Budget hotels discussion

[Andyh82]

There is generally no need to stay right in the centre of anywhere. I bet the hotels further out were cheaper even in August. I’ve stayed in numerous Premier Inn’s in the Edinburgh suburbs with good bus, tram or train links into the centre

 

[STINT47]

The Premier Inn at Edinburgh Park is my go to choice. You have a train and tram stop just across the road with frequent services to Edinburgh and it's normally a lot cheaper than staying in the centre of town.

 

[AlterEgo]

I recently stayed in the Ropewalks hotel in Liverpool for £42. It’s a Best Western so not a true budget chain, but the price was very agreeable. Would wholeheartedly recommend. It’s just a few minutes from central.

 

[Blindtraveler]

They were all three figures and somewhere in the 200 Mark for all of August and most of July, the Edinburgh Park one should have probably been built about five times the size it is given its location and popularity. Although I certainly am not vindicating giving any money that you don't need to do so to Edinburgh trams. Heaven only knows what it'll be like next year when oasis are playing at murrayfield in the middle of August and therefore in the middle of the festival as well. Mucho upseto from every single local person I'm still in touch with up there

 

[route101]

That has certainly been my experience, I'd love to spend a night or two in Dublin, but it's just beyond my wildest high price range.
And someone I know spotted 500 lb for an Edinburgh Premier Inn during August

Yes, some hotels are up around £1000 mark in Edinburgh for the night.

Yes,love to go to Ireland and explore but hotels are expensive!

 

[Blindtraveler]

My Irish exploration May likely end up being on some kind of coach holiday. To be honest, this will miss out the rail element that would interest but would certainly keep the costs to a fixed or near fixed level, depending on how far I got along the top shelf in the hotel bar at nights. But we digress.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

I noticed today a back-door price rise introduced by Premier Inn at their Buxton location. Since July they have started charging for car parking at £8 per day, previously free. Depending upon how many guests there are in your party / vehicle that is potentially (for car drivers who park on-site) an extra £8 per night. Not one of the cheaper Premier Inn locations either.

 

[ChrisC]

I noticed today a back-door price rise introduced by Premier Inn at their Buxton location. Since July they have started charging for car parking at £8 per day, previously free. Depending upon how many guests there are in your party / vehicle that is potentially (for car drivers who park on-site) an extra £8 per night. Not one of the cheaper Premier Inn locations either.

That’s interesting about Premier Inn introducing a parking charge at Buxton. They have done the same thing at their Pickering Hotel with a £7 per day parking charge. This is also not one of their cheaper Premier Inn locations. The hotel is not even in the town centre but right out of town on the Scarborough Road.

I‘ve just recently enjoyed a 7 night stay at the very good Best Western Forest and Vale Hotel in the centre of Pickering. I really like the Forest and Vale and have stayed there a number of times. It’s a lovely comfortable hotel, a bit old fashioned, but with fantastic friendly staff and a great freshly cooked breakfast. It also has a large free car park and lovely gardens to sit and enjoy a drink in on a summer evening. It’s also very popular and you often have to book well ahead to get a room. Like all hotels prices have risen and my 7 night bed and breakfast stay was just over £800. I considered the Premier Inn but that was almost £100 a night and by the time I’d added breakfast and the parking charge it was no less money. I think you have to be very careful with Premier Inn these days as you can often get much better accommodation at a similar or even cheaper price.

 

[johntea]

There is generally no need to stay right in the centre of anywhere. I bet the hotels further out were cheaper even in August. I’ve stayed in numerous Premier Inn’s in the Edinburgh suburbs with good bus, tram or train links into the centre

I do this a lot if I'm travelling to London, there are quite a few options all miles cheaper than the 'central' options mainly involving a Tube journey outside Zones 1-3 or Hertfordshire via Thameslink / Great Northern

One of the more unusual cheaper locations I actually find myself at pretty often is the Premier Inn South Mimms which has obviously been located with M25 motorway users in mind but is a very short bus / taxi ride from Potters Bar station, the unusual part being with the motorway proximity you can actually walk on foot from the hotel to the South Mimms Welcome Break motorway service station should you fancy a £10 chocolate bar from WHSmith in the middle of the night

 

[jon0844]

...the unusual part being with the motorway proximity you can actually walk on foot from the hotel to the South Mimms Welcome Break motorway service station should you fancy a £10 chocolate bar from WHSmith in the middle of the night

I assume that's a promotion price.

 

[nlogax]

And someone I know spotted 500 lb for an Edinburgh Premier Inn during August

For obvious reasons any hotel in Edinburgh during August should be avoided if you value your bank balance and your sanity.

 

[Blindtraveler]

I do this a lot if I'm travelling to London, there are quite a few options all miles cheaper than the 'central' options mainly involving a Tube journey outside Zones 1-3 or Hertfordshire via Thameslink / Great Northern

One of the more unusual cheaper locations I actually find myself at pretty often is the Premier Inn South Mimms which has obviously been located with M25 motorway users in mind but is a very short bus / taxi ride from Potters Bar station, the unusual part being with the motorway proximity you can actually walk on foot from the hotel to the South Mimms Welcome Break motorway service station should you fancy a £10 chocolate bar from WHSmith in the middle of the night

Thanks for a really good tip, I've often spotted this location as being remarkably affordable, but I don't drive and my screen reader software isn't good enough to identify which one of these erroneous or otherwise motorway locations are actually on motorways, so as a rule of thumb I avoid them unless someone has passed on a golden nugget like this. This. Can see me using this in future.
With regards to someone's earlier, comment about often being able to get accommodation for the same price or cheaper as Premier in and at a better standard. I keep attempting to drum this into my 75-year-old mother and she is determinedly not listening, they paid 180 lb for one Premier in night in Northern Ireland earlier this year.

 

[WelshBluebird]

There is generally no need to stay right in the centre of anywhere. I bet the hotels further out were cheaper even in August. I’ve stayed in numerous Premier Inn’s in the Edinburgh suburbs with good bus, tram or train links into the centre

It does depend on exactly where you are (not everywhere has good public transport links - e.g. for cardiff quite often the cheap options are the motorway service station hotels) and why you are staying in the first place (e.g. if it's for say a gig or late night event then many places outside of London struggle for public transport at those kind of times).

 

[Tetchytyke]

There is generally no need to stay right in the centre of anywhere.

It very much depends on the city.

In London I often aim to stay out of the centre, as I said upthread the Premier Inn at Croydon is one I often look for.

In Edinburgh if you can get a hotel near the tram or a railway station it's not too bad, but some of the buses can be painfully slow. It's very similar in Dublin, you can get decent prices out at Liffey Valley or Blanchardstown but its the thick end of an hour on the bus into the centre.

 

[Andyh82]

It very much depends on the city.

In London I often aim to stay out of the centre, as I said upthread the Premier Inn at Croydon is one I often look for.

In Edinburgh if you can get a hotel near the tram or a railway station it's not too bad, but some of the buses can be painfully slow. It's very similar in Dublin, you can get decent prices out at Liffey Valley or Blanchardstown but its the thick end of an hour on the bus into the centre.

I always do a bit of research, for example in London, I almost stayed at a Premier Inn near Angel Road, until I realised it only had a limited service and only to Stratford. I have cocked up on occasion though, once staying somewhere where the tube into the centre was on a week long line closure and the only nearby service was the Overground

 

[johnnychips]

I just found this on the Travelodge page:

Because there's a global shortage of oranges right now, we might swap out our usual orange juice for our equally tasty apple juice. Thank you for your understanding.

The illustration shows a carton with a straw. I suspect someone in purchasing has accidentally added a 0 to the apple juice order!

 

[Blindtraveler]

Is there a global shortage of oranges? Would certainly explain why supermarket OJ has gone up in price and Premier Inn have been treating us to that strange tropical mixture for a while now, it's nice but not at breakfast time

 

[JamesT]

Is there a global shortage of oranges? Would certainly explain why supermarket OJ has gone up in price and Premier Inn have been treating us to that strange tropical mixture for a while now, it's nice but not at breakfast time

Yes: https://www.theguardian.com/austral...upply-crisis-price-will-australia-be-affected

Brazil is also the world’s biggest exporter of orange juice by far, producing about 70% of global supply.

But Brazil’s orange-growing regions have recently endured extreme drought and heat stress in the crop’s flowering period, as well as alarming rates of citrus greening disease – an incurable bacterial infection.

As a result, Brazil’s orange production is now forecast to fall by more than 24% in the 2024–25 season, which would be the country’s smallest harvest since the late 1980s.

The situation in Brazil has been exacerbated by declining production in other major orange-growing regions such as Florida, Israel, Spain and Argentina.

 

[Blindtraveler]

Sounds like I'd better kerb my addiction to the stuff then.

 

[Andyh82]

Rather than an actual shortage it’s probably that the wholesale price has gone up due to supply being a bit more limited, so Travelodge not paying it as they wouldn’t make a profit on their breakfast

Of course the breakfast seems to go up by about £1 from year to year in hotels to supposedly cover this sort of cost increase

 

[Blindtraveler]

And speaking of breakfast at Travelodge, the last couple of menu evolutions do seem to be really pushing the boundaries in terms of what they have largely offered for years, I'd still far rather they used a better quality hash brown and offered a choice of eggs. But maybe if enough people keep suggesting it, they will try the eggs idea at least as a way of seriously competing with a floundering Premier in and a couple of others whose breakfast concept has also changed recently and not necessarily for the better

 

[52290]

Whitbread have just sold the Craigside Hotel in Little Orme, Llandudno to the Manchester brewery J W Lees, so at least the beer should improve.

 

[Blindtraveler]

Will this be one of the ones where the adjoining hotel? Assuming there is one continues to take breakfast in the pub under an agreement, I wonder

 

[Cross City]

Sounds like I'd better kerb my addiction to the stuff then.

From my cheffing experience, the orange shortage has been going on for at least a couple of years now.

Cauliflowers are also really hard to get this time of year too, September and October being the worst. Either our suppliers couldn't get enough to cover our orders or what they could get the heads were very small and the per-kilo price was around double. I've been out of kitchens for over 2 years now but that had been going on for the past 5-6 years at least before I left.

 

[52290]

Will this be one of the ones where the adjoining hotel? Assuming there is one continues to take breakfast in the pub under an agreement, I wonder

The hotel and the adjacent inn have both been bought by Lees.

 

[STINT47]

It might just be my experience but over the last year or so I've found that Premier Inn no longer offers good value for money.

They used to be my go to choice as they offered a consistent product across the country at a cheap price.

Recently however I've found that they offer little saving or are sometimes more expensive than a better hotel such as a Holiday Inn. I've therefore switched to alternatives as for the same money or just a little more I've got something nicer.

I wonder if Premier Inn are getting a bit to greedy and relying on people automatically booking them as they think they're cheaper. Perhaps in time people will get wise and room occupancy rates and then prices will start to fall.

 

[Peter Sarf]

It might just be my experience but over the last year or so I've found that Premier Inn no longer offers good value for money.

They used to be my go to choice as they offered a consistent product across the country at a cheap price.

Recently however I've found that they offer little saving or are sometimes more expensive than a better hotel such as a Holiday Inn. I've therefore switched to alternatives as for the same money or just a little more I've got something nicer.

I wonder if Premier Inn are getting a bit to greedy and relying on people automatically booking them as they think they're cheaper. Perhaps in time people will get wise and room occupancy rates and then prices will start to fall.

I think it is likely that Premier Inn have discovered that the expensive advertising is attracting a lot more custom.

I also think costs for hotels (like everything else) have gone up.

 

[Blindtraveler]

It might just be my experience but over the last year or so I've found that Premier Inn no longer offers good value for money.

They used to be my go to choice as they offered a consistent product across the country at a cheap price.

Recently however I've found that they offer little saving or are sometimes more expensive than a better hotel such as a Holiday Inn. I've therefore switched to alternatives as for the same money or just a little more I've got something nicer.

I wonder if Premier Inn are getting a bit to greedy and relying on people automatically booking them as they think they're cheaper. Perhaps in time people will get wise and room occupancy rates and then prices will start to fall.

I totally agree with you and would go further to say that no longer are they even offering a consistent product. Corners very obviously being cut in some areas and whilst you can get away with this to a certain extent there are other times when it shows and it's very obvious and this is no way to treat long-term customers. Who've been loyal to them for quite literally decades all through the travel in and laterally Premier travel in era

 

[Tetchytyke]

It might just be my experience but over the last year or so I've found that Premier Inn no longer offers good value for money.

They used to be my go to choice as they offered a consistent product across the country at a cheap price.

Recently however I've found that they offer little saving or are sometimes more expensive than a better hotel such as a Holiday Inn. I've therefore switched to alternatives as for the same money or just a little more I've got something nicer.

I'm the same. Premier Inn always used to offer a good, consistent product. Not usually the cheapest but good value and you knew what you were getting.

They are nibbling away at that quality though. The Hypnos beds going is one big cut in quality. And at the same time as nibbling away on quality they are gradually bumping the prices upwards. The new 'premium' rooms are no better than the old standard rooms.

I'm generally finding that I'm getting better value in IHG's portfolio now, with the added bonus of getting points through their loyalty scheme. When a Crowne Plaza or Hotel Indigo is only £15 or so more than a Premier Inn then it's a no-brainer.

After Whitbread spun off and sold the Costa Coffee business to Coca-Cola, it very much looks like they are now trying to squeeze the Premier Inn brand for all its worth.

 

[Trackman]

It might just be my experience but over the last year or so I've found that Premier Inn no longer offers good value for money.

What I have found, they tend to lower their prices on the day if they are not full. Not worth taking the gamble though.