London Hotel Recommendations Pls

sarymclary

Hi,
I'm planning to take my 4 children (5, 8, 12 & 14) to London this summer (mid-August) to do some sightseeing, and to meet up with some American friends who are over to attend a wedding.

I've been looking at some online hotel booking sites, but would appreciate any recommendations from any members who have experience of staying in town, especially if you've stayed with children. I thought Travelode or something like that would have been ideal from a clean environment/buget price, but the in-town prices are around £100 per room (twin/double), whereas some of the independent hotels (2*/3*) are around £70-100 inc. breakfast for triple rooms.

My criteria is that the rooms must be ensuite, and as I'm sure we'll need a couple of rooms at least, has anyone been able to have a room with inter-connecting doors? (we had one of these in Harrogate which was great).

Obviously, I'm also keen to get a great price too, but I'm concerned at staying in a 'safer' part of the city, so for example, I was thinking that Kings Cross probably wasn't an ideal location.

My American friends are staying close to Oxford St., but I think their accommodation is being sorted as part of the family wedding arrangements, and so far they're not sure where they're staying exactly.

Any suggestions gratefully received!
Thanks

Actiongirl_2

sarymclary wrote:

Hi,
I'm planning to take my 4 children (5, 8, 12 & 14) to London this summer (mid-August) to do some sightseeing, and to meet up with some American friends who are over to attend a wedding.

I've been looking at some online hotel booking sites, but would appreciate any recommendations from any members who have experience of staying in town, especially if you've stayed with children. I thought Travelode or something like that would have been ideal from a clean environment/buget price, but the in-town prices are around £100 per room (twin/double), whereas some of the independent hotels (2*/3*) are around £70-100 inc. breakfast for triple rooms.

My criteria is that the rooms must be ensuite, and as I'm sure we'll need a couple of rooms at least, has anyone been able to have a room with inter-connecting doors? (we had one of these in Harrogate which was great).

Obviously, I'm also keen to get a great price too, but I'm concerned at staying in a 'safer' part of the city, so for example, I was thinking that Kings Cross probably wasn't an ideal location.

My American friends are staying close to Oxford St., but I think their accommodation is being sorted as part of the family wedding arrangements, and so far they're not sure where they're staying exactly.

Any suggestions gratefully received!
Thanks

Ok. First of all, decide where you want to stay. Have you been to London before? Are you familiar with any of the areas and therefore would feel confident booking there?

Then, have you checked octopustravel.co.uk, expedia and opodo? All these sites have the sort of information you need.

You can also check the travelodge website direct, although you may get a better deal using the booking sites. As an example, I just booked a hotel in NYC for xmas, and got £300 off the hotel direct price by booking through opodo.

Let me know where you want to stay and I will try and help.

tonys_3

Mid August prices can be tricky if London is full of tourists. One good thing
about coming this year is that travel on the tube after 9.30 am will be free
for your children, as will travel on the buses and trams at any time.[see the
following url http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tickets/2006/freetravel.shtml
for full info. You may need an oyster card for your eldest -which you can get
before you come to London. Two advantages in that. First you save a
fortune in fares and second you can choose an hotel further out which should
be less expensive. I know that may give you toooo much choice but think
of the savings.

tonys_3

You didn't say if you were one adult or two, in addition to the 4 children.
Your requirements for adjoining triple room ensuite with a double ensuite
will not be discovered on the net. For that you will need to speak direct with the hotel or broker.
With regards to my previous post and the facility of free tube travel for the children, I see that you can book a double and triple en suite at the Ibis
Excel in Docklands. I know it is a bit far, but it is only 3 years old with air conditioning and satellite tv. It has 2 stars,100m metre from the tube and
https://www.uk-reserve.com quoted £64 per person for three nights -ie £322 in total,
or £21.50 per day per person,including vat and breakfast. [Should there be an extra adult, the charge would be the same if one of your younger children shared your room.]

It may not be what you would have wished for but now that I have started the ball rolling, hopefully others will come in with better or comparable hotels
in other places.
I suggest that you speak to the website direct giving them your criteria and
dates, length of stay etc and see if they can improve on that deal themselves. Might be worth haggling with them as well as they would be
quite happy to get 5 beds per night booked through themselves.

sarymclary

Hi,
At this point in time, it should be only myself and my 4 boys (my boyfriend has said he would also like to come along, but that would mean taking his son, and he's not as well behaved as mine, so I'm loathe to take him - plus I'd probably end up having to pay for all 7 of us with his current financial status as it is - penny pincher, moi?)!

I am fairly familiar with London, although I've not had cause to stay over before, because I stayed with family who lived just outside town (20 min train journey), but that was when I was single, and without the children. I used to live closer too, so I spent many a daytrip shopping, or visiting my sister who worked near Holborn.

My friend has confirmed she's staying at the Holiday Inn Oxford Circus, which I believe the wedding party has paid for (lucky them).

I think we could cope with a 20/30 min train journey into town on the tube, if the price of a hotel was particularly tempting. My plan is to visit the Natural History Museum, the Aquarium, possibly the London Eye (again!), and if I can encourage them enough, the Tate Modern (for me). I have visited with all 4 children previously, and this time it'll be easier as there will be no pushchair.

My 2 older boys are au fait with travelling on the underground, as I took them to Earls Court in December.

Any more suggestions - fire away, and thanks very much for those already submitted, I will be looking into the options.

Tonys, you're right about the online search, as there's not an option for anything more than 2 adults 2 kids, or 1 adult 3 kids to choose from. I just used those to find price guides, and links to the hotels, but none could offer triples, that I looked at anyway.

I thought it might be good to stay somewhere that could be recommended, as I know from past experience that pictures and brochure descriptions aren't always what they might actually turn out to be.

pomeroy

http://www.innkeeperslodge.co.uk/offers.asp?id=1

Borehamwood

eamonn321

You don't need to stay in central London. Try Tolworth Travelodge about 10 miles from town but only 20 mins from Waterloo via nearby BR station. Also 2 stops away from Chessington World of Adventures, 3 miles Hampton Court, shops in Kingston, 2 miles. Surrey countryside nearby. Cheaper too.

tonys_3

If you look on [url] http://www.laterooms.com/en/Hotels.aspx?k=london&r=0&n=2&d=20060804&rt=5,0&c=1 [/url]it listshotels with 5 bed accomodation and will give you a choice of about ten. Not sure if one bath
room will be sufficient for you all or even whether you could stand sharing
with them all. I assume it will be for a weekend so might just about be tolerable.
At the moment they only list dates up to the 4th august so you may have to contact them direct if you want to book soon.