Help....I need to book for only one night before we begin the family tour. We are 6 people, 4 adults and 2 teens. We arrive 6am the day before the tour begins. We will need 2 rooms, a double and a family, early check in and breakfast before check out. We would like this to be economical as the the tour is quite pricy!!
I would like to benefit from others" experience!!
thanks!!
Where are you coming into London - airport, train? Where does your tour start the day after? Somewhere convenient for both would make sense.
ETA: I misunderstood about breakfast. You’re arriving at 6am, not leaving at 6am.
Also - what’s your budget?
Most hotels will hold your luggage on arrival if that helps, as an alternative to early check-in.
Something with a kitchenette - say, Studios4Let, a good budget standby in Bloomsbury- might get round the breakfast dilemma as you could do your own. Not sure if they have quad rooms though.
The Darlington Hyde Park, another budget standby this time near Paddington, has quad rooms and will hold luggage for you. The rooms have kettles and fridges.
https://www.darlingtonhotel.com/accommodation/quad-rooms/
But without knowing your hoped-for price or the location of (a) your arrival in London and (b) your assembly point, I’m loath to start suggesting too many hotels.
Is this the Rick Steves family tour which starts in London? Try emailing the first tour hotel. They should be able to accommodate you. Be sure to tell them you're on the RSE tour when you email. Do not just go to their website to do this; the personal contact helps.
If you're not on that tour, have you considered an airport hotel? They're used to requests for flexible arrival times and early breakfasts, and some are quite affordable. We've stayed at the Holiday Inn Express at Heathrow, and plan to do so again this summer.
Here's my response to someone else who had a similar number of people in her family. Your dates may differ from hers (she is going in March) but you can still use this information.
I really like the Premier Inn chain as it is a very economical hotel, and there are dozens of them scattered throughout London. They offer breakfast for a very reasonable fee (with a lower price for the continental breakfast). They are very clean and very reasonably priced. They have family rooms available, as well as doubles. I'm staying in London for 5 nights in mid-March and I'm only paying £140 a night for my Premier Plus room. If I had booked a regular double, it would only have been around £125.
I just did a quick dummy search at the Premier Inn County Hall (which is the one I'm staying at) located in South Bank, and found 2 rooms (1 family room, 1 double room) for mid-March for a total cost of around £250 to £320 per night (depending on whether it's cancellable or not). One important note: the sooner you book at PIs, the lower your cost will be.
As mentioned, there are many other locations as well. These previous posts might help with deciding on locations as well:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/requesting-opinions-of-certain-premier-inns-in-london
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/london-hotel-help-for-3-adults-1-with-mobility-issues
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/so-many-hotel-choices
Vancouver Studios in Bayswater has a 3-bedroom apartment, but I cannot tell if it is available for one-night stays.
Or look on booking.com for accommodations that sleep 6. Several apartments in the Stayo group came up for around 500-600 GBP for one nights, but I put in a random date in April so the price could be higher for your date.
And to get check-in that early, you will have to pay extra, perhaps even book 2 nights.
I really don't see the sense in staying at an airport hotel. You would be dropping your bags there early and heading into town and then have to come all the way back to sleep. And then the day after schlep back into town with your bags to the tour hotel. Much better to find somewhere to stay either at or close to you tour hotel.
How old are the teens?
The Premier Inn has family rooms but they are limited to 2 adults and 2 children under 16. If the teens are older, you’d need an extra room. I’d start by searching on the Premier Inn website to see if they have something that works for you. If not, booking.com lets you search for rooms for 4.
Where is the tour staying? You may want to choose something that is on the same tube line as the tour hotel so you can conveniently get to the hotel the next day. While I agree that the tour hotel would be the most convenient, the RS tour hotels are not always economical. I would though try contacting them directly to see if they have availability and what the price would be, letting them know you will be on a RS tour.
Most hotels will hold your luggage before check-in and after you check-out.
While the hotels at the airport tend to be less expensive, I would not recommend staying there on your arrival day. Going back and forth between the city and the airport will be time consuming so you are better off heading into the city.
Once you have narrowed down your choices, you can come back and post your choices and people can provide opinions on the location.
One more thing about early check in and breakfast before check out …
Some hotels will check you in early if they have a room available. Some hotels will charge extra for this. Premier Inn will hold your bags as will most hotels. Premier Inn has check-in at 11 am for an additional 10 GBP, but it is subject to availability. The last time I stayed at PI, I tried to take advantage of this but they had no rooms available so I left my bag and returned at 3pm.
For breakfast, hotel breakfasts can be pricey. I rarely eat breakfast at the hotel as there are many places in London to get a good breakfast. If you find a hotel that looks good, but doesn’t offer an economical breakfast you can probably find a nearby pub or other option for breakfast.
