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London in July... characterful budget accommodation with A/C?

I'm a 60yo female traveling solo to the UK in July 2023, first for a week in Oxford (yes, I'm doing the "Experience"), then to London for six nights. I've visited both cities several times (including three months in London - staying with an aunt in Ealing - in the 1980s for a college semester) so I'm very familiar with travel logistics/transportation. Like many, I travel on a budget but try to get the most for my money. I've often stayed in UK youth hostels and off-season college accommodation in the past and am not against using such again... But there's the problem of no A/C...
I tend to avoid chain hotels.
Sooo...

I'm hoping to find centrally located accommodation for one in London, with some character... AND A/C. I'll have just spent a week in a Christ Church college room without A/C and want to pamper myself in this respect during my London stay prior to returning home. I don't mind stairs, but no higher than a second floor. I will have one large piece of luggage but figure I only have to get it up the stairs once and down the stairs once! I'd like the room to have something to sit on besides the bed, even if it's just a desk chair.
I'm not into dance clubs and the like but do enjoy a pub some evenings. I love museums and gardens.

I'd like to stay under $200 US/night, ideally closer to $150/night. (I'm willing to go up to the $200/night limit for a slightly larger room and/or better amenities.) Breakfast is desirable but not a deal-breaker. An in-room fridge and coffee/tea facilities are also highly desirable, but I realize I may have to deny myself at least the fridge.

Any ideas or suggestions? Thank you!

Posted by
3938 posts

If you look on Booking.com for your week and scroll down to the bottom left side of the search results page, you’ll see that you can add a Filter for AC. I did this for a random week in July and saw that about 30% of the rooms listed seemed to fit your criteria for price and a bit of character in London. There aren’t a lot in the 700+ results so if you see something you like with a good cancellation policy I’d book it even this far in advance. About 70% were business class or chain hotels.

We stayed in a lovely Bloomsbury hotel this past August and while it had AC in all of the public areas there was no AC in the rooms. Read any descriptions carefully and perhaps call before booking.

Posted by
16028 posts

You can also add a filter for budget on booking.com. And once you see a place you like, you can go to their own website and book direct.

You may have to choose between the A/C and “characterful” though, or up your budget a bit.

Posted by
10 posts

Thank you for the replies!
I have already viewed booking dot com's suggestions with A/C within my budget but know that many accommodation options are not listed on that site. I also hoped to receive some personal recommendations. :-)

Posted by
14482 posts

If you decide to stay in a B&B which does have "character," one reason I choose that option in London Kings Cross, you can expect two constant features...no elevator and no AC. I go to London in the summer too, starting the second half of May.

Posted by
10 posts

I am aware that character and A/C rarely go together... hence my inquiry here. I simply thought there may be a few options out there and maybe someone had somewhere to recommend.
I did find a few possibilities but hoped for personal recommendations from forum members rather than go through the many and varied reviews on the booking website. So often, people are quick to post negative reviews there but overlook posting positive ones.
I am also aware that I may end up at a chain hotel like a Premier Inn (have stayed in those in London before) in order to get my coveted A/C but wanted to tap into the knowledge here and exhaust other possibilities first.

Posted by
14811 posts

A/C will more likely be found in newer hotels or newer conversions. Some older buildings have added A/C but they will most likely be more expensive.

And a/c is not going to be banned anytime soon. The last few summers in London have had some brutal weeks. I'm glad I had a/c.

Posted by
16028 posts

Since no one has offered the personal recommendations you seek, I checked booking.com to see what might be offered.

The nice thing about using booking.come to filter results is that the reviews are genuine, from people who have actually stayed there, and you do not have to read many because they also assign a numerical score—-which in my experience with the properties is quite accurate.

In 5 minutes, using the filters for AC, price ( $150-$200), score 7 or higher) and the categories Hotels and Guesthouses, I came up with 24 options for mid-July. I could have filtered for neighborhood but have no idea what you might prefer. But I glanced down through the photos on the results page and picked two that looked like small places with charm (I say charm instead of character as I associate the latter with places that might be old and quirky). The first 2 I looked at are coincidentally both in Pimlico, not far from Victoria station. The Beverly has a score of 7.7 and the Belgrave scored 8.7 so I went to their website.

https://www.the-belgrave.com/

It is a small family-run boutique hotel in a Georgian townhouse, probably one of those classic neighborhoods with white townhouses and black iron fences. The rooms are nicely decorated and the single rooms, though small, have a desk and chair, and a kettle. And yes, A/C, but you might check the reviews to see if anyone says it is not strong enough.

Both these hotels run around $150 for a non-refundable rate and $200/ni for a flexible booking.

Posted by
233 posts

Air conditioning is not particulary a thing in the UK for a variety of reasons. A few being, the UK Building Reguations strongly steer developers away from it, as do planning for listed and buildings of character - also the climate in Blighty is generally not conducive or cost effective for comfort cooling.

Like a lot of Americans get muddled up with customs and immigration. Brits muddle up ventilation and aircondtioning and what is often advertised as aircondtioning is often just ventilation and at the best has 'free cooling', with no actual refrigeration component.

Another issue, heat pumps which are coming more popular often get consfused with A/C units.

If one wants true A/C with mechanical cooling you may have to dig deeper.

Posted by
14482 posts

In London I have stayed in six different B&Bs , the last time in the summer of 2018, one of which had been remodeled, refurbished, etc, They are all located in Kings Cross, always there in the summer, except once 2014,

Regardless of their condition, charm, and "character," none of the B&Bs had AC, which didn't matter to me anyway. If you are willing to pay more, (I am not), then this piece of luxury might be available.

Posted by
16028 posts

A post by LSF 2 below mine explained what I kind of hinted at: even if the website says they have AC, it may be so weak and ineffective you will not notice it. It is probably nothing like the whole-building chill one finds in commercial buildings in the US. Leastwise, not in the small and charming hotels or Bnb’s you seek.

Another thing: in looking at various websites for the newer small (non-chain) hotels, I see many have adopted the sustainability path. Which is a good thing, and I support that. But it means they will not have A/C, as it is not compatible with the sustainability model.

Posted by
233 posts

95% of building services in the UK for comfort are designed to heat not cool, most use gas heated pumped water, not air systems. Where whole building ducted mechanical ventilation systems are installed, it often only supplies tempered air in the cooler months and fresh air at outside prevailing conditions at other times.

With the move to net zero I fully expect the next iteration of of the building regulations to move even more heavily towards passive and fabric 1st building perforamance and make it even harder to justify the installation mechanical comfort cooling, this willbe driven along with the eyewatering cost of energy. Even given the warm recent summer A/C is just not a cost offective option for a few weeks operation it is required in a year.

It's quite possible a hotel employee/manager will say yes we have cooling to anyone asking the question, "look at those grilles in the ceiling", the reality and chance are it just a ventilation system.

I worked for an organistion that had indvidual wall mounted stats that had a cooling selection, but in reality there was no cooling option installed it was just placebo setting. I'm not at liberty to say if it was a hotel or not ;-)

That said there will be buildings with A/C just a lot less that one expects.

Posted by
26840 posts

Fortunately, there's a good chance that it will cool off a lot at night even during a heat wave. Of course, you may not be able to open your windows for ventilation due to lack of screens and/or outside noise.

Posted by
233 posts

"Fortunately, there's a good chance that it will cool off a lot at night even during a heat wave"

Even or if are the operative words. Its a 4 weeks out of 52.

Posted by
10 posts

Thank you for the valuable info posted here. I had no idea about the different interpretations of the phrase "air conditioning", LOL!