sjones1314

I am going to London with my 13 year old daughter and my mom. We are on a budget so have been restricting our choices for hotels to under 100GBP. Our main priorities are that the room is CLEAN and the neighborhood is safe. I've listed the final four that we're trying to pick from and am looking for advice on either the hotel or neighborhood. Please help!

Abbey House in S. Kensington
Vicarage Hotel in S. Kensington
Edward Lear in Marylebone
St. Margaret's in Bloomsbury

P.S.- They are all consistently listed in most travel guides and websites.

elaine

Hi
people may chime in here, but here are two good places to look for customer comments

1. Click at the top of your screen on Hotels, and make your way to the fodors London listings, then look at the customer comments

2. Look at tripadvisor.com for comments as well

My preference for the neighborhoods would be S. Ken or Bloomsbury, but that's what I'm used to.

anotherjudy

I stayed at the Vicarage Hotel a few years ago (the b&b hotel off Old Church Rd?). It is very clean, if basic, and the breakfast was good. It is about half way between Kensington High Street and Bayswater. My sister and I felt very comfortable in the neighborhood. There are good places to eat in the Kensington High Street area.
Have a wonderful time!
Judy

MelJ

DOn't know how old your mom is, but be aware that the Vicarage has five floors and no elevator.

Depending on when you're going, check some sights like londontown.com, lastminute.com, hotel-assist.com, smoothhound.co.uk for special rates in good areas (Kensington, Knightsbridge are nice--especially to come home to each day).

Have a great trip!

bettyk

You don't say when you are going so I couldn't check for you, but there are usually some pretty great deals on londontown.com, laterooms.com and others. If your plans are firm, you might also want to check out priceline.co.uk. Many people here have gotten some splendid rates on 4* hotels.

The advice to check tripadvisor.com is also very good. They have comments on a wide variety of hotels in many areas.

Margie

I can't speak about the specific hotels you mention, but when traveling to London we always try to stay in South Kensington; I have always felt safe (but as always use common sense) and the area has a lot of charm. Have a great trip!

walkabout

I can't comment on the hotels you mentioned because I haven't stayed in any of them. However, I have visited London nine times (from California) and I think that Bloomsbury and S. Kensington are better locations for a tourist than Marylebone.

Lori

Frankly I think you can do better then all the hotels you have listed. Go to Londontown.com and see what is available. For 100 pounds you can frequently get a far better hotel then the ones you listed.

Check the Holiday Inn website as well, there is a Holiday Inn Express near Victoria Station that frequently has decent rates (and triple rooms).

Check out Travel Inn at County Hall - people rave about it's convenience, altho I think it's decor is sort of Super8/Travelodge. They allow 3 in a room too. Location is right next to London Eye and a short walk to Waterloo Station.

I don't put a lot of faith in travel guide recommendations. Many times they are several years old and travel guides tend to just put in the same old places year after year. On this Forum you get up to date reviews from people who actually stayed in the hotels recently. That's more important to me then what a book says.

Lori

I just plugged in April dates (you didn't say when you were going) and the Holiday Inn Express at Victoria has rooms for 97 pounds including breakfast. Travel Inn had rooms at 79.95 pounds for weeknights and 82.95 pounds for weekends (no breakfast). Both hotels are within your 100 pound budget. Both are in good areas and very convenient to the Tube.

jody

I have to agree ..for 100 GBP at londontown, londonnights or lastminute you can get MUCH better hotels for that or less. Millenium Baileys, the Cranley have ofteen been had for less than 90GBP.
Like the other posters I'm a great fan of south Kensington, Chelsea,Knightsbridge area

GJ40

The County Hall is a great location! Especially for families. The views are outstanding and it's convenient to the Tube. We start and end every day with a view of Big Ben and a walk across Westminster Bridge. We stay at the Marriott County Hall because I save all of my Marriott Rewards points so I can't comment on the Travel Inn but if I were paying for our stay, I would definitely try it out. Good luck!

GJ40

mek17

For 100GBP a night you can do much better than the ones you listed. We are staying at the Grosvenor House (now owned by LeMeridien) for 99GBP/night, booked at lemeridien.com. Granted, we are going off season (Nov.), but there are deals to be had if you look around.

Suggestions:
-Check out aavacations.com for deals on Thistle Hotels. They have pretty good ones from time to time, and usually include full breakfast buffet. I've stayed at Thistle Tower, right next to Tower of London/Tower Bridge with a great view of the bridge/Thames - it was very nice, although a little "impersonal". Would stay again except for the location -- I prefer Mayfair/Picadilly to be walking distance to West End attractions. Thistle Victoria is a great location, and looks decent. Would stay away from Thistle Euston - its always the cheapest, but friends who have stayed there were not impressed.

-Check out ba.com - they sometimes have specials on hotels. Le Meridien Russel Sq. is one that pops up from time to time that is fairly cheap, and a nicer hotel than the "Royal National" which is nearby. Don't stay at the Royal National -- dirty, old, bad!

-Expedia.com yielded a great rate on the Sheraton Park Lane two years ago - $155/night (USD, not GBP). Excellent location, room overlooking Green Park. No breakfast included, but a 5-star hotel. Great lobby lounge/bar.

-Also check out hoteldiscount.com. I've found deals on there from time to time, but have never used them in London.

Just remember, before you book check the rate you found at the official hotel site (lemeridien.com, sheraton.com, thistlehotels.co.uk, etc.) - It seems that more often than not I end up booking through the official site as they offer the same rate (or better) without the "pay in advance" requirement that many of the discount sites (expedia.com, hoteldiscount.com) have. What I usually do is make a reservation at the hotel site when I find a good deal (like the Grosvenor House), then continue watching the other websites for a better deal. Just make sure your initial booking is cancelable - they usually are at the hotel's official site.

Hope I haven't gone on too long. Good luck! If you post dates, I'm sure I and others would be happy to make some educated suggestions...

qman

I stayed at a budget hotel called the willington,by the victoria tube station.It only cost 35 quid a night for a single,or 45 quid for a double,really cheap for london.The bathroom is shared of course on every level and the rooms are kinda small,but how much time are you really going to spend there?There breakfast is included and not bad,several types of cereal and lots of toast and croissants and beverages.

ateabag

2 yrs ago, I went to London with my 85 yr old mom. At the last minute, she decided that she would like to stay at a B&B & picked the Abbey House from the reviews that you mentioned. We were able to get in to the Abbey House & cancelled our other reservation. When we arrived, they were kind enough to put us in a ground floor room so my mother would not have to do the flights of stairs other than one flight down to the breakfast room. The public areas are nice, however, we were very disappointed with the room. [But reading how Rick Steves puts in perspective a 100 /nite room in London it was probably on par]. We were sorry that we had cancelled our other reservation. The shared bath posed a problem for my mom as well. The staff was very kind & helpful & it is a 10 min walk from the tube. The breakfasts were nice & we felt perfectly safe. That said, I am going to London again in May, but spending a little more & staying elsewhere. As the previous posts recommended, go on tripadvisor, I recently saw a review on the Abbey house from someone that stayed there earlier this yr, I believe.

chas

I've just returned from a business trip to London and I would thoroughly recommend the Premier Lodge hotel at Southwark. It opened last year, and a room is £78 per night including breakfast. It's attached to the rear of the Anchor pub which faces onto the Thames and you get a great view of St Pauls cathedral across the river. Tower bridge, the Tate Modern, the Globe theatre and London Bridge station are only a few minutes walk away and there are lots of restaurants nearbye on the river embankment. One of my colleagues was staying at the Travel Inn, County Hall and we both agreed the Premier Lodge was much better value.

sjones1314

Thank you so much for all of your helpful advice. We are not going until March 26, 2004 so I will definitely be checking out all of the options you've suggested. For anyone else out there - keep the suggestions coming. Better to have too much info than not enough!!

mclegal

just booked two rooms on p-line at holiday inn in south ken

$57 per nite per room, with VAT works to 41 pounds per room

We'' probaly also stay a couple nites at a b&b in bloomsbury. Going w/wife and two kids in april 04.

Hard to justify a quad or triple in a b&b for upwards of 100 pounds when you can make arrangemnts for two rooms at a pretty nice hotel for such rates.

Are prices going to come down?

ben_haines_london

I have on disc notes on what Fodors forum readers have said over two years about small hotels near Victoria, and I can gladly e-mail that to you if you ask me. Welcome to London

ben.haines@:btinternet.com

Elizabeth

1. I have done fantastically well on Priceline and on Hoteldiscount.com for hotels in London.

On these sites you cannot specify a 3-bed room, BUT I think you could get two rooms at $90. I recommend you choose Mayfair-Soho on Priceline.

2. To do Priceline, first go to Biddingfortravel.com and read about how to do it.

3. No kidding - 4* rooms in Mayfair or Kensington will be better than the 3* things you may turn up. Bloomsbury is also nice.

I got a beautiful room with a lovely bathroom in a fancy-ish hotel in Mayfair (well, 2 steps over the line, so what) for $85 (yes, dollars, not pounds) a nite on Priceline in August.

4. I just did some comparison shopping between discounthotel and londowntown etc. -- discounthotel for my search was definitely the best.

brophy

First, just wanted to reiterate that there are NO UNSAFE tourist areas in London. I've been visiting for ten years and have stayed in the Bloomsbury, Kings Cross, Paddington, and Kensington areas and come back to my hotel late at night and have never felt the slightest unease. London is especially safe when compared with large U.S. cities. We're going to be staying at the Thistle Euston in January and it sounds perfect, plus we are spending about $50 each per night for a twin room, which is outstandingly cheap for a nice clean London hotel. The hotels you mention are really good, ESPECIALLY if you want to experience a European hotel. They are not a bit like hotels here in the States. More charm, more eccentricities, fewer luxuries. Which is good!