Travel Inn
County Hall, Belvedere Road, London SE1
(0870 238 3300)
Rates: £74.95 per room
First impressions
Tucked at the back of the former County Hall building, a stone's throw from the London Eye and the Thames, the location is excellent. Step inside, however, and the salmon and purple colour scheme, industrial strength vinyl flooring, huge vending machines and abundance of illuminated plastic posters and menus could bring sensitive souls out in a nervous rash. And that's before they've seen the gift shop selling china shoe ornaments with animal faces...
Room
The room is bright and clean, but there's an unholy battle going on between the patterned carpet, flowery bedspread and checked curtains. It's all a bit BHS soft furnishing department circa 1993. The regulation television, kettle, tea, coffee and biscuits are provided, but you need to buy a special phone card from reception to use the phone which is a bit of a bore. The duvet, pillows, towels and soaps are all pretty skimpy. The room is cold and I end up turning up the wall heater full blast and sleeping with a coat thrown over me to keep warm. My room is quiet, but apparently rooms which aren't double glazed can be quite noisy (rooms 10-20 are the quietest on each floor, the receptionist tells me). No river views. You'll have to stay at the Marriott on the front of the building for those.
Breakfast
Wander into Potters Restaurant with its 'rustic' Harvester-style decor and you could be forgiven for feeling you've slipped into some early Nineties timewarp. I opted for a pretty decent continental breakfast for £4. A cooked breakfast is £6. Staff kept the buffet well stocked and tea was brought within seconds. Evening meals such as cod and chips cost about £7.95.
Verdict
Check in and check out are quick and painless: you pay on arrival and just drop your keys in a box on the way out, which is good for a quick getaway. Travel Inn is the only one of the budget chains to offer a money-back guarantee, whereby guests are offered a full refund if less than happy with their stay: you can't argue with that. The staff are young, friendly and very helpful. Nothing was terribly wrong, but I came away feeling vaguely depressed.
There are Travel Inns in Euston, Putney Bridge, Tower Bridge and, the most recent addition, Kensington. 281 nationwide.
275 Old Street, London EC1
(020 7300 4444)
Rates: £105 per room on average but rates vary depending on occupancy levels
First impressions
The bright and bustling reception area comes as a pleasant surprise after stepping in from the Old Street one-way system with its grey office buildings and heavy traffic. An open-plan lobby merges with bar and dining area, which works well. Decorated with glass bricks, retro-style armchairs, pale beech and primary colours, it feels a bit like an Ikea showroom.
Room
The standard hotel beige and pastel combo has been replaced with plain white bed linen, blue and yellow trimmings, and trendy angle poise lamps. Nothing fancy but it does the trick. The usual tea and coffee-making facilities are here (but where are the bourbons?) and they've thoughtfully provided some Express by Holiday Inn headed notepaper and envelopes - should you wish your business acquaintances to know your company expense account doesn't run to five-star hotels. There's a hairdryer in the room (oh joy!) and a full-length mirror. On the downside the double beds are pretty narrow and there's a lot of traffic noise from the road. There are no baths, only showers, but good ones and they've splashed out on shower-gel dispensers and, steady on now, shower caps too.
Breakfast
Help yourself to tea, coffee, fruit and croissants (continental breakfast is included in the room rate), but this is a fry-up free zone. The dining area is cheerful enough and there are lots of staff on hand keeping the tables cleared. Evening meals start at £8.95.
Verdict
This is a bit of a cheat because the chain is pricier than the other hotels sampled, but the extra money will buy you a bit more comfort and style. It also feels slightly less impersonal than the Travel Inns and Travelodges. It's a good place to rest your head if you are planning on sampling the nightlife and markets of Hoxton, Shoreditch and Old Street, an area lacking in decent hotels.
There are 10 Express by Holiday Inns in London and more than 60 nationwide.
Travelodge
1 Harrow Place, London EC1
(08700 850950)
Rates: £79.95 per room
First impressions
The tiny, functional reception area is designed for speedy processing of guests, it's not a place to linger or plan a romantic rendezvous. There's a desk, a vending machine selling drinks and sweets and not a lot else. Good location along a quiet street just a five-minute walk from Liverpool Street Station. You have to swipe your room card to gain access to the corridors, which is a reassuring extra security measure.
Room
Navy blue and cream colour scheme is smart and inoffensive, with trendy light fittings and modern art injecting a bit of pizzazz into the proceedings. The bed is comfortable, the duvet nice and thick and the pillows decent. Bathroom is clean with a good powerful shower (no bath) and decent size towels (same can't be said of the soap). Kettle and teapot are provided but, alas, no hairdryer.
Breakfast
This is where it all went a bit wobbly. You can eat breakfast in the hotel's Bar-Cafe (continental £5.25 or cooked breakfast £8.40) which is bright and breezy with big windows and flowers on the tables. Or you can have a breakfast tray delivered to your room for £4.45, which seemed a bit too good to be true. Unfortunately it was. After two calls to reception the tray arrived half an hour late. My continental breakfast consisted of three squashed boxes of cereal, some fruit and a pot of tea - no milk, no bowl, no cup, no cutlery and no croissant. I ended up having to get dressed, take my tray down to the cafe and, as there were no staff around, help myself to crockery and milk from the breakfast buffet and take it back to my room, which kind of defeated the object.
Verdict
The rooms are quiet and smart and it had the comfiest beds of the four hotels reviewed. Absence of a lounge or proper reception makes it feel a bit impersonal. Not a bad effort, but breakfast left a bit of a bad taste in the mouth. Let's be kind and assume they were having a bad day.
There are 215 Travelodges in UK and Ireland, 6 in London.
Premier Lodge
151 Wembley Park Drive, Middlesex
(0870 700 1446)
Rates: £54.95 per room
First impressions
OK, so Park Lane it isn't, but Wembley is just a 20-minute tube ride from the West End and the hotel is within a hop and a skip of the famous stadium, arena and conference centre. The reception area is welcoming, avoiding the bland, institutional feeling of some budget hotels. They've splashed out on some real wood and granite flooring, glass bricks and abstract art and it pays off.
Room
Premier Lodge is midway through a massive revamp of its hotels. All bedrooms are being redecorated, fitted with 6ft wide beds and - they are very proud of this - rearranged so that you can watch television from the bath. The Wembley hotel is one of the revamped models, and having stayed in an 'old-style' Premier Lodge (at Gatwick Airport) I can say this is a vast improvement, offering the most stylish bedrooms of the four hotels reviewed. Decorated in soothing shades of blue with rosewood fittings and nice lighting, they also have hairdryers, full length mirrors, satellite TV and kettles. And you can order a pizza to eat in the bath while you are watching telly...
Breakfast
Breakfast is served in a bright, modern restaurant area. A traditional fry-up is £6.25 and continental breakfast is £4.25. The restaurant tends to be busy in the evenings (probably because of the dearth of decent places to eat nearby) with main courses such as sausage and mash, lasagne or curry costing a reasonable £5.95.
Verdict
Cheery, fresh and modern, it offers similar style and comfort levels to the Holiday Inn Express but at almost half the price. Not such a desirable location as the others but by far the best value for money if you don't need to be in the centre of town.
122 in the UK, including two in London (Edgware and Wembley) and a third opening next month in Southwark
· All hotels offer family rooms which sleep up to two adults and two children.
