Could use some hotel/travel help

2013-09-25 Thread Randy J. Ray
(TL;DR version: I've lost my A-Z and haven't been to London in ages, so 
I need help locating a Metro station and hotels.)


Greetings all!

I will be traveling to England this November to spend time in London and 
Telford. I am arriving in London (Heathrow) on the 2nd of November, 
going up to Telford on the 7th, then returning to London for one night 
on the 10th before I fly back to California on Monday the 11th.


For the 7th-10th, I have a hotel reservation in Telford (I'm coming for 
a hobby convention, so I've reserved at the hotel near the International 
Centre). However, for the 2nd-7th, and for the night of the 10th, I 
still need to make some reservations. Problem is, I haven't been out 
there in about 7 years. I can't even find my old A-Z guide. I have 
forgotten which station I'll be taking the bus (or rail) from to get 
from London to Telford, and vice-versa. (Fortunately, the rail and bus 
station in Telford is right by the International Centre, so I'm not 
worried about the Telford side of my trip.)


Last time I was out, I stayed near the theater district district. I was 
a pleasant walk to the Metro station, one of the major ones (Victoria, 
maybe?). But it wasn't the station I used to get to Telford, and *this* 
time I expect to be carrying a little more luggage (I plan to bring a 
few models to the show). So I would prefer to get a hotel closer to the 
Metro station that I'll be leaving from for Telford. I would also like 
to find a place that will make it (relatively) easy to get to Heathrow 
Monday morning for my flight out.


So, what I could use help with is this: Firstly, can someone identify 
for me what the Metro station is that I would be leaving from to go to 
Telford. Then, what postal code(s) should I look for hotels in? I figure 
I'll use hotels.com or something like that to actually find a place in 
my budget range. But I don't know where anything is, and without my A-Z 
I can't even look things up! Lastly, suggestions for a place, or at 
least the postal codes to look in, to stay on the 10th as well.


Cheers in advance for all help!

Randy
--
"""
Randy J. Ray  Sunnyvale, CA  http://www.rjray.org 
rj...@blackperl.com


twitter.com/rjray
Silicon Valley Scale Modelers: http://www.svsm.org


Re: Could use some hotel/travel help

2013-09-25 Thread Kieren Diment
Mornington Crescent.

(with apologies)

On 26/09/2013, at 2:14 PM, Randy J. Ray wrote:

> (TL;DR version: I've lost my A-Z and haven't been to London in ages, so I 
> need help locating a Metro station and hotels.)
> 
> Greetings all!
> 
> I will be traveling to England this November to spend time in London and 
> Telford. I am arriving in London (Heathrow) on the 2nd of November, going up 
> to Telford on the 7th, then returning to London for one night on the 10th 
> before I fly back to California on Monday the 11th.
> 
> For the 7th-10th, I have a hotel reservation in Telford (I'm coming for a 
> hobby convention, so I've reserved at the hotel near the International 
> Centre). However, for the 2nd-7th, and for the night of the 10th, I still 
> need to make some reservations. Problem is, I haven't been out there in about 
> 7 years. I can't even find my old A-Z guide. I have forgotten which station 
> I'll be taking the bus (or rail) from to get from London to Telford, and 
> vice-versa. (Fortunately, the rail and bus station in Telford is right by the 
> International Centre, so I'm not worried about the Telford side of my trip.)
> 
> Last time I was out, I stayed near the theater district district. I was a 
> pleasant walk to the Metro station, one of the major ones (Victoria, maybe?). 
> But it wasn't the station I used to get to Telford, and *this* time I expect 
> to be carrying a little more luggage (I plan to bring a few models to the 
> show). So I would prefer to get a hotel closer to the Metro station that I'll 
> be leaving from for Telford. I would also like to find a place that will make 
> it (relatively) easy to get to Heathrow Monday morning for my flight out.
> 
> So, what I could use help with is this: Firstly, can someone identify for me 
> what the Metro station is that I would be leaving from to go to Telford. 
> Then, what postal code(s) should I look for hotels in? I figure I'll use 
> hotels.com or something like that to actually find a place in my budget 
> range. But I don't know where anything is, and without my A-Z I can't even 
> look things up! Lastly, suggestions for a place, or at least the postal codes 
> to look in, to stay on the 10th as well.
> 
> Cheers in advance for all help!
> 
> Randy
> -- 
> """
> Randy J. Ray  Sunnyvale, CA  http://www.rjray.org rj...@blackperl.com
> twitter.com/rjray
> Silicon Valley Scale Modelers: http://www.svsm.org




Re: Could use some hotel/travel help

2013-09-25 Thread Hakim C
> On 26/09/2013, at 2:14 PM, Randy J. Ray wrote:
> without my A-Z I can't even look things up!

http://traintimes.org.uk/telford/london/ suggests you want Euston station

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/ will tell you that this is a mere stop from
Mornington Crescent

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=mornington+crescent will help you
navigate the area even without your A-Z

osf'


Re: Could use some hotel/travel help

2013-09-26 Thread James Laver
On 26 Sep 2013, at 05:29, Kieren Diment  wrote:

> Mornington Crescent.
> 
> (with apologies)

Surely only at the end of his trip?

Given he wants Euston, it's less silly than it sounds, but Camden is a bit 
gauche.

I'm rather fond of the Great Northern Hotel at King's Cross (or at least it's a 
favourite brunch spot), but it's definitely not a cheap option. Alternatively 
how about somewhere lovely in Somers Town (Euston)? Bloomsbury would also be 
convenient and is quite beautiful. Again, an easy walk into Euston. Fitzrovia 
would put you one stop away (Warren St) or a slightly longer walk and is also 
quite lovely with some great eating.

James


Re: Could use some hotel/travel help

2013-09-26 Thread Dave Hodgkinson
Given that you're only going to/from the station a couple of times, I
wouldn't worry about it. Euston is well connected and there's always magic
black chariots. Pick where you want to stay and enjoy that.

Also, Camden is a great place but is a bit short of hotels, except the
Holiday Inn. Go central if you can.


Re: Could use some hotel/travel help

2013-09-26 Thread Smylers
Randy J. Ray writes:

> Last time I was out, I stayed near the theater district district. I
> was a pleasant walk to the Metro station, one of the major ones
> (Victoria, maybe?). But it wasn't the station I used to get to
> Telford, and *this* time I expect to be carrying a little more luggage
> (I plan to bring a few models to the show). So I would prefer to get a
> hotel closer to the Metro station that I'll be leaving from for
> Telford.

Is it the total distance from your hotel to Euston that you wish to
minimize, or the distance walking?

If the latter, then any hotel near a Tube stop that has direct trains to
Euston would do, and what matters is how close the hotel is to that Tube
station, not how many stops it is from Euston.

My experience of staying in various central London hotels is that nearly
all of them are either eye-wateringly expensive (generally chains) or
shockingly shabby (often small guest houses, some with ‘hotel’ in their
names; in some cases they've been verging on unhygienic).

We'll also be spending a couple of nights in London in November, where
we found a Premier Inn quoting £189 for 1 night, which is crazy money
for a budget hotel.

So we went for the St Paul's YHA. We've stayed there before. It's
pleasantly done out, inexpensive, very centrally located, and without
the massive ‘ick’ factor of the cheap hotels I've stayed in. In general
I recommend it. (I can't remember how much lockable storage space you
get in a shared room though, which is obviously relevant to somebody
travelling with models.) http://www.yha.org.uk/hostel/london-st-pauls

> I would also like to find a place that will make it (relatively) easy
> to get to Heathrow Monday morning for my flight out.

Last month we stayed at the Jurys Inn in Hatton Cross, before our
morning flight from Heathrow. It's very close to Hatton Cross Tube
station (there's just one building between the two, albeit a reasonably
sized one), which is on the perimeter fence of Heathrow; it's just 1 or
2 stops on the Tube to your terminal. The hotel was fine, and the staff
friendly: http://heathrowhotels.jurysinns.com/

Good luck with sorting it out

Smylers
-- 
Stop drug companies hiding negative research results.
Sign the AllTrials petition to get all clinical research results published.
Read more: http://www.alltrials.net/blog/the-alltrials-campaign/



Re: Could use some hotel/travel help

2013-09-26 Thread Joel Bernstein
On 26 September 2013 06:14, Randy J. Ray  wrote:

> So, what I could use help with is this: Firstly, can someone identify for
> me what the Metro station is that I would be leaving from to go to Telford.
> Then, what postal code(s) should I look for hotels in? I figure I'll use
> hotels.com or something like that to actually find a place in my budget
> range. But I don't know where anything is, and without my A-Z I can't even
> look things up! Lastly, suggestions for a place, or at least the postal
> codes to look in, to stay on the 10th as well.
>


You'll travel to Telford (via Birmingham/Wolverhampton) from Euston rail
station. It's accessible by at least 3 Underground lines (you'll want to
get to Euston or Euston Square underground stations). It's not a very
interesting area but James already suggested some nearby. As Dave says,
it's not hard to get to Euston, you can always take a taxi, better to stay
somewhere you like the look / sound of. Postcodewise you're talking NW1 I
think. Do understand that cheap hotels in London are not cheap and tend to
be appallingly low quality.

I'm not sure why you consider an outdated A-Z essential, just use Google
Maps like everybody else does.

/joel


Re: Could use some hotel/travel help

2013-09-26 Thread Alan Mosca
I've got one word for you : Priceline. You can easily get sub 100$ per
night and have a 4*, depending on period. YMMV.
I wouldn't worry about the station, you can get to Euston from anywhere in
zones 1-2 within half an hour max, and hotels tend to be near transport.
Also don't underestimate the power of the red buses.
On 26 Sep 2013 10:32, "Smylers"  wrote:

> Randy J. Ray writes:
>
> > Last time I was out, I stayed near the theater district district. I
> > was a pleasant walk to the Metro station, one of the major ones
> > (Victoria, maybe?). But it wasn't the station I used to get to
> > Telford, and *this* time I expect to be carrying a little more luggage
> > (I plan to bring a few models to the show). So I would prefer to get a
> > hotel closer to the Metro station that I'll be leaving from for
> > Telford.
>
> Is it the total distance from your hotel to Euston that you wish to
> minimize, or the distance walking?
>
> If the latter, then any hotel near a Tube stop that has direct trains to
> Euston would do, and what matters is how close the hotel is to that Tube
> station, not how many stops it is from Euston.
>
> My experience of staying in various central London hotels is that nearly
> all of them are either eye-wateringly expensive (generally chains) or
> shockingly shabby (often small guest houses, some with ‘hotel’ in their
> names; in some cases they've been verging on unhygienic).
>
> We'll also be spending a couple of nights in London in November, where
> we found a Premier Inn quoting £189 for 1 night, which is crazy money
> for a budget hotel.
>
> So we went for the St Paul's YHA. We've stayed there before. It's
> pleasantly done out, inexpensive, very centrally located, and without
> the massive ‘ick’ factor of the cheap hotels I've stayed in. In general
> I recommend it. (I can't remember how much lockable storage space you
> get in a shared room though, which is obviously relevant to somebody
> travelling with models.) http://www.yha.org.uk/hostel/london-st-pauls
>
> > I would also like to find a place that will make it (relatively) easy
> > to get to Heathrow Monday morning for my flight out.
>
> Last month we stayed at the Jurys Inn in Hatton Cross, before our
> morning flight from Heathrow. It's very close to Hatton Cross Tube
> station (there's just one building between the two, albeit a reasonably
> sized one), which is on the perimeter fence of Heathrow; it's just 1 or
> 2 stops on the Tube to your terminal. The hotel was fine, and the staff
> friendly: http://heathrowhotels.jurysinns.com/
>
> Good luck with sorting it out
>
> Smylers
> --
> Stop drug companies hiding negative research results.
> Sign the AllTrials petition to get all clinical research results published.
> Read more: http://www.alltrials.net/blog/the-alltrials-campaign/
>
>


Re: Could use some hotel/travel help

2013-09-26 Thread Bob Walker

On Thu, 26 Sep 2013, Alan Mosca wrote:


Also don't underestimate the power of the red buses.


to not get you somewhere on time.

buses are fine but if you need to be soemwhere at a certain time like say 
catching a train you should leave yourself a relatively large margin of 
delayedness.




--
bob walker
everything should be purple and bendy
http://randomness.org.uk




Re: Could use some hotel/travel help

2013-09-26 Thread Kieren Diment
Yeah, but I already won. Ungetlemanly as my strategy was. 

--
Sent from my phone, so please excuse spelling mistakes, top posting, brevity 
etc. 

On 26/09/2013, at 17:03, James Laver  wrote:

> On 26 Sep 2013, at 05:29, Kieren Diment  wrote:
> 
>> Mornington Crescent.
>> 
>> (with apologies)
> 
> Surely only at the end of his trip?



Re: Could use some hotel/travel help

2013-09-26 Thread James Laver
On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 11:05 AM, Kieren Diment  wrote:
> Yeah, but I already won. Ungetlemanly as my strategy was.
>
> --
> Sent from my phone, so please excuse spelling mistakes, top posting, brevity 
> etc.

You were in Nidd. Also, we were playing Mornington Croissant.*

James
* http://www.isihac.co.uk/games/mcvariations/mc-m.html


Re: Could use some hotel/travel help

2013-09-26 Thread Will Crawford
Morning tongue croissant!

On 26 September 2013 11:22, James Laver  wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 11:05 AM, Kieren Diment  wrote:
>> Yeah, but I already won. Ungetlemanly as my strategy was.
>>
>> --
>> Sent from my phone, so please excuse spelling mistakes, top posting, brevity 
>> etc.
>
> You were in Nidd. Also, we were playing Mornington Croissant.*
>
> James
> * http://www.isihac.co.uk/games/mcvariations/mc-m.html


Re: Could use some hotel/travel help

2013-09-26 Thread Smylers
Alan Mosca writes:

> I've got one word for you : Priceline.

OK, I've never used Priceline before so just had a look to see what they
can find for our London trip.

> You can easily get sub 100$ per night and have a 4*, depending on
> period.

The dates were fixed for us (we're attending a wedding).

I dispute “easily”. By default it searches all of London, which is
surely useless for everybody. It doesn't allow narrowing down by
postcode or Tube station. Admittedly it does offer to search by
proximity to golf courses, but regrettably directions for venues tend
not to mention those in the way they do postcodes and stations.

So I'm left reading through a long list of ‘other landmarks’ to work out
which one is likely to be nearest to where we want to stay, then going
through the resulting hotels list, adjusting the distances given to
allow for the delta between the location we actually want to search near
and the one it let us search near.

At which point it turns out that some of the purported hotels in the
list are actually hostels or apartments.

So far as I can tell we can get actual, non-scummy, hotels for $182 or
$239. Which admittedly is less than £189, but still way over the $100
you mentioned.

Oh, except that there's an extra mysterious[*] ‘taxes and fees’ added at
checkout, which I'm guessing is VAT, making the $182 actually $218 per
night (which, when translated to sterling, is exactly the same price
that Booking.com quote for that room on those dates).

[*] Mysterious in the sense that they don't even try to justify how they
calculated that particular charge for this booking, just waffling on
about the kinds of things they cover.

> YMMV.

Apparently it did.

Having already checked Booking.com, Priceline didn't find anything
additional or provide better rates. And nor was it's interface so slick
or process so helpful that I'm wishing I'd used it instead of
Booking.com.

Smylers
-- 
Stop drug companies hiding negative research results.
Sign the AllTrials petition to get all clinical research results published.
Read more: http://www.alltrials.net/blog/the-alltrials-campaign/



Re: Could use some hotel/travel help

2013-09-26 Thread david
  

You could try http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ [2] It certainly
appears to be able to position your hotel better than Priceline. 

I
would echo what other people have said about picking the hotel you like,
based on price, facilities, scenic location, etc., but don't worry *too*
much about proximity to the station. You can get pretty much anywhere in
central London in about 20-30 mins by tube/taxi. 

My suggestion would
be to look at the slew of (relatively) recently built "entry-level"
chain hotels (Novotel, Premier Inn, etc.) that have been built south of
the river in Southwark[*] between Waterloo and London Bridge. Both of
those stations are on the Northern Line, which will take you direct to
Euston. 

David 

[*] Pronounced "Suth-ark" ;-) 

On Thu, 26 Sep 2013
11:55:37 +0100, Smylers wrote: 

> Alan Mosca writes:
> 
>> I've got one
word for you : Priceline.
> 
> OK, I've never used Priceline before so
just had a look to see what they
> can find for our London trip.
> 
>>
You can easily get sub 100$ per night and have a 4*, depending on
period.
> 
> The dates were fixed for us (we're attending a wedding).
>

> I dispute "easily". By default it searches all of London, which is
>
surely useless for everybody. It doesn't allow narrowing down by
>
postcode or Tube station. Admittedly it does offer to search by
>
proximity to golf courses, but regrettably directions for venues tend
>
not to mention those in the way they do postcodes and stations.
> 
> So
I'm left reading through a long list of 'other landmarks' to work out
>
which one is likely to be nearest to where we want to stay, then going
>
through the resulting hotels list, adjusting the distances given to
>
allow for the delta between the location we actually want to search
near
> and the one it let us search near.
> 
> At which point it turns
out that some of the purported hotels in the
> list are actually hostels
or apartments.
> 
> So far as I can tell we can get actual, non-scummy,
hotels for $182 or
> $239. Which admittedly is less than £189, but still
way over the $100
> you mentioned.
> 
> Oh, except that there's an extra
mysterious[*] 'taxes and fees' added at
> checkout, which I'm guessing
is VAT, making the $182 actually $218 per
> night (which, when
translated to sterling, is exactly the same price
> that Booking.com
quote for that room on those dates).
> 
> [*] Mysterious in the sense
that they don't even try to justify how they
> calculated that
particular charge for this booking, just waffling on
> about the kinds
of things they cover.
 

Links:
--
[1]
http://www.alltrials.net/blog/the-alltrials-campaign/
[2]
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/


Re: Could use some hotel/travel help

2013-09-26 Thread Kieren Diment
morningside crescent is very close to the major psychiatric hospital in 
Edinburgh FWIW.


On 26/09/2013, at 8:39 PM, Will Crawford  wrote:

> Morning tongue croissant!
> 
> On 26 September 2013 11:22, James Laver  wrote:
>> On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 11:05 AM, Kieren Diment  wrote:
>>> Yeah, but I already won. Ungetlemanly as my strategy was.
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Sent from my phone, so please excuse spelling mistakes, top posting, 
>>> brevity etc.
>> 
>> You were in Nidd. Also, we were playing Mornington Croissant.*
>> 
>> James
>> * http://www.isihac.co.uk/games/mcvariations/mc-m.html




Re: Could use some hotel/travel help

2013-09-26 Thread Andrew Beattie
May I recommend airbnb.co.uk

This is often staying in the spare room of someone's home, so the price tends 
to be reasonable.

They show the locations on a map, so it is easy to pick a suitable one.

I use it regularly and like it.

Andrew


On 26 Sep 2013, at 11:55, Smylers  wrote:

> Alan Mosca writes:
> 
>> I've got one word for you : Priceline.
> 
> OK, I've never used Priceline before so just had a look to see what they
> can find for our London trip.
> 
>> You can easily get sub 100$ per night and have a 4*, depending on
>> period.
> 
> The dates were fixed for us (we're attending a wedding).
> 
> I dispute “easily”. By default it searches all of London, which is
> surely useless for everybody. It doesn't allow narrowing down by
> postcode or Tube station. Admittedly it does offer to search by
> proximity to golf courses, but regrettably directions for venues tend
> not to mention those in the way they do postcodes and stations.
> 
> So I'm left reading through a long list of ‘other landmarks’ to work out
> which one is likely to be nearest to where we want to stay, then going
> through the resulting hotels list, adjusting the distances given to
> allow for the delta between the location we actually want to search near
> and the one it let us search near.
> 
> At which point it turns out that some of the purported hotels in the
> list are actually hostels or apartments.
> 
> So far as I can tell we can get actual, non-scummy, hotels for $182 or
> $239. Which admittedly is less than £189, but still way over the $100
> you mentioned.
> 
> Oh, except that there's an extra mysterious[*] ‘taxes and fees’ added at
> checkout, which I'm guessing is VAT, making the $182 actually $218 per
> night (which, when translated to sterling, is exactly the same price
> that Booking.com quote for that room on those dates).
> 
> [*] Mysterious in the sense that they don't even try to justify how they
> calculated that particular charge for this booking, just waffling on
> about the kinds of things they cover.
> 
>> YMMV.
> 
> Apparently it did.
> 
> Having already checked Booking.com, Priceline didn't find anything
> additional or provide better rates. And nor was it's interface so slick
> or process so helpful that I'm wishing I'd used it instead of
> Booking.com.
> 
> Smylers
> -- 
> Stop drug companies hiding negative research results.
> Sign the AllTrials petition to get all clinical research results published.
> Read more: http://www.alltrials.net/blog/the-alltrials-campaign/
> 




Re: Could use some hotel/travel help

2013-09-26 Thread David Cantrell
On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 09:14:07PM -0700, Randy J. Ray wrote:

>   So I would prefer to get a hotel closer to the 
> Metro station that I'll be leaving from for Telford.

Euston.  You'll probably need to change trains at one of the Birmingham
stations.  See http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/.

>I would also like 
> to find a place that will make it (relatively) easy to get to Heathrow 
> Monday morning for my flight out.

Heathrow is at the end of the Piccadilly line, and has trains from
Paddington. If the flight is horribly early, I'd just stay at one of
the ghastly hotels at the airport*. Otherwise, stay near Paddington, as
the train is a lot quicker than the Piccadilly line.

* I've not stayed at any of them, but they're at an airport so are bound
  to be horrid. Everything to do with airports is.

> So, what I could use help with is this: Firstly, can someone identify 
> for me what the Metro station is that I would be leaving from to go to 
> Telford. Then, what postal code(s) should I look for hotels in? I figure 
> I'll use hotels.com or something like that to actually find a place in 
> my budget range.

Booking.com knows about areas of London, so no postcode necessary, just
tell it "Paddington" or "Euston".

-- 
David Cantrell | Bourgeois reactionary pig

You can't spell "slaughter" without "laughter"


Re: Could use some hotel/travel help

2013-09-26 Thread Smylers
david writes:

> My suggestion would be to look at the slew of (relatively) recently
> built "entry-level" chain hotels (Novotel, Premier Inn, etc.) that
> have been built south of the river in Southwark[*] between Waterloo
> and London Bridge.

As it happens the Premier Inn that quoted us £189 for a night is in
London Bridge. Hopefully Randy will be less unlucky than we were in
finding a reasonable price.

Smylers
-- 
Stop drug companies hiding negative research results.
Sign the AllTrials petition to get all clinical research results published.
Read more: http://www.alltrials.net/blog/the-alltrials-campaign/



Re: Could use some hotel/travel help

2013-09-26 Thread david
  

The "Shard" effect, perhaps ? 

Maybe the Novotel or Ibis on
Blackfriars Road or the Premier Inn on Great Suffolk St...  

/david


On Thu, 26 Sep 2013 12:53:16 +0100, Smylers wrote: 

> david writes:
>

>> My suggestion would be to look at the slew of (relatively) recently
built "entry-level" chain hotels (Novotel, Premier Inn, etc.) that have
been built south of the river in Southwark[*] between Waterloo and
London Bridge.
> 
> As it happens the Premier Inn that quoted us £189
for a night is in
> London Bridge. Hopefully Randy will be less unlucky
than we were in
> finding a reasonable price.
> 
> Smylers
> -- Stop
drug companies hiding negative research results. Sign the AllTrials
petition to get all clinical research results published. Read more:
http://www.alltrials.net/blog/the-alltrials-campaign/ [1]



Links:
--
[1]
http://www.alltrials.net/blog/the-alltrials-campaign/


Re: Could use some hotel/travel help

2013-09-26 Thread Peter Corlett
On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 10:20:08AM +0100, Smylers wrote:
[...]
> We'll also be spending a couple of nights in London in November, where we
> found a Premier Inn quoting £189 for 1 night, which is crazy money for a
> budget hotel.

That'll be because they're pricing for business travellers spending somebody
else's money.

Look for a B&B near a Victoria or Northern Line station in Zone 2 so you can
easily get to Euston without too much faff. You can get a room for £40-50 per
night in Clapham, for example.



Re: Could use some hotel/travel help

2013-09-26 Thread Alan Mosca
You're not using the 'name your own price'  tool are you? Try that. You can
narrow it by area, star level and bid your own price.
On 26 Sep 2013 12:07, "Smylers"  wrote:

> Alan Mosca writes:
>
> > I've got one word for you : Priceline.
>
> OK, I've never used Priceline before so just had a look to see what they
> can find for our London trip.
>
> > You can easily get sub 100$ per night and have a 4*, depending on
> > period.
>
> The dates were fixed for us (we're attending a wedding).
>
> I dispute “easily”. By default it searches all of London, which is
> surely useless for everybody. It doesn't allow narrowing down by
> postcode or Tube station. Admittedly it does offer to search by
> proximity to golf courses, but regrettably directions for venues tend
> not to mention those in the way they do postcodes and stations.
>
> So I'm left reading through a long list of ‘other landmarks’ to work out
> which one is likely to be nearest to where we want to stay, then going
> through the resulting hotels list, adjusting the distances given to
> allow for the delta between the location we actually want to search near
> and the one it let us search near.
>
> At which point it turns out that some of the purported hotels in the
> list are actually hostels or apartments.
>
> So far as I can tell we can get actual, non-scummy, hotels for $182 or
> $239. Which admittedly is less than £189, but still way over the $100
> you mentioned.
>
> Oh, except that there's an extra mysterious[*] ‘taxes and fees’ added at
> checkout, which I'm guessing is VAT, making the $182 actually $218 per
> night (which, when translated to sterling, is exactly the same price
> that Booking.com quote for that room on those dates).
>
> [*] Mysterious in the sense that they don't even try to justify how they
> calculated that particular charge for this booking, just waffling on
> about the kinds of things they cover.
>
> > YMMV.
>
> Apparently it did.
>
> Having already checked Booking.com, Priceline didn't find anything
> additional or provide better rates. And nor was it's interface so slick
> or process so helpful that I'm wishing I'd used it instead of
> Booking.com.
>
> Smylers
> --
> Stop drug companies hiding negative research results.
> Sign the AllTrials petition to get all clinical research results published.
> Read more: http://www.alltrials.net/blog/the-alltrials-campaign/
>
>


Re: Could use some hotel/travel help

2013-09-26 Thread Smylers
Peter Corlett writes:

> On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 10:20:08AM +0100, Smylers wrote:
> 
> > We'll also be spending a couple of nights in London in November,
> > where we found a Premier Inn quoting £189 for 1 night, which is
> > crazy money for a budget hotel.
> 
> That'll be because they're pricing for business travellers spending
> somebody else's money.

On a Saturday night?

Smylers
-- 
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Re: Could use some hotel/travel help

2013-09-26 Thread Smylers
Alan Mosca writes:

> You're not using the 'name your own price' tool are you?

Ah, I clearly hadn't spotted that in the interface, nor realized that's
what you meant by your “one word”.

> Try that.

Ah, yes. That will give a 4-star hotel for $125 a night (what a bid of
$100 became once mysterious taxes and fees were added on).

> You can narrow it by area, star level and bid your own price.

True, though the areas are fairly large (12 areas cover all of London),
and you don't know at the time of booking which hotel you're getting —
which means you can't do things like check they can provide a cot before
paying and committing, let alone see how far they are from the nearest
Tube station (or which line they're on), look for guest reviews, and so
on.

We wouldn't've risked that for our trip, but I can see it being useful
for some.

Smylers
-- 
Stop drug companies hiding negative research results.
Sign the AllTrials petition to get all clinical research results published.
Read more: http://www.alltrials.net/blog/the-alltrials-campaign/



Re: Could use some hotel/travel help

2013-09-26 Thread Dirk Koopman

On 26/09/13 10:42, Alan Mosca wrote:

I've got one word for you : Priceline.


Er.. http://booking.com (well known supporters of all things perl)?