"I don't know what I would do without fodors and tripadvisor!"

My feelings exactly!

While I hope you do post a trip report, for selfish reasons, I'd be thrilled just to get your reaction to the London hotel!

I still haven't heard back from the hotel about my request for two beds. Don't know whether I should expect them to or whether they'll just note the request on our reservation?

Sounds like you've got a great trip planned! Have fun!

CAPH52 - Since your trip ins't until june, I would wait until 1 week before to give them a call as a confirmation and a bed request.

Okay. Thanks, yk!

I got a very nice e-mail from the hotel this morning saying that they've changed our reservation to a twin room!

GREAT!

Just wanted to let you guys know that Holiday Inn Express at Earl's Court for $58/nt on Hotwire was a great little hotel and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay there. We were there for 5nts in the end of March and one night before our return flight in mid-April.

The hotel is in zone 2, so it's a little out of the way and about a 5-7min walk from the West Kensington tube station (just turn left directly out of the tube station and head straight until you see the hotel on your left) in what appeared to be a fairly safe, but definitely not "picturesque" part of London. However, for the price it was fantastic - VERY clean and tidy, comfortable beds, good water pressure, very capable heating & A/C, spacious enough rooms (especially for London), reasonably quiet at night (never heard the other guests, just occasional street noise if the window was open) and a good continental breakfast with cereals, canned fruit, yogurt, cheeses, juice, coffee, milk, pastries, muffins, apples, toast, selection of teas and rolls - even pre-wrapped muffins if you were in a rush (served from 7-10am). In the end though, the thing we liked the most about our hotel was that is was surrounded by a series of good cheap food options (which seemed very hard to come by in other parts of London) including a Tesco, Greggs, decent Thai place, very good Turkish restaurant (Best Mangal), and plenty fish & chip shops just on the walk from the tube to the hotel - many more places past the hotel. The West Kensington station is nice & quiet, and only has one short flight of stairs. If you're coming with luggage I would recommend transferring at Hammersmith (just walk across the platform). The hotel staff were friendly, a little less knowledgeable then desired about the area, but everything was pretty straight forward and check-in & out was very simple. Other "extras" included an ice machine in the lobby (but only cups for ice, no buckets), hand soap and shampoo (in squeeze dispensers) in the bathroom and a tea kettle (with a selection, of pretty awful, tea & coffee).

We had a great time in London, it was the first leg of our trip and coming from California the jet-lag (8hrs) was brutal and we were really happy for the comfy beds & close by food the first couple days. We bought 7 day travel cards from Victoria railway station and used the 2for1 offers at the Tower, Westminster and a wildlife photography exhibition at the Natural History Museum - almost paying for the travel cards themselves! In addition, we hit up Hyde Park, Harrods, the V&A (briefly), the British Museum (always AWESOME), the London Eye, the National Gallery (there beautiful Da Vinci was out on loan :( ), went on a London Walk, and came across St. Paul's during an evening choir session (amazing).

One more thing, if you book through Hotwire, it definitely helps to contact them regarding what bed situation you want. We did this for the first stay and got the double bed, but hadn't bothered to send an e-mail regarding the last night of our trip and got two twins...but my husband had been dealing with a bout of travel sickness and we were just happy to have a clean room ready when we showed up.

CRIdo, thank you <i>so</i> much for posting this! You've made my day! I've read some good reviews on TripAdvisor. But reading good things about the place from another Fodorite makes me feel better.

So you found the South Kensington station more convenient than West Brompton?

Did you come from Heathrow? We're flying into Gatwick so still trying to figure out the best way - train and then overground rail or train to tube.

I was glad to see that they serve breakfast (including the wrapped muffins) from 7:00. I'm hoping to try to be at St. Paul's when it opens the Monday morning of our stay.

Also very glad to hear about the food options in the area. My son will be happy about the Turkish restaurant. Did you happen to notice whether many of those restaurants seemed to stay open fairly late?

Again, thank you so much!

Oops, sorry, just realized I should have said West Kensington, not South Kensington!

I was also glad to see that the bed request you made was honored. As I wrote upthread, I've e-mailed them (and gotten a response) with a request for twin beds.

We did come from Heathrow. We only went to the West Brompton station once, it seemed fine, but from West Kensington it was such a straight shot and there was a Tesco and Greggs along the way (great for picking up snacks and drinks for later) or when we were dragging our feet home from a long day in the city we could pick up kebab wraps on the way back to our room.

There's also a good fish & chip shop just around the corner past the hotel and a Bangladesh restaurant that looked good. If you go down another few blocks there's also a small Sainsbury's, a nice looking bakery and Hell's Pizza (actually really good pizza).

As I recall most places were open late (definitely the Turkish kebab place and fish & chip shops) at least until 9-10pm, well except Gregg's which closes after lunch time.

Hope you have a great visit - London is such a great city with so many fantastic free things to do! I still can't believe what a great deal the hotel was...never thought London would be a "cheap" vacation :)

Thanks again, CRIdo! I really appreciate all of the info.

And thanks for the good wishes! I'm glad you enjoyed London so much!