We stayed with Pillo Rooms for 2 nights.
Whilst the apartment itself was largely fine and true to the pictures (the bathroom and kitchen were fairly decent), we had a very bad experience with the inflexibility around check in/check out time.
We booked the apartment about 2 weeks in advance of our stay. When we informed the company we would be travelling to Manchester from London after work, and that we’d resultantly need to collect the keys late in the evening, we were told the ‘latest check in slot that was available was 5 pm.’ After several messages back and forth, Pillo Rooms would not budge and told us we absolutely could not check in any later. I ended up having to take a half day from work, and rush down to Manchester on the train. When I got to Manchester I grabbed a cab but unfortunately there was heavy traffic so my ETA was going to be a few minutes outside of the 15 minute slot. I had to call Pillo Rooms and practically beg them on the phone not to leave. I was concerned my friends and I would literally have nowhere to stay for the night otherwise, and I noted I was only 2 mins away according to the cab driver. I pulled up just in time before the company contact left.
It was so stressful and later confusing as the company representative stated they would have ‘had to push my time slot back’ had I not made it (and if I hadn’t made it this would only have been by a minute or 2.) This completely disagreed with what Pillo Rooms initially told me, which was that a 5pm slot was the absolute latest they could offer.
The reason an in-person check in was required is also beyond me. Anything I was shown could have easily been written down. My id/ the form you have to fill in could easily have been scanned and sent in advance. A key safe where we could have retrieved the keys at a suitable time would have been so much simpler.
Additionally, you’re supposed to be able to organise a ‘late’ check out for a small fee. When we requested this, again we were told this wasn’t possible as other people were checking into the apartment later that day…
Everything we requested was basically refused and completely on Pillo Rooms terms - no flexibility or consideration given to the guests. When my friend realised she’d left her jumper in the apartment, we messaged asking if they could possibly post it back to us in London (we’d have covered the costs.) Pillo Rooms informed us she’d have 7 days to come to Manchester to collect it.
The service absolutely was not ‘luxury’. None of the touches you’d expect in a ‘luxury’ apartment were there - there wasn’t even olive oil, salt, pepper etc left in the kitchen to cook with, it was completely bare. The TV also did not properly work, but we didn’t bother flagging this at the time as we spent most of the weekend outside the apartment anyway.
The location, though close to the centre which was good, was a bit ropey and I wouldn’t have felt comfortable walking out at night on my own.
Overall it was not a good experience and unfortunately I would not stay with Pillo Rooms again.