I hate booking hotels in UK

[Clariman]

UK Hotel pricing drives me nuts. Here is an example.

Last December we stayed at a nice hotel and they emailed us after our stay to say they would like to welcome us back and would offer us 10% off their best price.

We'd like to return for a few days and their website gave us a price of £243 which was OK. I forwarded their 10% off best rate email to them to ask for a confirned price. I was expecting confirmation of £243 less 10% but they quoted the rack rate of £303!

Maddening

[Lootman]

UK Hotel pricing drives me nuts. Here is an example.

Last December we stayed at a nice hotel and they emailed us after our stay to say they would like to welcome us back and would offer us 10% off their best price.

We'd like to return for a few days and their website gave us a price of £243 which was OK. I forwarded their 10% off best rate email to them to ask for a confirned price. I was expecting confirmation of £243 less 10% but they quoted the rack rate of £303!

Maddening

It is even worse in the US where a hotel is allowed to quote a price that is before taxes and involuntary fees, including wheezes like a $30 a day "resort fee" at check-in, $25 a day for parking, and the like.

[Bubblesofearth]

I've never much seen the point in staying in a nice (expensive) hotel. Whenever I travel in the UK, usually for golf breaks, I stay in a Premier Inn. Clean, decent bed, and excellent value. Rarely much more than £100 including the meal deal.

BoE

[dealtn]

I've never much seen the point in staying in a nice (expensive) hotel. Whenever I travel in the UK, usually for golf breaks, I stay in a Premier Inn. Clean, decent bed, and excellent value. Rarely much more than £100 including the meal deal.

BoE

Nice (expensive) hotels can be good value too. And they have clean and decent beds. People enjoy different things, and pay accordingly. No different to those that see excellent value, and shop in Waitrose, whilst others populate Aldi or Lidl. Macdonalds is populated by many, and avoided by others in equal measure.

Value is different to different people.

[Spet0789]

I've never much seen the point in staying in a nice (expensive) hotel. Whenever I travel in the UK, usually for golf breaks, I stay in a Premier Inn. Clean, decent bed, and excellent value. Rarely much more than £100 including the meal deal.

BoE

For me it depends whether I am going to spend time there.

I would either go the Travelodge route (the trick there is to try and book a relatively newly-built one, they tend to be great) or to the spa hotel with a Michelin-starred restaurant.

[Clariman]

I've never much seen the point in staying in a nice (expensive) hotel. Whenever I travel in the UK, usually for golf breaks, I stay in a Premier Inn. Clean, decent bed, and excellent value. Rarely much more than £100 including the meal deal.

BoE

I've stayed in loads of Premier Inns too. Some were great, some were adequate, but the beds were always comfy. I think it depends on why you are planning to stay somewhere, what you want out of it, and whether the hotel experience is part of the pleasure of the trip or not.

I wouldn't stay somewhere because it was a posh place or had a 'name', but I'd take the time to choose somewhere really nice when it was important to me/us.

One of the biggest hotel disappointments was Gleneagles many years ago. I thought it vastly overrated and overpriced. I'd only decided to stay there because my employer had given me a voucher to spend there, that was well in the 100s of £s, as a thankyou or an award or something. Even then it bought one night and one lunch. The quality and spaciousness (or lack of) the room and the level of service did not merit its reputation or price. That was probably in the 1990s or early 2000s. It may be much better now. That said, I know some people who love it.

[Lootman]

I've never much seen the point in staying in a nice (expensive) hotel. Whenever I travel in the UK, usually for golf breaks, I stay in a Premier Inn. Clean, decent bed, and excellent value. Rarely much more than £100 including the meal deal.

I have stayed at a few and they have been fine, same with Ibis. Can be noisy on a Saturday night with all the stag and hen parties. Small beef with them is that there is no room safe, which is an extra that I value.

I mostly stay at mid-range hotels like Novotel or Hilton, as I have status with both chains and get free breakfast and drinks. Hyatt hotels are my favourite but there aren't many in the UK.

The one chain I avoid is Britannia. The once grand Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool is one now and it is truly awful. Such a shame. The Birmingham one is also rank.

[stevensfo]

I've never much seen the point in staying in a nice (expensive) hotel. Whenever I travel in the UK, usually for golf breaks, I stay in a Premier Inn. Clean, decent bed, and excellent value. Rarely much more than £100 including the meal deal.

I have stayed at a few and they have been fine, same with Ibis. Can be noisy on a Saturday night with all the stag and hen parties. Small beef with them is that there is no room safe, which is an extra that I value.

I mostly stay at mid-range hotels like Novotel or Hilton, as I have status with both chains and get free breakfast and drinks. Hyatt hotels are my favourite but there aren't many in the UK.

The one chain I avoid is Britannia. The once grand Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool is one now and it is truly awful. Such a shame. The Birmingham one is also rank.

Novotel rings a bell. In the Accor group? Years ago when our kids were both at uni, I joined the Accor loyalty scheme, so stayed in Mercure hotels and whatever the others were. One large Mercure hotel was in Hull and in an excellent position, close to the centre, next to bus stops and when you went out of the back doors, you were actually in the main railway station! On going inside, it had an old worldly charm and was very spacious.

However, the actual rooms were old but....nothing else! Pretty awful in fact.

It took me a few years to realise that the loyalty scheme was not worth a penny. I think that the most I got out of it after umpteen visits was a free pint of beer. The Accor website was rubbish and once showed us staying in two towns on the same day! I managed to solve one problem by simply phoning the hotel and sorting it out with the guy in charge. Much easier!

On the other hand, we joined the Hilton scheme a day before going to a Hilton hotel in Dubai and despite arriving at some ungodly hour in the early morning, got a room very fast just because of it.

I'm not difficult to please and all I really want is a bit of peace and quiet, decent WiFi and a bathroom that is slightly easier to use than a typical Indiana Jones trek through a booby-trapped pyramid.

Steve

[Bminusrob]

My wife and I seem to spend quite few nights in hotels, visiting children/grandchildren, as well as stopping off overnight on the way to places.

We don't want much from the hotels, other than a really comfortable bed, controllable heating (ie not too warm), and decent bathroom. We find Premier Inn beds are great, but more recently, we have spent quite a few nights in Travelodges. Travelodges are usually very cheap and reasonably comfortable. Even the ones at motorway service stations are pretty good, comfortable and surprisingly quiet. I really don't see the point of spending a lot on a hotel room, when, apart from eight hours sleep, we are only going to see the room for a couple of hours.

[Urbandreamer]

Price depends upon demand.

What's the marginal value of an empty room?
How much if you have three different people who want to book it.

We have used Premier Inn's, Travel lodges, 5* hotels, and booked "cottages".
Most memorable was when we needed a place, but the Premier Inn was booked out. We ended up in a city centre flat with parking and paid less than the Premier Inn, because they had nobody else to take the flat.

It's not like buying tinned beans. There are shortages, gluts, cancellations and expiration dates.

[dealtn]

I really don't see the point of spending a lot on a hotel room, when, apart from eight hours sleep, we are only going to see the room for a couple of hours.

True, although for many others they will see more of the hotel, and likely more of the room for more than a couple of hours. We aren't identical in what we want.

Where we might agree though is you don't want to pay anything for a room or bed where you won't get that 8 hours of sleep, and as a result DO get to spend more than a couple of hours awake . That's a real false economy and likelier in my opinion with a cheap hotel.

[Lootman]

I have stayed at a few and they have been fine, same with Ibis. Can be noisy on a Saturday night with all the stag and hen parties. Small beef with them is that there is no room safe, which is an extra that I value.

I mostly stay at mid-range hotels like Novotel or Hilton, as I have status with both chains and get free breakfast and drinks. Hyatt hotels are my favourite but there aren't many in the UK.

The one chain I avoid is Britannia. The once grand Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool is one now and it is truly awful. Such a shame. The Birmingham one is also rank.

Novotel rings a bell. In the Accor group? Years ago when our kids were both at uni, I joined the Accor loyalty scheme, so stayed in Mercure hotels and whatever the others were. One large Mercure hotel was in Hull and in an excellent position, close to the centre, next to bus stops and when you went out of the back doors, you were actually in the main railway station! On going inside, it had an old worldly charm and was very spacious.

However, the actual rooms were old but....nothing else! Pretty awful in fact.

It took me a few years to realise that the loyalty scheme was not worth a penny. I think that the most I got out of it after umpteen visits was a free pint of beer. The Accor website was rubbish and once showed us staying in two towns on the same day! I managed to solve one problem by simply phoning the hotel and sorting it out with the guy in charge. Much easier!

On the other hand, we joined the Hilton scheme a day before going to a Hilton hotel in Dubai and despite arriving at some ungodly hour in the early morning, got a room very fast just because of it.
I'm not difficult to please and all I really want is a bit of peace and quiet, decent WiFi and a bathroom that is slightly easier to use than a typical Indiana Jones trek through a booby-trapped pyramid.

I used to have Diamond status with Accor and even that wasn't that great. And it is hard to get, you have to stay at their premium properties like Fairmont, Raffles, Sofitel, Pullman, Swissotel.

Hilton HHonors is a much better loyalty programme.

One thing I like is a decent heating system. At home I am frugal with my thermostat, but in a hotel room, I want it hot!