Earls Court is busy, noisy, brash and can be fun. Excellent cheap restaurants in the area, but FULL of the backpacker-student types. Cheap hotels, but most definitely lacking in extras (phones in the room) and the beds may have pretty lousy mattresses, etc. I'm sure there are some nice hotels in the area as well, but I've always traveled on the cheap and you most definitely get what you pay for in the Earls Court area.