Possible to get 4* Hotel in London for $300USD?
 

Heading to London in November, and am wondering whether it is possible (and whether anyone has recs) to get a TRUE 4* hotel in London for around $300USD (or is my price too low?).

I can find 3* for less than $200, which is better than I had expected for such an expensive city.

I am not interested in using Priceline, though I know lots of folks have been happy with doing so. Reasons?
1) I often get the crummiest room in the hotel when I Priceline,
2) I think I paid more for a Milan hotel via PL than if I had contacted the hotel directly,
3) I want to choose my hotel's location, more than within a general area,
4) Priceline seems to rate hotels too high (e.g., rate a 3* hotel as a 4*),
5) No negotiation power with PL. Once we were put in a smoking room, and they wouldn't change us to our previously requested non-smoking room. What were we going to do, leave? We'd already paid for the room via PL...

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

I disagree about the London PL comments. I only use Priceline for London hotels and out of more than 10 stays we have never been refused a nonsmoking room. Try bidding 5* only. In the Mayfair zone you will most likely get the Le Meridien Piccadilly or Sofitel St. James which I just returned from a few days ago. This year it is taking $180-225/nt for 5* success.

Otherwise, you can try luxurylink.com for 4 & 5* London accomodations with which we had success in the past.

Check laterooms.com . I think it's possible.

Note, though, that in London I've twice been upgraded to executive rooms for free with my lowball Priceline bids. So it's partly the luck of the draw. The Milan overpayment could have been avoided with research, and is highly unlikely to occur in London. You could get around the 4* is actually a 3* issue by bidding for a 5*.

Yep, I know all about biddingfortravel and all of that. I did my research for Milan and still got burned.

I am glad that others have had better experiences, but I am telling you that it has not been perfect for me!

However, it is hard to argue with travlinwifey and WillTravel...you guys make good points...I'll try the 5* options on Priceline, but will not go any lower on the stars.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Also the Luxurylink option is good too as it sometimes includes breakfast or even a dinner... that is really helpful with the weak $$. We were in shock with how much we paid for food this past week.

hunnym, I wouldn't give in that easily :).
If $300 USD is your budget, maybe you can find the perfect small 4* hotel in the perfect location that isn't a large business-class hotel. You're almost certain to get the latter with a Priceline 5* bid.

WillTravel, I think I already knew in my mind that I should try PL again...I was hoping someone would prove me wrong and you did! I can at least try...but you are right, boy, we'd love a 4* "little" hotel.

I will certainly give LuxuryLink a peek. Hadn't heard of that one before (but then again, haven't often had this much $$ to spend on a hotel room!). Travelinwifey, just curious about the food prices...do you have a couple of examples? Not that the prices will stop us, our flight is booked...just better to be mentally prepared!

Thanks again!

try www.londonnights.com

I've found several 4 and 5 stars there at reduced prices that would bring them into your range. They are offering 2 excellent country house hotels , The Cranley and The Sydney House at reduced rates.

Last Thanksgiving I stayed at the Chancery Court for 155pounds for 3 nights and 175 for 2 nights, breakfast included and delivered to the room for a small fee. Surely that is a 4 star and a lovely grand place to stay. I can't recall if I booked through the Marriot site or through Albemarle with my theatre tickets since that is one of their offerings.

Hi Hunnym, sorry I had to step out for a bit. Well we were 4 traveling together and no matter where we ate the bill always came to more around $100-120 for us, even when we ate at inexpensive London chain restaurants such as Deep Pan Pizza and Bella Pasta. My trip report is here:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34635152

We go to London once or 2x per year but this time we really felt the pinch. Seems like prices in London are going through the roof, more so than we've ever noticed at least. But don't let this me scare you, we had a ball!

Have a great trip!:)

Oh yes, and londontown.com is good, though most of their reduced rate hotels are also Priceline hotels, on that website you can book < $300, but many of those hotels come up on priceline in the $100-120/nt range.

Finally a lot of travelers enjoy the Chesterfield Mayfair, that was our back up before the Priceline success. Good ratings.

www.chesterfieldmayfair.com

Try Orbitz. They recently had a $159 special offer for Victoria Park Plaza Hotel. We just stayed there and it is a very nice hotel. We paid $200 per night through Travelocity.

If you don't mind having to take a cab or a bus to get to the key sights and shops, have a look at the Conrad in London. Because it's a bit of out of the way (but still in the Kensington-Chelsea area), the price seems to be lower than for other hotels of comparable quality.

The Marriott Grosvenor Square is right in the heart of Mayfair, just two blocks away from Oxford Street shopping. It sometimes has good prices.

It might also depend on when in November you'll be there. Late November starts to be Christmas season, with lots of rooms booked up with lots of Brits staying in hotels for shopping (or staying over after the office Chrismas party).

travelinwifey : I know you mentioned the weak dollar before, but then referred to "prices in London going throuigh the roof". They aren't, it's just the exchange rate. $100 = not much more than £50, which seems extremely cheap to me for a meal for 4.

Hi Caroline, I assume you live in Bonnie Scotland?:) Normally when one dines in the US at a low frills restarant it runs around $15 per person so 25+ per head was expensive for us at a low tiered restaurant.

Also souvenirs were more pricey than before seems things like t-shirts and such, prices seemed to be a pound or more than prices we paid in previous visits, so yes, with the weak dollar little things added up quite quickly.

That would never stop us from visiting the UK (I believe I was a Brit in a past life:D ) and I suppose since we were paying for 4 as oppised to 2 we noticed prices much more this time.

Finally the hotel price has really increased for 5* accomodations in London via Priceline. Previously for about 3 years we won hotels in the $150 range, it is now taking bids around $225/nt as it was in our case. Even with the weaker dollar that was still a hefty nightly increase. I should also mention 4* accomodations have increased but only mildly, say $20 per night.

Will that stop us from visiting England, no way, some of the happiest times of our lives are spent in the UK:)

Hi travelinwifey. Yes, I've lived in Edinburgh for the last 11 years, but lived in London for 10 years before that & still visit a few times a year.

Not doubting your veracity at all, but $225 per night for a 5* hotel also seems *incredibly* cheap ! I'd have expected a 5* to be considerably more than 225 *pounds* !! This Priceline thing is obviously the way to go.

If we're visiting London on a budget we usually pay c.£80 for a 2* hotel, & when I used to stay there regularly on business (between 3 & 5 years ago) my 4* hotel was c.£190 !

Glad the exchange rate hasn't stopped you coming, anyway !

Where in the US do you live ? The only place I've been is Manhattan, so maybe prices there are also more than where you live ?

I discovered biddingfortravel.com yesterday for the first time, looking for a good price on two rooms in London at the end of June. Ended up bidding on priceline for a 4 star in the Bloombury - Marble Arch area -- got it for $75 a night (each room) - Thistle Marble Arch. Thats about £40. Just can't beat that. I'm sure a 5 star will be a lot more, but the deals are there.

Way to go Turning40! Once you start Pricelineing you'll never stop!:D

Caroline, I agree, $250 for the Sofitel is a great deal. Just spoiled because we also paid $155 for the Sofitel 1 1/2 years ago on another Priceline bid. I do believe biddingfortravel.com has a section for bidders outside of the US, it should be located in the Hotel FAQ section.

We live in Las Vegas, land of the inexpensive dining. It's quite common to eat dinner for less than $10 per person here. In fact, casinos send residents coupons, about once per month we get specials for free buffets or $25 off any restaurant inside.

We flew Virgin LGW-LAS nonstop, our plane was mostly British. I miss the British accents! Hope you get to visit this neck of the woods some day. If you do, be sure to contact me through my email above, I'll be sure to assist in any way:)

Yes!!!! The Cavendish - a great one (click on "Breaks & Special Offers"):

This long double-looking thing is the actual website - not a mistake:

http://www.devereonline.co.uk/jdever...tel_cavendish/

Wanted to add that we also won the Thistle Charring Cross for $105 before we returned home, had we known that we probably would have Pricelined for 4* for the forst 5 nights. The hotel was really nice and an amazing deal.

Hope this hasn't gone too far off track for you Hunny:) As you can see I can talk endlessly about London:)