I have lived in London for over 40 years and I have been booking hotel rooms for others for almost three-quarters of that time. If anyone can give you the best advice about getting bargain London hotel rooms – even during big sporting events like the Olympics, Wimbledon and football cup finals – it’s me. Whilst the rest of the world continues to pay premium prices for accommodation, you can join me in the “cheap rooms” section. You just have to know what you are doing.

To get the best hotel room prices anywhere (and especially in London), you have to take three considerations into account and make them work in your favour:

• Location
• Transport
• Timing

It’s easiest if we look at each of them in turn and how these options can influence whether you are able to get a cheap London hotel room or not. Getting your room for a reasonable price is not complicated in any way, you just have to know how to get the very best out of what’s available.

Location Is The First Key To Finding Bargain London Hotel Rooms

London is a very large place, spread over thousands of acres of land around the Thames estuary. It stretches from Heathrow Airport in its most western extent to the docks of Essex in the east; from Edgware in the north, to Gatwick Airport in the south. In all the London postal area covers something like 660 square miles (1700 square kilometres) and that doesn’t include large parts of the Greater London Metropolitan Police area which are usually regarded as parts of London.

Many of the tourist attractions in London – such as Westminster Abbey, The Palaces of Westminster (Houses of Parliament), Buckingham Palace, Covent Garden, The London Eye, Oxford Street, Regents Street and Hyde Park – are contained in a small area not much more than a single mile square. A simple truth is that people want to stay as close to what are considered “the amenities” and, as property prices in the middle of an old city like London are sky high, the cost of building and maintaining hotels here is also enormous.

Others tourist, sporting and business attractions, like Wimbledon Tennis, St Paul’s Cathedral, Kew Gardens, Wembley Arena, the O2 Arena, the Excel Centre, Canary Wharf and Docklands, the Tower of London, Tower Bridge and London Zoo, are further away. This can affect hotel prices in the near vicinity of these attractions, especially when a special event is taking place.

Transport In London: Use It To Your Advantage

London is well served by its public transport system. In fact it would be fair to say that it is usually easier to get about on the tube (underground) and railway as it is by road. The tubes run from early morning until quite late at night: last trains from central London start off just after midnight  and it doesn’t take long to travel quite long distances. The Central Line runs from the extreme east of London to the extreme west, takes in 49 stations over its 47 mile total length and takes about one and a quarter hours to travel its full length. In the central zones expect each stop to take about two minutes. So, using public transport it’s quite easy to travel a few miles in just a few minutes. That means you can find a hotel within easy travelling distance of your destination that is much cheaper than one locally.

Let’s take an example. Most people who are going to watch an event like the FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium will opt to stay fairly close to the venue. This means that over the weekend of the match, you’ll not find a hotel room within a few miles of Wembley for love nor money. All of those people will be paying much more than they would have done if they’d stayed in the same rooms at the same hotel a week either side. Understandable, because they all want to be near to the match. But if they’d look for a hotel 3-4 stops further down the tube line (underground), they’d be paying half!

It is important that you research London before you commit and book your hotel. Some routes are easier to travel than others and it doesn’t have much to do with distance. To give you one example: I live in Lewisham, which is in the south-east of London and I can be at Charing Cross (around 8 miles away) within 30 minutes of leaving my home. Similarly I can travel to Shoreditch – about the same distance – in 30-40 minutes, but to get to Peckham from my home would take around the same amount of time, although it’s only 2-3 miles away.

London is one of the biggest cities in the world and getting around it can be difficult or it can be easy, depending on where you’re travelling. It’s all a question of transport links. Luckily there’s a great website that shows you how to travel around London. Here is a link:

Timing Is Crucial In Finding Cheap Hotels In London

We’ve touched on this already. It simply means that you must time your stay when there’s nothing major happening nearby that could lead to a scarcity of rooms and a high accommodation cost. In Central London this is called “summer”… Or to be more exact, summer, Christmas Holidays (which go on much longer in the UK than in most places in the world, including the USA) and the “sales” tend to be the peak periods in central London and it’s getting worse. It is reaching the point when there are very few times when it’s not “peak” in terms of accommodation in the central areas of London.

Similarly, avoid south-west London during Wimbledon Fortnight, Wembley and the O2 Centre at Canada Water when there’s a major sporting or musical event taking place, and so on. The Docklands area is fast becoming London’s business centre and the Excel is rivalling Earl’s Court and Olympia in terms of big conferences and exhibitions. During the London Book Fair, upwards of 15,000 publishers, authors and associated trades descend on east and central London during March and that’s just one of many such events that push London hotel prices up.

Where To Find Cheap Hotels In London

There are three ways to stay in hotels that will not charge you as much as those in the centre of town and have a just as good (or maybe even better) experience. These are: (1) areas of central London that are not usually included as tourist destinations for one reason or another; (2) areas of London with great transport links to the centre that also contain numerous good hotels; (3) hotels in alternative destinations: and (4) less expensive areas of central Londom.

1. Central London

Luckily for us, what is referred to as “Central London” includes parts that are very close to the centre that don’t make it on to many tourist maps. These include the areas of Highbury, Farringdon, Shepherds Bush, Fulham, Hammersmith, Pimlico, Vauxhall, Kennington, Elephant & Castle, Borough, Bethnal Green, Whitechapel, Stoke Newington and Queens Park. Include them in your search next time you look for a hotel in London.

2. Good Transport Links To The Centre of London

Coming in on the tube (underground) from Heathrow Airport takes about 45 minutes to the centre of town, 20 minutes to Paddington on the Heathrow Express and the journey from Gatwick Airport to London can take as little as 30 minutes. (Stanstead and Luton airports are further afield). Both of these two major airports are awash with comfortable 3-star hotels and above, which are often half the price or less of their London counterparts. Just take into account the cost of transport when calculating possible savings.

Similarly, find out the nearest stations to wherever it is you want to visit in London and trace back the stops on the tube lines or railway lines that connect to it. For example, if you plan to spend a lot of time at London Zoo and in Camden Town in the northern end of central London, the nearest underground stations are Camden Town and Chalk Farm on the Northern Line. Follow the Northern Line north and see what hotels you can find in places like Golders Green, Hendon and Collindale; follow the line south and check out Clapham, Tooting and Wimbledon.

Here’s a hint that can save you a lot of heartache: always see what Trip Advisor says about the hotel you plan on booking before you actually book it. Read between the lines and don’t take every comment as the 100% accurate truth (people are strange – and it’s true that one man’s meat is another man’s poison – especially if one of them is a vegetarian), but take more note of remarks about dirt, rodents and rudeness than you would about what breakfast is like and how limp the showers are.

3. Cheap Hotels In Alternative London Locations

There are many areas of London with very pleasant 3 and 4 star hotels that are not in central London, with prices that will be half or less the cost of those in the middle of town. Here’s a personal list that is not meant to be in any way exhaustive. There are good and bad hotels everywhere, so don’t the location as an indication of either. Trip Adviser and other checks are highly recommended before you book anything.

Battersea, Camberwell, Chiswick, Clapham, Crystal Palace, Isle of Dogs, East London, Finchley, Finsbury Park, Fulham, Greenwich, Hammersmith, London Bridge, Southwark, Stratford (E15), and Wimbledon.

4. Cheaper Hotels In Central Areas

There are areas of London that are stuffed with small, private hotels aimed at the travelling and tourist markets. Several are located beside railway stations, the others tend to be in areas that were once genteel (with suitably large houses) that have lost much of their gentility. Some hotels in these areas are of poor quality, but there are gems there to be found and the tips about Trip Advisor (see above) apply here as much as anywhere.

• Bayswater & Lancaster Gate
• Earls Court, South Kensington & Gloucester Road
• Euston
• Kings Cross
• Paddington
• Victoria

Well, that’s about it. Armed with this advice you should now be able to find as many cheap hotels in London as you can handle. Good luck.

This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

This blog abides by word of mouth marketing standards. We believe in honesty of relationship, opinion and identity. The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post will be clearly identified as paid or sponsored content.

The owner of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner of this blog receives compensation for his posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers’ own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.

Here is my three-point-plan for getting the best possible price for all your late hotel bookings:

1. How Much Should You Be Paying?

Just like the milk (in fact even more so), the same hotel room can be sold for many different prices. To get a bargain we really need to know what the genuine room price is. Of course this will vary a lot, but you need to know what the cheapest end of the market is.

The best way to determine what a room should be costing you is to do a little Google research. Determine a time in the future when demand will be similar to what it is when you want to book your room and do a search. For example, don’t do a search for rooms around Christmas-time or during a major sporting event unless that’s when you want to book your late rooms. Always try and check “like for like”.

Determine what standard of room you are looking for and see how much it would cost to book normally. Look at several similar hotels in the same area. You’ll soon see a pattern emerging. Believe it or not, hotel operators are constantly monitoring what the competition are charging and adjusting their prices accordingly. Let this work to your advantage.

2. Define Your “Bargain”: Do You Want To Upgrade Or Pay Less?

Some people (like me) prefer to find a bargain that brings a better quality room into your price range. I’ll still end up by spending $80, for example – but instead of a crummy three-star room with a view of the car park, I’d prefer a luxurious 4-star executive room overlooking the park. Others get a bargain that gives an adequate room for less money. It’s totally your choice.

3. Check The Best Prices For All Late Hotels

Late hotel deals can come from several sources, including websites like Late Rooms and Late Hotels UK, but not exclusively. It really does pay to do a web search and see what kind of rooming prices other websites are coming up with. The concept of booking late to get the best hotel room deals isn’t really something you can rely on. Very often these days hotels book up and last minute offers just aren’t available.

One thing you really must do is: check the hotel’s own website before you commit to book anything. Very often – but not always – they will have the best deals for late hotels. Good luck booking your room!

One factor to be aware of is location. For example, cheap Dublin hotels can be rarer than hen’s teeth and the same can be said for hotels in the centre of London, New York and many other prominent cities around the world. But in Vegas, because there are just so many hotels, cheap rooms can be had.

On the other hand, if there are only a few rooms available on a certain day, you will not be offered much of a bargain. That is the fatal flaw in the whole late hotel booking concept. Because…

Late Hotels Are Not Always Cheap Hotels…

So how can you get the best possible price for any late hotels you want to book? I’m assuming that dates are not flexible – if they are, shop around until you find the best price for you. Here are my top 5 steps you should take to get the best late hotels bargains:

1. Shop Around

All the cheap hotels website have agreements to feature different hotels and different hotel groups more prominently than others. There is some crossover, but not as much as you might think. In fact what look like independent websites are very often secretly owned by one hotel chain or – more and more commonly – by an “affiliate”.  In case you didn’t already know, an affiliate is someone who earns commission by recommending a product and then receiving payment when someone follows their advice and books online. (Please be assured that the Late Hotels dot-org website does not earn any money from any service we review or recommend.)

2. Be Prepared To Travel

Do you really have to be in the center of town? A few miles away very decent hotels may be available at half the price of the ones you are looking at. It does pay to look at the transport links. In somewhere like London, for example, you will find that it is relatively quick and quite easy (if not especially cheap!) to travel long distances by public transport.

It might not all be good news. Most road transport links are not as good in London, so if you have to travel by car be aware of how you would be able to do it and how easy it would be. Be aware, too, of things like road-tolls and (in central London) a congestion charge that adds £8 ($12+) to your day’s driving. Spend some time doing your research: due diligence really can pay off in these situations.

3. Is There An Airport Nearby?

If so, you might find your bargain room at the hotels near there. Hotels tend to be bigger around airports and have lots of rooms to fill. Usually there are excellent transport links to where you want to go, that’s what airports do. You might also be able to take advantage of facilities such as free shuttle services and I’ve even be given a free limo service into town.

One word of caution: “free” doesn’t always mean without cost when it comes to the world of late hotels and accommodation “bargains”. For example, the “free limo service” I was assured was available as part of my rooming charge in a hotel in Las Vegas turned out to be a circular journey that took in all the hotels in the area (almost an hour to reach the Strip) and became pretty crowded once every seat had been taken and baggage piled high inside the limo. And, although billed as “free” the driver made it pretty clear he expected a sizeable gratuity every time he picked you up. No tip and next time he’d just glide by, pretending to be full or out of service. When it comes to hotels, free is a relative term.

4. Do Your Research: Check Out Trip Adviser

Do not just accept that the hotel that appears cheapest really is the best value: do a little more research. A few minutes spent on Google or Bing at this stage can save you heartache and money later. Search for late hotels in the location you are looking for and look up the hotel’s own website. Not every hotel offers cheap rooms to the late hotel websites.

And is the hotel as good as they say they are (it’s usually the hotels who write their own blurbs on hotel booking websites!). Trip Advisor has become the hotel owner’s feared adversary because it contains reviews from people like you and I, who have stayed there. Just be aware that some people are more difficult and expect different things to us. Do not let one bad review put you off- people can be cranky. Learn to read between the lines and see what a hotel is really like.

5. Email or Telephone The Hotel

Even if the websites you are looking at show no vacancies, it’s very likely that there might be a last minute cancellation and in my experience that’s where you’ll find the very best late hotel bargains. I once arrived at the last minute at a five star hotel in New York and, whereas my colleagues were paying as much as $485 for a standard room, I had an executive double on my own for $50. All right, so breakfast wasn’t included but I get fed very well for $5 at a diner a block away.

Remember: Late Hotels Can Offer Great Bargains – But You’ve Got To Be “In The Know” And Do Your Research

And that’s exactly what latehotels.org is here to do: put you “in the know” when it comes to getting the best deals. Please bookmark this website and come back often for your late hotels tips and tricks.

For a start, although Dublin hotel rooms are plentiful due to the legacy of the Celtic Tiger years and, despite the fact that the Irish economy is currently on its knees, you can still end up being asked top money for a hotel room in the center of Dublin. For example, a search I did in October 2011 on a certain well-known hotel booking website (that will remain name-less) for a double room for two for two weekend nights, the top searches ranged from a high of €500 (supposedly reduced from €639) for the 5 star Four Seasons Hotel to a low of €78 for the 3 star Aspect Hotel Parkwest, part of the budget Days hotel chain. That’s €39 a night for a superior kingsize bed room, though it excludes breakfast. (How mean!)

That would be the Dublin hotel room I would personally go for if I was just visiting Dublin for a couple of days. And how did I find this great offer? I followed an ad from a specialist hotel booking blog (just like this one – in fact, exactly like this one). Often when hotels or hotel booking websites have an offer they want to get to the public, the fastest, most efficient way is by online advertising. A good tip is to take advantage of that and get in first before all the bargains go.

Most of the rest of the 3-4 star hotels (my usual choice), came in for this search at around €70 to €120 for the two days. Some even included breakfast. Do not take this as a definitive result of how much you will end up paying. Prices will vary wildly according to the supply and demand factor, see the article on Hotel Booking Websites on this website for information on how it works – and ways to “beat the system” that might well help you find even more cheap Dublin hotels.

Here is our pick of the reasonably value hotels in Dublin we would stay at, following our searches and research:

4 Star Cheap Dublin Hotels

• Clarion Hotel Dublin Liffey Valley, Liffey Valley Complex, Dublin, 22
• Clarion Hotel Dublin Airport, Dublin Airport, Dublin
• The Plaza Hotel, Belgard Road, Tallaght, Dublin, 24
• The Louis Fitzgerald Hotel, Newland Cross, Naas Road, Dublin, 22
• Radisson Blu Hotel Dublin Airport, Dublin Airport, Dublin, Ireland
• Carlton Hotel Blanchardstown, Tyrrelstown, Dublin
• Castleknock Hotel and Country Club, Porterstown Road, Castleknock, Dublin 15
• Red Cow Moran Hotel, Red Cow Complex, Naas Road, Dublin, 22

3 Star Cheap Dublin Hotels

• Travelodge Phoenix Park,  Aurburn Avenue Roundabout, Navan Road, Dublin, 15
• The Metro Hotel Dublin Airport, Santry Cross, Ballymun Road, Dublin, 9
• Tara Towers Hotel, Merrion Road Ballsbridge, Dublin, 4
• Travelodge Dublin Airport North (Swords), Pinnock Hill Roundabout, Swords, Ireland
• Travelodge Dublin Airport South, Shangan Road, Dublin, 11
• Maldron Hotel Citywest, Kingswood Village, Naas Road, Dublin, 22
• Deerpark Lodge, Castleknock Road, Dublin, 15
• IMI Conference Centre and Residence, 16 Sandyford Road, Dublin, 16
• Bewleys Hotel Newland Cross, Naas Road, Dublin, 22
• Ardmore Hotel, Finglas Road, Tolka Valley, Dublin, Dublin 11
• Best Western Sheldon Park Hotel, Kylemore Road, Dublin, 12
• Bewleys Hotel Dublin Airport, Baskin Lane, Swords
• Maldron Hotel Tallaght, Whitestown Way, Tallaght, Dublin, 24
• Green Isle Conference & Leisure Hotel, Newland Cross, Naas Road, Dublin
• The Orwell, 69-Orwell Road Rathgar, Dublin, Dublin 6
• Abrae Court, 9 Zion Road – Rathgar, Dublin 6
• Morehampton Townhouse, 78 Morehampton Road, Donnybrook, Dublin 4
• Holiday Inn Express Dublin Airport, Northwood Park, Santry Demesne, Santry, Dublin
• The Pearse Hotel, 99-107 Pearse Street, Dublin 2
• Premier Inn Dublin Airport, Airside Retail Park, Swords, Ireland
• St. Aiden’s Guesthouse, 32 Brighton Road – Rathgar, Dublin, 6
• Abberley Court Hotel, Belgard Road Tallaght, Dublin, D24

1-2 Star Cheap Dublin Hotels

• Jacobs Inn, 21-28 Talbot Place, Dublin, Ireland
• Ibis Dublin West, Ibis Dublin West, Monastery Road Clondalkin, Dublin, 22
• Elvis Presley Guesthouse, 23 Leinster Road, Dublin, 6
• Harbor Bar and Grill Dun Laoghaire, 6-7 Marine Lower Road, Dun Laoghaire,  Ireland
• Kingston Hotel, Adelaide Street, Dun Laoghaire, Ireland
• The Martello Hotel, Strand Road, Bray, Ireland
• Moat Lodge, Adamstown Road, Lucan, Dublin 24
• Clontarf Court Hotel, 225 Clontarf Road, Clontarf, Dublin 3

There are of course many other decent hotels in Dublin that offer cheap hotel rooms, and you should definitely check them out in the ways explained throughout this website. One way to go would be to look for four or even five star luxury on a two or three star budget. That’s a great way to get brilliant value out of a stag or hen weekend.

Cheap Dublin hotels do exist and you can get a great deal if you look online and shop around. Good luck!

Thank you very much for visiting my website Late Hotels

I have spent many hours writing and researching how to get the best prices when booking hotel rooms online.

We pride ourselves in being able to help and educate as many people as possible. Our aim is to direct you to the best information available online and, as we spend time online every single day, we keep ourselves well informed of everything that might possibly be useful to our readers.

Our goal is to give all the free information you need… so please feel free to browse the entire site and help yourself to all the free information available here.

If you enjoy what you see, please bookmark us as one of your favorites, and come back again and again for more information as and when you need it.

CONTACT US

We welcome your feedback. To contact me, simply email me at the following address:

Jim (at) latehotels.org

Simply replace the (at) with the @ sign and close up the spaces; this is an anti-spam measure.

This page will save you money when dealing with hotel booking websites

Just so you know, this is a BLOG designed to help you get the best prices for late rooms, and not a hotel booking website. The best way I’ve found to find the best hotel websites is by Google searches (also Bing, Yahoo and whoever)  and by checking out online ads.

The good hotel booking websites (such as Laterooms.com, Octopus, Superbreak and a hundred more) have several important features that differentiate them from the bad hotel booking websites.

Good Hotel Reservation Websites  have…

• A clear, easy to follow entry page and search box
• A review section that include bad and not so good reviews as well as glowing testimonials. Even the best hotels have a bad hair day from time to time!
• Clear notification of what the price is for. Is it per person per day, or per room per day or per person for the entire stay, or per room for the entire, stay… ?
• No intention of charging you booking fees, local taxes or any other weaselly extras.
• Laid out procedures for when things go wrong, either with your booking or at the hotel.
• Clear contact details – if you’re paying by card, telephone and email support is the minimum. And is there a postal address?

Bad Hotel Reservation Websites  have…

• Plenty of cheap offers prominently featured on the front page but no obvious way of finding specifically what you are looking for
• Only positive, complimentary reviews. This means that they cull all the bad ones, which is not a good sign that they are looking after your interests above their own!
• Ways of making you think that you are paying less than you will actually be asked for.
• Sneaky add-ons when you come to check out. These can include the addition of local taxes (such as purchase tax, Value Added Tax, state taxes and so on), a charge for using a credit card to pay and (in some cases) for using a debit card. One or two of the worst examples will even charge a booking fee, which is unforgivable because the hotel will already be paying them a commission of what you are paying them. Be very careful!
• No regular procedure they follow in the case of any problem that may arise.
• No easy way to contact them. No telephone number, no address, no sign of where in the world they might be. People should have the choice whether they want to deal with a company that is based in some far corner of the world, away from the glare of media publicity and perhaps out of reach in case anything goes wrong with the deal…

It cannot be denied that hotel booking agencies come in handy, even if some of them are just there to take money off you.

One possible way of getting an even better hotel room deal is to look for  hotel room booking websites that specialize in the country or region you are traveling to. They will then be better placed to provide keen hotel rates than websites that only deal with global hotel chains. You’ll find that when you’re traveling to somewhere slightly off the beaten track, the only options available to you will be rooms in multinational chain hotels at multinational hotel rates.

When it comes to finding the best value hotel room, my advice is search online and compare the various options. Online ads are also a good way of seeing what’s available. Google, for example, are very stringent about who can advertise with them. Anyone who has a history of ripping people off or of offering bad service will usually be disallowed from placing ads on their network.

The best way to find local hotel booking websites is to search online, then check out links

To recap: it is very important that you look for hotel booking websites with care and that you take even more care before giving them your card details. In my experience, around a third of all hotel booking websites are good and reliable, offering a service they can be proud of; almost all the rest are almost OK, but not offering the best deals and prone to add on extras; and a very small proportion are rogue traders, just trying to get their sneaky hands on your hard-earned cash. To be honest these very bad sites don’t last long because their credit card providers (usually Paypal) and their hosting companies normally react very fast to complaints and cut them off. But their are more ways to be ripped off than having your credit card details stolen, so (in the words of a vintage TV cop show) “just be careful out there!”

Google Adsense and the DoubleClick DART Cookie
Google, as a third party advertisement vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on this site. The use of DART cookies by Google enables them to serve adverts to visitors that are based on their visits to this website as well as other sites on the internet.

To opt out of the DART cookies you may visit the Google ad and content network privacy policy at the following url http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html Tracking of users through the DART cookie mechanisms are subject to Google’s own privacy policies.

Other Third Party ad servers or ad networks may also use cookies to track users activities on this website to measure advertisement effectiveness and other reasons that will be provided in their own privacy policies, Late Hotels has no access or control over these cookies that may be used by third party advertisers.

Collection of Personal Information
When visiting Late Hotels, the IP address used to access the site will be logged along with the dates and times of access. This information is purely used to analyze trends, administer the site, track users movement and gather broad demographic information for internal use. Most importantly, any recorded IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.

Links to third party Websites
We have included links on this site for your use and reference. We are not responsible for the privacy policies on these websites. You should be aware that the privacy policies of these sites may differ from our own.

Changes to this Privacy Statement
The contents of this statement may be altered at any time, at our discretion.

If you have any questions regarding the privacy policy of Late Hotels then you may contact us at jim@latehotels.org

This policy was generated by Easy Privacy Policy Plugin churchill car insurance for WordPress.

That’s where latehotels-dot-org comes in. Our aim is to redress the balance in your favor by giving you information that will help you find the best late hotels room bargains when using hotel booking websites. We’ll give you insight into how the hotels “fix” their prices and offer you various cheats and ways around the system.

Where you want to stay plays a large part in how good a hotel room deal you can get. Certain parts of the world are better than others for finding cheap late hotels. It’s all a question of supply and demand. For example, finding bargain hotel prices in London is very difficult but not impossible, whereas somewhere like Scarborough on the Yorkshire coast of England usually has many more hotel rooms (supply) than people who want to stay there (demand) and so bargains can be found in adundance!

Local knowledge helps, as well as an insight into how supply and demand comes into play in various situations. Those in the know who are looking for cheap London hotels can opt to stay at one of the many Heathrow or Gatwick airport hotels, where 4 and 5 star luxury is available for a fraction of the price of staying in comparable hotels in Central London. The train or underground fare into London is a few pounds and the journey time is less than an hour in both cases.

The London airport hotels situation came about because large international hotel chains were invited to build large hotels on land surrounding the two London airports. Due to the economics of how hotels work, it makes more sense to have a lot of rooms served by one reception, one or two bars, restaurants, car parks and so on, so a lot of chains built tall buildings containing a lot of rooms, which they want to fill: hence the bargain room prices you can usually find there. In central London, where land is expensive and planning laws restrict the height of many buildings, rooms are much scarcer and so more expensive.

So, thanks for joining me at Late Hotels dot-org, I hope we can be of help.