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 just booked two nights in Paris in Sept for my husband and me. I had to go down to two star to find somewhere that was going to cost under 700 euro. Admittedly I wanted to stay pretty centrally but still. No major cities are cheap.

So just looked at the dates you're talking about and at the place I stayed last it's £273 a night in the dates you're talking about and it's under £120 for tonight.

Booking in advance is more expensive than last minute on hotels and always has been. There are always rooms available in central London no matter what, especially post COVID. I booked a room for 31/12 and 01/01 on the 31st December this year and it was cheap, was 500+ a night booked ahead and was 200 something a night when taken on the day

I don't know about London, but we just booked 5 nights in Paris for August and it was ridiculously expensive compared to our other bookings in Italy. Prices have gone up so much since Covid.

you're not trying to book for Marathon weekend this close to April, are you? If so, no wonder the prices are silly

I’m afraid I am! I’m a runner too, I should have remembered it was marathon weekend!

Well that's your answer then. It's marathon weekend, so everything gets booked months in advance. It's a particularly busy Saturday night.

So anything left is going to be expensive

What about Bethnal Green? 20mins direct on the central line to Marble arch- no changes in tube required. Near to Bricklane, Colombia flower market, Victoria park, regents canal, London fields.

£250 for a family room for the sat night
www.travelodge.co.uk/hotels/571/London-Bethnal-Green-hotel?checkIn=22/04/2023&checkOut=23/04/2023&rooms[0][adults]=2&rooms[0][children]=1

£417 for a family room on sat night
be.synxis.com/?_ga=2.99792539.421567573.1678995562-1832235556.1678995562&adult=2&arrive=2023-04-22&chain=17799&child=1&currency=GBP&depart=2023-04-23&hotel=38140&level=hotel&locale=en-GB&rooms=1

£332 for sat night
be.synxis.com/?adult=2&arrive=2023-04-22&chain=5154&child=1&childages=6&currency=GBP&depart=2023-04-23&hotel=26543&level=hotel&locale=en-US&rooms=1&shell=RES_TOWN_HALL_V1&src=townhall&start=availresults&template=RES_TOWN_HALL_V1

I've pretty much given up on London weekends. Glad I did some in the past. Can get a week abroad for The same price. Or a very very nice house in Wales for a week.

Stay a bit further out and get the tube

I live in London and suggest you look further out than central. If you get somewhere next to a tube station you'll be grand. Maybe on the Elizabeth line, somewhere like Ealing. Surbiton is also 15 min to Waterloo on the overground.

I had a look in Belsize Park/Hampstead which are really nice areas and near enough the centre. You could find a nice apartment for two nights for £500. I think you need to broaden your search criteria.

Stay somewhere like Deptford and take the train in - 8 mins to London Bridge. Their travelodge is very reasonable and saves a fortune. We put my family up at it a few times when they visited after DS was born. There are also Premier Inns nearby towards Greenwich.

Yes it's ridiculous. £300 for something basic. Premier Inn £170 if you're lucky. We paid with Tesco vouchers last time.

Would you be willing to stay in Greenwich? You can take the Uber boat or train in? We’ve stayed at the Novotel there and it’s decently priced even in the height of summer. We stayed 4 to a room. Tight but fine. A queen bed and a double sofa type bed.

Not London, but I'm having the same problem in other UK cities including Birmingham and Bristol.

• I always use the same hotel branches (Premier Inn, Travelodge etc)
• I always book outside of school holidays
• I always book directly (not laterooms etc)
• I always give plenty of notice

I appreciate that inflation is 11%, staff wages are up and energy rates have doubled, so I would happily expect a +50% hike on room prices, but the prices I'm seeing now is like +300%!! So like 4 times the asking price. There's got to be another factor that is causing this that I haven't thought of?

There you go then. All accommodation will be expensive, and there will be loads of disruption due to the road closures and overcrowding.

Any chance of swapping weekends...? Honestly, if you're not coming for the Marathon, you'll have a much more pleasant time if you come a different date.

Greenwich won't be cheap on Marathon weekend... it's a very popular location for runners to stay!

You can get cheaper than that! Just did 2 nights near Gloucester Road tube for 350 in really nice hotel

I have to ask, who is charging £800 a night? Must be only truly luxury places?

PS If you can't change the date, try looking as far away from the route as possible. Wimbledon Central Travelodge is only £64 on the Friday and £130 on the Saturday for a family room at the non-refundable rate. It's zone 3, so not that far out, but just a pain to use as a base if you're there for the race.

You’re right! I didn’t think of that. It looks full anyways.

@BatshitIsTheOnlyExplanation I've stayed there loads of times and the one next door too- both are pretty ok if you get them at a decent price

OP I cannot recommend the Gainsborough Hotel (a 5 min walk from the NHM and on the other side of Hyde park so not miles away from where you need to be) enough. We stayed there for a week, reasonable prices and lovely staff/rooms. Lovely, safe area as well!

Why do you need to stay near marble arch, London has one of the best metro systems in the world.

I paid £120 a night at Travelodge in Southwark, you could get to marble arch in 15-20 mins on the tube? Various other budget hotels available for a similar price per night.

YABU

Look on secretescspes.com

Can depend if there is something on e.g stadium gig.