Last minute hotel bookings for Paris and London
 

My husband wants to take my daughter to London and Paris in a couple of weeks. What is the best way to secure a hotel room, very last minute in these cities? Want to spend less than $200 USD per room, if possible, per night. Also, want to be near all the touristy sights since it is their first time in both cities. Daughter prefers "trendy" or "hip" style hotels, but that is not a necessity at this point. Just thought I'd mention it. Also... probably obvious, but they'll need 2 twin beds in the room.

Would appreciate any advice you can offer. One more tidbit... in London, they would like to go to a show- maybe Wicked or Legally Blonde. If there is something I should know in advance about trying to obtain tickets or transportation, I'd appreciate it.

I would go to wotif.com or lastminute.com. At least they will have availability for the period you want. It's a pretty busy time of year so you may not have too much choice. Try to be as close to the city centre as possible.

I would probably go to the box office and ask about theatre tickets. I know there is somewhere that sells discounted tickets in London, but I can't remember the name, sorry.

I have been trying for over the past week to find something in London for this next week using EVERY possible website and can find nothing. Everything is either full or over $400 plus USD.My son and I were trying to get a visit in to find housing for his grad school in fall so will be rethinking our next plan? Good Luck!
Do you already have airline tickets because EVERYTHING I work to Europe every week is totally full and then some?

We've been in London for almost a week and are very fortunate to get a last minute room for $350 a night at the Bloomsbury Hotel, a great 4 star hotel in a good central location. The rooms are very well redone in modern,ultra trendy style. We booked it two weeks ago through www.bookings.com which allows cancellation. The room supply on bookings.com fluctuates up and down everyday. We're heading to Paris this weekend where most of the hotels are also booked solid. We had booked and prepaid for a hotel of our choice in Paris using a different reservation agency two weeks ago but they sent us an email earlier this week informing us that the hotel had overbooked itself and unfortunately they had to refund our "non refundable" payment. I will never use the british SKOOSH online again.

We bought our theatre tickets through one of the numerous ticket agencies right across the street from the Leicester Square underground tube station. Many advertise "Half Price" but prices actually fluctuate according to supply and demand. It's best to shop around as each agency has different theatre connections and can get better price for different musicals. We paid anywhere from $25 to $50 per ticket for prime middle seats on the ground floor "stalls" depending on how popular/major the musicals are. London is are working on renewing the water mains along so many major streets so traffic gets really ugly everyday. Taxis are often useless since traffic often comes to a standstill along the major thoroughfares. To make things worse the underground metro maintenance union is striking. Thankfully the London double decker buses have their own lanes to get us through when we need to. Despite all those circumstances, we really enjoy London! We only saw one museum as it is our fifth visit.

We are inveterate last-minute travelers. In my 40+ years of traveling, I don't think I've ever planned a trip more than 3 months in advance. Our most recent 3-week trip (to Italy and Hungary) was planned less than a month prior to departure, with neither a travel agent nor a fat bank account.

What I do is email the hotels directly...and no matter how many "no room available" responses I receive, I immediately respond with a request to be put on a waiting list. I re-contact the hotels every day.

In order to save my sanity, I book back-up hotels that allow cancellations.

On our last trip, we managed to get into every single one of our first-choice places...albeit sometimes with no more than a few days' notice.

If you're willing & able to be flexible (e.g., if you're willing even to continue to email places while you are traveling, which is what I do), there is no reason you can't stay where you want on a last-minute trip.

Thank you for the advice. I'll start looking at some of the sites mentioned above. Husband is a retired airline employee, so he's trying to fly stand-by. There are a couple of flights at this point with seats, but I'm trying to book accommodations that will allow a last minute cancellation in case they don't get on the flight the first day trying. Luckily, they are a bit flexible from that standpoint.

Most people buy their theatre tickets on the same day or one day before, so don't worry about buying anything in advance. We saw around twenty discount ticket agencies in various locations and found the cheapest one to be in the Leicester Square southern side. The cheapest agency is right next to the "Noodle Stop" with a white sign board spelling "Leicester Square Box Office" in blue and "Half Price" in red. Everyone of them have Half Price sign boards but in different color combinations. Our $25 tickets were selling for over $50 in 4 different agencies. I was stalling against seeing the first musical saying that it's rather expensive but my wife persisted and I ran out of excuses when she found those bargain floor prices.

FYI British Airways seems to have more empty seats this summer due to their on & off strikes in case your husband has access to fly BA. Our BA plane from Vancouver to London had no empty seats in the business and first cabins but we heard there were quite a few in the economy class.

LucieV-I too usually plan trips with LESS than a few weeks(as I work for an airline and sometimes don't know till the last minute) but trust me when I say that London is FULL unless you want to pay $350 a night like Todor did. The tennis finals are this week along with the start of a very high tourist season-if I want to be out about 12 miles from London I could probably get a room but the commutes get expensive.
All of the flights overseas are packed this summer so it should be interesting?

dutyfree, I am well-aware of the difficulty of getting last-minute rooms in London. My point is that if you're willing to live with uncertainty, people DO cancel reservations all the time...and that's how we managed to get into The Aster House (on two different occasions), a lovely, well-located B&B in Kensington, for well under $300/night.

Obviously, my way is not for everybody...but I just think people should not be so easily discouraged by what seems to be the conventional wisdom about travel: that if you don't make plans a year ahead of time, you're screwed. Cuz you're not!
B-)

Try Priceline's Name Your Own Price.

Use http://www.betterbidding.com and http://www.biddingfortravel.com to learn the ropes.

If you use those resources and ask a few questions in the forums you can get a room for under 200 a night.

I also like http://www.Hotwire.com Using betterbidding.com you can pretty well ferret out exactly which hotel you'll get. It will cost a bit more than NYOP on PL but I find it's worth it to me when I want a a particular hotel.

Using the arbitrary dates of July 5-12 Hotwire shows 34 hotels with rooms available... ,any are below your price point. ;^)

Rob

Rob

Sorry about the above... should be "many are below your pricepoint" and I should only have signed it once. ;^)

I also find Hotwire preferable to PL for Paris....

For theatre tickets the day of show, I would go to the Official TKTS booth in Leicester Square. See www.tkts.co.uk. My understanding is that there are a number of other vendors in the surrounding area, but I prefer to purchase tickets from the official booth.

Rob, and others... thanks for the input. I would go through the priceline bidding, etc. but I haven't ever done it and it seems I need to educate myself a bit before venturing into the realm of bidding for rooms. Unfortunately, my son is having a major surgery tomorrow, so I'll be a bit preoccupied caring for him. This is part of the reason for the trip for my husband and daughter... They can escape a bit once the he is out of surgery and home with me. It was all quite unexpected and not at all how our summer was initially planned.

So, now I have a couple of hotel choices, and I'd love input:

For London (July 8-12):

I thought it might be best to stay 3 nights in a central location and then for the last night, move over to a hotel near Heathrow airport. Thoughts? Is it necessary? I remember a previous post cautioning me about the difficulty getting around the city due to construction.

Two possibilities: (both almost identical in price- avg: 160 GBP per night)
base2stay
City Inn Westminster

I'd appreciate input and also recommendations for a hotel near the airport if anyone has experience with any of those.

Paris: (July 5-8)
Not as easy.
Secured a room at the Hotel Beaugency for 3 nights (157 Euros)
But I'm not sure about it. Would it be better to be in a chain hotel for about the same rate? Is this a good area? Again, please feel free to give feedback.

And I managed to figure out how to purchase the train ticket from Paris to London and got a decent fare for them. :D

The flights leaving the US on the 4th of July aren't terrible load-wise, so I'm hoping for the best. Thankfully they have some flexibility on the return as well, so they'll just extend if they can't get on.

Again, thanks for the feedback.

I don't know what your travel dates are, but the Edwardian Vanderbilt (Radisson) in London is well-located and very reasonable. Would suggest a deluxe room so that they have a bit of room to spread out.

Paris1953, thank you for the suggestion. They do have rooms available! Rates are 285, 170, and 215 for the 3 nights. I also checked the Crowne Plaza Kensington which has rooms. Any opinions? I really wanted to steer clear of the large chains. We prefer a more intimate, non-cookie cutter style of traveling, but beggars can't be choosey.

I hope things go well for your son.

Re Priceline and need to learn the ins and outs...

.. true for most places (ie London and Paris) and it's totally understandable you don't need more work at this point... but bidding on a 4 or 5 star in the Centrum for Amsterdam is very close to a 'can't lose' proposition. For Amsterdam don't be afraid to go for it... there is no bad property or bad location if you pick 4 or 5 star in the center.

Rob

For Amsterdam?? So how do I do this for Paris or London? I saw some hotels listed for reasonable prices on Hotwire, but I'm not sure about which areas are best. It is my complete ignorance.

Base2stay and City Inn are both nice hotels and get good reviews on tripadvisor. I almost chose base2stay when I was in London last month, but it's near Earl's Court, which is a little further out than I wanted to be. Of the two, City Inn is more centrally located, and would be my choice.

There are a lot of good centrally located areas to stay in while in London, and even the ones that are a little further out are easily accessible by tube. My favorite centrally located area is Covent Garden/Strand/Trafalgar Square. It's a busy area, walking distance to the River Thames, National Gallery, Westminster Abbey, theatre district, and Charing Cross rail stastion. I also like the Victoria/Westminster and Piccadilly/Mayfair areas.

I wouldn't bother changing hotels the last night to be near Heathrow. Just tell your husband and daughter to leave early enough to allow for traffic jams due to construction.

You can find reviews of prospective hotels on www.tripadvisor.com

BTW, for someone who claims to be ignorant, you're doing a great job planning a trip on short notice!

I would second City Inn Westminster based on location alone simply because South Kensington/Earls Court seem so far away from where you want to be. Picadilly thoroughfare is one of the bottlenecks down to two lanes in some areas. Another choice to consider is the Citadine at Trafalgar which has a better location. It looked nice enough when we walked pass it but never got inside $901 for July 8-12 on booking.com. It fits what Walkabout considers to be his favorite hotel area which I strongly agree.

By the way we noticed that many museums have no entry charge and one of the greatest view lunch restaurants on Trafalgar Square is the Cafe above the National Portrait Gallery. The must eat place for us was Joel Robuchon by Leicester Square, amazing creative food with impeccable taste. They even have a 22 quid lunch or pre-theatre dinner special.

The TKTS booth sells tickets at fairly reasonable prices but not necessarily the lowest prices eg. 33 vs 25 quid. I believe in capitalism so I would buy from anyone who can give us the best deal. The TKTS is isolated from the other ticket sellers so you can't just go next door to compare prices as compared to the area around Leicester Square tube station.

I'm guessing we'll stick with the City Inn and cancel the airport hotel.

Another fun place I found tonight is the Hotel Rafayel. I can't remember the exact location, but I recall that it must be a good distance from the center since they offer a complimentary shuttle to a tube station. The rates are unbelievable right now! Probably not worth the hassle of spending so much time trying to commute to where they want to be, though.

Walkabout and Todor, thank you so much for your advice and the museum, theater, and hotel tips. I am so excited they have this opportunity to spend some time together!

Todor, I just looked again at the Bloomsbury Hotel site. Very nice! How are you liking it so far?

The ONLY place to buy reduced price theatre tickets in London is at TKTS in Leicester Sq. Those other jack agencies sell lesser grade tickets at reduced but inflated prices. On the day of performance you can often get reduced price tickets at the theatre box office.

If you can't find a hotel on last minute give www.londontown.com a try

We really enjoyed our stay at the Bloomsbury hotel (we're in Paris now). The hotel owner sold a few of his lesser hotels to renovate the Bloomsbury into a modern chic luxury hotel. They don't have a pool so they'll never be a 5 star, but they do have a brand new work out room. The rooms are superb and the staff really did their best to please us. They were very responsive to fulfill our every request. The room renovations were impressive and thoughtful, a lot of attention to details, eg. american and continental electrical outlets built into our room walls.

I enjoy traveling with my daughter almost as much as with my wife just because it gives me the rare opportunity to communicate in depth and reconnect with my daughter's life in a fun way. I tried to plan for cool hotels, activities and lively places. The gregarious London pub scene is a lot of fun. Most of the pubs carry one non alcoholic beer which is what I tend to order these days.

Re the Hotel Rafayel:

I wouldn't choose this hotel for a first-time visitor to London, particularly since you say your husband and daughter want to be near touristy sights. The hotel is south of the river, in a so-so area. It's not close walking distance to anything of interest, not even a tube station. That's probably why they have such great rates.

My thoughts about hotels are the same as that old adage about real estate in general--location, location, location!

Re transportation:

I don't know how long your family is going to be in London, but if it's at least four days, I suggest they consider getting Oyster cards for use on the tube and buses. There is a 3 pound deposit per card, which is refundable when the card is turned back in.

Type <i>oyster</i> in the search box above, and you will find several threads that discuss Oyster cards. For a basic explanation, see:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/14836.aspx

Oops, sorry! You specifically said your husband and daughter are going to be in London for 4 nights. I should have re-read the thread before responding again. My bad.

I still think the London pay-as-you-go (PAYG) Oysters are a good idea. Also consider the one-day travel cards for the 2-for-1 vouchers. I realize it can be a bit confusing reading through all of the comments about Oyster cards and Travel cards, but if you can muddle through the verbiage, you can save a few dollars.

I see that your son had major surgery today. Hope all went well, and wishing him a speedy recovery.

Thanks Walkabout. The surgery was a success. Now the recovery. Thankfully he is in a fantastic children's hospital and so far the care has been top notch. He is doing well so far.

Thank you also for the info on the oyster cards. I read a little about them on some type of transportation website the other day, got a bit confused, and decided I'd save that for another day. Guess I should look into it more. Would my daughter (19) qualify for a student card, or is that solely for students based in Europe? Maybe you don't know, and that's fine, too.

Todor, I'll look again at the Bloomsbury. I think I saw a good deal on booking.com. Would you say it is an all-around better choice than the City Inn if I could get a good rate?

And Walkabout, I suspected the Hotel Rafayel was not the best given their offer to shuttle their guests to the closest tube station. Cool looking place, though.

Just a few days until they leave. Another hotel in Paris opened up... so i'm wondering if anyone has an opinion: Hotel Beaugency near Rue Cler or Hotel Parc Saint Severin near the Latin Quarter? I really have no clue. The Parc Saint Severin is a much nicer room (larger, terrace) for 100 euro more (about). I'm not sure it's worth it.

Sorry if this is rambling. I am slightly sleep deprived.

Re the Student travel Card: I don't have any first-hand experience with this, but the London Transport website says that the student must be <i>"registered with an education establishment participating in the scheme, or on mandatory placement in London."</i> In the box to apply for a card online, it asks for the student's enrollment ID. Based on this, I would say an American college student doesn't qualify. Perhaps someone else will chime in with more info.

Re the Bloomsbury versus the City Inn: I think it's pretty much a wash. I don't think you will go wrong with either one. The only thing I will add, and you may already know this, is that with boutique hotels, unlike chains, there can be great variation in the quality of the rooms based on their size, configuration, and location. Whichever hotel you choose,if your husband and daughter don't like the room, they should ask to see another because it may be very different from the one they were initially shown.

Sorry if I'm hogging this thread--don't mean to. Just trying to help out! :)

Glad to hear that your son's surgery was a success.

The Bloomsbury Hotel is a much better hotel in several categories than City Inn. It is part of a luxury chain called the Doyle Collection: http://www.doylecollection.com/default.aspx
Their Leisurely London package is a good bargain for July 8-12 ($957)including english breakfasts(normally $33 per person),cocktails and guide book. I actually had a tour of the various hotel rooms to choose the best room for us(front street facing, highest floor for view & light). I have to say that the rooms are pretty much consistent because the structural building used to be the historical WMCA of London. Their superior double room was perfectly fine though not as humongous as their luxury double. We really like the understated luxury feel to the hotel. Location wise it is just north of the entertainment SOHO district, steps away from the Totenhamcourt and Leicester Sq subway stops. A couple of blocks from the Dean Street pubs and restaurants on the west and the traditional leafy Bloomsbury Russel Square as well as the small SOHO park/square which is filled with the local students soaking the rays. Bond Street and Oxford street are also within walking distance from the Bloomsbury in case your daughter wants a shop till you drop experience.

I checked the websites of the Paris hotels you mentioned, I worry how the rooms already look old on the internet. However if I have to choose between the two hotels based on location alone, I would choose the St Severin simply because the St Germain area is livelier especially for older teenagers, lots of students, cafes, shops & places where they hangout. The Beaugency is in the 7th arrondisement which is more residential and rather sterile for teenagers. True it has the Eiffel tower and Napoleon tomb but they are just monuments to visit for a couple of hours, no need to hang out there.

Another idea is to find a hotel with recently renovated rooms where your daughter may feel more comfortable. One reasonable 3 star hotel that I saw on Booking.com is Le Colisee (Best Western) on Rue Colisee one block off Champs Elysees. For room pictures: http://tinyurl.com/22wd2cd
I still prefer booking.com or hrs.com over Travelocity or Expedia for their better cancellation convenience.
Le Colisee seems to be far below the Bloomsbury hotel category, but it's nevertheless renovated. I've never been to this hotel but am familiar with its surrounding area, anyway they have only one available room left for July 5-8. I'm sure there are other similar hotels, the only downside in the 3 star hotels in the area north of Champs elysees is the old tiny elevators and thin walls as compared to the 4/5 star grand hotels. We always used hotel points to access the better hotels in the area, the more east towards the Luxembourg garden/Louvre the more better for us.

We stayed at the Parc St. Severin four years ago and were pleased with it. It is quite close to Notre Dame and the Ile St. Louis, St. Chapelle, the Cluny Museum, and the St. Michel metro stop.

Our room at the hotel overlooked rue de la Parchemenerie, and there was a restaurant just under it where young people gathered until late at night. It was pretty noisy, so another time I would request a room at the back. There was a wonderful gelato shop on the corner, and please tell your daughter not to miss having macarons at Laduree.