âFancy, very, very fancy!â This is my response to the new, lusciously debauched venture undertaken by Velvet, a long standing member of the Manchester âVillageâ community.
On Wednesday night I was lucky enough to be given a sneaky peek preview of the new Velvet Hotel, located just above Velvet bar and restaurant on Canal Street. The 19 bedroom boutique style hotel revels in its own unique chutzpah; unashamed and unapologetic in its approach to decadent style.
The hotel oozes sex appeal, if a building can do such a thing, with every inch of this four-storey conversion drenched in flamboyance and panache. Each room carries its own individual design but these are a long way from clichéd themes, distinguished by moods; in fact, I think attitudes may be a more appropriate description.
Velvet Hotel is set to open to the public on 1st April and has already been inundated with bookings from people keen to get a flavour of the full Velvet experience. There should be no doubt that this is set to be a popular venue with Manchesterâs gay tourist trade, but by no mean will it be exclusively so. Velvet targets a market for those seeking something a little extra, a big little extra. People who want to be pampered and preened; people who know what they want, and want something more besides.
Each of the fully air-conditioned rooms comes with a plethora of lavish fixtures and fittings, gorgeous bathrooms, completed with ipod docking stations, in-room cocktail and canapé packages and Burtâs Bees toiletries, ensuring a truly opulent stay.
Hotel Manager, Jason Pascall, says âThe development of the hotel will take things to a higher echelon, with our selection of luxury bedrooms, balcony and duplex suites, both for Velvet and the Manchester hotel product.â?
Admittedly, the hotel is yet to be completed, so my tour was actually around a building site and enhanced with mood boards providing me with a taster of what every room will look like. For the same reason, there are no photographs to show you what the hotel looks like, but I do, however, have a couple of artistâs impressions of how it will look when complete. Trust me; this will be a seriously plush location for the most sumptuous stay in Manchester.