London Hotel Hyde Park? Notting Hill? Kensington?

The Ashburn Hotel on Cromwell Road in Kensington. We stayed there for several days in January 2023. Nice rooms, decent size, good people, and best of all a 5 minute walk to the Underground Gloucester Road station, home to 3 lines. You can walk right down Cromwell to the Natural History Museum and the V&A or if it's raining, the bus stop is a stone's throw from the hotel. As is a Waitrose supermarket. Plenty of dining options within walking distance as well. We had a New Years dinner at Comptoir Libanais right across the street from the Tube, and it hit the spot (if you fancy Mideastern fare.) The Stanhope Arms pub almost became a home away from home for us. As you can tell, it is almost as important to us what is near a hotel, what the transport options are, as is the hotel itself. One day, the temp was high enough, we walked about 25 minutes up Cromwell to Harrod's. And Kensington Palace is about the same walking distance north. To be honest I can't remember if the rooms had A/C (it being January and all) and who knows what the room rates are these days. They certainly were affordable in January 2023. Check it out.

Stayed at the Ashburn once and it was fine. It is more budget friendly than many in that area. Nearby are hotels that are more budget friendly. One is the Premier Inn London Kensington (Earl's Court) hotel and another is ibis Styles London Gloucester Road. Both are only a few minutes walk from the Gloucester Rd. tube station.

Or another option 63 Bayswater Road.

15 minute stroll from Paddington station. Breakfast room. Elevator. Free WiFi. Located across the road from the entrance into Hyde Park at the Serpentine. 5 minutes to the Lancaster Gate Underground station where the Central Line station.

Have been staying there for decades. First stay was in my 40’s. Truman was President when I was born. Last stay was Fall 2024. Believe room rate was around $180. Sorry, I’m a math atheist so you’ll need the conversion in Canadian dollars.
https://hotel63.co.uk/

Wish I could remember if there’s AC but my preference to visit and stay in London is in November or December when AC is not needed.

Otherwise investigate the Premiere Inn chain and use Google Maps to locate exact locations of those properties.

I don’t know what $200 CAD is but I am guessing Premier Inn is your friend. And there is no reason to limit yourself to 3 areas.

Here's another recommendation for Premier Inns. They are good hotels for those on a budget, yet are consistently clean with very comfortable beds. They are all over London, but there are some that are relatively close to your destinations, including the Premier Inn Kensington. https://www.premierinn.com/gb/en/hotels/england/greater-london/london/london-kensington-olympia.html?

I've stayed at a number of them in the UK, and have always found them comfortable. All PIs provide breakfast at an additional (reasonable) cost. And keep in mind that PIs offer a variety of pricing options: Non-refundable (the cheapest), a hybrid price that is payable in advance but you can cancel up to 25 days ahead, and completely refundable (most expensive). Generally the earlier you book, the cheaper the price.

Hi! You have gotten excellent recommendations for hotels from other folks here so I won’t pile on… but… I noted that no one had addressed that you mention a “safe” area for two women.

The three neighborhoods you list are all safe for women. I would venture to say that all of central/tourist London is safe for women, if by safe you mean you can walk around without catcalls and other nonsense, and you’ll be generally safe from harassment, and there are plenty of other people out walking around at night so there are very few “scary dark alley” situations where you might feel like you are in imminent danger.

Just like anywhere else, use your common sense (and Spidey sense!) and don’t be out super drunk and super late (which, if you’re on this board, I am sure you won’t be ;-) and you will be perfectly safe in the areas you mention. London is great like that.

Have fun!

$200 CAD is about £109 (but conversion rates are fluctuating right now), which is a very low budget for London in the summer. I think you might have to go farther out of the center to find a Premier Inn at that rate. For the random late-August weeknights I checked (Saturday tends to be a lot costlier), The Earls Court PI was about £154 per night.

I'm a big fan of Premier Inns, especially in the summer, because I don't want to risk a room without a/c. You might not need a/c, but if you do... There are hotels and B&Bs less expensive than Premier Inns, but they often have no a/c.

One thing to watch for with Premier Inns is that--especially in London--there is often a really large gap between non-refundable rates and flexible rates. I am not one to make non-refundable reservations, because stuff happens. Be sure you know what sort of rate you're looking at on premierinn.com. The summary lists that pop up on the website show non-refundable rates. It can be quite a shock when you click through and find the flexible rates are 30% higher or more.

The Premier Inn website is sometimes wonky and slow to respond. They have an app, which might work better.

Realistically, I think you're going to need to increase your lodging budget unless you're willing to roll the dice on the weather. I've done that in September and been lucky, but I'd consider August pretty risky.