Cost of hotels in London is ridiculous!

[sydneysunset]

I appreciate that costs are going up across the board, but…. Just in the process of booking a weekend stay for me, dh and our youngest dc in London in April. I’ve looked at Booking.com as well as various well-known chains which I stay at fairly frequently.

The price per night for a twin-queen room in most decent looking hotels in the area we need to stay is at least £500 and many are much more! Some really pretty ordinary 4 star hotels charging £800 a night… this is about twice what they cost pre-covid.

Similar hotels in other European capitals or Los Angeles, Sydney etc are much cheaper. What’s going on??

YANBU, prices are ridiculous but it comes down to supply and demand.
Air B&B can be a good shout

I'd look further out and read the reviews on trip advisor.

which area are you looking at?

YANBU, prices are ridiculous but it comes down to supply and demand

Yes. Are there far fewer hotels in London than in Paris, for example?

Booking.com is always more expensive IMHO, have you checked the price booking directly with the hotel?

I’ve booked a hotel central London for £100 per night mid May, I guess it depends what’s going on though.

@Arapawa

near Marble Arch.

@Roselilly36 i get the genius discount on Booking.com so ordinarily it’s pretty competitive. I’ve checked the prices for chain hotels direct (eg Hilton etc) but they are the same or more. I’ve only been looking at hotels with decent ratings, but even those with poor ratings seem expensive

that doesn't sound right. I booked a v last minute hotel in central London this week and it was £150

Is it Easter??

Where on earth are you looking? There are rooms for £100 -200!

Four star in London is always going to be expensive. Post COVID things have gone mad. When we stay in London we are resigned to the fact that 2* is luxury for us, but we only use the hotel as a base so don't mind roughing it a bit. We recently stayed in St George Hotel in Paddington. Luxury it was not, but it was clean, in a great location and it was the cheapest by far.

@AllMouthButNoTrousers
was that midweek or weekend? It seems to be the Saturday night that’s particularly expensive, the Friday is slightly less

Yes! We found this last week. I was looking for a hotel to stay in to celebrate my birthday in May. A few years ago we stayed in The Shard and it was beautiful! £500 a night for the cheapest room and that was considered pricey then. Anyway I thought it would be nice to go back and found it’s now closer to £1500 a night! Fuck that for a laugh

Looking at York now instead.

How much are the likes of Premier Inn, Ibis quoting you for?

I was trying to book a hotel in Paris a few weeks ago and was also struggling to get anything less than 600 euros. April will be full of tourists in London so would expect to be busy. I'd look somewhere other than Marble Arch

I’m searching for a room for 3 people ( 2 adults and a child) which doesn’t help. It just the fact that it seems sooo much more expensive than similar rooms before covid or than comparable hotels in other cities worldwide. Except NY or Tokyo perhaps

Are you looking in the Easter holidays? It’s quite late for booking, and prices only go one way in school holidays

Premier Inns don’t come up on booking.com and are usually the most reasonable

premier inn family rooms are around £200 for 1st April (I agree Saturday is often more expensive)

Travelodge Covent Garden. Everywhere will be extortionate in school holidays.

Premier Inns and Ibis hotels don't always show up in Booking.com, I would search their websites directly.

Though you are looking at the fanciest part of London during one of the busiest tourist seasons, that's the problem. London hotels are expensive but not usually THAT crazy.

@DrMarciaFieldstone
No, end of Aprii so after school hols

London marathon is the 23rd April and the next 2 weekends are bank holidays so will be busy

I think the trouble is you’re competing with American/Asian tourists seeing as the pound has tanked in the past year or so.

you do have to remember that London isn’t comparable to most destinations, it truly is a global city of the world. The only real competitor is New York.

Last minute.com still have secret hotels. You get the star rating, area and facilities but only the hotel name once booked. Sometimes they are cheaper, and you can often google and find out which hotel it will be.

Is there an event on - that usually sends prices high.