That hotel prices are just completely over the top!!

[Pipsquiggle]

I am looking to book a 2 night - child free - stay away for DH and I, first time in over 2 years. We want to rest and relax, quite fancy a spa but not essential. Just don't want to cook and clear up every meal

I have asked friends for recommendations - anywhere south of Birmingham but not Norfolk or the West Country (too far) - Pennyhill Park, Lime Wood, Dormy House are some of the suggestions - they are circa £500+/night!!! They look lovely but genuinely who can afford £500/night? And also are they worth it?

YABU - they are super luxurious, you need to just suck it up
YANBU - there are plenty of good options out there, you need to look harder

Any suggestions are welcome BTW

@KatherineJaneway

Tbf it should be slightly balanced off by all that people who decided/couldn't come to uk🤔

Not really

I think people underestimate how many tourists come to our rainy land 😁 www.statista.com/statistics/287133/annual-number-of-overseas-visits-to-the-united-kingdom-uk/

With the fall still showing this year, there should be plenty of rooms in the hotels this year.

They are mostly concentrated in a few hotspots ime.

I have been looking for a basic room for me and DS12 for a single night in Leeds this Saturday. Normally I'd find something for about £50 - Airbnb or PI.
Nothing. Nada. Lots asking for £200 or £300!

Can you wait a bit? Prices are crackers at the moment. We had to get a same day room in Swansea and the only option left on a Sat was over £800 quid! (Got a crap room in Cardiff for £100 in the end...).
Same for Bristol this weekend - there was precious little for under £300.

It was a huge shock for me who usually books £30 premier Inn advance rooms!

We stayed at the Belfry recently, they did fab family deals were kids ate free, free mini golf and family rooms were huge. Think we paid £110 per night. All enjoyed the pool etc and was a few min from Drayton Manor, conkers etc

If you have clubcard points with tesco you can exchange them for 3x value for hotels.com vouchers. I just exchanged £15 of points for £45 of vouchers and then booked 2 nights at a decent 4 star hotel for £189 inc breakfast.

I’d put date, budget and lication(s) into Hotels.com and see what turns up with a veeeery carful eye on the reviews. But to answer your question you generally do get what you pay for with hotels. For a slightly cheaper but trendy feel have a look at Harbour Hotels. Most have a spa

Thanks for your suggestions. Unfortunately we have very specific Mid-september dates as that is when we can get overnight childcare. My DPs are down, they live 4 hours away and have kindly agreed to extend a weekend visit

Does it have to be South? We went to a wedding at Broadoak country house hotel in the Lake district recently which was lovely.

The room we stayed in had a jacuzzi bath (no spa though) and would ordinarily be around £320 a night for room plus breakfast.

You could try the Mr&Mrs Smith's website, there are quite a range of hotels available from very high down to £114 per night mid September

Deans Place hotel in Alfriston is lovely too - no spa but I think there may be a pool and it's in gorgeous surroundings.

Why don't you hire a canal barge for a short trip?

I think people underestimate how many tourists come to our rainy land

No I don't Numbers of tourists to the UK doesn't determine their visitation patterns in the UK.

@PumpkinPie2016 unfortunately it has to be south of Birmingham. I am from the North West, love the Lakes, Eden Valley and N Yorks etc but it would take at least 5 hours to get there from where we live now.

We don't want to spend all our time travelling.

Cotswold definitely do-able - let me know if you have any recommendations

You could look at Harbour Hotels chain - they have a lovely one we’ve stayed in in Southampton plus another at Christchurch plus a few others. One in Richmond, Surrey too if it’s reopened after a fire a couple of years ago. Brooklands Hotel in Weybridge has a spa and the benefit of Mercedes Benz World on its doorstep for a bit of daytime motor fun if that’s your thing.

My sister has stayed at this hotel but isn’t that far from Birmingham so may be too close for you.

www.fairlawns.co.uk/accommodation/

OP I totally agree with you. My DH and I were going to book a 2 night UK hotel with a spa and the ones we were looking at were around £600 a night. We’ve decided to add a thousand pounds to our budget and gone for a five star hotel abroad for one week to celebrate our silver anniversary.
Our favourite harbour hotel was £400 per night dinner bed and breakfast in a good room with king size bed , terrace etc and is now £450 per night in a very small room with just breakfast.

@Rainbowshine

There’s a few smaller country spa hotels in cotswolds- Stow on the Wold, or other places between Cheltenham and Swindon, generally they are cheaper than what you’re quoting. Are the prices for the best rooms in the hotel? If all the regular rooms are booked already (which is likely given people are staying in the uk more and not going for a European city break) so you’re in the top suite or it’s a price that includes everything then I would expect that to be around that amount.

nope not top rooms. Limewood starts at over 600 and 4 Seasons Hampshire starts at over 700 a night. These prices are for the very basic rooms

Not 5* but try one of these www.hotelduvin.com/

Have you tried trivago to search for hotels in your area. I've found a really good deal through them . Devon, Friday to Monday for £215 bnb not posh granted but 3*

honeybuns007 suites are 2, 3 or 4 times that amount.

Agree about price inflation. Wanted to visit DS in East Midlands, and we have stayed in hotels in the Nottingham /Derby area frequently for several years. Prices are sky high at the moment- ususally pay £40-60 per night room only in Travelodge or Holiday Inn type accommodation, slightly more on a Friday or Saturday. We were looking at £300 plus for Sat/Sunday . We needed to go a couple of Saturdays ago, and took an overnight bag with us in case prices dropped on the day- nope actually went up, nothing within 50 miles for Travelodge and other fairly basic hotels went up to £500 bed only. We came home.
DB runs a B&B on the South Coast- he didn't put his prices up as he wants long term repeat business,and he is fully booked until November. He has had offers of 2-3 his room rate to bump others off.

@KatherineJaneway

I think people underestimate how many tourists come to our rainy land

No I don't Numbers of tourists to the UK doesn't determine their visitation patterns in the UK.

Yep, for this reason it’s worth checking out London hotels as they’re most likely to be suffering from the lack of overseas travellers so prices less likely to be crazily inflated.

(I’m so glad reading this thread that I booked our holiday accommodation back in February!)

@ManonDesSauce

Next year Rodney.

Even then I'm not sure I would 🤣🤣

I'm not sure if there are any in the areas you're looking for, but when DP and I want to have a couple of cheap nights away we use Village Hotels. They're not overly fancy, but not Travelodge either, and have a pool and sauna etc. DP used to use them a lot when he was away on business trips, and as that's predominantly their market they're far more reasonable than normal. We stayed in Walsall a couple of weeks ago on a Sunday night (handy for the M6 then got the train into Brum) and it was 60£ for the night which included a 40£ meal credit. Its a Sunday special offer and has been running for as long as we've used them.
Obviously it depends what you want, and you'd need a car as they tend to be in business park type areas, but for the money they're great value so could be worth a Google.

There are hotel prices for all budgets. If you want super luxury you have to pay super luxury prices, but you can get lovely more affordable hotels and things like midweek stays are much cheaper.