Need help with London sleeping!

Have you checkout out London School of Economics? They rent spare dorm rooms and apartments to tourists. The link for the apartment rentals is below. If, when you check the site, it shows no vacancies, contact them directly. There is a glitch on their website that sometimes shows everything booked, even when there are openings. They have multiple central London locations.
www.lsetopfloor.co.uk/

Ann Consider paying cash (GBP) for the room at the place where they don't take AMEX and ask for a discount. Sometimes they will discount it because of the merchant fee they have to pay the credit card company. I'm taking my wife and her mother to Scotland and England for two weeks at the end of this month and both of the B&Bs we are using gave us a 5% discount for paying cash at checkout. I had to guarantee the rooms with a credit card. If you have a Rick Steves Great Britain guide book he lists places to stay that will also give you a 5% discount if you show them his book. Good Luck. Jim in Dallas

Based solely on Tripadvisor reviews and the fact that you wish to pay with AMEX go with St. David's. Another suggestion(s) might be 1.) pay cash. Often helps with a discount 2.) Consider using another card. Saying this because AMEX is not widely accepted in the UK. Getting better but nothing like the ease of using a Visa or Mastercard. Secondly, price out something on airbnb.com. Simply make certain whatever you find is located in Zones 1 & 2. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/large-print-tube-map.pdf

Have you considered renting an apartment? We did not do this in London but in many other cities with great success. Just an idea. We were able to get apartments for four nights, not sure if any do just three nights though.

Thanks for he speedy replies. I will have to email the london school of economics since the web site glitch is saying it is all booked. But they do not take am ex. I found the tube map really helpful to see it all on one page so THANK YOU! Has anyone stayed at either The Lime tree or St. David's?
Thanks again!

I'd strongly advise to bring another card when you make the trip. If you can meet your needs and find a place that you like that takes that card you want to use, you will likely find it difficult to use for the other things you want to buy whilst here. As Claudia said, places that take that card are few and far between. Either have cash as a backup and/or other cards. I'm sure there are good reasons you want to use that card, but if it were me I'd go for location and comfort and good service over what card they take. BTW, I've never stayed at either place you mention.

Thank you. This sounds like sound advice. We are going with St. David's. Since the bathrooms in each place are tiny I think having 2 bathrooms will allow us to get ready quickly. And for some reason my husband just likes saying Paddington Station...maybe it was reading all those books to the kids!

I stayed at the Lime Tree when I did the Rick Steves London city tour, back in 2005. It was very comfortable and I liked it a lot. I was traveling by myself, and their single room was small but perfect for me. I really liked the neighborhood, and how close it was to the train/bus station.

I have stayed at the Lime Tree and would NOT recommend this hotel. Staff were rude. Service was terrible. The only positive thing I can say about the Lime Tree is the location but there are plenty of other places. Look at S. Kensington area. But DON'T stay at the Lime Tree!!!!!!

Thanks for all the input. It is so nice to have real people stay in places and tell there experiences. We have booked the St. David's hotel.

Hi, traditionally I have always used Amex for everything because i'm a die-hard customer and love those skymiles, but after arriving back in the States LAST NIGHT from our first-ever trip to the UK, I am here to report that Capital One is the only way to go. As pp's have said, most places over there do not take amex. And Capital One does not charge a foreign transaction fee. When I first started paying for things for our trip I didn't worry too much since the fees didn't add up to much, but as the months of planning went on I went ahead and got a Capital One. I probably saved around $800 by not paying foreign transaction fees. We only got $300 cash our whole trip and ended up changing some of it at the end--we used the Capital One for everything. Also, we spent 5 of our 10 nights at Premier Inn and had lovely experiences each time. Highly recommend. As long as you book the flexible rate, you can get on their email list and whenever they have a sale, you can cancel your booking and book it anew at the better rate. I found their website very easy to use.

I agree with the post recommending Capital One. They don't charge any transaction fees either. American Express is not widely accepted either. We have been to London four years in a row, for a total of seven weeks. We have never had a problem using Capital One in Italy, Brussels, France, Switzerland, Turkey, Greece, Denmark, England, etc.