Anne, what hotel was that in London?

It was the Copthorne Tara in Kensington. I just looked it up again on a good web site that I often use to book hotels now: Hotel Reservation Service. This is a reservation service from the German train system ( Deutsche Bahn) but the web site I have is in English. They are currently offerring a double room there for 115 pounds + 17 % tax which is about 250 USD now. So paying $115 including tax was a great baragain and the hotel was quite nice. It is a large size hotel, nice lobby, large room for LOndon, clean, quiet ( you have to ask for the side not facing the train) and the staff was very helpful. And the location is very convenient as it is about a 5 minute walk to the tube station or bus stop. Hope this helps! I think this hotel is a frequent offering from Priceline if one choses Kensington and a 4* hotel.

Anne, glad you had such a good stay. We're staying at the Holiday Inn Kensington Forum (also from Priceline, but a 3*) in a couple months, which seems like a good bet based on the reviews, and it's very close to the Copthorne Tara. I think some people who criticized the CT maybe had unreasonable luxury standards, based on the equivalent price for a 4* hotel in the US.

At all the hotels I've visited, I've always had a better stay than the TripAdvisor reviews would indicate. Cromwell, if you are visiting Italy in the summer I think one very important factor is whether your hotels have good air conditioning. Have you checked that out?