My wife and I are about to book our first trip to london, and we can't decide on a hotel. Our choices are the Holiday Inn Mayfair or the Holiday Inn Kensington Forum. The Holiday Inn Mayfair is $80USD/night more than Holiday Inn Kensington. My wife likes the location of the Mayfair and thinks the extra money would be well worth it. I think the Kensington would be fine and we could take the money we save ($400 USD) to use on our trip. We are staying 5 nights.

What do you think? Please help!

Mayfair. See earlier post.

Looks like my wife is right about the mayfair. She will remind me of this for weeks!

The Holiday Inn Mayfair is in an EXCELLENT location, and the reliability of the Holiday Inn chain can't be beat. It is near everything, the Ritz, for tea, Fortnum and Mason's-you can walk to Wolsey's (hot restaurant on Piccadilly-but I think it's hit or miss-excellent desserts-good people-watching) you're right there at Piccadilly and Leicester Sq. to see all the action at night. Really, you can't go wrong there.

Did you mean $80 or 80 pounds per night? 80 dollars sounds like a great buy!

It was $80 more not in total a night!

ohhhhh.....

In terms of price, I landed a great deal on Priceline.com. I got the Holiday Inn Kensington Forum for only $72.00 per night, plus tax (came to $87 when you factor in the tax).

On biddingfortravel.com, some people have stated they have gotten the same hotel on Priceline for $62 per night, plus tax. I was unable to get this, but $72, plus tax is great! The Holiday Inn Website states that it is over $200 per night.

If you want to save some money, use Priceline.

That's a great deal-for travel in August or later?

I have stayed in both Kensington and Mayfair. If this is your first trip to London, I would recommend Mayfair. As Spygirl mentioned it is closer to all major spots that you will want to visit. Both hotels are minutes from the Picadilly Tube line but you can walk from Mayfair through Green Park to Buckingham Palace, or through Mayfair to Oxford Street, a busy shopping area. Kensington is a quieter area and I enjoyed exploring the Kensington South and Chelsea neighbourhoods. I love London, even though it is very expensive.

Here's another recommendaton for Priceline. We stayed at the Waldorf Hilton on Aldwych for $100/night in May. The location was magnificent.

If you're considering using Priceline, though, it is essential to do your homework and study everything, including winning bids for your approximate dates, at www.biddingfortravel.com

Hmm. I will definitely have to do some studying for this priceline/biddingfortravel in the near future-useful information.

Thanks for the info. This is our first trip to London and we want to make sure we enjoy our stay by staying at a good place, but we don't want to overpay either. We will definitely take your advice and shop around.

We have priced our trip by packaging the hotel and airfare together. For five nights at the HI Mayfair, the best price so far is $2,100 USD.

Have you found that buying the hotel and air together is cheaper, or is buying them seperate a better idea?

In my experience, it's almost always been cheaper buying together, rather than separate-how does your pricing break down? and what time period are you leaving? that makes a huge difference in the pricing.

Right now we are planning on leaving October 2, returning on Oct. 8th, but we are very flexible. We can go anytime. We just don't want it to be too cold to enjoy.

Check out the Priceline packages!

A couple of weeks ago, I booked air (from Boston)and hotel for $1750 for the two of us with 8 nights at the Millennium Bailey's in mid-September (which was our hotel of choice before using Priceline in May). (For that trip, I had already booked the airfare when the rates dipped early in the year, and then the best rate I could find for MB was £85/night plus tax). We are thrilled!

With the Priceline packages, you can pick your hotel and flights.

I've used Priceline many times for packages with no problems whatsoever. They also offer reasonably priced trip insurance (but be sure to read the coverage and shop separately before booking and selecting this, just to be sure it's for you).

PS It going without saying that you should shop the same flights and hotels independently before booking with Priceline...

You may also want to check out site59.com, we snagged an air/hotel (Holiday Inn Mayfield) deal for an extended 4th of July weekend for just over $1000 plus tax (from the West Coast!) for both of us.

We felt that the HI Mayfield was a good value overall as part of an air/hotel package, but not on its own at the rack rates on HI's website.

HI Mayfield likes: great location very close to the Green Park tube; walking distance to Buckingham Palace; near Marks & Spencer Simply Food (above the Green Park tube stop); near pubs & shopping; able to check in early (11AM)(it probably helped that I joined HI's frequent guest program before we left); decent rooms *exactly* where we requested (near but next to the elevator on an upper floor); prompt service for requests for extra pillows (they even have a pillow menu!); even a Starbucks across the street!

HI Mayfield dislikes: erratic concierge service (twice we were told incorrect times for key tourist events - changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace and opening time for Westminster Cathedral); Golden Tours 1/2 day sightseeing package (not a good value - one of the worst tour guides we've ever had); separate hot/cold faucets; breakfast was not a good value (scrambled eggs were runny which I don't care for) and the "ham" was more like bacon

All in all we really can't complain too much and would very likely stay again at the HI Mayfield if it were part of an air/hotel package.

We enjoyed the Rembrandt X from the Victoria and Albert and 2 blocks W of Harrod's in I guess S. Kensington 8-10 July. Nice quiet area - 99 (+17.5% Vat) GBP for a queen exec with full B'fast for two.
It's a couple blocks to the SK tube.
M