Premier Inn County Hall: two questions

You won’t need to cross the bridge every day. The PI County Hall is extremely close to Waterloo station, which gives you access to a bunch of tube lines (Northern, Bakerloo, Jubilee) and there are also buses. It’s a great location.

I’m at the sanctuary house now. I can’t imagine a more perfect location for a first visit. No way would I want to stay near the Waterloo train station. Or Victoria. We took the Heathrow express to paddington then taxi to hotel. Super easy.

This area is very clean and not busy. I’ve been to st James park most mornings and evenings. The abbey is 2 blocks down. St James park tube a minute away. Buckingham palace and horse guards an easy walk.

You don’t want to take a tube everywhere. The tubes are hot and can be very crowded. I prefer to walk when possible. You see so much more when out walking.

The extra cost for a great location is well worth it for me.

Well, when I stayed at the PI County Hall, I walked a lot everyplace, and found it very convenient; especially Westminster and the surrounding area. Even going to the theatre was easy—I just walked up towards the Jubilee (I think) Bridge, then crossed over to Covent Garden. It was about a 15-20 minute walk, and really lovely. Plus you have all the attractions of South Bank, which are considerable.

I also am booked to stay at The Resident Victoria next spring with my two grandkids, and have been plotting that out. To me, it looks like a great location. You're a hop, skip and a jump from Victoria Station and the Victoria Coach Station, plus there are so many wonderful restaurants nearby, all the sights like Buckingham Palace, Westminster, etc. I'm very excited about staying there, and it has gotten a lot of good reviews on this forum. And as you said, it is very easy to get there from LHR. But it's also not difficult to get to the PI CH either.

To get to The Resident Victoria, one option is to take the National Express Bus at Heathrow, which goes straight to Victoria Coach Station, then it's a 15 minute walk to the hotel. Or you could take the Piccadilly Line to Barons Court station, then walk across to the other side of the platform (no steps) and get the District Line to Victoria Station. It's about a 3 minute walk from there to the hotel.

And the PI County Hall is also easy. When I went there, I took the Elizabeth train to Tottenham Court Road station, then transferred to the Northern Line to Waterloo Station. From there, it's about a 10 min. walk to the hotel.

Whatever you choose, I'm sure you will have a great trip, Hannah!

ETA: I did not stay there for over 9 nights but was thinking of booking 10 nights when I first started looking for next year. And I also had the same problem so I sent them a message on FB. Here is their response. It sounds like this is something they are used to, so I think it would be okay. Hopefully. :-)

Unfortunately, on our online website, you'll only be able to book 9 nights at a time, however, if you call our Reservations Team on 0333 003 8101 (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm), an agent on the team will be able to book the 10 nights for you in 1 reservation. If you'd prefer to book online, you'll have to make two separate reservations (1 reservation for 9 nights, and 1 reservation for 1 night).

Regardless, if you go that route, I would make sure to create an account first, and then log in to that account before you book anything.

There are buses over Westminster Bridge too, between County Hall and Parliament Square and further. No walking, great views from upstairs.

Just look at this official map showing where buses go from County Hall - practically everywhere https://content.tfl.gov.uk/bus-route-maps/county-hall-a4.pdf

The 11 to Victoria via Westminster Abbey, St James's Park and onwards to Sloane Square and beyond

The 148 the same route as the 11 as far as Victoria and then via Hyde Park Corner and Park Lane up to Marble Arch and the west end of Oxford Street and out towards Notting Hill and Holland Park

The 12, the 159 and the 453 all together call at Horse Guards Parade and Whitehall, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Regents Street, and Oxford Circus; the 453 then continues to Regents Park and Marylebone station.

Not to say the plethora of things reachable easily by bus from there on the south bank.

Thanks, everyone, for all the replies so far. I really appreciate each of them.

None of the online bookings are open yet for the dates we'd be going, but I plugged in the same 10 nights the farthest out I could go on each of them and staying at PI County Hall would come in more than a thousand (US) dollars less than Sanctuary House (applying their standard 15% discount), which itself came in less than Resident Victoria. We'll see how these numbers change for the dates we're looking at, but that big of a difference very well be the deciding factor.

If so, Mardee thank you so much for passing along that 10+ night booking info!! (As well as that you walked pretty much everywhere; that is so appealing!)

Premier Inn is good value for money.

I'm not keen on that area. Westminster Bridge is overrun with street vendors selling tourist tat, dodgy characters selling caramelised nuts and those even shadier folks and their cohorts running the shell game for the more gullible visitor. Admittedly it wasn't as bad as I've seen it in the past when I was last walking around there in June or July, but not my favourite part of town for those reasons. The views are fairly iconic London, what with the Houses of Parliament and the London Eye though. The bridge can be busy and one must take care not to spill out into the cycle lane, as seems to be a major issue on Westminster Bridge. A lot of the first time tourist big hitters are within walking distance.

I'm not keen on Victoria either. I find it difficult to find much charm. It is also easily walkable to the sights favoured by tourists though.

As a rule of thumb the area directly around main railway stations in Europe would never be my first choice of neighbourhood to stay. This definitely holds true for Waterloo, Victoria, Paddington and Kings Cross in London. Although I don't aspire to go where rich people live, South Kensington has more to offer in terms of "feel" than most places in Westminster, unless you're at the very high end.

Premier Inn County Hall is a winner when you're talking about a grand of a difference. Just be prepared for it being "tourist central" and embrace that.

The other bus which runs from Waterloo is the Heritage routemaster T15 to Tower Hill.
It is far more of a service bus than a HoHo.
Morning services from, and afternoon services back to Waterloo. The rest of the day from Trafalgar Square.
Not a TFL service.
Thames Clippers/Uber Boats also run from a pier at the London Eye.

I spent two weeks at the Premier Holborn a few years ago. I made a 9-night reservation and a 5-night reservation. I don't remember whether I made an effort to notify the hotel; probably not. I definitely didn't call the central reservation number. I assume I just notified the desk staff when I checked in at the beginning of the stay. Since PI has only a few room styles, and many of each type at each location, there was no concern about getting shifted to a different room at the end of the first 9 nights. That is something that could happen at a smaller, more individualistic hotel.

Premier Inns are pretty cookie-cutter, but things work, and the beds are more comfortable than those at many other hotels. It's hard to match PIs for value during air conditioning season. You might find something quirkier at a good price in October/November, when you'd be OK considering places without a/c.

GerryM, I appreciate all your thoughts here. Typically, we are right there with you, preferring to stay in an area with more neighborhoodly charm and far less of the tourist crush.

I could shave another $700 USD off the total by switching from PI County Hall to the Earl's Court location!

Staying in the EC/South Kensington area generally holds a lot of appeal, but there's something I can't quite shake about being walking distance of the river, the iconic London view, and the Westminster area. (Which is surprising to me, because we love public transit, including subway systems, and so using the tube more isn't a problem overall!)

acraven, thank you for sharing this! Super helpful. (Btw, I had actually checked out the Holborn location. It's right about the same price as County Hall; but I think the walkability of CH to the river, Westminster, etc wins out at the same price point. I welcome input here though!)

I'm splurging a bit on my upcoming trip next year since I will have my grandkids with me, which is one reason I went with The Resident Victoria. Plus it looks like the triple room has more space than the PI. But one thing I really liked about the PI County Hall was when I headed back to the hotel after dark, and saw all the gorgeous colorful lights lit up along the river. It was pretty cool. :-)

one thing I really liked about the PI County Hall was when I headed back to the hotel after dark, and saw all the gorgeous colorful lights lit up along the river. It was pretty cool. :-)

Aaaaannd you probably just sold me! (star-eyed emoji!)

I used the Holborn PI (usually a bit more expensive than County Hall, or at least it was pre-COVID) because on that trip I expected to make a lot of trips to the British Museum. I was happy with both locations, though they are quite different. I walked back to County Hall from the V&A at least once. I admit it was a very long walk.

Coming to this late, but last summer we stayed at the PI County Hall and were very happy with it. I know you mention spending ten nights in a charmless room, and yes, the room was short on charm - but honestly all we did was sleep there, so it didn't matter to us. We crossed Westminster Bridge quite a bit and it really wasn't that bad. It's most crowded at the intersections but then it tends to thin out on the actual bridge. It also takes less than 5 minutes to get across, so you aren't there for long. Just watch out for Instagram models! Then, at night, you have fantastic views of Big Ben all lit up. One of my favorite pictures from that trip is my boys with Big Ben across the river all aglow.

From LHR, we took the Piccadilly (dark blue) line to Acton Town, then switched to the District (green) line to Westminster. You can take the Piccadilly further into town and switch at several other places, but Acton Town worked for us because it got us on a nearly empty District Line train. This slowly filled up as we went along, to the point that it was standing room only by the time we got to Westminster. Getting on early at Acton Town meant we got seats the whole way! And then, of course, you come up out of the station and BAM - Big Ben! It was a great moment. Again, that intersection from the station to the bridge was crowded, but the bridge itself was fine as you walked along it.

Have a great trip!

I've stayed at the Premier Inn County Hall on two separate trips with my daughters. We really liked it a lot. Price and the convenience of location is hard to beat. The Waterloo Tube station is really close. And it's so easy to get just about anywhere from the location. Just wanted to add my two cents. We will probably stay there again.
Enjoy your trip!

The disadvantage of changing from the Piccadilly line to the District line at Acton town is that the District line trains make extra stops that the Piccadilly Line trains don't. You might prefer to change at Baron's Court (the two lines come in on different sides of the same platform, so an easy interchange with baggage) and avoid the extra stops.

Depending on the time of day, I reckon you'd have a good chance of getting seats.