London hotels for October trip -- need advice please!
 

Hi all,
A friend and I are headed to London the second week of October and we are trying to decide on a hotel. We are debating booking a package through British Airways or United, or if the price is right, just booking everything separate ourselves. The flight from Chicago will arrive at Heathrow so we are looking at hotels that are convenient to Paddington or along the circle/district tube lines (we will be taking the Heathrow express). Any feedback or advice on the following hotels would be helpful, or if there are any reasonably priced, but immaculately clean accomodations not listed, please do let us know! We have travelled in Europe before so we are aware of the difference between American and British hotels -- we would just like a room that is very clean and that has private facilities.
Jolly Hotel St. Ermins
Thistle Westminster
Thistle Victoria
Thistle Kensington Gardens
Millenium Baileys
Royal Lancaster

Thanks in advance!!
Liza

Hi, Liza

If you will enter the name of a hotel in the search box at the top of this page, then go to your right and click "enter" you will probably find more comments than you need.

Be safe and have a great trip!

Hi Liza,

We're staying at the Millennium Bailey's in a few weeks. I'll be happy to let you know how it is. We've never stayed there before, but after lots of research, and feedback from Fodorites, we picked it. I think it will be great. Now if the weather will just cool off a bit. :)

Also, has anyone found it to be a hassle to be north of Hyde Park on the central line? Would we just be better off staying south of the park?
Thanks for the responses and jon, yes, please do let me know how you liked hte Millenium Baileys!

I am going to London next month and Millenium Bailey's is top on my list - largely due to feedback from this site - and I got the best price on their own website - breakfast and dinner included. Location seems great.

I stayed in Russell Square which is very centrally located in London. My brother in law is from there and found a place called the Russell House and it's right next door to the Russel Square Tube stop. It's clean with a decent breakfast, tho' not fabulous, and a bathroom. Relatively clean and serviceable. Nothing fancy at all but who stays in their room? I had my whole family (5)stay there for a whole week. You're withing walking distance to the British Museum in case it rains and not far at all from the whole Picadilly Circus, Oxford Circle, etc. I loved the location.

I will also be staying at the Millennium Bailey's in September, based on feedback on this site and reviews on tripadvisor.com.

Maureens, just curious did you get that rate from their site and if so, when did you book it? I just booked two days ago and didn't see that awesome offer!

lemon: The rate was 144GBP 2 nights and 114GBP for 3 - since I had started at 5 star hotels and quickly worked down, the rate seemed good to me. Eating out in lots of restaurants is not high on my list so having the same fare for a few days is fine by me, with a few pub lunches and at least one decent afternoon tea thrown in for good measure.

I suggest you look at laterooms.com
Boots

Stayed at Milleniun Bailey's this past winter on a package deal with United. Hotel was an excellent value and the location is unbeatable. Only 50 yards from the underground station serving three lines, including the Picadilly to Heathrow. Many shops and restaurants in the area. As far as the hotel itself, it was fairly small and atmospheric. Service was excellent, breakfast good. Rooms were not elaborate but clean and comfortable. I would recommend that you contact the hotel and request a quiet room facing the inner courtyard. We did that and were glad we did. We heard other guests complaining about the noise from Gloucester Road traffic. Contact Ina Juntti [[email protected]]or Jane Crawford ([email protected]) to make the request

Many of your listed hotels have come up on Priceline, for many £s less than the quoted rates, e.g. Baily's for US$65. Check out www.biddingfortravel.com for results and pointers. For October travel I'd definitely start there.

I have friends who have stayed at Millenium Bailey's several times, they intend to go there again.
Great location, nice hotel, nice bar.

Look for comments also at tripadvisor.com
I could be wrong, but I may have seen some negative comments there about the Thistle Ken. Gardens

Hi Liza: Did a London package with Globus in April--they have several hotel choices. We chose the highest, the Royal horseguards because of the old building itself and what I think is a great location. We decided to slurge on the London portion and went cheaper on the Ireland and Scotland portions. Along the Thames, in a nice garden, across from the London Eye. Very convenient, approx. 1/2 block
from Embankment tube station and within just a couple of blocks from Trafalgar Square. Package was for flight, 6 nights hotel, huge English breakfast daily, 1/2 day London tour and transfers from Heathrow to hotel. We really liked it. There are comments on this site--just type Royal Horseguards and you will get several comments.

Thanks for the wonderful responses. I'm very tempted to try my hand at priceline after looking at the biddingfortravel website. It appears that very good prices can be had since the second week of Oct. is considered low season. Has anyone had a negative experience using priceline? I figured that if I was only bidding on 4 or 5 star hotels in a good area then the result can't be that bad. However, I am concerned that I'll end up at a hotel that is not close to a tube station.
Any feedback as to priceline and your feelings on it would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Liza

Lisa:

I'm in the same boat, only for Sept. Leaving in five weeks with no place to stay yet. Head is spinning. I'm interested in the same hotel. Have you tried Priceline?

Tia

I got the Victoria Thistle on Priceline for Nov 8 - 10 for $100.36 for all 3 nights, including all taxes. The location looks great.

We got Thistle Victoria in Sept. for 71.00 US per night. Just follow the guidlines at biddingfortravel.com and you should be fine. Also Frommers Budget Travel Magazine did an article in the last issue about several well priced hotels. I am sure you could find them on Frommers website. (ps just for the sake of not being edited ...I prefer FODORS!:-d

I meant $300.36 for 3 nights!!

check out flemings in mayfair...very convienent...we have stayed there three times and are always pleased with the location!

Well, so far no luck on priceline. I have been trying to book a 4 or 5 star room in Mayfair/Soho for the past few weeks. The room would be for the second week of October so I figured that we should have pretty good luck finding a deal. Apparently this is not the case as we have bid up to $130 and have even split our 7 day stay into two separate bids to increase our chances of getting accepted. I have pored over the biddingfortravel site many times and have incorporated all of their tips into my bidding strategy.
Is anyone else having problems getting a good deal on rooms via priceline for the first half of October?