Need help with lodging for London

[swilshire]

Sorry if this is in the wrong place, but I'm hoping my fellow DISsers will have some suggestions.

We are planning our first and probably last huge family vacation. It all seemed so simple when I decided to do it. I had seen low airfares and lodging specials. Well, I've pretty well made a mess of the whole thing. The low airfares are NOT for the summer, which is the only time we can go.

Our budget was blown before we started by the airfare that was able double what I expected and the poor exchange rate.

As it stands right now, we have lodging for 16 of our 23 nights. I booked a couple of timeshare weeks with five days in between them (one in Devon and one near Glasgow). When I was planning, I thought it would be simple to just rent a couple of hotel rooms for my family of six, so I told them we'd go to London for those five nights.

After weeks of seeing rates that make me blanch because they're so high and many hotels sold out at any rate, someone finally told me today that this is during Wimbledon time. Guess I made another fatal error.

So any suggestions are greatly appreciated for good places to look for lodging for six of us starting June 24 for five nights. I don't mind splitting between a couple of different places, as I noticed some places have reasonable rates for part of those dates.

I've also considered staying outside the city and taking the trains in. Someone told me that the trains from the Heathrow area are slow or you can take the express train but it's expensive. We'll probably just keep our car, so we could drive close to the city if there was reasonable parking and then get a train on in.

Help me visit your lovely country please! With the exchange rates I'm seeing, I understand now why I heard so many British accents on my last WDW trip!

Sheila

 

[Dimplenose]

How much are you hoping to spend?

Premier Travel Inns are usually reasonably priced http://www.premiertravelinn.com/pti/home.do?rw.cm=,PPC

And YMCA at Surbiton (15 minutes train ride from London) does bed and breakfast for tourists (but I don't think it's all that cheap) http://www.kwymca.org.uk/surbiton_housing.php

Libby

 

[UKDEB]

Hi, Sheila. Just going to pop this over to UK Community where I'm sure lots of our lovely DISers will help you out.

 

[mikki.young]

Parking in London is very expensive and can be hard to find. Wimbledon is South west London so if you look in the north of London you may get better rates and it should be easier to park and get a tube/train in.

 

[emily1982]

If you also try the travel lodge site they have special offers also on family rooms.

 

[wicket2005]

We have just stayed in the Novotel Euston London and can recommend the hotel. A lot of your fellow Americans liked it too . You can find reviews on tripadvisor.com.

 

[mark&sue]

Which timeshare are you staying in Devon? We used DVC points and stayed in a timeshare in Devon last year.

Hope you have a great time


Susan

 

[swilshire]

If you also try the travel lodge site they have special offers also on family rooms.

I had seen Travel Lodge mentioned several places. A search showed NO area availability in the whole chain for our dates. That's when I started to get more than a bit worried.

Sheila

 

[swilshire]

Which timeshare are you staying in Devon? We used DVC points and stayed in a timeshare in Devon last year.

Hope you have a great time


Susan

We'll be at the Osborne Club. It looks like a nice place. I understand we don't have a water view, but I'm sure we'll enjoy it anyway.

Thanks for the good wishes.

Sheila

 

[mark&sue]

Just looked it up and it looks lovely.

You must come back here and let us know how your vacation goes.

There are some timeshares in London

http://disney.intervalworld.com/web/cs?a=1503&resortCode=CTN&parentResortCode=CTN

Good luck

Susan

 

[mikki.young]

If you look at Travelodge web site it is often better to book day by day as some nights are cheaper than others. There appears to be availability at Kew Bridge and Battersea (the Battersea one even has parking at £5 a day which is notbad for London). Rates vary from £26 to £70 a night per room on your dates. There is even availability at the Covent Garden Travelodge but that is £110 per room per night.

 

[swilshire]

mikki.young,

Thanks for taking the time to search. I had been just going to travelodge.com, which showed some UK hotels, but is apparently not the right website. You've steered me in a better direction! Thanks so much.

Sheila

 

[nbodyhome]

The last two times we stayed in London (I am from the Orlando area and heading back there in 2 weeks time), we stayed #1 at the Holiday Inn Kensington Forum and #2 at a Bed and Breakfast just outside of London (that is where I'm heading back to). The nicest people in the world (IMHO!) run the B&B, I'd not stay anywhere else if it was available
. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Re..._Tree_House_Bed_Breakfast-London_England.html

Unfortunately, it's getting too well known about! We did Priceline one night on the last trip too, since the B&B wasn't available then.

Sainsbury's, ASDA, Waitrose, here I come! (I love shopping in London!)

 

[swilshire]

Still working on this.

I haven't cancelled the Caswell Hotel reservation yet because everything I've found in a similar price range gets terrible reviews. Breakfast is included in the price, but they don't have parking. They suggested a nearby lot that was quite expensive. Free parking on the street at night, but we'd have to move every morning. 595 pounds total for two rooms (one for two, the other a quad), neither with ensuite bath.

I also booked two rooms for three with ensuite baths today at the Travelodge Battlesea for a total of 680 pounds. No free breakfast, but parking is only 5 pounds a day.

One option that I haven't totally ruled out yet is using Marriott Rewards points, but all of the hotels with availability at the normal points value are pretty far out. I don't mind the trip, but it seems we'd eat up most of savings either buying train tickets or paying to park closer to London.

I'm still exploring other options on a daily basis and welcome any further comments from the group.

Sheila

 

[wicket2005]

I don't know how far from London you will be staying but when we visited in March we bought a 3 day travelcard for £18 each which allowed unlimited travel in zones 1-6 in off peak times. This saved us a lot of money because it was £4 a go just in one zone (Central London). A travelcard like this may be a good idea for you which you can prebuy or buy at a station and apart from saving money will also save you looking round for cash all the time at stations.

Also I would be a bit wary of the Travel Lodge chain of hotels. There was an article on the chain on Watchdog (may be still on its website) that said that even if you book the room they still gave the rooms out on a first come first serve basis. One family ended up having to go right across London to another hotel because their room wasn't available.

 

[TracyK]

Have you thought about using Priceline? Please see www.biddingfortravel.com to tell you how it works. I visit London several times a year and use Priceline for most of my stays. I always bid for a 4* hotel and pay in the region of $85 (approx £42) per night for a room for 2 people. I have just got the Hilton in Islington for May for $70 plus taxes. Priceline only ever guarantee a room for two people so you would need to bid for 3 rooms. You would probably get 3 rooms at a 4* hotel for less than 2 rooms at a Travelodge, no contest really. The only problem might be the dates. Good luck.

Tracy

 

[swilshire]

Have you thought about using Priceline? Please see www.biddingfortravel.com to tell you how it works. I visit London several times a year and use Priceline for most of my stays. I always bid for a 4* hotel and pay in the region of $85 (approx £42) per night for a room for 2 people. I have just got the Hilton in Islington for May for $70 plus taxes. Priceline only ever guarantee a room for two people so you would need to bid for 3 rooms. You would probably get 3 rooms at a 4* hotel for less than 2 rooms at a Travelodge, no contest really. The only problem might be the dates. Good luck.

Tracy

Tracy,

Thanks for the suggestion. I bid about forty days for both 3 and 4* using free rebids to bid about eight times per day. The best offer I ever got for a 4* on our dates was $123 per room. Maybe should have taken that, because most days the best offer was $135. I think we just hit a very busy time.

Sheila