This hotel would only be worth staying in if you find a good rate. It needs updating and the lobby is unimpressive. The decor of the room was outdated and quite bland. It was about a 15 minute walk to the shops and located a bit off the beaten track. On the plus side, it was clean and the bar and restaurant areas were quite pleasant. We stayed for a new year deal and there were some nice touches such as party poppers and pea shooters on the tables. Everyone was in the party spirit and it was a fun way to spend new year's. We were unlucky with the food though as we were vegetarian and hardly catered for at all on the buffet. We had enquired beforehand and were told a range of imaginative veggie dishes that would be on offer. When we arrived it was pasta and popodoms. Very overpriced for us. The meat eaters didn't get anything spectacular but did at least have a choice of dishes. Afterwards there was a disco with cheesy pop music which was fun and in fitting with the occasion. This hotel is fine for the money, as long as you don't pay too much.

Stayed one night after visiting Cadbury World and before shopping at The Bullring the next day. Perfect location with Broad St for nightlife nearby too. No complaints whatsoever. Great price, decent room, friendly staff, clean. Absolutely fine all round. One thing let things down and that was the fact that the bar had run out of Magners! How could they!

I stayed for one night on business – it was booked through work so I have no idea of the price. It’s not quite in the city centre, but it’s only a (well-lit) 15-minute walk or so from New Street, and it was very convenient for where I needed to be for work. The room was very small and a bit shabby, as were the communal areas, but they were clean. When I checked in, at 8.30pm, there was quite a queue and only one receptionist, but he apologised for the delay and was friendly and helpful. Despite facing onto a dual carriageway my room was quiet. Breakfast was fine, although the toaster was a bit pathetic. All in all, I’d say it was a fairly standard, city centre, business class hotel.

I had a single room here for two nights. The room was tiny and the decor was awful. The furniture is very dark wood and the wall paper and bed linen have a distinctly 50s feel so it made the room poky and dingy. The small window in the room looked out over the multi-storey car park and the view just adds to the feeling of gloom that descends over you in the room. The bathroom was nice apart from the fact that the bath and shower tap in my room was broken so the water came out at a trickle and it took me the best part of 20 minutes to fill the bath one night. I reported the problem to the nice lady at reception when I went out for the morning and she told me that maintenance would look into it. When I returned late from work that night I saw that the tap hadn't been fixed. When I complained to another nice lady at reception she said that she didn't know anything about it and that it was too late to do anything about it. There seems to be very little hot water available after 8pm. On both nights after this time the water is luke warm at best and I resorted to topping up my bath with boiling water from the tiny kettle in the room. The towel rail in the bathroom doesn't work either so if you like to have a shower or a bath after work in the evening your towel is cold and wet in the morning. The bar and restaurant is very comfortable and nicely decorated. For some reason, probably a delusion of grandeur, the hotel has crammed a concierge into a small recetion area. He looks desperate for someone to ask him for help and he has a tendency to stare at you if you make eye-contact. This hotel claims to be 4 star but I've stayed in much better 3 star hotels. Avoid it if you can.

I stayed at the Thistle for a night on business and would not stay again. Although the location is convenient for many of the conference venues in Birmingham and for the New Street station, the room was not suitably clean tenough o stay again.