needs adapted accommodation:

space that worked for me without making the whole apartment feel as though it revolved around my disability.

That became one of my favourite things about the stay.

An accessible kitchen I could actually use

The kitchen was brilliant.

There were lowered wheelchair-friendly sections where I could roll underneath with my knees rather than sitting sideways and stretching towards a worktop designed entirely around somebody standing.

It meant I could use it.

Not admire the granite worktop and coffee machine.

Actually use the kitchen.

Make coffee.

Sort breakfast.

Prepare food.

Sit comfortably at the table with everyone else.

Live in the apartment in the same ordinary way the rest of my family could.

And this is where the bin earns its moment.

A touch-top bin.

No pedal.

I realise a bin is unlikely to make anybody’s list of exciting hotel features, but think about how many kitchen bins require you to operate a pedal with your foot.

Not all feet work like that.

Here, I just touched the top.

Done.

Tiny detail.

Very big difference when all those tiny details start adding up.

A bathroom that worked beautifully in practice

The main accessible bathroom was another highlight.

It was a large wet room with plenty of space to manoeuvre.

There was a lowered sink and mirror, an accessible toilet with support at the back and grab rails on both sides, and a spacious shower with an adjustable shower head and a strong, sturdy shower seat.

The positioning of the grab rails around the shower was particularly useful.

I had support at the sides and in front rather than one rail somewhere in the general vicinity of the shower.

There were also three emergency pull cords within the bathroom, alongside another in the bedroom.

It felt considered.

Not clinical.

Not simply a bathroom with accessible equipment added to it.

It worked.

Interestingly, the room description I had seen on the website described a bath in the two-bedroom accessible apartment, whereas ours had the large roll-in wet room. Whilst I do try for accessible rooms with a bath because they suit me better, the wet room was just fine.

The wardrobe may have made my weekend

Our bedroom had a double bed with plenty of room for me to move around comfortably in my chair.

The room had a small en suite attached to it. That bathroom isn’t adapted or advertised as such. My wheelchair is relatively compact, so I could wheel into it and reverse back out, but the main accessible wet room was very clearly the bathroom designed for me.

Then I opened the wardrobe.

And found something I’ve wanted in hotel rooms for years.

An accessible clothes rail.

A simple lever brought the hanging rail down towards me so I could hang my own clothes from a seated position.

Once everything was on, the rail simply slid back up into the wardrobe.

That was it.

No complicated machinery.

No grand piece of accessibility theatre.

Just really sensible design.

I may have been disproportionately excited by a wardrobe, but after years of looking up at hotel clothes rails positioned somewhere towards the ceiling, I make absolutely no apology for it.

It was one of those moments where something I’m accustomed to asking somebody else to do suddenly became something I could just do myself.

That matters.

And the children had their own room

The second bedroom had two single beds and its own wardrobe.

To my surprise, the kids even appeared to be using the wardrobe for its intended purpose and putting their clothes away…

Another mini miracle I wasn’t expecting!

But having separate bedrooms genuinely changed the way the stay worked for us.

Family travel doesn’t stop when the children go to bed.

Once they were settled, Martin and I still had a kitchen and living area.

Nobody needed to sit silently in darkness because the entire family was sharing one traditional hotel room.

We could have a drink.

Talk.

Sort things for the following day.

Order some food.

Exist as grown-ups for another hour.

During the day, the dining table became the heart of everything, from breakfast and takeaway dinners to the board game battles that last for hours.

If we wanted to cook, we could.

If we wanted to order in, we could.

If we wanted to pick up pizza downstairs and take it back to the apartment, we could do that too.

That flexibility was probably the strongest argument for the aparthotel format on this particular trip.

The apartment wasn’t merely somewhere we slept between Manchester activities.

It became part of the family break.

Manchester on our doorstep

Location was another big part of why it worked.

We’d deliberately planned this Access Manchester trip around experiences we could reach without getting everyone back into the car every few hours.

Staycity Manchester Piccadilly sits just a few hundred metres from Piccadilly Station.

Morning coffee was easy.

Picking up essentials from the supermarket was easy.

And the activities we’d planned across the visit were all within reach.

Our Manchester weekend took us to Bubble Planet, across the city for Race Across Manchester and to Freight Island for dinner, games and the arcade.

Being able to leave the car parked and head out together gave the trip a completely different rhythm.

The accommodation became our base rather than somewhere we were constantly travelling back to.

For a family city break, that matters almost as much as what’s inside the apartment.

Better than the booking page had led me to expect

What struck me afterwards was how modestly the accessible apartment presents itself online.

The important information is there.

The room is clearly labelled.

There are useful photographs.

There’s enough to begin making a decision.

But those basics don’t really capture the details that made the apartment and guest experience work so well for us once we arrived.

That included the people.

From check-in onwards, the team were friendly, confident and comfortable talking about access when it was relevant, then simply getting on with the rest of the stay. There were no awkward moments and no sense that my requirements were unusual or difficult.

The space, the kitchen, the bathroom, the wardrobe, even the bin.

None of those things individually made the stay.

Together, they created something much more useful.

Independence.

And for a family travelling together, that changes the experience for everybody.

The Inclusive Edit verdict

Staycity sits in a different part of the accommodation world from the traditional luxury hotels I often review.

But quality isn’t determined by whether somebody carries your suitcase to the room.

For this trip, there was a different kind of luxury in having enough space for everyone and not spending the weekend working around my access requirements.

It was parking directly opposite.

Rolling up to a check-in desk designed for me too.

Being met by staff who handled the practical conversations with confidence and warmth.

Opening the apartment door and having room to move.

Making breakfast from a kitchen I could actually reach.

Hanging my own clothes.

Using a bathroom that worked beautifully for me.

Giving the children their own bedroom.

Playing games around the kitchen table.

And still having somewhere for Martin and me to sit together once the children had gone to bed.

The apartment worked for me.

But just as importantly, it worked for us.

That’s what I want from accessible family accommodation.

Not somewhere where everybody else has to fit around the adapted room.

Somewhere we can simply arrive, unpack and get on with being a family.

Staycity Manchester Piccadilly gave us exactly that.

And with Staycity aparthotels across Europe, I have a feeling this won’t be the last one we try.

---

At a glance: Staycity Manchester Piccadilly

Property: Staycity Aparthotels Manchester Piccadilly
Accommodation reviewed: Two-bedroom accessible apartment
Best for: Family city breaks, longer stays and travellers wanting more independence and space
Location: Moments from Manchester Piccadilly Station
Step-free entrance: Yes, through both entrances used during our stay
Accessible check-in desk: Yes
Wheelchair-friendly kitchen: Yes
Main accessible bathroom: Large wet room with shower seat, grab rails, lowered sink and emergency pull cords
Accessible wardrobe rail: Yes
Parking: Large car park directly opposite with disabled bays during our visit
Family space: Two bedrooms plus separate kitchen, dining and living area

Explore Staycity Manchester Piccadilly

---

Continue exploring Access Manchester

Our Staycity stay formed part of Access Manchester by The Inclusive Edit, exploring how Manchester works in practice for travellers who want access without compromising on quality, atmosphere, service or experience.

For this family chapter, we also headed into the city for Bubble Planet, Race Across Manchester and an evening of food, games and arcade fun at Freight Island.

That story is coming next.

Luxury travel reviewed against the standard it sets itself.