budcap

I am arriving in London on Apr 2 for four nights and will be looking for a place to stay that is around $100 per night for single occupancy. More importantly, what part of London is the safest and most convenient area to stay. I will be touring the usual touristy things. Thanks

richardab

try hotels on www.londontown.com. they offer great values!

jamikins

Try www.eurocheapo.com for discount accomodations

WillTravel

The best values I've found in London have been with Priceline, although it's possible you could do better somewhere else since you only need a single room.

http://www.betterbidding.com
http://www.biddingfortravel.com

richardab

Yes Priceline for london is good if you are the type that likes to take a risk!

Tulips

Or try www.laterooms.com.
As for area, South Kensington has lots of hotels, and you can easily get to other places with the underground.

mclaurie

Tourist sights are pretty spread out as in most large cities. South Kensington is a popular location. Bloomsbury is an area that's reasonably convenient (near the British museum) & also tends to be more more affordable.

I agree Priceline is definitely the best value right now with the unfavorbale exchange rate. If you look on biddingfortravel.com, the site for advice for bidding, people are winning the Copthorne Tara hotel (4*) for $75-100/night and the Waldorf Hilton, another 4* for around $100.

If you don't want to chance bidding, since your dates are close, you could try getting last minute deals on one of these websites
laterooms.com, wotif.com, hotel-assist.com londonnights.com, and simply-london.com.

I noticed some good 3 nights for the price of 2 type deals on simply-london.com that could fit your budget. Remeber VAT tax is 17.5% & may not be included in some fo the prices. Look carefully.

Daisy54

I've had a bad experience with Priceline and I won't give them my business again and recommend to others to avoid them. I really like Smooth Hound for hotel shopping - www.smoothhound.co.uk - they list 1000's of places in all price ranges and areas, they're sure to have something that fits your criteria and a lot of listings have photos and reservation links, plus maps to show exactly where the place is located. I used them to find all three of my hotels for my upcoming trip to England & Scotland. I've looked at a lot of other listing sites and they all seem to have much fewer choices to consider. And when you see something you think might work for you, go to tripadvisor.com and see if they have a review from previous customers.

mclaurie

Daisy, would like to know what your bad PL experience was. Just curious.

elaine

Hi
do a search here on the Morgan and on the St. Margaret's hotel, both in the same convenient Bloomsbury neighborhood.
They do book up long in advance, so can't say if they can accommodate you.

For an even cheaper, and even simpler place, do a search here on the Arosfa.
I stayed there in January. It's pretty basic, but clean, pleasant, and conveniently located. A single was
45 pounds, breakfast included.

Daisy54

mclaurie - my bad Priceline experience was this - I tried them a couple years ago to book a trip from my home in Los Angeles to visit my daughter in Minneapolis. Now I was fully aware that the fares given in Priceline are before taxes, and that you commit to them without knowing flight times or airlines beforehand, and that you will probably have to change planes. I thought that would be OK, so I put in my bid for the dates I wanted to travel, and they couldn't find me anything. I should have shopped elsewhere at that point, but silly me, I upped the amount a bit and they got me a flight. Problem was, it left so late in the day that I didn't arrive in Mpls until 11:56 p.m. Yes it was the date I requested but only within 4 minutes (assuming the flight was on time). Returning home they put me on a flight that left at 8:00 a.m. So I had to waste 2 whole days of my five day visit with these late & early flight schedules, and of course once you bid you are commited and there's no way you can change or cancel - I tried. And once you add the taxes & fees to the ticket price, my savings were only about $20 over booking through Travelocity where you know all before committing and choose the schedule that works for you. For that small savings, PL was not worth it. Never again, I've learned my lesson. Knowledge is power. I seriously doubt Pricelne could have beat the $298 ticket price for my upcoming trip to the U.K. which I booked through the British Airways website, and that includes all taxes and fees and I got to see the schedule before commiting to purchasing it.

mclaurie

Thanks for posting your experience Daisy. Can definitely understand your feeling. I have heard others complain about airfare & PL. I do think, IF you research carefully, you can get great value on hotels in certain ctiies with them. London happens to be one city where, IMO, it works if you're willing to be flexible. Inexpensive hotels/b & bs there can be pretty grotty. At the current exchange rate, $100 is only 54.50 GBP. At regular rates that buys very little, even on discount sites. But on Priceline, people are staying at decent, clean, well located and in some case 4* properties. From what I've seen, the help on biddingfortravel is quite good & well-informed.

rainysundays

I always use Priceline for hotels, but would never use them for airfares because they do warn you that you may get red-eye flights.

I've had great experiences as long as I stay within the four and five star categories. I'm a bit of a Princess about my hotels and the only time I did a three star it was the stinky Park Plaza in Boston- ick!

I just won a bid for the Le Meridien Piccadilly for nine nights in September at $150/night. It's five star and although it doesn't get great ratings on tripadvisor.com, I'm pretty pleased that I don't have to switch hotels during my stay and I'm paying less than half the lowest rate for the same hotel.

travelinwifey

Rainysundays, I've stayed at the Meridien 3 times on PL stays and have never been disappointed. The location alone makes the stay worthwhile. Some people are just really, really, hard to please