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London Calling

I will be in London for one week at the end of April 2013. I am looking for inexpensive accommodations. It will be an active holiday, one where I don't plan to spend much time at the room. I would prefer something with a private room, but a hostel environment would be acceptable. I am wondering if anyone has general recommendations about the best way of going about searching for a room, or if there are specific recommendations about a particular venue. I am not too particular about the part of town, so long as the place is reasonably clean and safe, and within close proximity of a tube station. Thank you for any advice you can offer. Regards,
Adam

Posted by
357 posts

One of the less expensive places I looked at is near King's Cross - the Wardonia. Also consider easyHotels or Tune hotels. No frills (windows extra!) but very low priced if you book early enough.

Posted by
2349 posts

When you check in, be sure to ask yourself, "Should I stay or should I go, now?"

Posted by
3940 posts

Have you tried airbnb...we stayed with this guy near the cricket oval and close to a tube stop (Oval, or a little further to Vauxhall, about 5-10min walk) and bus stops...$66 (canadian) a night... https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/315658
Free wifi, very clean apt, nice guy...around a bit but happy to leave you to your own devices...

Posted by
1068 posts

We stay at the Marble Arch Gloucester Place Hotel every time (http://www.gloucesterplacehotel.com/index.html) It's in the West End, and very convenient to the Marble Arch and Baker Street tube stations. Clean, friendly, and they have some seriously good rates, particularly if you want a single room. A big draw for us is the fridge/sink/microwave combo in (each? most of?) the rooms, so we can go to Tesco's (there's a Tesco Express very close by) and stock up on yogurt and granola and cans of lager, so we don't spend as much eating out. Great savings that way. To your larger question - we found the hotel because it's near a place we used to stay that has gotten VERY run down in recent years. Since we like neighborhood, we plugged the address of the place we used to stay into Google maps, then searched nearby for other hotels. There were quite a few, so we ran all of them through TripAdvisor and read the reviews. So that's one way to do it - choose a spot you want to stay, look for nearby places to stay, and then check out how they rank. I've never tried airbnb (almost did one in Canada, then realized how far away from city center the place was, and by then it was too late for anything but Hotwire), but want to give it a go one day. It sounds fab! Another way to look for hotels, of course, is recommendations on boards like this one. For website, my personal preference is Hotwire. I've never gotten a hotel I didn't like through that site.

Posted by
1976 posts

I stayed in Vancouver Studios in Bayswater for a week this past September for 75 pounds per night, and liked the hotel and location. I had a private room with my own bathroom and a kitchenette, which allowed me to save money by going to the grocery store and eating two meals in per day. The hotel is a five-minute walk from the Bayswater tube station (served by the Circle and District lines) and a ten-minute walk from the Queensway station (served by the Central line).

Posted by
182 posts

good advice adam. you live close to my home town. but karen said what joe strummer played best. It's always "tease tease tease." we all know the rest.

Posted by
67 posts

Hi, Adam, I used Airbnb in the summer and had great success. Stayed with Elaine at https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/239697?locale=en very close to Kilburn tube station for 36 pounds, I think. Just a small room but it was a great place to stay; you can be very independent there. It's in Zone 2, not too far out at all. Good eating places around, short walk to Kilburn High street.
Ruth

Posted by
672 posts

Look into Lancaster Hall Hotel. They have a hotel side and a hostel side.

Posted by
28 posts

Its best to book on a US site, you get a better deal paying in dollars here. Try the London Lodge Hotel and the London house hotel, rooms at that time would be slightly above 100 US that about 65 pounds, while if you book with them directly it's a flat fee of 99 pounds. Those two hotel are the two best cheap hotels in London. Both have an above 4 out of 5 rating.

Posted by
255 posts

Ww always stay at the Alhambra Hotel near St. Pancras Station.

Posted by
1829 posts

When comparing prices on US and UK sites be aware that the hotel prices shown on UK sites should be inclusive of taxes.

Posted by
12 posts

I got a great tip on my thread about dorm rooms regarding Travelodge. The Waterloo Travelodge is a great location with very good TripAdvisor reviews and I just managed to book for only 39 pounds/night in July! Dunno if it was just me, but it took about 6 tries with 2 different Visa cards to complete the booking (during which time the family room I was after disappeared!) but persistence finally paid off.

Posted by
1010 posts

My husband and I have gone to London four years in a row. We stayed at the Crowne Plaza, in South Kensington, three years. This last June we stayed at the Doubletree Hotel, Westminister. The Crowne Plaza is part of the Priority Club hotel points (such as Holiday Inn, Intercontinental, etc.) We booked it directly on the Crowne Plaza.com site, here in the U.S. We booked the Doubletree through Hilton hotels, here in the U.S. You earn hotel points by staqying at either hotel. Both hotels were very, very nice. The Doubletree is just a very short distance from Big Ben, Parliament, the Tower Bridge, the Horseguards Parade, Westminister Abbey, etc. When we looked out our window at the Doubletree, we could look to the left and see the Thames. We were almost directly on the Thames too. We could walk along the Thames everyday, towards, Big Ben, etc.