I give up, I can't find a description anywhere! We are traveling to London in June with a 12 and 14 yr old. We usually get a Queen suite here in the states, and would like to stay around $150 - $200 per night for a room. Can someone tell me what I want to book?

Vicki, <BR>With two adults and two youngsters, you'll need a quad room, that is one room accommodating four people. If your stay in London will encompass at least a week, you might want to consider an apartment rental. Frankly, quads at $150.00 a night are a rarity in London although you might want to check out the London Guards hotel. It's received positive comments here on the forum, both for the quality of its rooms and its convenient location. You'll find quad rooms for somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 pounds. Take a look at: <BR>www.demon.co.uk/hotel-uk/guards.html <BR>for details

Also I know in some european countries (don't know offhand about england), they have 'family rooms', which usually are 2 room suites. generally 1 room has a double bed and the other 2 twins. I have found that when researching hotels on the internet, they don't always mention on their websites that they have quad or family rooms. i think because some of the smaller hotels may only have 1 or 2 rooms like that. you should inquire with the hotels you are interested in.

We are staying at Harrington Hall in London. It is a four star hotel in the South Kensington area. For a family of four, we got a suite for 210 pounds per night. That is pricey, but London is pricey, and we wanted good accommodations and a good location. You should be able to do a web search and come up with some choices. Or look at the AA site: www.theaa.co.uk and see what you can find there. I have their bed and breakfast and hotel books and have seen several places with quad rooms for less money than we are spending.

Well, excuse me, but I just checked and found I gave the wrong address in the message above! So sorry! The correct address is: www.theaa.com. Go to Getaways and it will have a section on hotels and b&bs. Oops!

We stayed at the London Guards last year. We got a quad room for our four children (12-22). We were told it would have one double and two twin beds, but ended up having three twins and a sofa bed. Cost was about $160 a night and included a pretty basic continental breakfast. The rooms are air conditioned, but it never did work right in the kids' room. You can walk across Hyde/Kensington Park to Harrods, the Victoria & Albert, etc. but you need to take the tube just about anywhere else. The Lancaster Gate station was about 2 blocks away.

Here are three family-run B&Bs in the Bloomsbury are that I think offer quads (their quoted prices all include a full English breakfast and VAT taxes): <BR> <BR>The Arran House Hotel <BR>The Georgian House Hotel <BR>The Alhambra <BR> <BR>I don't have their web addresses with me, but a search n google.com should cough 'em up! <BR> <BR>I leave next week for the Arran House. These places were highly recommended to me and I found their prices *very* reasonable and over-all a good value for the money. Good luck!

we traveled this past april with a 12 and 15 yr old. we stayed at the thistle marble arch. we were suppposed to have a family quad room which was to be 3 beds and a sofa, cost was $220.oo a night including full breakfast and all taxes. we arrived early and they gave us two adjoining rooms.thistle is a chain and alot of there hotels had quad rooms. rooms were large with very large new bathrooms.

Vicki, <BR> <BR>Understand your frustration. You probably want to book a family room or a "quad" room. (Suppose that the term "Queen Suite" would mean something quite different in the UK...perhaps available only at Buckingham Palace). <BR> <BR>London hotels are notoriously expensive, and often not up to standard. My general advice is to book a hotel in as central a London location as you can afford. This avoids having to commute in and out of town to see the sights. Also, it is difficult to find air-conditioned hotel rooms in London. But you may want A/C, not because London is that hot, but because it can be noisy outside your hotel...and if you have to sleep with the window open, you could have a problem. <BR> <BR>I see that other people have made some good suggestions here on specific hotels. You can also check the chain hotels (Hilton, Holiday Inn, Forte Crest, etc) that have London properties. Sometime they have special rates that can reduce the cost of staying in London, and the chains sometimes have rooms that can accomodate a family of four. On the budget side of the picture, you may want to check out the Travel Inn County Hall and the new Days Inn Waterloo. They have family rooms, although technically these are limited to two kids under age 12. Neither hotel has A/C, both are modern, and cost is £75 at Travel Inn and slightly more at Days Inn. Travel Inn County Hall is walking distance to Big Ben and other sights. <BR> <BR>Hope this helps, <BR> <BR>David White <BR>http://www.KidsToLondon.com <BR>[email protected]

Check out the Holiday Inn in Mayfair. Four star hotel in a very fashionable neighborhood, and the most central location in London. The rooms are relatively large by London standards. They have a web site where you can check rates, specials, etc.