The folks over at extreme budget chain easyHotel have an ambitious goal of introducing 200 hotels in 10 years (it took them three years since the chain's 2005 debut to implement five hotels) and thanks to a new development deal with the UK-based Eclipse Hotel Group, easyHotel will put up 10 more properties across the UK over the next four years.
Apparently, "the easyHotel brand and super-budget model have significant growth potential in the UK," Eclipse Hotel Group's Managing Director, Sameer Damji, said in a press statement. Perhaps that's because everything in the UK is so bloody expensive? Drop those pounds already!
With a plan to introduce 200 hotels in 10 years, the folks at easyHotel thought, "Hey, maybe we should upgrade our web site?" And so they did, adding new navigations and a three-step booking process.
All in all, pretty standard stuff, plus a few bells and whistles like more images and Google maps.
Although we are happy to see that easyHotel maintained its smart marketing lingo. How cute is that "Don't hang about..." do not disturb sign? Now that we know how aggressive maids are starting to be, we may have to print that one out and tape it on our hotel door.
The easyHotel South Kensington (damn you, annoying lower-cased brand names) is not close to the shops we adore at Kensington and Hight Street.
In fact, it's a ways off (about 15 minutes) and we say only attempt the walk when the weather's nice in London.
We actually had a chance to go by this hotel and while rooms are cheap at 25 GBP a night, this is still a budget hotel and rooms are notoriously small.
However, the easyHotel gets pretty solid reviews on TripAdvisor. It seems most guests know what they are in for before they arrive.
A few tips: Guests said that rooms with windows are smaller than the ones without. Internet is £5 an hour and watching the telly will cost you another £10 a day. If you want housekeeping, that's £10 per room and extra towels are £1 a piece. So we really wouldn't recommend booking this place for more than two nights.
On the other hand, skimping on the hotel room does leave you more money for shopping in Kensington.
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.
Monica Guy, our own younger, blonder, more attractive but still curmudgeonly version of Andy Rooney has returned to us once more. After finding hotel satisfaction in Lisbon, she's moved onto a new type of hotel, a floating one. Once again, her bolded words are left in for Rooney-esque emphasis. Enjoy.
Here's a novelty extra - what do you think of a hotel deal that includes all transport?
Not transport from the airport. Not even transport to the city centre or for day trips. I mean your whole hotel room's transported. You wake up every morning at a new destination, without even realising you've gone anywhere, or having to waste time and effort getting there yourself.
Bargain, no? Especially when the room rate is as low as 10 euros a night. Cheaper than living at home.
We're a little behind today so we have an old-school link droppage for ya.
· One instance where it pays to be married to someone for a really long time--a cheap hotel room! [AP] · A deadly business trip to the Grand Hyatt in Hong Kong for two men [AHN] · Jeffrey Katzenberg persona non grata at the Four Seasons in NYC [Page Six] · Armani Hotels launches official website, we'll review this tomorrow [AME Info] · Budget UK chain EasyHotels expanding across Portugal [Easier]
It was only a matter of time before the Japanese-style capsule hotels went global. EasyHotel, a new arm of the easyGroup that also does easyJet and easyInternetCafe is launching their new £5 beds.
Where: United Kingdom
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by jennm
