Bloc Hotel

Okay, so it’s well established before you book or it should be that you are getting a very compact space. Let’s use the term nest from now on.
It’s a well presented, high quality nest with a smaller bathroom nest.
Whilst you get a king sized bed in every room, wedged up against the fake window (or for the extra £7 a real window)
The tv is a decent sized 32″ mounted to the wall directly opposite the headboard. There’s some storage under the bed for bags and cases and apparently also extra pillows but you do get 4 squishy ones already.
The bathroom is again explained in the room description, it’s a monsoon shower and it will soak EVERYTHING in that room. The door into the bathroom is more like a glass shower door, if does not link and does not lock. It will let all of the steam out into your room. So if you like creating home saunas your in for a treat. To add the tiny soap cube is adorable.
We got lost finding out room at first. The numbers are displayed on the door frames, the inside of the frame.
In reception there’s a 24 hour staffed desk, far too soft and low seating and a vending and coffee machine. Everything in that vending machine is £1. Which for a hotel is a bargain.
They do a breakfast to go for something like £5-£6 consisting of a pastry, coffee and a piece of fruit — I think.
Hair dryers are requested at the reception desk and if you don’t return them before you leave they think you’ve robbed it and charge you.
I would stay again to be in the area but only due to location and price.

This was the new kid on the block about a year ago and quickly became part of the Jewellery Quarter establishment — in a good way. It took them 6 weeks to sell out and they say this is all because of the support of the JQ community.
Now they are established part of Birmingham’s burgeoning hotel & tourism scene with seemingly a new hotel opening about every 5 minutes. This means competition is strong so this is how Bloc hotel stands out:
They have small pod style rooms; small but perfectly formed with comfortable bed, power shower, a large flat screen TV and Wi-​Fi. They say they researched what the business person wants and this is it.
They have 2 rates; with or without window and the difference is just £5. The ones without windows have a fake blind to make it look like there is one.
They call themselves a budget boutique hotel, ordinarily a contradiction by in this case it’s true. There is no restaurant or breakfast but there are drinks machines in the foyer and they have hooked up with local cafes that they recommend for breakfast.
Actual room rates are £90/​95 but there are always offers from £30 which is an absolute bargain for 2 people.
It’s an independent business but they are ambitious and want to open more. They have a very simple concept to open new places; take a large existing building, gut it so it’s a shell, build the rooms elsewhere, make them into ‘flat packs’, bring to hotel and rebuild them inside. It takes a matter of weeks to build the flat pack hotel; I call it the IKEA of hotels.

Bloc Hotel is tucked away on the edge of the Jewellery Quarter. As I don’t live in Birmingham, but work and play there a LOT I like to occasionally splash out on a night in the city, but as I have so little money I have to make my choices carefully. That’s where Bloc comes in!
Describing itself as a ‘Boutique Budget Hotel’, you get SOME luxuries, but very little space. Which is absolutely fine with me, when all I’m doing is falling asleep dead to the world after a night of drinking and dancing with friends in the city. The rooms might feel a little claustrophobic for some people — and resemble more of a ship’s cabin than a typical hotel room — but I have no problems with either of these things.
Their prices are pretty cheap and they often have offers on — especially if you sign up to their mailing list!

Quirky budget hotel (though room prices can get over the £100 limit) with clean, stylish, somewhat futuristic interior, tiny rooms, which nevertheless make the best use of the limited space. The beds are very comfortable, and I love the monsoon showers in the bathrooms. Many rooms have no window (those are cheaper), but instead a section of the wall that is slightly set back and covered with a sun blind almost as good as a window, as long as you don’t try to open it! :) All rooms have a weird purplish secondary lighting. Luckily, it can be turned of. There is free WIFI, but no breakfast. Staff were friendly when I was there. The location in the Jewellery Quarter is great, and about 10mins on foot from the city centre.