Manchester to gain a YOTEL as the Qbic hotel rebrands

The Qbic budget hotel group is leaving the UK.

The hotel at Whitechapel in London has already been rebranded as The Corner London City. The Manchester hotel – a 261-room property on Deansgate – has also just announced a rebranding following its sale.

Qbic Manchester only opened in May 2021 and is situated in a converted office building. It will now be turned into a YOTEL under its new owners, although no date has yet been announced.

I reviewed the original London Qbic back in 2014 when it opened, as part of a promotion where rooms were sold for £1 each. Whilst undeniably aimed at the Moxy market, I was impressed by the quality of the hotel. The Manchester hotel was rated as a four-star so it certainly wasn’t in the ‘cheap and cheerful’ category.

Qbic’s marketing was, unfortunately, poor. I don’t think I saw a single mention of the London hotel after I stayed, either via an ad or via a promotion. I didn’t even know that it had opened in Manchester. In a hugely competitive market you need to be aggressive to sell your rooms, especially at hotels which are never going to appeal to the conference / coach party market.

For clarity, the switch to YOTEL is not happening immediately – the completion of the sale was only announced yesterday. Our overview of the Club@Yotel scheme is here if you want to learn more about that.

Hotel offers update – December 2021:

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Want to buy hotel points? There is currently a special offer running with IHG Rewards (80% bonus to 4th January 2022) and World of Hyatt (30% discount, equivalent to a 43% bonus, to 30th December 2021).