Airbnb?

I stayed here and highly recommend it.
https://www.vrbo.com/1939081ha

Wife & I use Airbnb all the time for extended Europe travel. We desire full kitchen to have meals in apartment when desired. Last month we spent three weeks in London Airbnb.

Key factor in your London search should be proximity to nearest underground/tube stop. London has superb underground and overground metro system. You can get to pretty much all sights via tube. Use of tube and buses is simple. Tube, you tap credit card upon entry and exit. Bus, simply tap credit card upon entry, no tap required upon exit. London automobile traffic can be gridlocked so tube should be primary method of transportation. Bus, Uber and taxi can be secondary as needed to/from tube stop and sights. Neighborhoods are a consideration, but useless without tube access.

Superhosts are nice to have, but not necessarily required. We've used new Airbnb listings which haven't obtained enough reviews for status. Do read customer reviews, especially recent. If there are not many reviews, message owner for details. If you receive good communications, this eases anxiety. Lastly, pay attention to cancellation policy. Most Airbnb listings allow full refund up until maybe a month before arrival. Yet there are some which do not give refund after maybe 48 hours from time reservation was placed. Most VRBO listings have horrible cancellation policies. This is why we prefer Airbnb to VRBO.
Enjoy London!
Les

If you bought and read the RS guidebook you’d learn about the variety of London neighborhoods.

You always want to stay in Zone 1 for cost savings.

https://tfl.gov.uk/tfl/syndication/widgets/tubemap/default-search.html

BTW pubs are fairly common.

Yes superhosts should be paid attention to.

Neighborhoods I’ve stayed in over years of visits.
Earl’s Court, Marylebone, Bayswater, Camden, Notting Hill, Ealing, Chiswick, Belize, Islington and Richmond.

Wow - this is a huge question!

First quick note: apparently the whole “super host” thing is a bit of a nothingburger. I was researching that a couple of weeks ago and would encourage you to check it out.

Before we were able to find a permanent rental in London, we used AirBNB for a number of rentals over quite a few months.

If you want somewhere bustling and close to pubs, shops, and amenities, look in central London or just beyond. This will cover many if not most of the biggest/most important sites and tourist spots. “Central London” includes a LOT of neighborhoods, and not everyone will agree on what those are.

For reference: “The Mayor of London's office defines it in terms of the "Central Activities Zone", comprising the City of London, most of Westminster and the inner parts of Camden, Islington, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Southwark, Lambeth and Kensington and Chelsea.”

Because AirBNB does not disclose exact location until after you have booked, this can be challenging - but if you use the map that AirBNB provides and compare it to your phone’s Google map, you should be able to get a good handle on where the rental unit is.

A good tactic is to identify places/areas/attractions on your “must see” list and pin them on a map. Then look at AirBNB and zero in on rentals near those desired locations, then focus in on units in your price range.

That said, if you are only going to be in London for a week, do you actually need an AirBNB? The advantage of an AirBNB is mostly the “self catering” and “onsite laundry” aspect of things, and if you are just in town for a week, that might not matter as much. The convenience of a hotel is not to be sniffed at. In an AirBNB you will likely be cleaning up after yourself every day, doing laundry and dishes and whatnot, and maybe wasting a few hours that you could be spending being a tourist and having fun.

Before we actually moved here we loved our weeklong stay at Club Quarters Lincoln’s Inn Field, which is near High Holborn and Covent Garden. We had a room with some cooking facilities and lots of connectivity (I was working remotely at the time) and we were in an absolutely awesome central neighborhood. Having the 24/7 concierge and front desk, plus a kitchenette, was perfection. (Please carefully check and call each hotel to make sure you are getting exactly what you are bargaining for, BTW.)

Hooe this was at least minimally helpful! :-)

Oh wow, thank you all! Such great suggestions and ideas. I will start investigating. I’ve had no time to buy a book, we literally were discussing this last night. So just popped off my question. That link to the Airbnb….it’s already reserved! Bummer. It looked very nice and I liked the fact it was recommended here.

I prefer hotels, but as I do my initial lodging research on booking.com, I often see apartments mixed in. I think many of them are probably also listed on Airbnb or other such websites. It can be useful to check multiple sources, because you may find different cancellation policies, maybe even different fees. Booking.com has a lot of useful filters, and I like the reviews on booking.com because you can only leave one if you've stayed at the property. Since only the lodgings, not the renters, are reviewed, you don't have the concern that crops up on Airbnb with some renters not wanting to be very critical, for fear they will not be accepted at other lodgings in the future.

I tend to use Airbnb in the countryside or smaller cities in the UK (such as Bath) and prefer to stick to using Hotels for London. There are not that many Airbnb rentals in London and I hesitate to book some place I am not sure of the exact location. Many are outside the central area you want to be in. Hotels also give that extra sense of security, important as I am usually traveling solo or with other female travelers. As an ex-pat, I love London but know that there are some less glamorous areas. I have come to believe, accommodation can make or break a vacation, so be picky and research. Booking.com does give good recommendations from real travelers. I also always book with free cancellation - just a little insurance for if I need to cancel.

There are two things to bear in mind when considering using AirBnB in London. One is that some owners can be very creative when describing where their flats are. the other is there are a number which are let illegally, either in social housing where sub letting is banned or in other properties with such restrictive covenants. There are plenty of examples of guests being kicked out of flats when the authorities discover an illegal let.

It' probably only a minority but the chance definitely exists.

Superhost is a status AirBnB confers when a listing maintains a particular rating over a period of time. Consistently high ratings should not be ignored, but don’t miss out on a newer listing because it doesn’t have the designation.
Learning to use AirBnB (or booking.com, for that matter) does take some time, but I find it’s worth it, especially when traveling with a group or with children.
The site has a lot of filters you can use to get down to what you’re looking for (# of beds/rooms/$ are only the basics—if you want a hairdryer, click on it). You can zoom the map to keep far-flung places out. If you’re still getting too many results, start scrolling through the thumbnails and see what catches your eye. You can save a list of favorites and share it with your travel partners to help narrow it down. Within each listing, you should expect to see information about which tube stations are around and how far. Read the reviews! Especially any negative reviews. People are quick to point out issues with location, cleanliness, etc.

Not sure if you mean AirBnB, or "AirBnB",; meaning the actual company or type of lodging. Myself, I avoid AirBnB as a company. Too many negative quirks and requirements, payment is sometimes wonky if the host wants paid directly (bring cash, small bills), the ratings system is broken, and as someone else alluded to, the vague description of where the property is often, can be misleading.

I use Booking.com quite a bit, it is nice that they show a range of offerings, in your case, from hotels with family rooms to apartments and houses. Payment has always been easy, never in cash, usually through Booking. Ratings are good and run the range, not oddly all "highly rated" places. Their map function shows the exact location of the property, down to the building, so you know exactly where it is at.

For London, the city and sights are so spread out, that any number of locations work. The key? Be an easy walk to an Underground station on a decent main line, one that heads into city center. I have stayed in Camden Town, Hammersmith, Victoria Station area, near Waterloo Station, all have been fine, all have good pubs (well, your never too far from a pub) and restaurants, some more activity at night than others.

No matter which “agency” you use -do not under any circumstances pay outside of that booking agent.

when the apartment owner contacts you outside of Airbnb or Booking.com and asks you to make a payment or damage deposit to them that is a big red flag that should get you to run. It removes any protection from these agencies and it’s pretty minimal to begin with, but it’s better than none

As for a legal rentals, you have no way of knowing if a rental is legal or not. Yes, I know in Paris. It will have a 13 digit number starting with a 75. That is exactly all you know - you have no way of knowing if it’s legal. For that reason i use trusted agencies so that they can deal with the issue and also assist me if something does go wrong

https://www.cntraveller.com/article/best-neighbourhoods-in-london

Another vote here to reconsider staying in a hotel after all. If you do go with Air BnB or similar, look for places with many positive reviews. We had a bad experience with a VRBO type company in Venice a few years ago, newly listed property, we needed three bedrooms so the pickings were slim. Mere days before we flew to Italy, the owner decided to pull the listing. I spent lots of time on the phone in a very irate state, and the booking agency's best offer was two different properties for two nights each. They were very nice but not what we'd planned. So - think about what you'd do if the booking failed (plumbing issue, owner issue, etc.) In a hotel, they have lots of rooms and a reputation to protect. In an Air BnB, not so much.

Thank you all! I had a discussion with my husband and after reading your posts have decided to go the hotel route. We are staying at Montague on the Garden which is close to Covent Gardens and I read that is a great area to stay. The price in January is quite acceptable and it’s rated #30 on TripAdvisors with almost 6,000 reviews.