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London Hotel Help: Where To Stay South of the River

Where: 34 Lombard Road, London, United Kingdom, SW11 3RF

River views from Hotel Rafayel

HotelChatter Questions: In which, the intrepid HotelChatter editors and our hotel maven readers answer hotel questions that pop into our inbox. Have a question for us? Send it along. Think you have a better answer than we gave, or better yet, want to give a vote of confidence to our answer? Comment away below.

We at HotelChatter are an accommodating breed and we always want to help rather than question, which was useful this morning when this reader question popped into our inbox:

Vauxhall, London: where should I stay with two kids and a bosswife (this summer)? Hotel? House/condo rental?

So instead of asking “why the hell Vauxhall?” (actually, we did ask – turns out they want to be near family who live there), we popped our thinking caps on. Where would we stay if we wanted to stay on a busy main road South of the River which has little going for it apart from a nice sandwich shop we once ate at and its banging gay nightlife?

Well, reader, hotelwise, it looks like Vauxhall is not your best option. There’s a Comfort Inn, but going by TripAdvisor, you could do better for your £88 (which is what itt’ll cost to shack up this quiet Sunday night).

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Hotel Openings / London Hotels / Pestana Hotels / → All Tags

London's New Left Bank Gets A New Hotel And So Far, Reports Are Good

Where: 354 Queenstown Road, London, United Kingdom, SW8 4AE

Hey, maybe there is something to be said for the Battersea area becoming the fash new stretch of London’s South Bank. First, the Hotel Rafayel has been getting rave reviews, and now it’s the turn of the new Pestana Chelsea Bridge Hotel & Spa, which opened 1 March.

It’s technically under soft opening now, but by the looks of it, it’s pretty much there already.

TripAdvisor only has six reviews so far, but they’re all rave ones, talking about top notch soundproofing and comfy beds (and they don’t smell too much of PR guff either). We’re also particularly keen on the trippy wallpaper (we’re assuming that it’s not actually padded – that would be a bit too asylum-y…)

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Hotel Chains / Hotels Deals / Pestana Hotels / → All Tags

Get to Know 39 Foreign Hotel Chains

Budget Travel magazine recently ran a feature on 39 Affordable Hotel Chains Only Locals Know. "Only locals" might be stretching it a bit since more than a few Americans have stayed with Barcelo, Riu, and Fiesta Americana without going any further than Mexico. We did find quite a few new names in here ourselves though. Care for a night at the Fosshótel?

That chain is in Iceland as it turns out. (Moby Dick Pub at Fosshótel Húsavík pictured here.) Many of these chains stick close to home, in fact, which probably makes them both a better value and easier to manage. These include Dedeman in Turkey, Amari in Thailand, and Ginger in India.

Others have an eclectic footprint that seems to have come together by chance. Take this listing for Pestana Hotels & Resorts.

38 properties that include beachfront high-rises and spa resorts, with a variety of room sizes and styles--many equipped with kitchens--in Portugal, Brazil, Mozambique, South Africa, Cape Verde, and São Tomé and Principe. Based in Portugal. Sample rate: $94, at the Pestana Atalaia, in Madeira, Portugal. pestana.com

Some of the choices are downright quirky. The five Cab Inn hotels in Denmark are modeled on cruise ship cabins and may come with bunk beds. The five Omena Hotels in Finland seem to have taken some lessons from Japanese love hotels: "guests check themselves in with a preset door code and contact housekeeping through interactive TVs." But hey, for $49, we'll take it.

Related Stories:
· 39 Affordable Hotel Chains Only Locals Know [Budget Travel]