Families are heading for London in their thousands this summer as hotel prices hit rock bottom. Deals offering three nights at four-star hotels for £99pp have been selling out, and double rooms at five-star hotels can be found on the internet for as little as £99.
Hotel occupancy figures for May were the second worst on record - down almost 10% on last year. Although hotels picked up during June, they are looking to fill empty rooms during this month and next, a quiet period even in good years.
Ray Jones, brand development director for Superbreak, said: "Hotels had a brief recovery during Wimbledon when it became difficult to find a room in London, just like the old days. But there are a lot of good deals for families wanting to visit London in July and August."
Superbreak's best-seller is a £99 three-night offer, including cooked breakfast, at two four-star Kensington hotels, the Copthorne Tara and the Holiday Inn. An earlier three-night deal sold out at a Marble Arch hotel. Five-star deals include £59 per person for a night at Le Meridien Grosvenor House on Park Lane (saving at least £60 plus the cost of breakfast) and £99 per person at the Berkeley in Knightsbridge, which has a roof-top swimming pool.
The best five-star deal on Lastminute.com this week is £99 for a double room at an unnamed hotel on Leicester Square and £130 in Piccadilly. A Friday or Saturday night at Brown's, the Mayfair hotel recently bought by Sir Rocco Forte's group, is offered for £150 a night, almost half the published price. The deal of the week at Laterooms.com is a double room at the four-star Radisson Edwardian Berkshire from £109, saving up to £200.
Few hotel groups discount on their own websites, but the Savoy group is offering a special family deal, which is effectively two rooms for the price of one. The family pays £299, the cost of the parent's double, with the children sleeping for free in an adjacent room. A budget alternative is a family room, sleeping four, at the Kings Cross/ Bloomsbury Holiday Inn for £79, including breakfast, with Superbreak.
