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Post by viserys on Jan 2, 2017 20:01:57 GMT
I just looked at the Premier Inn Sidcup and the price breakdown was £87 - £53 - £90 for the three nights I wanted to book. So with this and train fare into London... I don't think it's any sort of alternative alas.
I paid £50 for the Premier Inn in Manchester for my upcoming trip.
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Post by shady23 on Jan 2, 2017 20:34:04 GMT
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.
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Post by CG on the loose on Jan 2, 2017 21:50:37 GMT
I usually head home, last train permitting, but when I do stay over tend to use Travelodge (Vauxhall is often a slightly cheaper option, but within easy reach and literally on top of the tube and bus stations) or university rooms out of term-time. LSE Vacations has already been mentioned, and their halls are well located but often quite pricey now. This site covers all available options, for London and elsewhere: www.universityrooms.com/
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Post by poster J on Jan 2, 2017 22:20:13 GMT
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...
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Post by foxa on Jan 2, 2017 23:28:57 GMT
I'm reading this with interest because sometimes friends of friends ask for hotel recommendations and it is really hard to find anything affordable. I sometimes send people to the Premier Inn/Putney Bridge. It looks drab from the outside, but is really well connected for transportation. You can catch the 22 bus to Piccadilly circus and it's a three minute walk to the Putney Bridge tube (District Line.) Also tonnes of restaurants/pubs nearby. Rooms start at £55. I just checked availability for a Friday later this month and they had rooms for £65, so, for London, not too bad.
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Post by meso77 on Jan 3, 2017 1:18:07 GMT
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.
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Post by emicardiff on Jan 3, 2017 8:39:13 GMT
Good to know about the Wembley ones- I've considered them but never stayed (though I used to live not far from Wembley so at least know the area a bit)
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jan 3, 2017 9:25:51 GMT
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.
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Post by viserys on Jan 3, 2017 9:31:04 GMT
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. Good. I once stayed at a place near Brick Lane, a beautiful "normal" residential house in a quiet side street, in which all rooms (mine on the ground floor, two on the first floor, two more on the second floor) were let as AirBnB single rooms, people sharing the bathroom and the kitchen. While I enjoyed my stay there, I did think that it somehow wasn't right to use this house for AirBnB when it should be a nice house for a typical family with 1-2 children, exactly the kind of people who are priced out of Central London. On my second AirBnB stay in London I stayed in the nicely furnished spare room of a single lady's apartment, sharing only the bathroom with her, no other guests. I thought this was far more what AirBnB was originally intended for.
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Post by emicardiff on Jan 3, 2017 9:49:18 GMT
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.
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jan 3, 2017 10:01:04 GMT
I only used AirBnB once, a couple of years ago in Palma de Majorca. Looked great in the website, turned out to be in a commercial office building. It was an actual office converted into a studio apartment. Bug hutch! Fortunately the wifi wasn't working so despite the hosts protestations I rang AirBnB and got out of the contract on the basis if it not being as advertised. Found a beautiful little hotel round the corner on Booking.com. It cost me a fair bit more but was worth it not to be totally miserable in somewhere you hate.
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Post by stevejohnson678 on Jan 3, 2017 10:32:00 GMT
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!
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Post by jaqs on Jan 3, 2017 13:29:25 GMT
The strand palace is often good value for a tiny single room. Though not as cheap as it used to be. Lastminute.com secret rooms often have the raddissons by the British museum at around the £65 mark.
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Post by maggiem on Jan 3, 2017 17:48:48 GMT
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.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2017 16:15:09 GMT
Savoy for me darlings
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