London Weekend Break

London Hotels - numbers and types

There are many hotels in London and when it comes to overall numbers, variations in price and quality, and locations across the city, you are definitely spoilt for choice.

This means that you can choose an economy hotel or a luxury hotel, it all depends on your budget. The sheer number of hotels also means that you will find availability at just about any time of year and, with the 2012 London Olympics, hotel building has continued to grow, even in a poor economic climate.

How many hotels are there in London?

London does of course have large famous and expensive hotels like the Savoy and the Dorchester, but it also has many much smaller guest houses, budget break hotels plus everything in between.

In terms of actual numbers it is impossible to place an exact figure on how many hotels there are in the city. Large reservation websites like those of Expedia and Booking can show anything from just under 1,000 hotels to over 1,200 hotels, and there are many more besides. These include the independents, the guest houses, and hotels of organisations that refuse to use clearance hotel reservation companies to sell their rooms (although the latter are reducing in number). All can be ideal for your short break or weekend away.

Other facts suggest that, taking account of the larger well known hotels, these companies offer over 70,000 hotels rooms at any given time. Obviously that it a lot, however, these larger hotels and hotel chains only account for around 70% to 75% of all the hotels in London. This means that the total number of bookable rooms may be closer to 100,000 or even higher. All told, there are a lot of hotel and guest house rooms in the greater London area.

Guest houses

Identifying the larger hotels and hotels chains is comparatively simple, however when it comes to the smaller guest houses, things can become more challenging. The reason for this is simply because these small hotels market and advertise themselves individually and independently and they are often found on different websites to the larger chains.

These days guest houses can go under any description from bed and breakfast, B & B to family run hotel and boarding house. What they all represent is the smaller hotel, normally owned and run by a family and independent of any chain or larger conglomerate. These hotels can be cheap and cheerful, or of a very high quality, but they generally offer a more personal and less sanitised atmosphere than the larger brand name hotels. It is this characteristic that will either give them their appeal or make them a turn-off – it depends upon your viewpoint and what you want from your London weekend break.

The advantages of staying at a guest house can include, personal service and friendliness from people who not only work in the establishment, but who also own it. This means that they are generally far more likely to “run the extra mile” for you than the paid staff at many of the larger chains. Because they normally live on the premises they will also have a high degree of local knowledge and this can help with travel advice and recommendations.

Those who have a preference for guest houses normally point out that they like the individuality of the rooms and the quirkiness of dinning areas and reception areas. This is where the personal style of a guest house will either appeal or deter the guest and this is why so many people either love them or hate them.

In terms of room numbers, most guest houses and bed and breakfasts will have anything from four to a dozen rooms. The main factor that limits this figure is the fact that most guest houses are conversions of older (often Victorian or Georgian) properties that were originally homes. For this reason the number of rooms is never as extensive as a purpose built hotel.

One thing that most guest houses are known for is their breakfast and the quality and quantity of a full English breakfast at a guesthouse will normally exceed that of a much larger hotel.