I don't know if the hotel has been renovated recently, but I thought it was fine. Everything in the room and public areas looked clean and fairly new, room was big and comfortable and bed was fine. Check in was simple, and it was no problem shortening our stay by a day. ("Sure, just check out by 14:00"). Lots of business types while we were there, plus a hen party in the bar our first night. No noise in the room though. Our wifi was free, too. As I remember, they had a free basic option (which was a fine speed for web surfing) and a paid faster internet ( which you'd really only need to stream movies, do lots of up/downloading, etc...)
The reason I probably wouldn't return is that it's not the best area. The hotel is near the police station and sirens were frequent. Walking from the train station (about an 8 min walk) watched a guy launch his newspaper into the bushes on the side of the walking path. Not an area I would want to walk around at night. On the plus side, the tram to Birmingham stops very close to the hotel. Not very many restaurants around if you don't have a car to get around. read more