It's been a while since we last took a look at easyHotel, the European lodging chain for the incredibly frugal-minded.
The nearly three-year-old chain now has properties throughout London, as well as Budapest, Basel and Zurich. Its latest hotel opens today in Luton, featuring special opening rates of $39.45.
Before you rush to book that darling rate, remember the adage that "you get what you pay for." In this case, the attractive price at this 58-room hotel in Luton's city center does not include use of a TV, towel changes, Internet access or housekeeping services--all things that require you pony up anywhere between $2 and $20 to use.
It's all part of the master plan by the singularly monikered Stelios, easyHotel's chairman, to appeal to the cost-conscious--fine, we'll just say it: cheap--traveler. With the launch of easyHotel Heathrow later this summer, the company will continue to focus on establishing hotels near airports, with more properties appearing throughout Europe and the Middle East in 2009.
TripAdvisor has just published a hot-list of the top 10 Dirtiest Hotels in the US and UK.
The one that touched our hearts is the Europa Gatwick in Crawley, near Gatwick Airport in the UK, because we had the misfortune to grow up there.
The Europa is currently only 4th on the list, but we reckon the fact of being located in one of the most revolting towns in the UK would bump it right up to the top.
Blackpool if we've got kids, Bournemouth if we're over 60, Butlins if the weather's being English and we want to stay indoors and pretend we're at the seaside.
The sazzy HotelChatter choice of English seaside hotels is the Captain's Club Hotel in the teensy south coast town of Christchurch, Dorset.
Lesson 2 in Understanding the English: not only do we love trains and antiques, we go loopy over animals and eccentric English pubs.
The Bath Arms combines the two - it's a quirky variation on an old English pub with a safari park on its doorstep.
The Bath Arms describes itself as a 'boutique hotel' but if recent reviews are anything to go by it's more bucket than boutique, with slightly scruffy facilities and a ham'n'eggs restaurant. That said, the novelty factor of an English pub with a Karma Sutra room (oo-er) is worth a bit of discomfort.
If you're not English and you're struggling to understand us, there are two things you need to know: we love trains (talking, reminiscing, complaining about them - we're a nation of train-spotters) and we love browsing junk in dusty antique shops.
Hence the Old Railway Station, a converted railway station with suites in old train carriages, in Petworth, West Sussex, England's region of antiques and ye-olde-tea-shoppes.
Monica Guy is fed up with the old guard hotels of the U.K. that may have entertained her grandparents when they were tripping all over the world in their youth but have since been lasting on reputation and little else. In this new feature, she pits her grandma's favorite hotel against some of the new hip hotels popping up across the rainy motherland. Enjoy.
Yesterday you were in Oxford, today you've taken your grandparents to Cambridge. Running a tour of the boffin towns. But where will you all stay?
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by jennm
