London Hotels – the WholeArsed list

People often ask me where we stay when we’re in London. Starting in 2016 when we began visiting London regularly, we’ve tried to stay in as many different hotels and neighborhoods as we can, within a predefined price point. This “predefined price point” in some ways limits our experiences. In 2016, the price point we set was under $200 USD per night. That crept up in the last few years to under $300. More recently, we started aiming for under $250, mostly so I could appease my financially nervous spouse at the start of our retirement years. At the price points described, we’ve stayed in modern and classic hotels and have never had a truly disappointing experience. To the contrary, most of the time we’ve been quite happy with our choices. Because we are frequently looking at hotels, something we’ve noticed is that a hotel usually priced above our limit in the past sometimes temporarily comes below it. We’ll usually jump for that.

It should be said that my favorite London hotel of all time–St. Ermin’s Hotel–is always above the max price. Something to think about.

The other limit we’ve imposed is that any hotel we select needs to be close to a Tube station, ideally less than half a mile. When we’re in London, with only one exception across 10 years, we have exclusively used public transportation to get around and have found it to be both very convenient and a means toward richer travelling experiences. Keeping in mind there can be wet weather in London, it’s nice to know you won’t have far to schlep suitcases or start each day’s adventure.

Although I’ve used Airbnb and VRBO when travelling in the United States and in some other countries, I haven’t chosen to do so when visiting London. I know some people love being able to control costs or options by being able to rustle up breakfast or lunch in a readily-available kitchen but I prefer to treat meals as part of the adventure. Our trips are often short stays which may also contribute to the decision to use hotels. We don’t routinely need more space away from each other. Also, I’ll admit that I love to be waited on and taken care of. It’s part of the fun of being away from home!

Like many travelers, we use a travel-specific credit card which gives credit in points for using their website for both air and hotel bookings. We use the Chase Sapphire card. Therefore, we often book hotels using the Chase travel page. However, I always check and often use sites like Hotels.com and Booking.com when the price or hotel variety of the Chase website isn’t justified by points. In proof that they pay me nothing for mentioning them here, my feeling on the Chase Sapphire card is that the benefits of it are still enough to justify using it, but benefits have been reduced every year we’ve had the card. We’ll see what they have in store for us in 2027. Also, their website for booking is not the easiest to use. I’ll often search on Hotels.com and then book on Chase’s website.

My Favorite 15 London Hotels

The following are hotels we’ve stayed in, roughly in preferred order, where preferred order takes into account ambiance, comfort, and location. I love them all so much that if I had to give you an order on another day, it might be different.