London hotel with kitchenette

It is possible that they may be above your budget, but you may be able to get a discount rate on a Citadines hotel (www.citadines.com). All their rooms have kitchen facilities. I've haven't stayed in any of the London ones, but I've been impressed with ones in other countries, and all the London ones are close to tube stations.

I am a bit confused by your statement that you don't do well with buses, but are happy to use the tube. If you're worried about safety, don't be. London buses and tubes are both used by all social classes, and you're at no higher risk of theft or assault on a bus than on the Underground. If you're worried about getting lost, the London bus network can be quite complicated, but most bus stops, and pretty much all near tourist destinations, have maps of all the other stops nearby and of all the routes that serve the area.

In Zone 3 is Stratford, where the Olympics just were, in fact adjacent to the park which now has replaced the facility.

There is a very large shopping mall there, Westfield Stratford City, which contains a load of restaurants and a decent size Waitrose supermarket. The centre is served by high speed trains from Kent on their way one stop to London St Pancras International (6 minutes) and traditional trains on their way from the east into London Liverpool Street (one stop 8 minutes). The centre is also served by two DLR lines and the Central Line and Jubilee Line Tubes.

There are 3 hotels there and the one I would suggest runs about £108 including all taxes and breakfast buffet for short stays. It is the Staybridge Suites, part of the Holiday Inn group. Every room has a mini kitchen with pretty big (by European standards) fridge, a microwave-convection combo and a hob, with a dishwasher, and pretty much everything you could want. The views (it is the top 5 floors of a 12 story building it shares with a Holiday Inn) over London and the Olympic Park are fabulous.

I'll be staying there myself next month.

Vancouver Studio Apartments. Two tube stations to choose from. Vibrant neighborhood. Have stayed there more than once. Never fearful coming back late at night after theatre. Check out Tripadvisor reviews as well. Must admit the place Nigel refers to also sounds promising. Going to check it out on my next sojourn to London.

Check out The Nadler Kensington http://www.thenadler.com/kensington.shtml

They were having a promotion for single rooms not too long ago. Their rooms have a small kitchen area. It's a short walk to the tube. I will be staying there in June.

I second Claudia's recommendation for Vancouver Studios. I stayed there a couple years ago and liked the location a lot.

Thanks all! This is exactly the type of information I need. I can be flexible on the room price, since I want the kitchette to save on unnecessary calories and time I don't want to spend in restaurants.

One thing to check is whether the advertised price includes VAT or not. There's a quirk in the tax system there where if you stay at an extended stay something like over 30 days, you don't pay VAT, and some hotels like the Staybridge will advertise that price instead of VAT-inclusive, which you'll pay on stays of a week or two.

The advertised price of a hotel room should always include VAT, unless it is sold solely to businesses. No exceptions.

After a 28 days stay the element of a room charge that applies to accommodation becomes free of VAT for any additional days. As a maximum this is considered 80% of the room rate. This is an effective rate of 4% on the total ex-VAT price but shouldn't be shown as such. If for example the room came with a substantial breakfast and dinner the percentage attributed to just the accommodation might be less than 80% and hence the amount of VAT would be higher.

IHG, which is a UK-based business, does indeed exclude VAT on its first rate quote when you look for Staybridge Suites for short stays in London. And tells you this when an extended stay property comes up on the search page. You still have to click through and select a room option to get a one night stay to price correctly there, and the price for a random March night I tried goes from £ 90.25 to £ 108.30 once VAT is included.

IHG have been reported once to the Advertising Standards Authority and admonished for advertising VAT exclusive prices.

"We told IHG to ensure that all prices for rooms in their UK hotels were advertised inclusive of VAT unless all to whom the price claim was addressed paid no VAT or could recover VAT." (my bolding).

Looks like this may be a different division, who maybe didn't get the memo ... they do describe themselves as a hotel on the website.

They don't adjust the VAT downwards for long stay quotes either, although maybe they do when you check out.