$590 hotel & air/too good to be? true?
 

Bayswater Inn, 6 days air & hotel from Detroit?? What is the catch? Want to take the plunge! We stayed in London last year and want to go back. For this price can we pass it up?

Depends on who's offering it. Sounds like a GoToday deal and I've used a few of them. They were great and exactly as offered. Not familiar with the Bayswater Inn, but the area is full of B&B's. The nearest tube is Paddington, which, of course, also houses the train station and that can be a hassle getting from place to place. My bottom line: I prefer Kensington/Knightsbridge/Earl's Court, but would easily stay in Bayswater for an extremely good deal.

hi, <BR> <BR>I was just in that area. We (group of 5) just stayed at the comfort inn hyde park on craven hill from oct 12th for 5 days and then from oct 23-25th. (we were in paris for 6 nights and came back to london to fly out). <BR> <BR>for $590 this is a good deal if that is all the charges. it is a moderate 3 star that i can find adverstising on the net for 50 pds for a double twin including cont breakfast. that is about $75 a night. so with airfare that is a great deal. <BR> <BR>here's the catch. the area is somewhat away from the central tourist area and has become run down a bit, and the hotels are older less maintained. the map kind of fools you. you simply do not realize by looking at a 2 dimensional map how large london is. <BR> <BR>i have included a link that takes you to an aerial map of that area. the closest tube station is bayswater, not paddington. but it is not as close as it looks. ours was queensway and they are on the same steet. looked to be maybe 3 or 4 blocks on the regular map, but it was actually about 10 blocks. looking at the aerial map, it looks to be about the same distance as ours. both stations are about 2 tube changes away from many of the tourist spots which made it a little inconvenient to just jump up and go and a long walk at the end of the day. <BR> <BR>the next part. this is a section of london that is slowly running down a bit, quite a few people have immigrated into this area, including a large middle eastern population. even i, who is not normally judgemental and pretty easy going, was a little disconcerted by this in light of what recently happened. <BR> <BR>also, they used to keep this area relatively clean. we visited this area about 7 years ago. now the streets are filthy, especially the queensways area. <BR> <BR>our hotel kept on craven hill kept that street pretty clean and as you walked closer to london and the paddington station it was relatively clean, but toward the left and the closer we got to the queensway station the worse it got. i was really surprised. it wasn't until the end of our stay that we started exploring the area to the right of our hotel and found out that paddington station was actually closer and the area much better. <BR> <BR>we enjoyed our stay at our hotel and with a large group would do so again because of the apartment suite we stayed in, but with one or two people i would probably try to find a hotel a little closer to the main areas or a more convienent tube. of course, the reason for the price. <BR> <BR>the map is at the following link: <BR> <BR>http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.c...%204NT&cat=hot <BR> <BR>the aerial map is at the following: <BR> <BR>http://www.multimap.com/map/photo.cg...1&gridn=180871 <BR> <BR>your hotel is in the red circle. take your mouse and go directly below your hotel and then follow the road right when it ends that is queensway road and the bayswater station is just on that corner. <BR> <BR>

It sounds like a pretty good deal. A year or so ago my daughter and I did a trip similar, however with Northwest and we paid the hotel separately for 9 nites and with the one night free (over 7 nites), it amounted to $108 a night at the Bayswater. Wherein lines the hitch if any. Having stayed in that area before, I like the area very much, nearby a lot of ethnic shopping, also a nice shopping center called I think Whitley's (beautiful Christmas tree in December, several floors high). However the Bayswater, is shabby. The lobby is nice (all of them are), however the rooms were shabby and ours was not level (went downhill, ha ha) but it was cozy enough, fairly clean and we figure how much time do you spend in the room (so it was o.k.) and PERHAPS would use the hotel again. However we had a room across from the elevator and next time would insist on NOT getting a room there (noise). The breakfast was so so and terribly crowded with groups from all over Europe. But the location is great, easily accessible to underground. In fact ;my daughter and I flew in to Gatwick, took the train into Victoria Station and with our bags, took the underground to fairly near the hotel as it is only one line, one stop. So it is not a bad deal, essentially you are paying for your flying and getting the room for next to nothing. Have a good time. Mary Jayne

I stayed at the Bayswater Inn in May 2000 on a GoToday.Com trip. The hotel is adequate if you are only looking for a place to sleep/shower/and go. It is well served by two tube stops (bayswater, ???) that are less than 5 minutes away. From Bayswater you can be in the West End in about 15 minutes and to the Tower in about 30-40 minutes. <BR> <BR>You can read all about my trip (including my thoughts on Bayswater at www.appleberryroad.com). Click on the link for UK2K. Note: none of my pictures/graphics are currently online - I am redoing my site. <BR> <BR>Hope this helps. GoToday.Com is a great organization.