"It smells better than it looks," Elaine the bath butler assured me as I watched the water in my tub turn an unusual and particularly vivid shade of jade green.

Steam rose as she filled my bath with piping hot water and stirred in the granules, which promised to provide a stress-relieving hydro soak. I felt a little decadent sipping a strawberry and passion fruit smoothie as we watched and waited for the bath to fill up.

The five-star Lowry Hotel in Salford has just begun to offer the services of a bath butler. The hotel has a separate bath butler menu of bath products which also includes sensual foods (oysters, chocolate-dipped strawberries and canapes) and drinks - wine, champagne, hot chocolate and a fruit smoothie in addition to the usual room service menu.

I was looking forward to my dip, as the intoxicating marine aroma of Dead Sea salts, red and brown seaweeds and horse chestnut extracts drifted up from the bath.

"We have not found the best way of judging bath temperature," Elaine said. "As some people like their baths very hot." Not me, though.

Staff at the hotel will eventually use a thermometer which fits on the side of the bath so they can accurately gauge the water temperature.

Ten minutes later, once the temperature was deemed to be just right, Elaine had finished. As she left the room, she said to call if I needed more food or drink. However, the bath butler doesn't pull the plug for you. You have to do that yourself (for obvious practical reasons).

Bath treatments include mineral sea salts, moisturising oils with ginger, a detoxifying seaweed bath, one with eucalyptus oil and another made with oil from the Hanaleni orchid. I felt less stressed after my soak and it left my skin feeling very smooth.

The Lowry Hotel is seriously hip - Kylie Minogue and Robbie Williams have stayed there when they were performing in Manchester. My room was more like a loft apartment with its neutral decor, two-metre wide bed and ultra-modern furniture.

After the luxury of the bath butler, I went to the hotel's spa for an hour-long Reiki treatment. Despite being sceptical about the idea of Reiki, it was an absolutely wonderful experience. I could feel the heat emerging from various points of my body - particularly the top of my head and my right shoulder which I had twisted earlier in the week.

The verdict
A combination of a warm bath and soothing Reiki treatment at the end of a long working week meant I felt totally pampered and very, very relaxed. The spa facilities and the bath butler give the Lowry Hotel the edge when it comes to indulging guests. I really liked the idea of combining sensual foods and bath products on the bath butler menu.

A short hop across the Pennines...
In Leeds, another cool urban hotel is offering a posh pyjama party.

This conjured up images of people in pearls swigging Pimms and braying at each other.

However, the reality at 42 The Calls in Leeds was nothing like that. There were no other thirtysomethings dancing around the hotel in their jim-jams. In fact the new receptionist looked at us blankly when my friend and I said we were there for a posh pyjama party. (He had not been working there long.)

The hotel is just off the ring road, overlooking the River Aire, and is a brisk 10-minute walk from the city centre bars and shops. The building was converted from a cornmill 12 years ago, the bedrooms still have the original beams and our room had the original wooden shutters. The room was much more cavernous than your average hotel room.

A bottle of pink champagne was waiting for us, along with a tray of chocolates, fudge and scrumptious warm home-made biscuits.

The posh pyjama party theme extended to the reading material in the room - the last two editions of Vogue magazine, of course.

You are supposed to dance around the room to CDs. But my friend seemed a little disappointed that she had left her Justin Timberlake CD in the car. We listened instead to three CDs from the hotel's collection - David Gray, Everything But The Girl and Elvis Costello.

The room, at the top of the hotel on the third floor, had a great view over the river and the Tetley's brewery in the distance. Building work is taking place across the water and the area is clearly being regenerated. Later in the evening a rowdy canal cruiser chugged past with young men singing tipsily.

We had three hours to kill before our duvet picnic arrived. So we lazed around sipping champagne, gossiping, reading the glossy magazines and stubbornly refusing to change into our pyjamas. I had a close encounter with one of the beams when I was leaping on my bed to test how firm it was.

The duvet picnic was gargantuan - it took up four trays - and we thought we would never manage to eat it all. "You should be wearing your pyjamas," said the cheery woman who delivered it. She had the look of someone who wished they were joining in the picnic.

By the time we had munched our way through the cold meats, smoked salmon and bread and cheese the ice cream had melted into a puddle. We went out for a quick champagne cocktail at the Room bar, in the city centre.

Breakfast the next day was in the River Room. There was added entertainment value as a makeshift fishing line was lowered into the water from one of the hotel rooms above. Unfortunately, they weren't successful in catching their own breakfast in the murky water.

The verdict
It was fantastic to be welcomed in the room with the pink champagne and the chocolates and other goodies. The duvet picnic was good, too - but the CD collection needed a little updating. The food in the hotel was delicious.

Overall
Although I did feel very pampered at 42 The Calls, with its yummy duvet picnic, the Lowry Hotel went that little bit further with all the treatments on offer in its spa, which will appeal to high-maintenance northern women. For me, you can't get much more indulgent than dialling room service and getting someone to run your bath for you. After my stay at the Lowry Hotel, I felt totally chilled out.

Way to go

The Lowry Hotel: A 40g Molton Brown sea moss stress relieving hydro soak costs £4.95. The fruit smoothie costs £5.25. An hour-long Reiki treatment in the spa costs £35.
The hotel's weekend rates start at £75 per person for two people sharing a twin or double room with bed and breakfast.
The Lowry Hotel, 50 Dearmans Place, Chapel Wharf, Salford. Tel: 0161 827 4000; thelowryhotel.com; email enquiries@thelowryhotel.com.

42 The Calls: The Posh Pyjama package (available until July 31) costs £199 for two people for one night's accommodation on a Friday or Saturday night. It includes a Harvey Nichols goodie bag and £50 of vouchers.
42 The Calls, Leeds, LS2 7EW, Tel: 0113 2440099; 42thecalls.co.uk.