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?

I hadn't thought of Uni Halls, wouldn't know how to find out about that. Is there a website?

Unique, budget B&B and Self Catering in United Kingdom | UniversityRooms

Possibly nothing these days, but I used to have to use it in the early days and there were long gaps compared to the tube. Plus at one of the stations where it intersected with the tube, a half-mile hike through endless tunnels. No fun when you have luggage.

Train strike on 3rd as well

I tried university halls a few years ago. Perhaps I was unlucky, but it was like a frat house: young people from all over the world running up and down corridors chasing each other and laughing. Huge parties of youngsters in coaches.

It's been open for 36 years. So have to assume when you say "the early days" you mean last century?! Maybe time to move on as a lot has changed in 36 years, including the interchange you mention at Bank which has been completely redone.

@queenrollo

i travel a lot of business and yes hôtel have gone up across the world.

London is crazy too. I was looking a a room for Nov because of an event and it’s 100’s

Yes, I used it 36 years ago when it opened and I've also used it many times since, but not for the last 4 years. Lived for 24 years in London and had friends who lived at Surrey Quays who used to moan about it all the time. They moved away in 2018 so I haven't used it since. I lived on the Piccadilly line and most of the time there were trains every four or five minutes. Too often, when I used the DLR, I experienced longer gaps — hence my impression of it being less efficient than the underground. But clearly you're a fan!

Just googled. I see the Bank interchange was completed less than 6 months ago. Progress not quite as swift as one would hope... I guess at least that epic tramp through corridors with people furiously trying to push their way past kept commuters fit. These days I have to take it more steadily.

We stayed at Heathrow last weekend for the FA Cup semifinal. Hotels near Wembley were c£350+. I paid £80 and booked it earlier that week. Hotel was close to T4 with a covered walkway into the terminal. It was a 5 minute walk. Once there, we were straight onto either the Piccadilly or Elizabeth lines.

I'm not a fan of anything apart from walking to be honest, but I live in London (and have for 30 years) and due to unreliable tubes, frequently had to use the DLR to get to Canary Wharf for work instead. The DLR is a lot more reliable than the tube these past few years. Actually, post Covid the tube is appalling, When it's good, it's still good but those good days are becoming increasingly infrequent. This isn't just the 'standard level' of Londoner tube moaning, it really has become randomly horrific. Recently on a Sat early evening when there were no strikes and no planned engineering works, it took me 2 hours and FIVE tube lines to get across zone 1 (on what should have been a direct line 35 min journey). Farcical. I won't even get into the 30 min wait for a Piccadilly line train at Easter weekend. This happens far too frequently. So I walk a lot.

Mickey Flanagan was doing a gig at the CIA