Cheap hotel accommodation

Mitchell Hurd · 26 Jun 2019

Hello there. I thought it might be worth creating this thread, partly to get people's views.

I may end up going for a 2-night break during this summer if not this September.

I'm sure many of us have heard of megabus.com but the Kayak website seems to offer a lot of cheap deals (and I don't mean hostels or bunk bed places which, no offence, I wouldn't be comfortable staying in by myself). Is Kayak the cheapest hotel provider if that makes sense?

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gtis · 26 Jun 2019

Hi
I use this site https://www.bedandbreakfastsearcher.co.uk
Neil

nlogax · 26 Jun 2019

Kayak is merely a search engine and broker. You could find the same deals via Google, Booking dot com, etc. Don't forget Kayak is owned by Priceline. For the most part any savings you'll see will be for a few pounds at most.

Mitchell Hurd · 26 Jun 2019

gtis said:
Hi
I use this site https://www.bedandbreakfastsearcher.co.uk
Neil

Thank you - the sight seems very easy to understand

!

Tom B · 27 Jun 2019

If I might add a tip - presupposing you have flexibility around dates (so pls ignore if you are going for a specific event) definitely don't go in the school holidays, and check around your destination for any local events (football, rugby, exhibitions, university graduations etc) which may fill up rooms. Much easier if you can do it during a quiet week, both for ease of availability and price.

Bletchleyite · 27 Jun 2019

I use booking.com. It can be worth looking at the likes of Hostelworld, though, as plenty of hostels also do private rooms. The YHA do too - for them book direct.

Iskra · 27 Jun 2019

Also, Sunday nights are usually the cheapest nights of the week at hotels, as they are the quietest. Obviously, it depends on your personal circumstances as to whether that information is of any use.

Starmill · 27 Jun 2019

Are you talking about hotel / individual room accommodation generally or wanting advice for a specific trip?

The cheapest hotel I've ever booked is the Zip by Premier Inn near Cardiff. £19 for a night, coming up in a few weeks time. My previous record is Hub by Premier Inn at Haymarket, Edinburgh, which was £22.50. Both are very compact rooms, though the Zip is smaller even than the Hub, which gives rise to the highly competitive prices. These rates can be tricky to find, though, and the Zip is at a health club way out of the city centre. By contrast, Hub locations are all central.

ooo · 28 Jun 2019

For premier inns make sure you look at their own website rather than just booking.com or similar websites as I believe they only have their cheapest prices on their own website

Bletchleyite · 28 Jun 2019

Starmill said:
Are you talking about hotel / individual room accommodation generally or wanting advice for a specific trip?

The cheapest hotel I've ever booked is the Zip by Premier Inn near Cardiff. £19 for a night, coming up in a few weeks time. My previous record is Hub by Premier Inn at Haymarket, Edinburgh, which was £22.50. Both are very compact rooms, though the Zip is smaller even than the Hub, which gives rise to the highly competitive prices. These rates can be tricky to find, though, and the Zip is at a health club way out of the city centre. By contrast, Hub locations are all central.

The problem with these from my point of view is that you aren't guaranteed to get a room with a window! They don't even allow you to request one when booking (this seems an obvious candidate for an additional fee). Having discovered this, there is no way I would use either of them again.

Puffing Devil · 28 Jun 2019

Starmill said:
Are you talking about hotel / individual room accommodation generally or wanting advice for a specific trip?

The cheapest hotel I've ever booked is the Zip by Premier Inn near Cardiff. £19 for a night, coming up in a few weeks time. My previous record is Hub by Premier Inn at Haymarket, Edinburgh, which was £22.50. Both are very compact rooms, though the Zip is smaller even than the Hub, which gives rise to the highly competitive prices. These rates can be tricky to find, though, and the Zip is at a health club way out of the city centre. By contrast, Hub locations are all central.

Bletchleyite said:
The problem with these from my point of view is that you aren't guaranteed to get a room with a window! They don't even allow you to request one when booking (this seems an obvious candidate for an additional fee). Having discovered this, there is no way I would use either of them again.

I recently stayed in the KingsX Hub, without a window, and thought it was fantastic value for the room so close to the centre of London. I loved the design and it's perfect for a single, slightly drunk traveller needing somewhere to crash for the night. The bar/social area was well designed with a good choice of furniture. I'd be more than happy to visit again. I've also used Yotels on a couple of occasions and they've been fine.

A tip for cheap London rooms is to check the price of the Wembley Premier Inns - neither will come up if you search London, so you need to search for Wembley. Both can have extremely cheap rooms depending on the lack of events at Wembley. One is 100m from the Chiltern Line trains to Marylebone (10 minutes), there other is next to the Tube, slightly longer run in. There's also Novotel, Ibis and Hilton in the area.

Starmill · 28 Jun 2019

Bletchleyite said:
The problem with these from my point of view is that you aren't guaranteed to get a room with a window! They don't even allow you to request one when booking (this seems an obvious candidate for an additional fee). Having discovered this, there is no way I would use either of them again.

The issue with this is, I wouldn't want to pay a higher rate for the room than is already charged for the benefit of more windows. If I'm staying in one of these rooms it's likely I'll arrive at night and leave the following morning. As I'll be asleep for almost all of the time, I'm not that interested in a window! I might watch TV for a bit, and I'll want to have a shower, so those things are more important than a window to me.

Let's say they charged a £10 supplement for a room with a window. That would more than double the price of the room! Would you be prepared to pay that? It seems Whitbread do not think you would.

Bletchleyite · 28 Jun 2019

Starmill said:
Let's say they charged a £10 supplement for a room with a window. That would more than double the price of the room! Would you be prepared to pay that? It seems Whitbread do not think you would.

Yes. I would not stay in a hotel room with no window-end of (least of all one that small). Too claustrophobic.

The way to handle it would be to charge a £10 (say) supplement to guarantee a window. If not paid, you would be randomly allocated a room which may or may not have one. Just like if you pay extra you can guarantee the exit row on easyJet or Ryanair, but nothing says you won't be allocated it randomly if you don't pay.

radamfi · 28 Jun 2019

Are we only talking about British hotels here? In France there are super cheap chains called Hotel F1 and Premiere Classe, typically 30 to 40 euros a night.

cactustwirly · 28 Jun 2019

I've used booking.com, when I've booked European hotels.
The map feature is very handy, for looking for the "Goldilocks" area, ie far enough out for cheap rooms, but still within easy reach of the city centre.

Peter Mugridge · 28 Jun 2019

Bletchleyite said:
The problem with these from my point of view is that you aren't guaranteed to get a room with a window! They don't even allow you to request one when booking (this seems an obvious candidate for an additional fee). Having discovered this, there is no way I would use either of them again.

However, with Travelodge you can request a specific side of the hotel - provided you deal direct with a member of staff at the individual hotel and give them your booking reference as soon as you have made it.

Bletchleyite · 28 Jun 2019

Peter Mugridge said:
However, with Travelodge you can request a specific side of the hotel - provided you deal direct with a member of staff at the individual hotel and give them your booking reference as soon as you have made it.

Travelodge's booking system is surprisingly old fashioned - last time I did it, late checkout was done by writing it in a diary!

Meerkat · 28 Jun 2019

I use Hotels.com.
Free night every ten nights.
However once I pick the hotel I always check the hotel’s own website to make sure they don’t have a better deal (a B&B owner once told me the big websites take a massive cut, up to 30%)
Sometimes I have used Hotels.com to find where has rooms then just turned up at the door and asked what they can offer.

Clip · 28 Jun 2019

Bletchleyite said:
Travelodge's booking system is surprisingly old fashioned - last time I did it, late checkout was done by writing it in a diary!

Starmill said:
Let's say they charged a £10 supplement for a room with a window. That would more than double the price of the room! Would you be prepared to pay that?

Yes, I would. I try and leave a window open for a bit of fresh air in every hotel room i use unless its bitterly cold outside.

mikeg · 28 Jun 2019

I'm actually staying in the Premier Inn Cardiff Zip later next month if anyone wants any opinion of what it's like I'll be happy to share. Seconded re hotel's own websites. As for booking sites, hotels.com is good, as is any site with a voucher code, failing that the best one through quidco/topcashback etc.

trainophile · 28 Jun 2019

Starmill said:
The issue with this is, I wouldn't want to pay a higher rate for the room than is already charged for the benefit of more windows. If I'm staying in one of these rooms it's likely I'll arrive at night and leave the following morning. As I'll be asleep for almost all of the time, I'm not that interested in a window! I might watch TV for a bit, and I'll want to have a shower, so those things are more important than a window to me.

Let's say they charged a £10 supplement for a room with a window. That would more than double the price of the room! Would you be prepared to pay that? It seems Whitbread do not think you would.

You have found a Premier Inn Hub with rooms for less than a tenner? o_O

Bletchleyite · 29 Jun 2019

trainophile said:
You have found a Premier Inn Hub with rooms for less than a tenner?

While the Hub does have that issue too (fortunately when I was caught by it they had a spare room so swapped me to it when I complained, as the Hub website didn't make it clear at that point), they were talking about this Premier Inn Zip concept which does seem to be doing about £20/night on an experimental basis. There's only one, a converted "regular" PI in I think Cardiff.

RJ · 29 Jun 2019

You can stay at hotels for free if you can work out how to generate free loyalty points. I do so and stay at hotels in the Hilton, Intercontinental and Marriott portfolios. The rooms are refundable too, unlike the cheapest cash rates.

185143 · 29 Jun 2019

I've stayed in the Zip by Premier Inn. Had a lightbox, which didn't really bother me. Only issue was due to that, 3AM looks identical to 3PM, so you wake up and have literally no idea what time it is. Also you have no idea what the weather outside is doing, quite a big problem in Wales!

Location didn't bother me as I had an Explore Wales rover ticket which was valid on the buses anyway. Bit of a walk to/from bus stops though. Would definately stay again if I ever had reason to return to Cardiff.

Cheap hotel accommodation

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