Why are hotels suddenly so expensive?

[queenrollo]

I have an event in London in June and due to crappy rural trains I will have to stay over. The last time I did this I got a very basic room for £79. That same room is now £188! (it was a windowless box with just a bed, toilet and no tea making facilities)
I'm probably going to have to cancel the event, because I simply can't justify this.
Friends have suggested airbnb, but I have done this before and as a single female found getting myself around London after 11pm really stressful. Hotels tend not to be down residential streets so feel safer to get to.

I'm not even after anything flash, but i'm looking at Premier Inn, Travelodge, Point A type places and it's all £200 a night!

I'm just having a moan really, but just wondering if other people are finding this a problem either in London or elsewhere in the country?

Same reason everything is now so expensive! They're ripping off because they have realised they can 😞

@soundsys thankyou for the link! I will bookmark that.

@CrapBucket the lack of late trains is a real pain. Bizarrely we can get a later train midweek (about 11.20 usually) then not on a Saturday! I hate missing the end of a gig or show to get back to KingsX for the train home. And if it is just me, then in all honesty I am too tired to drive home from the station after. I'm in the East Midlands. Train connections actually quite good, just rubbish timing for a night out!

I've also realised that there is a real lack of single rooms. The prices I am getting don't change if I put 2 adults instead of 1. £200 for me and DH doesn't feel quite so painful on the wallet, as it does for just one person.

I definitely think lots of people want to travel more now and make up for lost time.

Yes it's crazy.

We went to malmaison in London in 2019 and it was £212 for three nights.

It would be that plus more for one night now.

One Saturday night in King's Cross last year was £188

1. If you're happy share where you need to be in June, we might be able to help you find one slightly less central but with a very quite travel time. I often had friends stay e.g. by East Putney tube for events at Earl's Court.

1. If you know you need to be there on the 3rd too, book that now!!

@MaggieFS the gig is in Islington. My DH knows London well, so usually I chuck hotel options at him and he helps me with planning journeys. I've now found something in Camden at not too bad a price, and so will probably book that later.
We stayed out at Docklands in the Easter Holidays and the Elizabeth Line now makes that much easier to get to, but it's no cheaper than being right in the centre for those dates!

As for June 3rd - DH has been told this morning so he's now booking somewhere.

(He used to have a Hospital Club membership with work, and we loved staying there but haven't found anything comparable since they shut down)

OP, there is one that comes up in Islington, a room in a house on that date for £78.

I know the area well and this is not up a dark side street or anything, it's a quick walk form Angel would be very safe and easy to get to.

https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/696291939463870166?checkin=2023-06-28&checkkout=2023-06-29&guests=1&adults=1&s=67&uniqueshareeid=dadb89bc-73c2-44c9-9d27-08f012626378

I’m sure all of this is true, but the main reason for the increases is demand, pure and simple. They can now charge more, and so they do.

We have had cheap stays, but in nice rural locations where international tourists do not tend to go.
London costs are outrageously high at the moment though.

And costs have not more than doubled in a few years as prices have.

And there's a train strike on June 3rd.

I've literally got back this morning from London, I use Megabus from Glasgow over night.
I stayed in a cheap hotel in Victoria for £70, 2 minutes from the bus station and return travel was £30.
I saw a play, A Little Life, booked back in January, got a last minute ticket for Les Mis yesterday, including transport around, and cheap food I grabbed, plus a stash of snacks I took, the whole 3 night/2 day trip was under £200.

London hotels have always been pricey, my ex regularly travelled there for business (pre covid, no idea now) and had a max allowance of £150 as civil service business, he really struggled and in summer often had to get dispensation to spend more. 2018/19 prices not today

My parents own an 80 bedroom hotel and this year their electricity bills have gone up to £90k! It's crazy.

Although the only time I have managed to stay in central London for less than £150 a night was during Covid when it was dead. I'm staying in a premier inn hub in June for £170 and saw that as a bargain!

@rattymol

"Firms have experienced a 424% rise in gas costs and 349% increase in electricity since February 2021, data from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) shows."

taken from an article in The Guardian https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/business/2022/aug/25/sleepless-nights-business-owners-energy-bills-quadruple

According to some sources, fuel has more than doubled for commercial customers.

I stayed at the YHA St Pancras recently in a shared all female dormitory-£25! It was very clean, secure and surprisingly quiet. Would recommend

I'm going to do that a few times this summer, I'm going down at the end of May, then twice in July.

For the 3rd of June one, not only are you competing with the football, but that’s the end weekend of half term when lots of people do a few days away in the UK.

hotels are really more expensive now, I had assumed that was down to Brexit making staffing shortages- anything that needs lots of low skilled/low paid staff like cleaning staff have to pay more to get staff and it’s pushed up prices.

Pre Covid I used to have a night in London every other month. I love theatre and classical music and my partner's not so keen, so I'd book tickets six months in advance and have a night in a hotel. I had three preferred hotels, nice and central so I could walk home afterwards. Nothing special — around £80-100 a night in February 2020. The cheapest is now £160 a night at best (I get a discount for being a repeat customer) and the others are £200. I think they're trying to make back all the money they lost during Covid. I've had to cut visits back to three or four a year.

Recently though I've seen last-minute deals at hotels getting cheaper. For years, the closer the date the more I had to pay and the bargains were booked six months in advance. But recently searching around for someone who needed accommodation while attending a work conference, I saw several instances of prices dropping within 72 hours of a stay. So maybe now it's back to last-minute bookings.

We regularly stay in London, mainly used a Travelodge on the 'Sauf' side of the river. Has easy access to all the sights but being in a less than desirable are meant we usually paid £50 - £75 a night. They now average £150 per night. This is reflected all over the country. Have family in Northern City and in Wales, visiting them is becoming unaffordable.

That’s because it’s not cheaper for them to house just you, really. It makes sense from an economics point of view.

May & June are pains for London. Football, train strikes, holidays… be mindful of the train strikes on the 3rd in your planning!

I’ve noticed this op. And in pretty much run down places as well. We’re unable to go abroad so I usually take the kids for a night in a cheap seaside resort like Blackpool every now and then. A half decent b&q used to set me back less than £80 for a large family room, now it’s well over £200. Train fares are completely ridiculous as well, we can’t afford to travel anywhere. I read yesterday about a man who wanted to travel from Newcastle to London for a football match. He ended up catching a flight to Majorca and then to London which cost him something like £32, instead of paying over £200 for the train

Everything has gone up, maybe look at the different areas of london. I was looking at Chipping Norton and the premier inn was about 79£ per night but the Banbury nearby was £49 per night.
I too would much rather a hotel than give any money to Airbnb, which has also gone up loads and you have to clean as well as pay for cleaning.