Overnight trips

[MidlandJoe]

So, when planning trips for further away from home, does anyone have any tips on getting cheap hotel bookings?

I don't have anywhere specific in mind yet, but am just looking for general tips. What apps/sites do you use? Do you find it cheaper to stay in one hotel throughout the length of the trip, or do you stop in multiple?

Thanks.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I usually contact the hotel direct; often get a discount that way - I think it's because they know they won't be paying a hefty commission to a 3rd party... I can usually request a specific room this way as well.

As to nights in each location - well, that would very much depend on what you want to do with the trip wouldn't it?

 

[Andy Pacer]

I tend to use Premier Inn as a default and Travelodge as 2nd option.

 

[Whistler40145]

Mainly Premier Inn, pre COVID19 I would stay overnight prior to going on a railtour, usually booked through Pathfinder Tours

 

[OliverH68]

Travelodge has been dirt cheap recently, usually my go to. Lots of people suggest Premier Inn too but can be a bit more expensive.

 

[MidlandJoe]

Thanks all!

 

[30907]

For a longer trip, I prefer not to move on each night and give myself one or two baggage-free days.

As well as Premier and Travelodge, Accor group (Ibis etc) are also worth checking out.
I more often do trips abroad - booking.com has the widest selection of other hotels I know of, and I will always compare the hotel's own website. Loads of other booking websites available...

 

[Bletchleyite]

I tend to prefer Premier Inn, Travelodge is OK but not for a longer stay though I've heard good things about the "super rooms". Failing that, booking.com, then check that against the hotel's own website to see if it's cheaper.

Someone else mentioned Ibis - I find they are a bit expensive in the UK (though have the upside that they will do 5pm late checkout which can be handy if you're working for the day) but they are a safe default when abroad. Ibis Styles are OK too, but Ibis Budget is VERY basic, they make a Travelodge look plush - think of them as being equivalent to a YHA private room, not a hotel.

 

[ChrisC]

I don’t tend to do stays of only one night and usually prefer to base myself in one place for a few nights and then travel around for a few days using rail and bus rover tickets.

I don’t use Travelodge unless it’s one that has the option of paying extra for a super room. I don’t like having to live out of my case and Travelodges have little or no shelf space/ drawer space for storing clothing and other belongings. Premier Inn, although often more expensive, are much better and also the breakfast is usually better.
I did last year stay in a Holiday Inn Express and that wasn’t too bad.

I wouldn’t pay an extortionate rate but I don’t mind paying a little extra for a bit of luxury if I’m staying somewhere for a few nights and have often found Best Western hotel quite good. If you are a Best Western Rewards Member you quite often get upgraded to quite a good room. Their hotels are variable and some a bit old fashioned but many have lots of character and are privately owned without the standardised look of the big chains.

I’ve never booked using booking,com but do use that website to find hotels and then I book with the hotel directly. Lots of smaller, especially village pubs can have some very good reasonably priced rooms with good home cooked breakfasts.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I don’t use Travelodge unless it’s one that has the option of paying extra for a super room. I don’t like having to live out of my case and Travelodges have little or no shelf space/ drawer space for storing clothing and other belongings. Premier Inn, although often more expensive, are much better and also the breakfast is usually better.

To me Premier Inn is to easyJet what Travelodge is to Ryanair - Premier Inn is about a reasonable product at a reasonable (but not rock-bottom) price, whereas Travelodge is about a very basic product at a rock-bottom price. So if you want to enjoy your stay the former wins, but if you're arriving at 11pm, getting your head down, getting up at 7am and continuing your journey, Travelodge is fine.

There is one context where I prefer Travelodge - I prefer not to have air conditioning (it dries me out too much), and Travelodges generally don't have it, whereas Premier Inns increasingly do.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

I cheat and look through consolidator type websites and then book direct with the hotel. Travelodge for me when I am in the UK.

 

[xotGD]

Ideally I can combine some railway action with a work trip, and then the hotel is free!

I agree with those who say that Premier Inns are a cut above Travelodge. But if I can find a good deal at a Doubletree, even better.

 

[dave87016]

I usually tend to stay in Premier Inn’s with the exception of Edinburgh Haymarket Travelodge as I like to have a few in Haymarket after a days spotting and a few beers

If you want bed and breakfast I recommend Ye Olde Coach house Harrogate 5 mins from station. it only has 2 bedrooms but he breakfast is amazing the owner is a diamond and makes sure your stay is the best you can hope for

The Carrington Guest House Paignton is another brilliant bed and breakfast

There are Plenty of recommendations on the accommodation and stays thread

 

[FQ]

To me Premier Inn is to easyJet what Travelodge is to Ryanair - Premier Inn is about a reasonable product at a reasonable (but not rock-bottom) price, whereas Travelodge is about a very basic product at a rock-bottom price. So if you want to enjoy your stay the former wins, but if you're arriving at 11pm, getting your head down, getting up at 7am and continuing your journey, Travelodge is fine.

Now I think about it that's pretty much spot on - I hate Ryanair and I hate travelodge and almost always pay extra for Premier Inn/Easyjet because I value my comfort over the small cost saving. So that being said, whenever I'm staying in a UK hotel it's Premier Inn or better except in rare cases.

 

[peteb]

I use Booking.com to find hotels and then try to book direct at the website price. The hotel gets an extra 20% that way and I still benefit from the discount.

If travelling in France I use Ibis Budget: Usually very close to a station. Look on booking.com to see if it's a new hotel. The newer ones are really good but some of the older ones are a bit basic and dated, particularly beds and bathrooms. But the prices are excellent.

 

[route101]

This year its been mostly travelodges, usually very cheap , even booking with little notice.

Some are scruffy, older ones over ten years old.

Prefer premier Inn as you get free WiFi , as you save your mobile data.

 

[bspahh]

Before lockdown, I would do a fair amount of travelling for work.

If I'm travelling by public transport, the most important feature for me is the location.

Check the precise location of the hotel and don't rely on the name. The "Marriott Oxford South" https://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/oxfcx-courtyard-oxford-south is 11 miles from Oxford!

If you are going to use public transport to get to the hotel, check that it runs at the times that you will need to use it.

http://www.wikivoyage.org is good if you need background information about a place. For example its good for advice on how to transfer from an airport to a city. wikitravel.org has similar information but has adverts. https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Wikivoyage:Wikivoyage_and_Wikitravel has more on the differences

Its worth reading reviews for a hotel at sites like www.tripadvisor.com Treat them with a bit of caution. Some reviews are fake. Others are from people who slag off a hotel for things that you might not care about.

I stayed in one horrible Travelodge, which had a mixture of good and bad reviews. There might have been some nice rooms, but the one I had was dank, mouldy and right next to a busy road. I left a window open for ventilation, woke up at 5am when a lorry passed by, and then left.

What features do you want in a room? Refurbished rooms will have more power sockets and better air conditioning.

Check for cashback from a site like www.quidco.com and www.topcashback.co.uk Booking sites like www.expedia.com www.ebookers.com www.hotels.com and www.booking.com often list the same price that you would get from the hotel's own WWW site.

Often you can get 10% cash back from Quidco as well as extra bonus. www.trivago.com checks these sites for you, but it will take any click-through revenue that you could have got from a cashback site.

Sometimes a hotel will be fully booked from those sites, but still be available through the hotel's own site. This has happened for me with a Novotel which was only available for the nights I wanted through their own www.accor.com site

Holiday Inn Express includes a free breakfast. Holiday Inns charge a load extra. Don't pay extra for a room with breakfast included in the room rate, if you need to leave at 5.30am before its served.

I like using www.tripit.com to put together an itinerary. For the common airlines, hotel and train companies, you can forward the conformation email and it will pick out the details for your stay. It really helps to do this, to make sure that you book all the things for a trip in the right order. Then you can print out a PDF of the trip, or access it in their app. This makes it easier to enter the address of a hotel into Google Maps, and saves you from getting directions to the wrong hotel.

One grumble with the tripit WWW site used to be that it sometimes assumed that the time zone is in California, unless you finish every address with "UK".

 

[185143]

Varies for me. I'm usually a tight a*se and find somewhere as cheap as possible near a station. So I've stayed in all sorts of places! Only been to one place I wouldn't go back to though, and it's since been removed from Booking.com anyway.

Ibis Budget is basic, yes, but perfectly adequate. I spent a week in the Fratton Ibis Budget last year and would have gladly checked in for another week. It wasn't the cheapest place I've ever stayed though, the price fluctuated wildly each night I was there.

Easyhotel... big fan. Makes Ibis budget feel plush at times, but for the prices you can pay are excellent. If I'm going to fall into bed in the small hours after far too many beers, I don't care how fancy (or not) somewhere is! I've spent a week in an Easyhotel as well in Ipswich and would have gladly checked in for another week. Though admittedly the staff on check in did give me a room "with a bit of legroom". I was very impressed with the Glasgow hotel at £21 for the room on the day of arrival. Easyhotel in particular seem to have lots of plug sockets.

Travelodge is a firm favourite of mine, though I wish more had AC. The only bad experience I've had, the hotel admitted fault and refunded that night's stay.

Premier Inn I've done a few times, though I was unimpressed with my last stay. It seemed to get very warm in the room overnight as the AC seemingly switched itself off. I was also unable to leave my bag for half an hour before check in "because COVID".

Wetherspoons is excellent, though budget they (surprisingly) usually are not. They were happy to keep my bag and sanitize the handle before returning it. Obviously you know what to expect food/drink wise here!

A tip I saw once with Booking.com was "find something above an 8.0 and you won't be disappointed". I'd echo that, though I'd set the bar a bit lower personally. I'll usually stay in one place for the whole duration of my trip, only splitting it if it's a long trip and I'm moving around. Eg: 7 nights in Ibis Budget Fratton, 3 nights in an excellent B&B in Folkestone (Sunnylodge guest house, very highly recommended!) Then a weekend in a Travelodge in Croydon. It's a trade off between wether location, facilities or cost is the most important. No point paying for a 5* hotel with a pool, spa and gym if you're going to come back at midnight and just crash out.

 

[Andy Pacer]

To me Premier Inn is to easyJet what Travelodge is to Ryanair - Premier Inn is about a reasonable product at a reasonable (but not rock-bottom) price, whereas Travelodge is about a very basic product at a rock-bottom price. So if you want to enjoy your stay the former wins, but if you're arriving at 11pm, getting your head down, getting up at 7am and continuing your journey, Travelodge is fine.

There is one context where I prefer Travelodge - I prefer not to have air conditioning (it dries me out too much), and Travelodges generally don't have it, whereas Premier Inns increasingly do.

Agree. And in 'normal times' I enjoy using Premier Inn's "Thyme" restaurants as they suit me when travelling alone.

 

[mrcheek]

Travelodge and Premier Inn have some really low price rooms available right now.

But not at all of them.

The key is to be fairly open about where you intend to stay. Hotels in city centres are still fairly expensive, but those in smaller towns, or on outskirts, are much better value.

 

[route101]

Travelodge and Premier Inn have some really low price rooms available right now.

But not at all of them.

The key is to be fairly open about where you intend to stay. Hotels in city centres are still fairly expensive, but those in smaller towns, or on outskirts, are much better value.

Yes some cheap rooms. I looked other day at Glasgow, all cheap, Glasgow usually quite expensive. I paid £45 for Travelodge in London near Waterloo. Cricklewood was £30.

 

[route101]

Travelodge and Premier Inn have some really low price rooms available right now.

But not at all of them.

The key is to be fairly open about where you intend to stay. Hotels in city centres are still fairly expensive, but those in smaller towns, or on outskirts, are much better value.

Yes some cheap rooms. I looked other day at Glasgow, all cheap, Glasgow usually quite expensive. I paid £45 for Travelodge in London near Waterloo. Cricklewood was £30.

 

[Andy Pacer]

Yes some cheap rooms. I looked other day at Glasgow, all cheap, Glasgow usually quite expensive. I paid £45 for Travelodge in London near Waterloo. Cricklewood was £30.

I've found Glasgow to be variable, and there are a few around the city if you dont mind a bit of a walk!

 

[cactustwirly]

Personally I don't rate Premier Inn, it's just a purple Travelodge.
Worth trying Holiday Inn & Holiday Inn Express. These are much better hotels and can often be cheaper than Premier Inn.

Also worth trying Booking.com and TripAdvisor for other hotels and independents.

If you're travelling abroad or to Scotland, then it may also be worth looking at British Airways Holidays, you can get some very reasonable deals for flights & hotels.

 

[Andy Pacer]

Agree that Holiday Inn tend to be quite good and often reasonable. I do see a difference between Premier Inn and Travelodge though, I used a Travelodge in Paignton when on an ALR last year after a long time of not using one and could really see the poorer quality.

 

[47403]

I tend to use booking.com but I tend to know, if I'm going somewhere at least a month in advance and usually stay within a 15min walk of the station if poss. However if I planned to go somewhere, on a big trip, 3 or 4 days away, I do it well in advance, normally 3months. I use B n B's most times too. Yeah it's a little more pricey but my feeling being getting a breakfast in the morning tends to tide you over longer, leaving longer on or beside the rails, rather than looking for food. I'm normally on some kind of multi day rover and most rovers don't usually kick in till half 8 or 9 too, so breakfast kills a bit time before you leave too.

It's each to your own, if your on an ALR, the cheaper option makes more sense on your budget. I usually book the b n b, get the pay later option, to pay on the day, get the tickets paid for first, then, the next month, pay for the rovers, normally they're only issued 28 days before you use them, then on the day I travel I pay for the hotel, on arrival.

 

[Andy Pacer]

That's a good point actually about B&B being a good idea when rovers don't start being valid until after the morning peak and one I'd not really considered. Subconsciously I always feel B&B limits me and takes too much if the early morning away but in practice I'm hanging around anyway.

 

[trainophile]

Varies for me. I'm usually a tight a*se and find somewhere as cheap as possible near a station. So I've stayed in all sorts of places! Only been to one place I wouldn't go back to though, and it's since been removed from Booking.com anyway.

I could have written that! Likewise re. only one place I wouldn't go back to - yours wasn't in Norwich too was it?

I won't book breakfast if it's extra, prefer to get a porridge pot or a Greggs sausage roll. Happy to have breakfast if it's included in the room price. The less I spend on accommodation and food, the more trips I can have. Naturally that goes for split ticketing too.

My one tip is when you find somewhere on booking.com, click on "view map", and it brings up not only the position of the place you're looking at, but also all the other places with vacancies around it, together with prices, and you can then view individual places to see if they are more suitable and/or cheaper. Handy for ensuring not too far from the station. Sometimes if you zoom in on the map it pops in more places nearby that weren't on the original map view. I've found some good bargains that way.

Incidentally I find booking.com quite competitive, as once you've made a few bookings with them they accord you Genius status, which gives up to 15% discount on many places. It's often cheaper that way than contacting the hotel directly.

 

[route101]

Premier Inn in Portsmouth near the Gunwharf Quay , I stayed in July was spotless, was brand new.

All about location, has be near station, not one of these on outskirts at a services!

 

[185143]

I could have written that! Likewise re. only one place I wouldn't go back to - yours wasn't in Norwich too was it?

I won't book breakfast if it's extra, prefer to get a porridge pot or a Greggs sausage roll. Happy to have breakfast if it's included in the room price. The less I spend on accommodation and food, the more trips I can have. Naturally that goes for split ticketing too.

My one tip is when you find somewhere on booking.com, click on "view map", and it brings up not only the position of the place you're looking at, but also all the other places with vacancies around it, together with prices, and you can then view individual places to see if they are more suitable and/or cheaper. Handy for ensuring not too far from the station. Sometimes if you zoom in on the map it pops in more places nearby that weren't on the original map view. I've found some good bargains that way.

Incidentally I find booking.com quite competitive, as once you've made a few bookings with them they accord you Genius status, which gives up to 15% discount on many places. It's often cheaper that way than contacting the hotel directly.

Nope, Inverness.