London hotels

I suggest booking.com for research and then you can go to the site of the lodging and book directly or book through booking.

London is very expensive as you may be finding out.

I stayed at Hotel 63 right across the street from Kensington Gardens and very close to the tube and buses. Great location.

Many persons on this forum are fans of Premier Inns. I hope that some of those fans will jump in to offer their suggestions.

You’re there for two weeks…would you consider an apartment? It would give you more space and probably better value than a Hotel for that length of time. As mentioned, booking.com is a good option.

This apartment hotel near Bank station may be within your budget.

https://apartments.nativeplaces.com/bank/

Peter has a good suggestion about the flat possibility. We used a company called Ivy Lettings last summer www.ivylettings.com for our ten day stay in London. They were very professional and wonderful to work with. I looked real quick at their offerings in the Kensington area and there are a few that are close to your budget. In Kensington you could check out “Stratford Road”, starting at 197 GBP, “Comeragh Road” 213 GBP,
“Philbeach Gardens” 170 GBP.

I didn’t see any offerings for Ivy Lettings for the Bloomsbury area unfortunately. In terms of hotels, The Celtic hotel on Guilford Street is one to check into, though. I think it would be within your budget. London is amazing!

Here is a link to the review of The Celtic
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england-reviews/the-celtic-hotel-in-london-comfort-and-convenience-at-145-per-night

I read your post and thought, “Oh, I must recommend the Celtic.”. Then I skimmed the responses and saw that Mustlovedogs already had!

We’ve stayed at the Celtic twice in the past 12 months, and are booked there again this coming July. Great Bloomsbury location on a quiet side street, close to Tube and bus stops, great staff, good breakfast, nice rooms, very clean. Close to pubs, shops, restaurants, and a short walk from King’s Cross station.

Oh, I just realized that’s my review that Mustlovedogs cited!

Have you looked at Premier Inn?

There are quite a few in London and a handful near Bloomsbury.

Jane, yes! Your review of the Celtic was really good! I had made a note of it for a return trip to London. My daughter had stayed near there for her study abroad stint and she liked the area a lot. We will definitely have it on our short list for a future trip.

I will add to Frank's recommendation as I also love Premier Inns. They're clean, good amount of space, very comfortable beds, and are conveniently located all over London. Best of all, they are very reasonably priced. Here is a list of places near to Bloomsbury that you might want to check out: https://www.premierinn.com/gb/en/hotels/england/greater-london/london/russell-square.html

Keep in mind it is a chain hotel but having stayed at a number of them, I can tell you that they are consistent in their quality. There are no surprises with a PI room, and I like that. Plus their prices are great. I'm staying at the Premier Inn County Hall in March for 5 nights and I'm paying £140 for a Premier Plus room (the standard rooms are £125). Obviously, rates change with the dates and locations but that is just to show you that prices are reasonable.

Thanks, all for the helpful responses!

Mary, the Native Bank site looks interesting. Do you have personal experience there? Is the area populated in the evening or does it empty out after business hours?

I also think we’d like the Premier Inns- they seem similar to Ibis, which we have stayed in and enjoyed in Paris. For some reason, when I plug our dates into their search, it will only allow me to see nine nights at a time. Is this just the way their website is and I need to call to book for longer than nine nights?

Thanks again for the help, we really appreciate it!

I've run into the 9-night limitation, too. I think I just made two separate online reservations then advised the check-in person upon arrival of what I had done so we wouldn't have to change rooms. You can try calling, but getting a Premier Inn to answer the phone is a serious challenge. Some locations may be better than others, but I know I called once and received a voicemail message something like this: "We're very busy right now. Goodbye." No option to remain on hold or to leave a message, and they probably wouldn't have called back even if I had been able to leave a message. At another location my travel mate needed to make a telephone call because she had lost her purse. The hotel generously offered to let her use the hotel phone. It was a mobile phone and the battery was dead. We had a good laugh about that, because it was just so typical of Premier Inn.

In your case, calling the central corporate phone number for reservations (if you can find one) really should work. Maybe.

I've had some success getting answers to (simple) questions via email, but some hotels didn't respond, and finding the email addresses was a challenge itself. What worked best for me a few years ago was Googling for the Facebook page of a specific Premier Inn and looking for an email address there.

Honestly, the Premier Inn hotels seem well maintained, and I'm happy to stay in them, but they keep their rates low by skimping on customer-contact expenses.