I booked three apartments at The Spires eight months in advance for a gathering of friends who hadn't seen each other for years and who would be travelling to Birmingham from all over the country. We wanted specific facilities and apartment sizes which is why I booked so far in advance.

However, with three days to go before our arrival date I was contacted by The Spires to say our choice of apartments (the largest ones which slept 6 people) was no longer available and instead our group would be split up into several apartments sleeping only 2 people. The reason given was that the previous guests had extended their stay and wished to remain in the bigger apartments.

If I had wanted several smaller rooms I would have booked them. In fact if I had wanted several smaller rooms I would have booked us into a hotel. The reason for reserving the larger apartments was to allow our group to enjoy the social aspect of being together - for as many of us as possible to eat together, for us to have a few drinks together and enjoy catching up with each other in the large communal areas.

On complaining to The Spires management I was told it was more or less "tough luck". They were simply not willing to honour my original booking despite my pleas and protestations. Luckily for them there were no children in our party - we could well have been at risk of children being separated from their parents......!!

As it was - as a result of my begging and pleading - they eventually gave us one larger apartment and several smaller ones......which wasn't ideal and which had a very negative impact on the social atmosphere we had been looking forward to for months.

One more thing - I'm sorry to say we were horrified at the state of the mattress on the sofa bed in the living area. Dirty and stained - I felt terrible for my friends who were forced to sleep here. Luckily for the bosses there we didn't think to make the bed up until very late at night, otherwise I would have insisted it was changed. It really was hideous.

I was desperately disappointed at the way The Spires treated our group and I'm afraid I would not recommend this accommodation to anyone.

Yes we were one of the evil stag parties that seem to be reported regular at the spires. And it is great for that with it's central location and well furnished spacious appartments.

The foyer is like walking through a real estate agents office though the staff are very helpful and friendly. The entertainment system was faulty and consisted of a CRT, DVD player, satellite tv and a cheep sound system. The satellite tv distribution failed at the start of the stay and remained down for the rest of our stay.

The appartment will have everything that you want and is very comfortable for the price. I very much recommend this place if you are having a stag or hens night.

Similar to other reviewers, I stayed at Spires on relatively long stay business trip. The serviced apartments are spacious and great value for money for a city centre location.

The property is not quite a 4 star full service hotel, despite advertisements... the fact that the office is staffed only during day light hours precludes it from being truly full service in my book. This can prevent difficulties in checking in before or after office hours. My experience (similar to other reviews) is that the staff are quite helpful and friendly when they're in the office.

The apartments (1 and 2 bedrooms) are quite spacious with kitchen, living rooms, and bed room(s), You won't find bigger space for the money in the city centre area.

The 'odd' description relates to the set up. For a property orientated towards business travelers, the set up is not full usable for business purposes. The phone is in the bed room whilst the broadband connection (free compared to the normal 10 - 15 GBP charge) is in the living room. It is hard to make a call and sit online at one's computer at the same time. The broadband connection and cable are also not long enough to sit at kitchen table... unless you pack your own long cable you are confined to the couch and coffee table. It is an ackward space for working.

The location is also somewhat darker side street near the mailbox. I didn't have any difficulties but my female colleagues were slightly concerned about walking alone late at night. Proximity to Mailbox and Broad street also guarantees a few loud late night revelers walking by rooms on the property exterior. Request a room closer to court yard (can also be loud).

Overall, good value for money but mind the oddities.

Firstly, booked this through citybaseapartments.com which was a great site, half the published rates for the apartment, and a really useful site with great staff at the end of the phone. I will be using them again.
Now onto the apartments: location was perfect for us, it literally backed onto the Mailbox shopping centre with all its restaurants and up-market shopping as well as a tescos express so really handy, also easy walking to both station and conference centre (I was on crutches so this was a major consideration).
Our apartment was really spacious, we had a huge kitchen/diner/sitting room with widescreen tv which had any station we could have wanted. Our bedroom was dominated by a large double bed and the bathroom was clean, light, modern, and had a great bath and shower. The decor was up-to-date and the fittings all seemed great quality (not that tinny feel that you can sometimes get) and I would say that for the building too, you couldn't hear noise from other suites which was great. The staff could not have been more helpful and to be honest we were rather sorry that we hadn't planned things before and organised for some friends to come and have supper, the kitchen/diner and everything really made it a home from home (only a bit smarter than my usually chaotic cottage!)
It has converted us to staying in apartments when ever we go to a city now and I will be endeavouring to book with citybaseapartments.com too.