Upscale London Hotel
 

We will be staying in London for 2 nights at the end of June. We are looking for an upscale hotel in a good location for sightseeing. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

what is your budget??

$400 - $500 a night

Capitol Hotel in Knightsbridge. Small upscale boutique hotel. Fabulous location nessled behind Harrods.

Covent Garden Hotel in Covent Garden www.firmdale.com

Failry small hotel although one of the rooms claims to have the absolute largest bed in the city.

But with the exchange rate as it is I am not sure you are going to get anything but the smallest room for that amount of money but try anyway.

Well, £200 - £250 is midrange for London. Won't get you a 5-star hotel unless maybe through Priceline. Look at www.tripadvisor.com for reviews of hotels in that range.

you are "only" talking about $400/$500 so just how upscale are you expceting? If you mean a nice 4 star, full service hotel along the lines of a Hilton or Marriott you can find something fairly easily. But if you actually mean 5 star and/or posh, your budget is not an upscale London budget . . . .

We stayed at the Hilton in Chelsea Harbour several years ago when it was new. There is a chance the price might be right.
We had a suite on bonus points and the listed price for it then was $650.00.

I wouldn't qualify Chelsea Harbour as a good location for sighseeing.
The Capital is a good hotel; small, very English, great service. I also like Myhotel Chelsea, in South Kensington; modern rooms, great beds, it's in a fairly quiet street, not far from South Kensington.
The Lowndes would also be good for your budget; it's recently been redone. That one is in Knightsbridge.

Actually - the hilton in Chelsea Harbor is a Conrad - and is in a very inconvenient area for touring London. You can usually get it very reasonably on Priceline -

Try Priceline 5* hotels in the areas you like and you are bound to be able to get within your price range and perhaps much lower. Check biddingfortravel.com for info on what people are getting.

Agree with Dukey. Look at the Firmdale group of hotels. Their Charlotte Street hotel is beautiful-stunning public rooms with an excellent bar/restaurant, too. Very good location, too.

Most of the Firmdale group are lovely hotels - and their base rooms (which are VERY nice) will mostly fit in your budget. But remember to add 17.5% to the rates for VAT. So a £250 room will cost about £ 295 . . .

About 2 years ago we stayed at the Sofitel St. James for about $500 / nite. It's located in a converted bank building near the park, National Gallery, Picadilly, etc., etc. Within walking distance of almost everything. Not "Posh" but a very nice hotel. (Just avoid the restaurant.)

The Montague on the Gardens, at 15 Montague Street in Bloomsbury. It's a small,lovely, and what I would call a boutiqe hotel. They have great food seved in an elegant dining room, and a beautiful garden where you can have drinks if the weather is nice. It's adjacent to the British Museum, but don't worry, you won't even know it...it's very quiet and quite lovely.

Look on the website www.redcarnationhotels.com

The Montague is also an excellent location. It's away from traffic and the hustle and bustle, there are some great restaurants close by, you can walk to the West End and the National Gallery/Trafalger Square area. Russell Square is at the other end of Montague street, and not far from there is the wonderful British Library.

Thanks to all for the suggestions, hard to belive $500/night is not considered upscale, but I guess it shows I am a little behind the times. Thanks again.

It is amazing isn't it ... London has become one of the more expensive cities in Europe, even before the 2:1 exchange rate making it worse for Americans. In addition to the sites recommended by previous posters, try hoteldiscounts.com - best of luck and enjoy!

I definitely would not use Priceline for a London 5* in the Mayfair zone since there is a very good chance one will win the St Martins Lane which is misrated (really a boutique hotel) and gives you the worst room in the house. I wrote a lengthy comments about my stay on biddingfortravel.com.

You can also try www.luxurylink.com but I'm not sure if any of the auctions are for two nights only.

Don't be discouraged. I got the Renaissance Chancery Court (which is designated 5*) for £146 per night AAA weekend rate. It looks like a pretty nice place. Just keep looking!