Finding a hotel in London
June 25th, 2006 · No Comments
My good friend Sunny recently took a trip to London and in this article she tells us about her experience with British hotels.
Looking for a hotel in London for cheap? These are some tips from our travels to London and trying to find a nice place to rest our head when we weren’t off having a ‘jolly good time’.
First, we booked a hotel through a travel package on British Airways when I booked my flight. They gave us quotes for a few different hotels. When I called BA from the States, I was able to speak to American customer service agents, but not all of them were very pleasant. Every time I would call back, the price would change or they wouldn’t have this or that for me. Unfortunately, you cannot book travel packages online and your only option is to call them during their open hours which were not convenient in the first place. I love flying with BA, but it would be my recommendation that if you plan on travelling with them, you should first book your flight online and then book your hotel separately. We ended up spending about $200 a night for 5 weeknights at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel.
The Millenium Gloucester Hotel’s Web site is well done and has a pretty accurate description of the hotel. Their site does say, however, that the rooms have both UK and US electrical outlets and even though I called in advance to make sure that this was true (which I was told it was), when we got there, our room was not one of the “classier rooms”, and ended up not being privy enough to such amenities. Also, do not be afraid to ask for another room if for some reason your “non-smoking room” ends up smelling like a chimney. All in all, this hotel was pretty average. It was in a great location and barely a block away from Gloucester Road station which is one stop from all the Museums in Kensington. The station has a 24-hour Tesco across from it which is great for picking up £2 sandwiches on your way to the train. There is also a laundromat next to a Sainsbury’s (large super market) a few more blocks away.
Due to an interesting chain of events, we ended up staying in other hotels in the city. Two we booked through Priceline and another two we booked through Travelocity. The two hotels that we booked through Travelocity were the Holiday Inn and the Kensington Rooms Hotel. The Kensington Rooms was booked by my brother who was excited enough to have found a room for $90 a night. He went only by the reviews from the Travelocity Web site and the hotel’s own site made it look like a young person’s playground. Fair enough. This, of course, wasn’t the case when he checked in (he arrived there before me).
He decided this wasn’t the hotel for him and walked across the street to the Holiday Inn which I booked through Travelocity for $220 a night. The difference was night and day and the room was huge and even had a fridge, which saved us money since it’s easier to buy your own groceries on the cheap. Both hotels were near the Millennium Gloucester.
The Hilton and the Novotel London Euston were the two hotels we booked through Priceline. The Hilton was a wonderful hotel and a great value at only $70 a night! The room was small but big enough for two people. Complete with down comforters and pillows, we had no complaints. At the Hilton we had one US electrical outlet. The bathroom was nice , spacious and provided plenty of towels and washcloths (most UK hotels do not provide washcloths). The surrounding area was really nice or ‘posh’ as they say. High Street Kensington had plenty of shops for everyone. One complaint that I noticed from the online reviews is that there isn’t a tube stop near the hotel. They are right, but if you are at all familiar with London, getting off at High Street Kensington and then taking the number 9 bus for a five minute ride to the hotel is no big deal. We didn’t have to wait for a bus for longer than five to seven minutes and walking to the hotel was no big deal either. For the price of the hotel and the quality of it walking was a small compromise.
Finally, my last hotel review goes to the Novotel London Euston. It is located directly between Euston and Kings Cross/St.Pancras station in the business district of Bloomsbury. Both have railway stations in addition to the tube and you can pick up most any tube line from either station. It is one stop away from the trendy, punky and youthful Camden Town and mere stops away from Covent Garden and Leicester Square. Around the corner from the hotel is a 99p an hour Internet café, and there are plenty of fast food shops and supermarkets. One of the best benefits is that it is next to the British Library. If you like literature and music at all, the library is definitely a must see.
I checked into the Novotel and got a room on the 16th floor for $60 a night! Thank you Priceline! Looking behind the check-in counter, the rooms were at a going rate of £165 a night…and with the conversion from USD to GBP; technically I got the room for £30. That’s like getting it for 80 per cent off! I took the glass elevator up to my room on the top floor (and getting a London skyline view while I was at it!) and walked into a wonderful room. The room itself was huge and the bathroom was almost as big as our hotel room in the Hilton! It had two showers (one stand alone shower and one shower/tub combo) and a phone in the bathroom. There was a spacious closet with an ironing board and hair dryer. Not only did I get tea to drink, but they also give you Walker’s shortbread cookies to go with it. One wall of the room was all windows and the view was great both day and night. Their beds are big and comfy and have LOTS of pillows—just the way I like it! The Novotel was the best value for the best price and I would recommend it to anyone, even if you can’t get it on Priceline.
Before you book any hotel, check as many Web sites that you can for reviews. Reading a single review might not give you a good idea as to what the hotel is really like. I checked all the big names like Orbitz, Travelocity, Hotels.com, but I also checked Yahoo travel sites and found Tripadvisor. On Tripadvisor, not only do people leave reviews for the hotels, but they can also leave pictures they took themselves of the rooms they stayed in. This is very helpful since many times, the hotel websites are meant to make the rooms look a whole lot more fabulous than they really are.
Rooms in Europe are smaller, so don’t be too surprised. A lot of reviews I read said that the room size was their biggest complaint, but I had been there before, so I knew they were livable, just not gigundous American size. In the hotels I stayed in, only one had free ice and only one supplied you with washcloths. You will not get a coffee maker, but you will get electric tea kettles. Be very careful of the mini-fridges with their mini-bar things inside of them. We did not have any problems, but in some reviews, people said that they got charged for things they moved out of them (because they have sensors in the bottom) but did not eat/drink them. Read the fridge before you open it! Use the concierge to the fullest extent, they are always very helpful and will hold your luggage if you need to check in/check out early.
Happy Traveling!
