Initial comments : This does related to the pandemic but not away from the railway topic, feel free to move it to a different area if necessary.
Having been without "away" work for the last 12 months i am starting to get a few more bits filtering in that requires me to travel. As a little background and context, in 2018 i spent <90 nights in my own bed so i'm accustomed to hotel stays, protocols, and crucially, pricing structures.
My question(s) are, is there a link between rail travel and overnight stays where pricing has increased for one or both of them?
When i used to work up in Edinburgh (usually a few days at a time) i'd usually travel on day 0 and travel home the day after i'd finished, if not the day after. The hotel i used was usually about £50 a night (less during the winter), a 10 minute bus ride or 45 minute walk from the city centre. It was worth travelling the day before and staying the night after i finished (with a bonus night if i had time) because it wasn't expensive to stay there. Now its over £100 per night, and there are less train opportunities, and fewer advances (for now) so i find myself in a position where i will end up leaving the house at 0430 on day 1, and leaving Edinburgh to drive home at 2030 on the last day, and it will still cost me more in hotels that it used to. I can't use the train for this journey so the railway loses out on £100 or so.
I don't mind the drive to Edinburgh its around 5 and a bit hours + a rest in the middle and parking is easy and free where i need to be, i'd happily do this drive everytime, as its the same price as the train if i'm on my own, and immediately half the price of the train if i travel with a colleague). Trips to London are similar, my last journey opportunity home has been slashed by an hour meaning i have to stay overnight or drive now.
I've looked at a couple of purely leisure trips for me and my partner in a few weeks time with an overnight stay. Places we've stayed before and enjoyed, arrived by train etc. All of them are at least 50% more expensive, the train journeys are more difficult (though i appreciate some timetables aren't finalised yet) and lack of advances make it a little more expensive on the journeys i've checked but might be significant on other flows.
It's not a complaint as such , merely an observation
My question here is, has anyone seen similar? Has anyone looked at using a train and hotel combination and decided against it because of hotel prices? train prices? both? Has anyone decided to use the car instead of the train because the hotel price has made it unviable to stay?
Has anyone noticed the opposite?
Curious to know how things have affected peoples overnight stays, be it business or pleasure.
Having been without "away" work for the last 12 months i am starting to get a few more bits filtering in that requires me to travel. As a little background and context, in 2018 i spent <90 nights in my own bed so i'm accustomed to hotel stays, protocols, and crucially, pricing structures.
My question(s) are, is there a link between rail travel and overnight stays where pricing has increased for one or both of them?
When i used to work up in Edinburgh (usually a few days at a time) i'd usually travel on day 0 and travel home the day after i'd finished, if not the day after. The hotel i used was usually about £50 a night (less during the winter), a 10 minute bus ride or 45 minute walk from the city centre. It was worth travelling the day before and staying the night after i finished (with a bonus night if i had time) because it wasn't expensive to stay there. Now its over £100 per night, and there are less train opportunities, and fewer advances (for now) so i find myself in a position where i will end up leaving the house at 0430 on day 1, and leaving Edinburgh to drive home at 2030 on the last day, and it will still cost me more in hotels that it used to. I can't use the train for this journey so the railway loses out on £100 or so.
I don't mind the drive to Edinburgh its around 5 and a bit hours + a rest in the middle and parking is easy and free where i need to be, i'd happily do this drive everytime, as its the same price as the train if i'm on my own, and immediately half the price of the train if i travel with a colleague). Trips to London are similar, my last journey opportunity home has been slashed by an hour meaning i have to stay overnight or drive now.
I've looked at a couple of purely leisure trips for me and my partner in a few weeks time with an overnight stay. Places we've stayed before and enjoyed, arrived by train etc. All of them are at least 50% more expensive, the train journeys are more difficult (though i appreciate some timetables aren't finalised yet) and lack of advances make it a little more expensive on the journeys i've checked but might be significant on other flows.
It's not a complaint as such , merely an observation
My question here is, has anyone seen similar? Has anyone looked at using a train and hotel combination and decided against it because of hotel prices? train prices? both? Has anyone decided to use the car instead of the train because the hotel price has made it unviable to stay?
Has anyone noticed the opposite?
Curious to know how things have affected peoples overnight stays, be it business or pleasure.
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