Pound-wise England : LONDON: Some Hotel Values to Check Out

For my first visit to London, in 1980, an English friend recommended a small hotel near Regent Street. “It’s nothing fancy, but you’ll like it,” she insisted. “It’s good value.”

Well, it certainly wasn’t fancy. For $70 a night, my room for two looked like a set from “The Krays,” the recent movie about East London gangsters in the ‘60s. It had narrow twin beds with lime chenille spreads, orange curtains, a laminated wooden table and a lone 40-watt lamp. A “full English breakfast” was included: two fried eggs, a mean little sausage, a slice of white toast and a fried tomato bobbing gamely in grease. I tipped the porter to take it away.

The definition of good value at London’s hotels changed dramatically in the second half of the ‘80s, and I watched its progress during the four years I lived there. The Thatcher Government, which targeted tourism as an industry rarin’ to grow, gave hoteliers little enticements, like tax breaks, to open new hotels and clean up old ones.

During the last 10 years, dozens of weary old townhouses were gutted and transformed into smart, small hotels. The sleekest, like the Draycott, the Pelham and Blakes, routinely win design awards and turn up as backdrops when visiting actors do magazine interviews. Rambling old hotels were also restored with comfort and style in mind. And though the “full English” is still the breakfast of choice, they’ve taken out the grease, if not the cholesterol.

All these improvements have been pleasing but costly. At the same time, London, not too long ago a city of $50 cashmere sweaters and $10 theater tickets, has grown expensive, thanks to inflation and, for Americans, a big dip in the value of the dollar. While Paris still has its share of chic little hotels with double rooms priced comfortably under $100, you’ll be courting faded wallpaper and nylon (yes, nylon) sheets at many London establishments in that range.

Most large London hotels charge at least $250 for a double room, sans breakfast. The more sybaritic small hotels boldly charge $300 and up for exquisitely decorated rooms hardly larger than closets. And ordinary double rooms at less-than-ordinary luxury hotels, such as Claridges and The Ritz, start at about $400.

Choose carefully, however, and for between $110 and $220, good value--circa 1991--can be yours. That can mean a simple pastel room for two with a huge Scandinavian buffet breakfast for $140 or an Edwardian fantasy room with antique armoire for $221, breakfast extra.

These aren’t bed and breakfasts in private homes, which can be much cheaper, but smallish, full-service hotels for those willing to pay a little more for a bit more style and a few more amenities. Expect a hair dryer in the bathroom, porter service and perhaps a mini-fridge. You might even get terry-cloth bathrobes and a few fresh posies by the bed. (Prices in this story are figured using an exchange rate of $1.70 to the pound; all hotel rates include value-added Tax and service.)

Good value can also mean a special rate at well-known hotels such as the Hyde Park, the Athenaeum or the imposing new Langham Hilton. Several large hotel groups, including Hilton International, Rank Hotels, the Savoy Group and Forte Hotels, are offering attractive value packages this autumn (see box for details).

You can also often get discounted hotel rates using packages offered by airlines, or through travel agencies specializing in discounts, such as Hometours International, a New York City-based firm (see box). And be sure to ask if the hotel you’re planning to use offers corporate rates.

Good value, London-style, comes with a few local quirks, of course. Complimentary upgrades to larger rooms, not uncommoon in big U.S. cities, are rare in London, even when hotels seem empty. But charm is no longer the rarity it once was, as long as you don’t venture too far down the price scale. The exchange rate, which recently dipped to an enticing $1.60 to the pound, might also swing in your favor.

Here are 10 of London’s most intriguing hotels worth their price. For some, the value is in the location, whether near an Underground station, the hottest shops or someplace buzzing, like Sloane Square. For others, it’s rooms with a little style or space. And for a few, value simply means a clean, affordable room with a breakfast you won’t mind eating.

ABBEY COURT HOTEL

If chintz drapes, overstuffed sofas and brass beds are still your style, things don’t get much better than the Abbey Court, at least not for $207 a night ($197, breakfast included, at the corporate rate). The 22 rooms range from spacious to extremely snug. But even petites come with fresh flowers, a selection of books and terrific bathrooms, with wooden toilet seats and whirlpool baths. Set in a sparkling white townhouse in the Notting Hill area, the Abbey Court sits on a dreary block that’s one part chic, two parts scruffy. The upside is that you’re near the antique shops of Kensington High Street and Portobello Road. You may also catch a glimpse of Princess Di when she drops off Prince Harry at the nearby Wetherby School. One caveat: no elevator.

MORNINGTON HOTEL

The 68-room Mornington, owned by a Swedish company, is a bright light in the Bayswater tourist-hotel ghetto, just north of Hyde Park. Well-managed and nicely maintained, it neatly, if amusingly, blends British and Scandinavian culture. Guest rooms, priced at $140, look more Stockholm than London, with blond wood furniture and pastel plaid Scandinavian fabrics. There’s a sauna, naturally. There’s also a generous Scandinavian buffet breakfast (soft boiled eggs, Rye-Vita, cold cuts, yogurt) in an airy downstairs room. But the wood-paneled library, which doubles as a bar, is pure English--or Ralph Lauren, depending on your sensibilities.

DURRANTS HOTEL

Most small London hotels started life as family homes. But the Durrants, near Oxford Street in the Marylebone neighborhood, opened in the 1790s as a coaching inn (several rooms overlook the old cobbled courtyard). You’d never glean this swashbuckling history from the 96 guest rooms, which are pretty conventional. Half are pastel and feminine, the rest dark and masculine, with built-in wooden furniture. But the ground floor, with its wood-paneled bar and a series of sitting rooms, is as traditional as an English men’s club. You can curl up in a big leather wing chair before a roaring fire and nurse a bracing cup of tea--or a wee dram. Rooms cost $161; a few at $142 a night share baths.

DORSET SQUARE HOTEL

The location of the Dorset Square Hotel isn’t thrilling unless you insist on being near Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum. But this lavishly restored, chintz-filled townhouse, not far from the Baker Street Underground station, is a standout in an otherwise charmless neighborhood. The 37 rooms range from tiny to not-so-tiny, and are priced accordingly ($187 to $229). But the lack of space is compensated by a generous helping of style. (My room on a recent visit was done in Scottish tartan.) No two rooms are alike, antiques are abundant and bathrooms are splendid, with showers that actually have good water pressure, a rare thing in London, and mounds of fluffy white towels and robes. You can also sip an after-dinner port in a sweet little sitting room with blue striped walls, ancestral portraits and a magnificent carved wooden desk.

HAZLITT’S

Hazlitt’s isn’t for everyone. There’s no elevator. And this 23-room hotel set in a 1718 building proudly displays a few 18th-Century quirks, like sloping floors and doors that don’t quite fit their frames. But Hazlitt’s is witty, with plants, antiques, oodles of prints, no chintz and, best of all, amusing plaster portrait busts. (A life-size bust of a young boy sat on a table in my bathroom, right next to a pile of snowy towels.) The biggest bathrooms boast huge, claw-footed tubs with French hand-held showers. And there’s a pleasing sitting room with a fireplace. At $190, rooms are a tad pricey--but worth it if quirks make you giggle. And the $9.35 continental breakfast--coffee with morning croissants--is excellent.

L’HOTEL

For super-shoppers, it’s hard to beat the Knightsbridge location of L’Hotel, a sleek little bed and breakfast inn with a country French accent. Harrods is to the left. Harvey Nichols (one of Di’s favorite department stores) is to the right. And if you crave afternoon tea, the luxurious Capitol Hotel next door, which owns L’Hotel, serves a splendid one. L’Hotel’s 12 guest rooms are contemporary and crisp, with fabric print walls, brass beds and dried flowers. They are also surprisingly roomy, though most overlook a boring collection of buildings. A complimentary breakfast of coffee, juice and croissants is served mornings in Le Metro, the inn’s basement brasserie . Bed and breakfast costs $187.

HOTEL 167

If size is no object, and money is, Hotel 167 is that rare thing--a moderately priced bed and breakfast hotel with a little style. Rooms cost $109, which includes an adequate breakfast of rolls, coffee and juice delivered to your door. This refurbished townhouse, near the Gloucester Road Underground station, greets you with a snappy, black-and-white entryway and abstract paintings on the walls. Rooms range from country casual, with striped bedspreads and pine beds, to High Victoriana, with fringed lampshades and carved wooden writing desks. Unfortunately, there’s no elevator and rather narrow staircases (pack light). And the registration room doubles as a sitting room, which means you listen to the receptionist’s television while you read the papers.

THE CRANLEY

The Cranley, which opened in 1990, occupies three handsome townhouses on a quiet street, just off the Old Brompton Road in South Kensington, close to the Gloucester Road Underground station. Owned by a Michigan company, the hotel is almost stage-set English, with bright fabrics, bold colors, antiques, skirted tables and lots of dried flowers. It looks, in short, like an American idealization of London--pretty but precious. (You keep expecting to see Felicity Kendal descend the staircase in riding pinks and shriek “Talley-ho.”) Rooms, which overlook a garden out back, range from extremely tiny to reasonably spacious and are priced accordingly, starting at $150 for a snuggie. But the blue and white bathrooms are wonderful. And larger doubles, priced from $200, have kitchenettes.

THE FENJA

A handsomely restored townhouse near Sloane Square that overlooks Cadogan Gardens with just 12 rooms, The Fenja has both style and space, which is reflected in the price: double rooms range from $221 to $323. But staying in this Edwardian townhouse can be the next best thing to sampling life in the “Upstairs, Downstairs” era, with late-20th-Century plumbing, of course. Guest rooms are inviting, with just a dash of flamboyance. Each is named for a famous Edwardian who frequented the area, a lone twee touch. On one visit, I was put in Augustus John--a noble, brownish room with an antique armoir, a carved wooden bed, William Morris-print curtains and a black and white photograph of John, complete with a framed biography. The William Singer Sargent room, done in blues and creams, is huge and quite imposing. But Jane Austen, shades of subdued red, has a fireplace.

THE WILBRAHAM

The Wilbraham also evokes an earlier era, namely the years between the wars. Unlike The Fenja, which has a stage-set perfection, The Wilbraham, a short walk from Sloane Square, is the real thing, with so many coats of paint that the plasterwork looks blurry. This red-brick townhouse with a big striped awning is textbook-shabby genteel, as only the English can do it. Guest rooms are in pastel hues with floral curtains. Bathrooms, with either showers or tubs, are clean but old. And the elevator is extremely petite. But the television lounge can be cheery, and the wood-paneled dining room and bar are inviting. Jane Marple would feel right at home. Rooms cost $122 with bath, $103 with shared bath. No credit cards.

GUIDEBOOK: London Hotel Values

Here are addresses and telephone numbers for the 10 London hotels mentioned (from the United States, dial 011-44 before each city code and local number).

Abbey Court Hotel (Notting Hill): 20 Pembridge Gardens W2 4DU; 71-221-7518, fax 71-792-0858.

Mornington Hotel (Bayswater): 12 Lancaster Gate W2 3LG; 71-262-7361, fax 71-706-1028.

Durrants Hotel (Marylebone): 26-32 George St. W1 H 6BJ; 71-935-8131, fax 71-487-3510.

Dorset Square Hotel (Marylebone): 39-40 Dorset Square NW1 6QN; in the United States, (800) 543-4138, or 71-723-3328, fax 71-724-3328.

Hazlitt’s (Soho): 6 Frith St. W1V 5T2; 71-434-1771, fax 71-439-1524.

L’Hotel (Knightsbridge): 28 Basil St. SW3 1AT; (800) 223-5695 or 71-589-6286, fax 71-225-1635.

Hotel 167 (South Kensington): 167 Old Brompton Road SW5 0AN; 71-373-0672.

The Cranley (South Kensington), 10-12 Bina Gardens SW5 0LA; (800) 553-2582 or 71-373-0123, fax 71-373-9497.

The Fenja (Sloane Square): 69 Cadogan Gardens SW3 2RB; (800) 544-7570 or 71-589-7333, fax 71-581-4958.

Wilbraham Hotel (Sloane Square): Wilbraham Place, Sloane Street SW1X 9AE; 71-730-8296, fax 71-730-6815. No credit cards.

Additional hotel values: Several large hotel companies are offering special rates at well-known London hotels in the coming months (be sure to check ahead on availability). These usually need to be booked, and in several cases paid in advance in the United States.

Hilton International’s “2 for 1” package, available until March, 1992, features two nights for the price of one at most Hilton hotels in London.

Among these are the new Langham Hotel on Portland Place, a monster Victorian from 1865 that reopened last March after a major restoration ($185 a night with continental breakfast); the Park Lane, a stately 1920s hotel in Piccadilly ($185 including continental breakfast); the efficient Kensington Hilton near Holland Park ($135), and the Sherlock Holmes, decorated with Holmesiana on Baker Street ($135).

(Note: Prices may fluctuate with the exchange rate. Telephone 800-445-8667.)

Forte Hotels’ “Forte 30” plan, available through 1992, offers a 30% discount on standard double rooms at any Forte hotel, except the showpiece Browns, reserved 30 days in advance.

Forte is also offering Holiday Rates through Dec. 15 that feature a discount, breakfast and a voucher for lunch, dinner or tea for stays of two or more nights, including a Saturday.

Participating hotels include the Waldorf in the Strand, an Edwardian hotel known for its afternoon teas ($200 a night); the Westbury near Old Bond Street ($234 a night), and the glamorous Hyde Park in Knightsbridge ($336 a night with champagne and fruit in room). Call (800) 225-5843. Rank Hotels’ “More London for Less” program, available through Oct. 31, offers special prices, quoted in dollars, for standard rooms booked 30 days in advance, two-night minimum.

Double rooms at the Gloucester, the large, efficent hotel where most Wimbledon players stay each year, cost $150 with breakfast, while the stylish Athenaeum hotel in Mayfair is $275 with breakfast. Call (800) 223-5560.

The Savoy Group’s “Winter Breaks” includes a weekend package at the Savoy Hotel on the Strand, from Sept. 1 through Dec. 1. A double room with breakfast, dinner and dancing in the Savoy Restaurant, plus fruit, flowers and chocolates, is $493 for the first night and $340 for each additional night, breakfast included.

Discounts at selected small hotels, including bed and breakfasts, are available through Hometours International, a 6-year-old New York City-based travel company. Hometours publishes a brochure, available for $1, listing more than 400 establishments in London and other parts of the British Isles.

Oddly, names are not given, but there’s a description and in some cases a drawing of each, as well as information on location, closest underground stations, number of rooms and bathrooms, notable architectural details, eating facilities, price range and quality rating.

Apartments are also available. Recent visitors have had good experience with this company. Prices range from $38-$88 per person; there’s a five-night minimum.

Reservations must be made--and paid--in advance in the United States through Hometours, which charges a $50 processing fee ($25 is applied to the payment). Hometours is at 1170 Broadway, Suite 614, New York 10001-7507, (800) 367-4668 or (212) 689-0851.

For more information: Contact the British Tourist Authority, 350 S. Figueroa St., Suite 450, Los Angeles 90071, (213) 628-3525.