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Marriott’s AC brand of hotels first appeared as part of the Marriott portfolio back in 2011 following a joint venture with Spanish Group AC hotels. The hotels are owned by affiliates or third parties (rather than Marriott or the JV) but are part of the Marriott “worldwide portfolio” and participate in Marriott Rewards.
Up until recently the “AC by Marriott” hotels were almost exclusively found in Spain and, to a lesser degree, Italy and Portugal, but Marriott has been expanding the brand. The AC brand has been brought across the Atlantic to the US (5 properties and 2 more coming soon) and more European properties in countries such as France, Denmark and Turkey have been added in the past few years.
Now, from the middle of 2016, the AC by Marriott brand is set to cross the Channel to the UK.
Two UK hotels, currently under Wyndham’s Ramada brand, have recently undergone “extensive redevelopment and regeneration” and will emerge as AC branded hotels when their Ramada licenses expire in 2016.
The Ramada Birmingham City, located just across the road from Birmingham’s New Street station, and the Ramada Manchester Salford Quays, located close to Manchester United’s Old Trafford soccer stadium will become the first AC Hotels by Marriott in the UK.
The Ramada Birmingham doesn’t rate particularly well on TripAdvisor….
…and comments like this one, from just a week ago, lead me to hope that Marriott realises there’s still a lot of work to be done before they relaunch and that the “extensive redevelopment and regeneration” is still ongoing:
Location is great but standard of decor and cleanliness so poor that we checked in and checked out with a refund within 15 minutes. Holes in net curtains, dirty carpet, torn bed base.
Ramada Birmingham City Centre
…and this is the hotel that interest me most out of the two.
Manchester airport has some good connections to/from the US and is a good (if less-well-known) way to connect onwards to the Middle East (Etihad, Emirates and Qatar Airways all have non-stop services to Manchester). If an airport hotel isn’t what you’re looking for then this could be an affordable option for Marriott loyalists.
Ramada Manchester Salford Quays
Marriott Rewards Information
With the hotels still under the Ramada brand, Marriott hasn’t yet announced what categories these hotels will be…but I have hopes that they may be Category 5 hotels or, at worst, Category 6.
While the UK has 10 Category 5 Marriott properties none are in the bigger cities such as London, Manchester, Birmingham or Liverpool and none of those cities has a Marriott property under Category 6 – so it’s about time Marriott gave us some more affordable options.
The AC Hotels fall into the second tier of the Marriott Rewards earning scale with guests earning 10 Marriott Rewards points per dollar on room rates only – additional spend (restaurants etc…) do not earn Marriott Rewards.
Other AC Hotel Openings
As well as the two new AC Hotels in the UK, Marriott has plans to open a further 20 properties in 2016:
USA
- AC San Jose Downtown (CA)
- AC Atlanta North (GA)
- AC Asheville (NC)
- AC Boston (MA)
- AC Boston North (MA)
- AC Phoenix Tempe (AZ)
- AC Des Moines Downtown (IA)
- AC Minneapolis (MN)
- AC Cincinnati North/West Chester (OH)
Mexico & Central America
- AC Panama City – Panama
- AC Santa Fe – Mexico
- AC Guadalajara – Mexico
- AC Queretaro – Mexico
South America
- AC Rio Barra de Tijuca – Brazil
- AC Rio Porto Maravilha – Brazil
- AC Santiago – Chile
Europe
- AC Mainz – Germany
- AC Wroclaw – Poland
- AC Marseille – France
Middle East
- AC Herzliya – Israel
Bottom Line
The Ramada Birmingham City centre doesn’t look tempting to me – at least not unless some serious work is done to the property – but the Manchester property could be interesting if they price it right. Salford Quays is in an area of Manchester that has seen a lot of regeneration and investment in the last decade and, while the area isn’t central, there are numerous eateries and bars in the area and transport links to the centre of town are good.
I haven’t yet stayed at an AC Hotel but that’s about to change this month when I visit the AC Hotel Bella Sky Copenhagen (I’ll be posting a review once I’ve been). From the pictures I’ve seen online, the AC branded hotels are aiming for a modern and sleek look so, by that measure, the new UK properties will have work to do to measure up…unless Marriott is happy to dilute the brand with lower-quality offerings. It will be interesting to see what they’re like once they rebrand.
