Travelling to a show? Hotel recommendations.

There's a sale now on at easy hotels. Yes it's just like sleeping in a cupboard but I got a night in London in March for £19.99.

Before I moved to London I used to use the university halls that are all around Russell Square/Warren Street a fair bit, and some of the independent hotels in Cartwright Gardens, though they've been getting progressively more expensive...

I think i've stayed in most of the Travelodges in London and I usually spend about 3 weeks a year visiting for theatre. My aim is usually about £30-40 a night and I usually dont go over £50 unless it's a Saturday night which is always a pain to get cheap. Of course with Travelodge you need to book well in advance, last minute they become far too expensive.

One trick to watch out for at Travelodge is to see if they are opening any new hotels, they usually have really cheap rates when it first goes on sale. I've just come back from my new years trip and got a room in the new one at Finsbury park for £40 on New Years Eve and six nights in total for less than £200. There's also a new one opening in Finchley so most of my next stays are booked there.

The one i've spent most time in recently is the new one at Raynes Park. Just over the road from the station and only about 15 mins on the train to Waterloo. Alas, it appears to have become more popular and the rates have crept upwards.

The only London one i'd avoid is the Wembley Travelodge (it's usually really, really cheap if there's nothing on at Wembley), it's not near a tube stop and you have to walk about 10 mins through a fairly dodgy area from Stonebridge Park. It's also a bit grotty. The Wembley High Road one is much better and one of my favourites, fairly new, and right next to Wembley Central so gives you plenty of transport options.

Other favourite which are sometimes cheap, Cricklewood, Bethnal Green, Farringdon and Balham.

On the news this morning about a crackdown on AirBnB in London over people letting property for more than the 90 days maximum allowed without planning permission to operate as a paid hotel/lodging.

Yes Airbnb is a tricky one. Never used it in this country, only in Europe (both times seemed to be a second property of a 'normal' person not a professional landlord)But there's defiantly a problem with people buying up properties and charging high hotel style rates for it and therefore adding to the problem of affordable living. When it's a spare room in someone's existing home that seems to be more the 'ethos' of what it was created for I agree. But again when travelling alone I'm a bit more wary of Airbnb as well.

When I'm spending the weekend in London, I generally stay at the Premier Inn in Stevenage. On the most recent three-night stay, a week before Christmas, the cost was £29 per night on the Saver rate, plus breakfast. You can also get a Day Travelcard that includes rail travel to London and all zones of the Underground for £24 on a weekday and £16 at the weekend. It's a ten minute walk to the Premier Inn from Stevenage station, across a large retail park, while the journey into London takes around 25 minutes on Virgin East Coast or the non-stopping Great Northern services.

The main frustration is the rip-off Left Luggage charges at London stations which is £12.50 for more than three hours, while Great Northern's reliability due to the lack of available train crew particularly in the evening at weekends leaves a bit to be desired (no surprise, it's owned by the same parent company as Southern!). The frequency of services between King's Cross and Stevenage means this isn't too much of a problem or inconvenience but it definitely seems to have got worse in the last few months.

On my next weekend in London in early February, the cost of the Premier Inn at St Pancras was cheaper than usual so I'm looking forward to being more centrally located for a change!

I usually stay in the County Hotel on Upper Woburn Place, just across the road from Euston Station (Northern & Victoria Line). You can walk past the BMA and along Tavistock Square to Russell square station (Piccadilly Line).

If you book directly with them (they are part of Imperial London Hotels), it is £56 for B&B, but if you can get it through Superbreak (not always possible, but I always check it first) it can be about £35 per night.

The rooms are quite basic and there are bathrooms along the floors (2 per every 10 rooms). They do full English breakfast, which is not fancy, but good.