I posted a question about a mom ago on visiting London & Paris wth my son. Now my niece (age 11 when we travel) wants to join us and I wanted to know how difficult is it to find a hotel room for 3 people.

I am not interested in an apartment (I cook & clean enough at home). I started my research and some of the hotels in Paris I've come across require 2 rooms. I would prefer to keep us all in one room.

My initial budget was $3000-$3500 (hotel & food) for London & Paris, should I increase my budget? Not sure how much her parents can contribute. Looking at 3 or 4 star hotels in Paris.

Since my sister does not want my niece to miss school we are limited to 7 nights/8 days - 3 nights London followed by 4 nights Paris. Or should I switch to late July/early August when we would have more time in Europe?

Thanks for your help.

Hard to answer since there are so many unknowns. Can you afford to extend the trip? Apts. don't necessarily mean you "cook and clean" they just give you some extra space to spread out. How much can you spend each night on lodging? This might give some guidance.

I don't know much about hotel rooms for 3 in London, but Paris is full of them. I used to travel through Paris regularly with my son and daughter and we never had a problem finding a room for 3 - meaning with 3 beds or 2 beds plus a cot brought in.

But I do think you'd be far more comfortable in an apartment.

SuzChicago~ My max would be $5000 (USD) for lodging, sightseeing and food.

StCirq ~ My only worry about the apartment is having to change plans and being stuck. My dad is battling cancer I prefer to keep everything as open as possible. A one night's (refundable) deposit is better for me than 50% deposit on an apartment.

Thanks for the replies.

A very comfortable hotel in London with family rooms is Premier Inn - London County Hall, which is at the very feet of the London Eye. If you can see the Eye, you can find your way to the hotel. I love the location. It is a very nice hotel, clean, and the family rooms (also called triple rooms) are much larger than normal.

Three of us often travel together. For starters, go to the Expedia website and input 3 people. You will get a list of hotels and prices for your dates. You can them check prices directly with the hotels on their own websites to search for the best deal. Be sure that you understand what you a getting in the way of bedding. Common is one double bed and one small twin. Sometimes you can get 3 twin beds.
The Best Western chain often has bigger rooms that can accomodate 3 people.
7 nights/8days is not much time considering travel days. Maybe she could just miss a couple of days of school.

It's not that difficult to find rooms for 3, 4-5 is much more difficult. I don't know about your budget, but if you are concerned, I'd forget about the 4* hotel criteria, especially in Paris where 3* hotels are perfectly fine.

the 4* Crowne Plaza in Paris at place de la Republique has larger rooms, I believe, including rooms with two double beds. It used to be a Holiday Inn but was sold or something. It's a historic monument, actually, so don't think it's some cheesy motel.

I'm looking at hotels right now too. I saw that Park International has triple rooms for a very reasonalbe price. I like the area there in Kensington because of the convenience of the tube station getting us from LHT.

Would your sister consider letting your niece fly home by herself, so that you are not so limited on time? She could still be an unaccompanied minor. You could probably accompany her to the gate and she would be picked up at the other end by her mum, with flight attendants in supervision in-between. If she can get a non-stop flight it should be pretty easy, assuming that the girl feels confident about it.

cynthia_booker ~ Thank you for the Premier Inn advice the rates seem reasonable and the hotel received pretty good reviews on tripadvisor. Also looking into Base2stay and City Inn.

cferrb~ my sister was adamant about NOT letting her fly home alone. I don't think I would like that myself if the roles were reversed. But thank you.

We may switch to late July because of a number of factors; scheduling, my son's b-day (we can celebrate at Legoland), Paris Plage and the open-air cinemas, later days in Paris...all seem to make for a more memorable trip.

I did find a few hotels that interested me that had triple rooms or suites.

Hotel Bassano
Elysees Regencia
Hotel Du Bois
Hotel Ares Eiffel
Hotel Eiffel Siene
Hotel Therese

Don't get hung up on star ratings in France. There are 2 star hotels that are just as good as any 3/4 star property as the official French star ratings are based on a check list of features, not quality, cleanliness, location, etc. So, for example, a great little hotel might never qualify to be higher than a 2-star just because it doesn't have enough rooms to qualify as a 3 or 4 star, or it doesn't have a conference room or large lobby or an in-hotel restaurant, or any number of other items on the checklist that you might not care about.

well, I wouldn't go that far, the stars aren't meaningless. I mean I've never been in a 2* French hotel that is as good as a 4*. Also, some of the things named above don't have anything to do with going from a 2* hotel to a 3* hotel--like having a conference room or restaurant. The number of rooms is so low that wouldn't be an issue in Paris hotels (going from 7 rooms to 10 rooms minimum) 4* hotels in France don't even have to have an in-hotel restaurant. However, I do agree they aren't based on location or cleanliness. Quality is subjective, I do think they are related to quality in one sense, in that the higher star hotels are, on average, nicer and more comfortable to me. And they tend to have nicer furniture and nicer rooms, decor and lots of things. You can be a "quality" 2* hotel, however, there are certainly some 2* hotels that are nicer than other 2* hotels. The person may want some kind of services a 4* hotel provides, who knows the reason (like room service or some business things).

I stayed at Copthorne Tara and the room was huge. Mini refrigerator, nice bathroom. I didn't get the breakfast,
but bought items at the Salisbury's near the station and
at Mark and Spencers.

In Paris, we stayed twice at the Hotel Henri IV Rive Gauche and on our second visit we were given a large room with a double bed and a single bed in the smaller 'front room'. Sorry, I can't help you with the price but here's the website:

http://www.henri-paris-hotel.com/en.php

It was a very nice little hotel in a great location just across the Petit Pont from Notre Dame. I believe it's a three star.

ps you can see a picture of it on the website. It's the one with the extra bed (big striped pillow) in the foreground. And it seems we had two beds pushed together in the main part of the room, not a double.

Do look at base2stay as suggested - as a travel journalist, it's my favourite London hotel - you get a kitchenette, discounts at local restaurants, free wifi, lots of free music via the TV - and it's always immaculately clean, with particularly helpful staff - which isn't the case with so many London (and elsewhere!) hotels, sadly.

Incidentally, you don't do the cleaning - it's all done for you.

Oh, and for Paris - if you're taking the Eurostar train, do book early - and you'll get really cheap rates - £59 round trip for adults.

And base2stay.com is on the Piccadilly line of the London underground - so direct to and from Heathrow and Kings Cross St Pancras (for the Eurostar).

Happy to help - but let me know if I can help further, please.

Alun

Many of the Novotel hotels, part of the Accor chain, have rooms with a queen-sized bed and a day bed that sleeps one person comfortably.

I don't know what your original dates were, but factor that July/Aug is high, high season. Air, hotel etc will cost more, and sights will be more crowded also.

Maybe London and Paris are worth missing 3 days of school for?