GO ASK JOAN: After a surge of interest from readers wanting to visit the English capital,
JOAN SCALESrounds up the best places to stay in the city
London tops list of questions from readers
We are going to London soon and need to stay in a good value hotel, hostel, bed and breakfast, self-catering accommodation. We are travelling alone, with friends, bringing the children, taking a loved one on a treat and it is difficult to find reasonable priced accommodation. Can you help? We are the many readers of Go who have asked about accommodation in London and we are aged from 18 to 88 and live all around the country.
It must be the Olympics, the royal wedding, the price of sterling or the recession that has put London on top of the list of questions to Ask Joan lately.
There is good news and bad news about London. Prices are increasing – the average cost of a night in a hotel last year was £186 (€220) and is not expected to be any less this year. VAT has gone up and rooms are getting smaller. Booking early is very important and flexibility on dates helps.
The good news is that there are a lot of new hotels in London and existing ones have refurbished. Infrastructure is being improved, with work on transport links and old areas are becoming glammed-up and trendy, though all the activity can cause delays and disruptions at times.
In London, there is a fine line between a good price and a dump of a hotel, so you need to be careful. Review sites such as Tripadvisor.com can help to sort the good from the bad, but people’s expectations are different. One woman’s noisy sheets in a hotel are someone else’s starched luxury.
Value hotels
The Hoxton Hotel (00-44-207-5501000, hoxtonhotel.com) is the height of contemporary style. It is round the corner from the hip nightclubs and restaurants in Hoxton Square and beside Old Street underground. Every so often it has a £1 (€1.18) sale. Go on the website and register in the Hox Fan Club for notice about the sales. Otherwise rooms cost from £119 (€140) per night.
Tune Hotels (tunehotels.com) are an Asian group with a Ryanair philosophy. Their London hotel recently opened on Westminster Bridge Road. Room prices start very low, under £50 (€59) per night. You pay extra for towels, shampoo, cleaning, TV and internet.
If cheap, clean, convenient is what you are looking for in London, then you cannot go wrong with EasyHotels (easyhotels.com), part of the EasyJet empire. They have four locations – Victoria, South Kensington, Earls Court and Paddington – from £30 per room per night. There are no frills, rooms are small but the locations are great.
Base2Stay (base2stay.com) is located off Cromwell Road, SW5, and is good for families. Rooms have a kitchenette with fridge, so you can make your own breakfast and packed lunches. Prices are from £95-£250 (€112-€294) per night.
Shoreditch, Brick Lane and Spitalfields are all the places to be seen in London these days and the Crowne Plaza (ichotels.com) on Shoreditch High Street is a good location for clubbing and shopping. The markets are good for finding unusual clothes and eating out. Rates at the weekend start at £130 (€153) per night.
Chain hotels
The spread of budget hotels in London has been increasing and chains such as premierinn.com, travelodge.co.uk, daysinn.co.uk and ibishotel.com offer great value. They all have sales from time to time and you can find rooms from £39 (€46) per night. Most have family rooms that can sleep two adults and two children under 15. The closer to the city centre the more expensive the room, but weigh this with the cost of transport, which can be expensive in London.
The best Premier Inn is at County Hall on the South Bank, right beside the London Eye, and great for strolling on the South Bank. It is also beside the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and underground stations.
In the Covent Garden area, the Travelodge is well located for the British Museum, shopping and theatres. The Covent Garden area is one of the busiest in London, with street entertainers performing all day. The children love it.
The Ibis in Greenwich is good value place to stay if you want to be a bit out of the city. Greenwich has the National Maritime Museum, Royal Observatory, great markets and good places to eat in.
Irish hotels
Jurys Inns (jurysinns.com) in London charge the highest rates of any Jurys Inns but still probably less than similar properties in the city. The Islington hotel is in a good location, and costs about £100 (€118) per night. Families or three adults can share a room. The Chelsea Jurys Inn is ideal for matches at Stamford Bridge and costs a bit less.
The Doyle Collection (doylecollection.com) has transformed itself into three lovely emporiums in London. Prices are from £150-£200 (€177-€236). The Marylebone is ideally located for the Oxford Street area, the Bloomsbury is just a step from the British Museum and usually the lowest priced, and the Kensington is perfect for Knightsbridge.
The Crown Moran Hotel (moranhotels.com) in Cricklewood is a place familiar to many Irish people. Rates are from £105 (€124) per night.
Hostels
The Generator Hostel (generatorhostels.com) is in Bloomsbury and a fun place to stay. You can sleep in dormitories or private rooms, the latter which are ideal for families, and sleep up to six. Prices start at £20 (€24)pps per night.
The main websites for hostels are hostelworld.com and hostelbookers.com.
Universities
Accommodation in colleges is a great way to find good value in central locations. The city has a number of colleges that rent rooms and apartments during the holidays and, in some cases, all year round. The bookings website for University College London is ucl.ac.uk/residences. For other colleges, see budgetstayuk.com.
B&Bs
Uptown Residences (uptown reservations.com) have been around for a good few years and provide BB accommodation in private homes in Knightsbridge, Chelsea, Kensington and the West End. Prices are from £95 (€112) single and £125 (€147) double.
Jim’s Guest House (jimsguesthouse.co.uk) in Shepherd’s Bush has been welcoming guests since 1979. It is a close to the new Westfield shopping centre. Rooms are from £72 per night.
Self-catering
A lot of self-catering in London is based on weekly bookings and prices can range from £800 (€943) for a studio to £2,500 (€2,947) for a two-bedroom property. Find apartments in Chelsea and South Kensington with theapartments.co.uk.
In the same area Cheval Residences (cheval residences.com) offer more luxurious apartments and cost from £1,200 (€1,414) per week.
To rent directly from the owners, see holiday-rentals.com and holidaylettings.com. Prices can be a bit more reasonable than serviced apartments.
Websites
See hotels.com, booking.com, roomex.com, laterooms.com and venere.com. For London packages, lastminute.com. has good deals for London packages. The tourism site, visitlondon.com, sells inclusive packages with hotels, theatre tickets and dinner.
E-mail questions, with your name and address, to jscales@irishtimes.com