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Post by david on Aug 29, 2018 21:29:37 GMT
For London, if I’m not staying with family then its either the YHA hostel at St Pauls or the one on Oxford St. Cheap and chearful, but maybe not much sleep due to snorers! I've stayed at the one on Oxford St., but in one of the private rooms (bunking with a friend). Cozy but manageable, and super nice staff! For me the Oxford St one is great. Great staff as you say and ideal location for the theatres so saving on tube fare money as well!
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Post by mistressjojo on Aug 29, 2018 22:51:20 GMT
If it's outside of term times I always stay at one of the LSE properties. Mostly small rooms with shared bathrooms, but some properties have en-suites and apartments.All except the apartments have breakfast included. Grosvenor House & Northumberland House suites are closest to the West End, but the most expensive. Passfield House is on Tavistock Square and quick walk to Euston or bus stops for Trafalagar Square, Waterloo or Victoria buses.
YHA Hostel at St Pauls is fine, but you need earplugs for the bells! And the single rooms are at the very top of the house via many, many stairs.
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Post by CG on the loose on Aug 29, 2018 23:10:48 GMT
I second mistressjojo's LSE recommendation. Imperial College and King's also good options - the King's property at the end of the Strand (Duchy House) is pretty handy for the West End and generally cheaper than Grosvenor & Northumberland mentioned above. Imperial's Stamford Street halls are handy for the Old Vic and Southbank. And there are several around the Royal Albert Hall too, but they get booked up early during the Proms! This website covers them all (and other cities/countries too) - www.universityrooms.com/en-GB/city/london/home
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Post by Stasia on Aug 30, 2018 6:21:30 GMT
all your options are too posh for my budget (well maybe except for the hostel ones). Airbnb is the choice! 250GBP for 10 days for staying in a room near Hammersmith. Yes, shared amenities. But a room where you can sleep alone and no one snores interrupting your sleep! It is still pricey for me but this is the best I can afford and sleep alone in the room and live 30 minutes from all the WE theatres
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Post by Deleted on Aug 30, 2018 19:27:58 GMT
I'm a whore for a Premier Inn I must say (love love the Hubs too- super cheap breakfast at £5) I'm staying out in the Stratford Premier Inn next, which is a new adventure so I'll report back. But other than that I like the two near Tower Bridge- good rates at weekends as they tend to be business oriented venues.
I also stay in a Travelodge if I'm on my own. And the Wembley Park one is usually an excellent bargain. There's a few that are on the father reaches that are usually more affordable- no way would I pay what they want for the Covent Garden area ones, just for a Travelodge (especially when a imo nicer Premier Inn can be had for the same rates).
Also like a few others, give me a samey corporate hotel over a 'quaint' B&B any day (fun fact, my visually impaired friend tells me Premier Inns are by far the best for people with sight issues as their room layouts are so consistent).
In Cardiff your best bets for theatre are the central ones, Premier Inn and Travelodge alike rather than the Bay area (where the one theatre is) because our transport is appalling. But if you're coming here for a posh mini break the St Davids Hotel has views that can't be beaten in Cardiff.
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Post by Phantom of London on Aug 30, 2018 20:34:37 GMT
Premier Inn is always consistent, comfortable and purple.
Holiday Inn not too bad, the free breakfast is yuck, even for free.
Travelodge, last time I stayed there, the bed gave me chronic backache.
Marriott, can be expensive, but the quality is excellent, American know how to do good hotels, (Travelodge aside) there ones are better than ours.
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Post by showgirl on Aug 31, 2018 4:36:31 GMT
Also like a few others, give me a samey corporate hotel over a 'quaint' B&B any day (fun fact, my visually impaired friend tells me Premier Inns are by far the best for people with sight issues as their room layouts are so consistent). Hear hear. Most B & B owners are lovely - as are all the Premier Inn staff I've ever met - but I just dread having to engage repeatedly with them, especially if they're very chatty. PI staff are usually happy to have a quick conversation around whatever you and they are doing: checking in, leaving bags, etc - but they're busy and so are you. OH prefers to stay in B & Bs so I indulged him by booking one for our anniversary trip recently but the local Premier Inn would have been cheaper and better in terms of what it offered; plus one of the owners was deaf but his hearing aids weren't working so there was lots of shouting and repeating things. OH has an annoying habit of melting away, leaving me stuck with an owner eagerly telling me about all the local attractions, while I'm fuming, thinking "Yes, I know, I've done my research, thank you - and if you'd let me escape I could get on with going out and seeing them for myself."
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Post by viserys on Aug 31, 2018 5:46:20 GMT
I'm a whore for a Premier Inn I must say (love love the Hubs too- super cheap breakfast at £5) That breakfast is amazing value for money, I love it - and luckily they start serving at 7am even on Sundays, so I can take advantage of it before heading over to St. Pancras for my train home.
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Aug 31, 2018 6:47:58 GMT
The breakfast at the Hub on St Martins Lane is rubbish. A dry bacon sandwich and a machine coffee in a Costa branded cup. I was stuck in an underground room with no window. Tiny room barely big enough to turn round, It was like being buried alive. Never again. PI Holborn next time for me. I think natural daylight is a reasonable expectation when you’re paying over a hundred quid for a night.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 31, 2018 7:08:34 GMT
I LOVE pod hotels. I wouldn't want to spend a two week holiday in them, but honestly if I'm just putting my head down for a night, all I need is a bed, a ceiling, and a lockable door, and a pod hotel is just such a neat use of space. And with a location as hilariously as convenient as St Martin's Lane, I don't quite get why you would go for the hotel breakfast when the whole of central London is at your feet!
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Aug 31, 2018 7:10:52 GMT
Because they included it in the voucher deal I got, no doubt in an attempt to justify the exhorbitant price they were charging.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 31, 2018 7:37:10 GMT
Well don’t know what price you paid but usually those Hub hotels go for £40-80 which comparatively to the areas is an utter steal. And being Premier Inns I feel far safer there than say a hostel or air bnb of similar pricing
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Aug 31, 2018 7:40:02 GMT
That particular one goes for about £150 for an average Saturday night. I paid a bit less with a voucher but it was still outrageously overpriced even for that prime location.
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Post by dizzieblonde on Aug 31, 2018 7:40:10 GMT
I have to echo the votes for Premier Inn - unless I'm combining a business trip (and so getting accommodation on my company's expense account!), Premier Inn is the one I'll consistently choose. The one near Euston station (there's another just a few minutes walk away towards Kings Cross on Euston Rd) is fantastic. The staff are brilliantly friendly - not the most usual occurrence in London, I've found - and the breakfast (with discount vouchers) is great value.
Another person mentioned it, but it's worth saying - look at hotels located in the City or Docklands, if you want to get a weekend bargain compared to their weekday rates. Those business centric hotels are pretty much deserted by Friday night, and heavily discount their rooms pretty regularly. Slightly more expensive than the budget chains, but I've had a 5-star hotel room for just £20 more than a budget hotel! My favourite is the Grange hotel chain - there's one near St Pauls cathedral that has a separate 'aparthotel' block just down the street. Really lovely studio room, with a mini kitchen (very useful) and easy walking distance from various tube routes, as well as bang in front of the cathedral, so plenty of eating options!
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Post by viserys on Aug 31, 2018 8:21:39 GMT
That particular one goes for about £150 for an average Saturday night. I paid a bit less with a voucher but it was still outrageously overpriced even for that prime location. If the windowless basement room was like mine at King's Cross, I can understand the anger. I mean, I paid half of that and was still a bit WTF when I entered. Some chains like Easy Hotels clearly advertise their smallest windowless rooms and offer them for a lower price. Think Hub should do that too and give people at least the choice if they want to pay to have a window or not. And given the squished-in location in St Martin's Lane, I wonder if that Hub doesn't have the kind of large lovely breakfast room the one in KC has. Delicious fresh bread, toast, croissants, fruit, muesli, cereals... gah, I'll stop doing their marketing for them now.
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Post by mistressjojo on Aug 31, 2018 8:42:34 GMT
I think the Hub breakfast does vary with the location. I stayed at the one in Edinburgh and it was quite a small spread in the bar with a coffe machine and pastries.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 31, 2018 9:00:53 GMT
I think the Hub breakfast does vary with the location. I stayed at the one in Edinburgh and it was quite a small spread in the bar with a coffe machine and pastries. It does the Spitafields one is choice of say 2 things from the cafe and coffee while Kings Cross is a buffet so assume they all vary a little bit
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Post by Dr Tom on Aug 31, 2018 10:16:14 GMT
If it's outside of term times I always stay at one of the LSE properties. I second mistressjojo's LSE recommendation. Imperial College and King's also good options LSE Bankside is my "go to" place at the moment. Nice walk along the river and a choice of bridges to get to the theatre district. Really convenient for the National, Menier, Union, Old/Young Vic and a few others. And next to the Tate Modern if that's your thing. I've tried many of the other halls around London. Some others are okay, but that one wins out on price and location terms. The bathrooms are shared between two rooms at most (sometimes you get an en-suite) and there is a very good buffet breakfast. Will be a shame when term starts soon and they're no longer available. I'm currently working part of the week in London, but not enough days to move to London, so getting very familiar with the cheap options and how to make the most from them (the chain hotels just don't tend to price up as an option - although there can be good deals in the Docklands - and Croydon is direct on the train to the Victoria theatres if you're seeing Wicked, Hamilton or going to The Other Palace). There are also lots of very cheap hotels around Earls Court, which is just a few stops from the West End. Most of them are fine if you understand you're getting a small room which won't have had much money spent on repairing it and you just need somewhere to sleep. Earls Court is great for food and small supermarket options. With those, look at reviews to avoid the very worse, but take moans from people who don't understand what to expect from cheap hotels with a pinch of salt. I'd recommend checking for a private bathroom (some of those hotels only have about 1 bathroom per 20 guests - and lots of stairs to get to it and find it engaged) and don't assume any relationship between price and quality. There's very little between the £40 a night hotels (which might just be reduced as they have spare capacity that night) and the £100 a night hotels. You'll also often find a better deal if you're willing to change hotels based on which is cheapest on any given night (for Earls Court, I think it's a good idea not to stay more than 2-3 nights at the same hotel anyway - as at least then you're likely to get clean bed sheets). Final hint. Chain hotels, if you stay enough, get status with them and book direct for all kinds of perks. You can also get status and free nights (to use at a luxury hotel) by taking out credit cards. Non-chain (lower end) hotels. These always seem to end up cheapest booking through one of the main hotel sites. You can often get cashback and extra discounts too. I mostly use Hotels.com as it has a very good rebate scheme (works with many of the university halls as well, including the LSE ones), but you can sometimes save a bit more by checking the price aggregation sites. [disregard much of this advice if you're going for a romantic weekend - as opposed to just wanting somewhere acceptable and private to crash between shows/work etc]
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Post by Deleted on Aug 31, 2018 10:49:34 GMT
Another vote for LSE Bankside. And the Kings College ones by the IMAX. If I’m travelling solo for work stuff (as in freelance/sh*t I don’t get paid for) those are my go to as well.
Student halls in general I’ve never had a “bad” night in. Sure it’s not the Ritz but they’re clean and well maintained. Also very safe with security and staff 24 hours. And usually a great deal.
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Post by hal9000 on Aug 31, 2018 10:56:52 GMT
Do Premier Inns/Travelodges tend to have minibar fridges?
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Post by Dr Tom on Aug 31, 2018 11:16:04 GMT
Do Premier Inns/Travelodges tend to have minibar fridges? No
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Aug 31, 2018 11:17:00 GMT
You’ll be lucky to get a shortbread biscuit on the hospitality tray!
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Post by kathryn on Aug 31, 2018 11:24:57 GMT
I think the Hub breakfast does vary with the location. I stayed at the one in Edinburgh and it was quite a small spread in the bar with a coffe machine and pastries. It does the Spitafields one is choice of say 2 things from the cafe and coffee while Kings Cross is a buffet so assume they all vary a little bit Hotel breakfasts are a pain if you have dietary requirements because you can never be sure if you’ll be able to eat much or not, given the variations. . Especially buffets - the hotel I stayed in this week wanted £13 for the breakfast buffet. I ended up checking with the host what I could eat before sitting down: pastry, no; yoghurt, no, scrambled egg, no; what’s in the sausages? Do you have soya milk and non-dairy spread? In the end he waved me through and said to help myself to cereal, fruit and tea for no charge, since we worked out that was all I was going to eat and charging me £13 for it struck him as ridiculous. The cafes up the road were doing cooked-to-order breakfasts for about £6.
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Post by viserys on Aug 31, 2018 11:37:44 GMT
Do Premier Inns/Travelodges tend to have minibar fridges? No. Travelodges definitely not, Premier Inn I'm not sure but I don't think so. Travelodge is super-no-frills with minimal services (very cheap soap/shower gel/shampoo), free wifi limited to 30 minutes per day, no safe for valuables and just a few open hangers for your clothes. Once you know what to expect, you can prepare though, i.e. I make sure to take an extra lock for my suitcase to lock up my valuables when I leave the room and bring all my own toiletries. Premier Inns don't offer that much more, but the rooms feel a bit nicer/bigger/more upmarket and at least outside London they usually have a bath tub. As a foreigner I love the British obsession with tea as even the Travelodges come with a small kettle for coffee and tea (great for a first cup of coffee in the morning before I get going). The kettle is the one thing I miss at the Hub.
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Post by viserys on Aug 31, 2018 12:09:51 GMT
As a foreigner I love the British obsession with tea as even the Travelodges come with a small kettle for coffee and tea (great for a first cup of coffee in the morning before I get going). The kettle is the one thing I miss at the Hub. Hope you remember to boil a full kettle at least twice before making that first cup... and rinse the cups in the boiling water too . Um, not really... but I'm still alive and haven't grown a second head yet? But I'll keep in mind for the future
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