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??

I have stopped booking ahead and just take what's on offer on the day.

I booked ahead somewhere for one night recently and it was around 200 for a nice room. The following week something came up necessitating staying in London and I got the same room for half that because I booked on the same day and they were clearing them

We are staying in a brand new premier inn at Canary Wharf for £350 for 3 nights (family room). Perfect for us as will hardly be in it.

We've just booked this exact hotel and the reviews are great too. On DLR and so easy to get into centre. Or take the boat from Canary Wharf too.

I like Travelodge and use it when I visit my mum and it's about £400 for two nights in Waterloo.

We used to stay in the Hilton Canary Wharf on a weekend for £120-150 per night. It’s now over £300 for the same room even if I book well in advance.

Premier Inn family room by an overground station for eg, Lewisham - 6 minutes of so to London Bridge, 12-15 minutes to Charing Cross. Big double, a single and an extra bed if two kids.

A couple of weeks ago I stayed in the 4* Copthorne Tara hotel, just a few mins walk from Kensington High Street. It cost £104 including breakfast and was good value.

I’m puzzled as to why you think Canary Wharf is too far. It’s 20 minutes on the tube from there to Bond Street which is a 5 minute walk from Marble Arch.
Rather than looking at physical location, look at the train/tube/DLR links between where you want to go and where you’ll be staying.
I live in zone 3 and my commute takes just over half an hour into Central London which is nothing.

Try Tripadvisor?

You can get a triple room in 4&5 star hotels for way less than you are suggesting

what dates are you looking for?

Canary Wharf really isn't far and is a great destination in itself - it has one of my favourite family museums (Museum of the Docklands). So easy to get to places from there and the Jubilee line runs all night on Fridays and Saturdays.

I've used Trip.com lately a couple of times and got very competitive prices

Not sure where you’re looking. We booked a family room in a hotel in Paddington for jubilee week last summer. For about £150 for one night.
We also booked an apartment for the next night, 2bedrooms via booking.con but they cancelled it, leaving us without a bed for the night and two young children!

I don’t recommend any use booking.con ever. They don’t even have a complaints department.

There are plenty if independent hotels at under £200 for a family room.

You could have a look at Motel One Tower Hill, with children you might have to enquire.
I've stayed at a few of their hotels and always found them excellent.

Go with a Premier Inn or Travelodge, they’re all decent, good for families and tend to be reasonably priced.

If it’s 29th April then it’s a bank holiday.

Thistle Marble Arch, Park plaza riverside

you can get suite at Westbourne Hyde park (4*) for £299

I usually book the Travelodge for London. We are hardly in the room anyway. They have good locations and the rooms are usually clean. Cheap breakfast. They also do family rooms. Never paid more than £150 a night and have had rooms for way less than that. I'd rather spend the money I save on accomodation on shows and other activities.

I just booked with am apartment site for a break in March - got a lovely 3 bed apartment in Chelsea for around £300 a night for five nights.

@ThreeblackCats can I ask the name of the hotel in Paddington please?

Last year we had a right time finding a reasonable hotel. Stayed at the Jesmond in Bloomsbury. Not pricey, not fancy, but amazing location, nice people, and a really great breakfast. Our room was right up in the attic and shared bathroom but we could walk round the corner to the British Museum. It was brilliant for us.

Yes, it's more expensive than pre-Covid. Staffing is the main issue - lots of housekeeping/maintenance staff returned to their European homes when furloughed / made redundant due to Covid lockdowns. And due to Brexit, it's now too expensive for them to return. So there's a huge shortage of staff, agencies charge more, hotels have to pay more to attract staff from retail instead - that all gets passed on. And if there's not enough staff to service 100 rooms, then the hotels choose to only sell 80 rooms but at a higher price to make the same money overall.

Plus cost increases of electricity - businesses did not get a price cap like we did in our homes - food inflation is way above 10%.

Do you really need to stay in that particular area or could you travel a few tube stops.

I regularly get hotels (holidays inn/premier inn types) for £150 night by being willing to go a few tube stops.

I could get them for £100 if I was willing to travel a bit further.

Other place to look is secret escapes. There's often bargains to be had for luxury London hotels.

What date?

As has been asked already... you're not trying to book for Marathon weekend this close to April, are you? If so, no wonder the prices are silly.

@theworldhas hopefully it's not Chelsea Cloisters!

Do you need to stay in central London, you could get a decent priced hotel in the suburbs and train in?

Inner London student halls. Some are very nice and very reasonable