B&B help
 

hi. i am an exchange student going to london soon. i need a cheap, clean and good location B&B. any advice?

I have heard the Cherry Court Hotel is well located, cheap and good value. We are staying there in July following a friend's recommendation.

I find it hard to believe the exchange program you're going with hasn't provided accomodation or at least a recommneded list of places. Where will you be going to classes?

When I was in college (in the dark ages) we were housed in b & bs on Cartwright Gardens in the Bloomsbury/Russell Square area. This is near the U. of London, the British Museum & within walking distance of many of the west end theaters. Because there were a lot of students in the area there were also reasonably priced small cafes.

Hi McLaurie.

Thanks for your reply. Im a medical student exchange, being posted to Edinburgh. And am travelling to London next weekend. Yes, the college does provide me accomodation in Edinburgh, but not london.

Thanks popplewell!
Cherry Court indeed looks good

Now that I understand your situation, I would strongly urge you to use Priceline especially if you're paying essentially in dollars (if you're American or Canadian). Even 75GBP/nite for a budget hotel is a lot of $$$.

If you're still in the US, you can bid in dollars and can get a good hotel for $100/nite or less. Read biddingfortravel.com and/or betterbidding.com carefully before you bid.

A good location, if you're going to sightsee if really anyplace very close to a tube stop. If you can stay near a tube stop that has more than one underground line, so much the better. Here's the URL to the tube map

http://tube.tfl.gov.uk/content/tubemap/

Finally, if you're not "into" Priceline, I suggest you check out the St. Margaret's hotel. It's in the same general area where I first stayed and you have many tube stations to choose from. Here are some reviews to read

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...n_England.html

When comparison-shopping for my trip to Paris in April, I found Priceline hotels higher in price, and when I looked up their offered hotels on other sites, customers rated them poorly on location, safety & street noise, and in in less desirable areas. I would strongly urge you to find a website that shows customer/guest comments, like on this Fodor's site. I booked a B & B in London in 2002 to extend a tour stay in London, and I really wasn't happy with what I found on my own. The room had only a twin bed, small & lumpy, and the bathroom so narrow as to cause me to watch my elbows. And that was 87 euros then. Conversely, I found 3 small hotels/ B & B's here on Fodor's for my trip to Paris & Brussels this April and was much happier with the quality and pricing, all 53-85euros. Also, if you are a student many places have student rates, and there are a network of guesthouses throughout Europe where you can get clean, modest rooms at a special rate for people under 25. I don't have a source for that, but I even saw it featured on the series Globetrekker recently, confirming that the practice is still in effect.

Last I looked at Priceline hotel list for Paris, I'd agree with Ninasdream. They're not in terribly good locations & tend to be larger chain hotels thaat charge more. But London is very different. In Paris, there are plenty of reasonably priced places with charm & decent location. This is harder to find in London, esp. at the current exchange rate. The cheaper b & bs in London often have accomodations as described by ninasdream. Tripadvisor & here are good places to check for reviews.