Tia

Decided on the Bloomsbury area for our stay at the end of Sept. I would like recommendations of where others have stayed. Looking at spending about $130/night tops. Need a room for two adults. Breakfast is not necessary. Don't need a five star, but would like a nice place. Prefer a smaller hotel if possible. Prefer en suite. Any ideas?

sheepdog

Hi Tia,
I was interested in the same area for a September stay. After staying in other London areas (Covenant Graden and Kensington) I wanted to try something in Bloomsbury.
After searching through a number of choices I settled on the Academy Town House, 21 Gower St for 115GBP, including VAT and breakfast. It sounded very interesting and well located. Here's the url - http://www.theetoncollection.com/hotels/academy/

Since I haven't stayed there yet, may be someone else can give us a review.
Thanks --

Michel_Paris

Tia,

Would you consider a B&B? Bloomsbury seems to have a lot of them, and price wise I think they have hotels beat.

Mike

Tere

Like Sheepdog I am also booked for the Academy Town House in December. It looks very nice and they have great rates compared to other places.

sheepdog

Tere,
Have you actually stayed at the Academy before? It sounds great, but I've posted several messages on the board asking for personal reviews and haven't gotten any responses. Just would like to hear of recent experiences.
Thanks

Sue4

I have stayed 4 times at Bloom's Townhouse Hotel near the British Museum, and really love it. It's a beautiful 18th century townhouse, with lots of ambiance, and a divine breakfast. It's probably over the price range you mentioned, but sometimes they have special offers for different occasions. Their website is:

www.bloomshotel.co.uk

Tere

Sheepdog,no I haven't stayed there yet I just discovered it and it really looks very nice . I saw your questions about it here in fodors but can't tell you if it's good. I discovered this hotel in venere.com and there is a review there but only with the ratings. You can check it there. It looked so nice that I went to its website and found the incredible rates they have for 3 and 4 nights when we include the weekend. I booked a double for 94 GBP a night like you with breakfast and all taxes included because I am going to spend a sunday night there. In venere.com you would pay the double . Fodors also has a review of the hotel.When are you travelling Sheepdog? I will go at the beginning of December only so one of us that goes first can write something about the hotel here when comes back.

sheepdog

Tere,
I'll be staying at the Academy the last week of September, so I'll be the test subject! Since I'm not including a weekend in my stay I wasn't able to get their best price, but I thought 115GBP, including VAT and breakfast, was good for the area. I'll post a review on my return in October.
Happy Trails!

bettyk

Sheepdog, Tere, check out tripadvisor.com. There are a couple of firsthand reviews of the Academy Town House plus reviews from various guidebooks.

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

sfowler

If the Academy Townhouse is still part of the Eton Townhouse group it will be terrific. We stayed at the Colonnade Townhouse in Maida Vale and loved it. The only comment I heard from someone is that her bathroom was small -- but the amenities are first rate.

Tere

Sheepdog, I hope you have a fabulous time in London and look forward to your post on your return.Happy and safe trip

Thanks Bettyk and Sfowler for your input. Yes, the Academy Town House belongs to the Eton Collection.

Lindaraem

After reading about Priceline - went and tried it out. We are now staying at a 5 star Hilton on Regent street for $110.00 a night

Cuttle

I like the Bloomsbury B&B's a lot, and you can stay there comfortably well within your budget. There's a guide to a number of these at http://victorianresearch.org/trip.html#stay
Scroll down to the "B&Bs Near the British Library" section. A friend of mine had an esepcially nice stay at the Avalon in Cartwright Gardens just this past spring -- couldn't say enough good things about it.

-- Cuttle

ben_haines_london

Recent notes by writers on this forum have included these on Bloomsbury hotels

Arosfa in Bloomsbury. www.eurocheapo.com/london/listings/ selection/arosfa.asp. My wife and I stayed in 2001 and loved it. We paid 50 pounds a night for a large, clean room with bath down the hall. We were the only ones on the floor using the bathroom. The location was excellent, with two tube stops very close by. We could walk to the West End to see plays. The Arosfa is listed in Let's Go and some other guidebooks. I highly recommend it (We are fellow Canadians and too were on a tighter budget). 83 Gower Street. Tel 020 7636 2115. Fax 020 7636 2115. Tube Goodge Street

St. Margaret's Bloomsbury. www.stmargaretshotel.co.uk/ Went there and liked it very much. Bedford Place. Russell Square tube.

We always stay at the Celtic, Bloomsbury, within your budget and threadbare but very clean and plenty of atmosphere.

I've also heard good things about the Celtic, though it's a pretty basic place to stay, it is supposedly very clean, good breakfast and a super helpful staff. 63 Guilford Street, London, WC1N 1DD, Tel: +44 (0) 207 8376737

To be avoided. My experience with the Lonsdale Bloomsbury/Russell Square www.lonsdalehotel.com/info.shtml was that it seemed the management was always trying to screw us. They showed us a room and we booked it. When we returned later with our bags they took us to a room up 3 flights of stairs which had none of the amenities of the room they'd originally showed us. When we pointed this out they told us that suddenly the hotel was "full". I told them it would do for the night but if they didn't do better by the second day we would move on. Getting any help, information, etc. was like pulling teeth. The second night the room was better but still nothing like the "sample" that had lured us in. Breakfast was a "buffet" and most of the food was far from being either fresh or piping hot. There are too many places to stay in that neighbourhood that want your business to put up with such nonsense. I'm a cordial guest and not demanding but generally got the vibe that the management was experiencing a bad life and wanted to pass it along to everyone who stayed in the hotel. Who needs it? By the by, I've talked to others who felt exactly the same way. One was a friend of mine who'd booked two weeks there a moved out after the second day.

Again, there are just so many good places, why burden yourself with the Lonsdale? Of course you might choose to go there and have a fabulous stay, however that certainly doesn't seem to be the general consensus as I've seen negative threads about the Lonsdale many times before on several different travel sites. Bedford Place. Telephone: 0207 636 1812 Fax: 0207 580 9902. E-mail: [email protected]

There are reports on hotels by people who stayed there on
http://www. tripadvisor.com and
http://fodors.com/reviews/lrevselect.cfm, then England, then London

[email protected]

Tia

Thank you all for your help!

mclaurie

I stayed at the Avalon on Cartwright Gardens on my first trip to London (more years ago than I care to admit!)It was comfortable & friendly but not all rooms have private bath. Glad to hear it's still a good place. The rest of my group stayed at the Jenkins, a few doors away. But as Linaraem points out, for the same price or a little more you can stay at a 5* hotel with Priceline.

So Tia! So what did you decide?