Hotel Recommendations

I'm planning a two-week scouting trip in March or April and am overwhelmed by the hotel choices on the travel sites.

Anyone have any recommendations for a good hotel for someone on a budget? I'd like a room with a private bath, but beyond that, aside from the whole "safe, quiet and clean" thing, I'd prefer a hotel that offers nonsmoking rooms and modem access in the rooms. Those might be standard features, but it's hard to tell from the online descriptions.

Thanks in advance...again .

Denise

I haven't stayed in a lot of hotels in the UK, but from my and DH's experience, the Holiday Inns here are much like Holiday Inn in the States.  

HTH,
Stephanie

There aren't any where near as many budget chain motel/hotels as there are in the US.  The only one I can think of is Travelodge, and is among the cheapest you are likely to find in the UK.  The ones that I know of are fairly new, and their pitch seems to be the cost-conscious business traveller, and so I guess would have modem links in the rooms.  There is one close to Heathrow, and I think that the room charge is £70 a night (incl tax - NB UK room rates always include tax).  Others are cheaper, like the one in outer SW London in Morden (probably too far out to be convenient for central London), which was £60 a night the last time I looked.

There are also HolidayInn Express hotels, which are also reasonably priced (for the UK  ).  There is one in SW London at Wandsworth, just 15 minutes out of Waterloo station by train and right opposite one of the three (or is it four now?) Outback's in the UK.  The room rate there is about £90 a night.  There is another another a bit further south in Colliers Wood, very close to the Northern (black) tube station, which has roughly the same room rates.

Alternatively there are a miriad of privately owned hotels, many of them historic/older, dotted around the UK, with welcoming owners/staff and often very reasonably priced, but you'd almost certainly have to forgo your modem link.

You can be sure that ALL hotels in the UK will offer non-smoking rooms.

Do you know where in the UK you will be staying?

I'm sorry--I will be staying in London. Can't believe I didn't specify that. (Okay, yes I can ).

Glad to hear that nonsmoking rooms are readily available. Will have to think about the modem thing, as I'm not really sure I do need that.

Thanks for the helpful replies!

Denise

We've been happy with Travel Inns, a rather newish chain that's really growing.
Travel Inns in the London area
The most convenient one for sightseeing is London County Hall, with price ranging from £79.95 to £82.95 (based on room, not number of people) depending on what night you stay. Because of the excellent location, it's a very popular one and rooms go quickly.

Naturally, it's a chain, and not meant to be the sort you hang around in. Although they have restaurants and lounges, you'll need to treat it more as a place to hang your hat. Non-smoking rooms available in every hotel. Most, if not all, have phones in the rooms with the ability to use the Internet. (This is the main reason we choose them.)

This particular one (London County Hall) is probably the most expenisve. (I've seen the price almost double in the past two years, it is that popular.) There are many of them in the London area and most others range in price from £49.95 to £69.95.

You might also want to think about a package deal, if you haven't booked your flight yet. You can probably get a tremendous deal on a very central, very characteristic hotel.

We have used http://www.lastminute.co.uk to book central London hotels at discount rates with fairly good luck.  We usually pay about £60-£80 per night for three to four star hotels.  Might be worth a look, especially if you know what area you want to stay in.

Oh, and btw, Travelodge don't even have phones in their hotels, so I'd check on the modem thing if that's important to you.  I think they try to cut costs by not having them, and figure most everyone has mobile phones these days anyway.  Was a bit annoying for us without one though!