Five star luxury for three star prices
London's bursting with some of the most expensive hotels on planet earth but if you have the inside track you can find a brilliant hotel at a brilliant price. What you need is inside knowledge of the London travel industry and a proven strategy to save you hundreds. I've got what you need to save big. Interested?
Good. If you haven’t booked a flight yet, see my guide which includes info about getting the best-priced flight AND combined flight-hotel deals.But if you just need a hotel room then you're certainly in the right place:no matter how good or cheap the hotel you're looking for is, you WILL save money following the strategy on this page.
STEP 1: THE POWER OF SEARCH
The important thing to know is this:
Most travel sites search the same information
... so after hours of searching you get virtually the same prices again and again. You end up dazed by the variety of options, bamboozled by the whole process and not understanding why you're not getting a range of good deals. Well that's the secret. Unless you know what you're doing, you're just searching the same hotel databases again and again, it's just that you're using different sites to do it.
I'll show you the sites to search which give you a REAL overview of the market.
If you want to properly search the prices on offer, then you need to do a little legwork - which sounds a lot like actual work. It is. But if I said I'd give you $100 for half an hour's work, you'd probably be interested - and hopefully you're going to save far more than that now.
How do I do it?
So you know WHICH CITY you want to go to and you know - more or less - WHEN. You may well know what sort of hotel you want to stay in, and you've got a good idea of how much you want to spend. This is all very good.
Where should I stay?
This is a hard one, as it really depends on what you're looking for and how much you have to spend. My advice is: For convenience of sightseeing it doesn't actually matter what part of London you stay in: it's very easy to get around on the tube (underground railway) network. The reason the area matters is for its character, and what's around. As a VERY ROUGH yardstick the areas are generally priced like this, though there is a massive amount of variation - you could get a cheap hotel in an expensive area and vice-versa. I should just note also that even the cheapest of these areas are perfectly respectable and safe for anyone to stay in and they're all within zones 1 and 2 of the London transport network.
Traditional areas: Mayfair, Bloomsbury, Marylebone, Knightsbridge, Chelsea, Pimlico, Notting Hill, Regent's Park
Business areas: Bank, the City, Docklands, Holborn
Cool areas: Clerkenwell, Soho, Camden, Islington, Hoxton, Borough/London Bridge
Other nice areas: Waterloo, South Bank, Westminster, Southwark, Covent Garden
Areas with wide range of hotel options (but nb quite touristy): Kensington, Marble Arch, Hyde Park Corner, King's Cross, South Kensington (nb prices vary widely in this group)
Cheaper areas: Victoria, King's Cross, Earl's Court
There's also the Airport Areas: Heathrow, Croydon, Gatwick, Redhill, which are usually quite expensive and generally not worth bothering with unless you've got to take an early flight or are landing late. It is theoretically possible to commute to London every day from these places but they are utterly soul-less so I'd avoid it if I could.
Ok, with a GENERAL idea of the areas available you can get started properly.
Good search is a three step process. It will eliminate duplication of effort while giving you an excellent overview of what's out there.
1. Start with the biggest of the lot: Expedia.
Start with the largest player in the market - Expedia . It has massive buying power and also owns heaps of other sites which all have different names but largely the same price details - venere, hotels.com and many others. As a result of searching expedia
you can now skip these other operators and avoid duplicating effort. The sheer scale of the company means it can get really good deals from hotel operators, and pass on (some) of the savings to you. It's got good area guides as well so it's an excellent first step for your research, but once you've found a nice hotel and a good price, don't stop there!
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2. Check out their biggest competitor
Move onto Orbitz. It's significantly smaller than expedia but has access to a whole other set of deals, so you're minimising the repetition of effort/search results. These guys also own Ebookers.com, so now there's no need to go there as well. Write down the best couple of options from Orbitz. Both these sites have good map options, explaining the areas clearly, and also allow you to easily focus your search by location, price or star rating. Between them these mammoth search engines will search huge swathes of the market and the prices are often really cheap too: again, they simply have the economy of scale to negotiate the best value deals direct with hotel chains. The best deals are often on whole vacation packages.
3. Last but not least...
Add in Travelocity – good for London and UK hotels, if smaller than Orbitz and Expedia – and you have covered most of the market with just three searches. You should now have been able to find some pretty good prices. But we may be able to beat them further.
(Extra tip: If you’re going within 10 days, also try Laterooms.com which specialises in late rooms deals: prices can be good if you book close to departure, one of the few sites which is good at such short notice. The only fly in the ointment is they only have prices in pounds, not dollars, but it's 100% worth checking out if you're booking very late )
STEP 2: CHECK DIRECT WITH HOTELS
Ok.... so you’ve got some good prices and want to make sure they’re the best around.
With these prices in hand, it’s time to check if the hotel website is offering less if you book direct. Recently some have started offering the very lowest deals only through their own websites, though most will still be higher than the travel agent fares.
If you’re not buying right now, sign up to any newsletter or email list: they sometimes release special fares there. But remember that other fares will also change quickly too: a great reason to bookmark this page and come back to it often before you go (it’s checked and updated every few weeks if I find new bargains as well!).
Now at this stage some people recommend ringing up the hotel direct and asking them to beat the price: I've done this a couple of times and had the price matched (though never beaten) but I have recently been put off this system by the awful experience of having a snooty receptionist reply to my request for a discount with the phrase that perhaps I'd be "better off booking into a less-exclusive establishment," which made me feel about six years old and incredibly guilty for even asking. Perhaps worth a try if you're braver than I am! Speaking of international calling, once you've finished booking a hotel be sure to save money making international calls when you're abroad too.
STEP 3: READ THE REVIEWS
Ok, assuming you have a shortlist of hotels you're interested in, it's time to check the reviews.
STEP 4: BOOK THE ROOM
If you're happy with the location (if you're not sure if it's ok, then you can type the postal code into Google Maps UK which will give you a map of where it is - zoom out and check it's both central and near a tube station) and the price, then you can book it. You can even get a 'street view' of most hotels and areas using this facility too.
STEP 5: UNHAPPY? THINK ABOUT NAMING A PRICE
If you're bamboozled by the choice and still not keen on booking any of the options you've seen - perhaps you were hoping for more from your money - then you might think about using a name your price website. (Don't worry: I'll show you how) It's good for people who aren't fussed about staying in specific, named hotels like the ones you may have just found on your search. If this all sounds like a lot of effort and for experts: it’s NOT, and you can really save hundreds of dollars, or get a much better, or better value, hotel for the same money. It’s a huge topic in itself so check out my detailed guide page. The only downside is that while you’ll know the area and hotel facilities, you won’t know the exact name of where you're to stay until you’ve paid.
STRUGGLING TO FIND SOMEWHERE CHEAP ENOUGH?
If you’re still struggling to find somewhere cheap enough then check out the guide on how to save money with budget hotels – including which are the best. And if you’re a group of four or more you might save a heap of cash with an appartment. Or perhaps you're coming in the summer and want good value university accommodation? It's not just for kids.
What would you like to do now?
- Get a great deal on a flight?
- Uncover my independent guide on whether the London Pass is worth buying?
- Ensure your group's guarded against illness or theft with the best-value travel insurance?
- Discover your options for keeping in touch while you're away?
- Find inspiring and interesting books and DVDs to get you in the mood for your trip to London?
This article is updated every quarter and was last updated in Fall/Winter 2010.
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