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This is in continuation with a question I had asked on Jan 24th. We are planning to visit London for 2012 Olympics. Having visited London once earlier last year we fell in love with the place. The city has history and charm, loads of it. While hosting the Olympics is always good for a city from the infrastructure point of view, do Londoners have to milk the world and fleece them to host the Olympics. We are in the process of hunting out a decent place to stay. The following write up shows how some hotels are demanding a ransom...
Just to update you all about our attempts to secure a booking with a london hotel....I have heard from more London hotels and every day gives me more shocking and preposterous quotes. We wanted to check with the best hotels ( 5 Star), the not so expensive hotels( 4 and 3 star), the budget hotels and last but not the least the travelodges as well. While Im personally disturbed by what I read on trip advisor about travelodges, I think given the exorbitant rates these hotels are quoting, we would have no other options but to go in for travelodges. To start with I enquired with one of the best hotels - Taj London - aka 51, Buckingham Gate. On their website, it says 350 pounds per night for a junior suite it sounded ok to us and we decided to ( half heartedly) raise our budget for London Olympics ( from 10,000 pounds to 15,000) and I sent them an email for a quote. We requested to stay for 18 nights from 27th July till 13th August 2012. They came back with a quote of 17,100 pounds !!!!! for 18 nights without VAT and without breakfast... WTF??? Are London hotels killing the proverbial golden goose? Who would in their right mind stay in a hotel and pay 17,100 pounds and pay extra for taxes and breakfast and lunch and dinner??? Coming to the 3 star range, I tried the Strand Palace at the Strand, they have come out with a quote of 6300 pounds sounds steep again but manageble - this includes all taxes and breakfast. We might finally go in for this. The travelodges I havent contacted them yet. Pretty distrubed after reading the reviews on tripadvisor. At times we feel tempted to ditch the whole plan and spend the money else where and stay in a 7 star luxury hotel and watch the Olympics on TV... we might actually end up staying in much more luxurious place and spend less, but yet again the lure of London and the Olympics are tempting us, feeling very angry and let down. Does anyone know any good place to stay? More expensive than Travelodges less expensive than the Strand. Around 250 pounds per night for a couple. A clean and hygienic safe place would do. Dont they have the culture of home stays, where people can pay say 3500 pounds and stay with a family for the 18 days?? Why is London soooo expensive?Is there no rational solution to this? -- 213.130.123.12 ( talk) 04:24, 31 January 2011 (UTC)
Thanks everyone for your replies, I had posted this question on 24th and we got quite a few helpful replies and worked on those lines and yesterday we were at our wits end, my husband reposted this question and at the outset let me tell, we are both very thankful for all the replies we have received so far. Karenjc you had guided us once with the Afro Celt music and now again with the London Olypics accomodation, thanks a lot. Thanks too to all other individuals who have chipped in their valuable inputs. What we dont understand is, when the Olympic Organising Committee can sell tickets as early as March 2011 online, why cant they have a tie up with several London hotels say 2star, 3 sttar 4 star and 5 star and start giving confirmed room bookings online? When a tourist is ready to make a 100% payment upfront whats stopping them. By selling event tickets alone and leaving the overseas tourists in the lurch with absolutely no idea where they would stay, the Olympic organising committe is magic a big mistake. Leaving us at the mercy of the London Hotel industry is so unfair. It might be argued, no where in the world would an Olympic Organising Committte help in arrranging hotels, but not every city is London. London being one of the most expensive places in the world, even 350 pounds per night is not sufficient for a tiny rathole in central london during the games period. The visiting tourists would feel fleeced. Can everyone affford to spend 20,000 pounds only for rooms and another 6000 pounds for tickets and another 5000 pounds for food?? what about transport, shopping and unexpected expenses? Initially we set aside 10,000 pounds for the whole Olympics trip hoping to finish travel, accomodation, food and tickets within that budget for the two of us. Later reality dawned on us and we realised it would cover virtually nothing. So, in our desperation we upped our budget from 10,000 pounds to 15,000 pounds for those 20 days but this is the max we can shell out. If still we dont find a reasonable place, we might have to forget our plans and watch the event on TV but my husband insists we should go there and is dooing this basically as a gift for me. Its really sad to see him worry about this, he is dashing off mails after emails to most hotels and almost all of them have tripled their prices for the period between july 2012 and august 2012. We however saw some pretty impressive pictures about B&B at Belgravia, Marble Arch and in some other areas within zone 1. But sadly the owners of these properties say its too early to make any commitments for the Olympics. They wanna play the waiting game and go with the highest bidder, cant blame them. Make hay while the sun shines. But they should have some realistic time limits, we just cant wait indefinitely. The event tickets are expected to go on sale by mid march 2011 and according to the official websites are expected to be sold out by april 2011, so we truely are in a catch 22 situation. we are planning to pick up tickets for almost 5000 pounds and will have no commitments on the accomodation till September or October 2011. I sincerely hope things fall into place and common sense prevails and the tourists from other countries come and have a good stay and leave safe and happy. Thanks again for your patience and your help.--Fragrantforever 06:15, 1 February 2011 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fragrantforever ( talk • contribs)
I'd strongly argue that staying in Zone 1 is a mistake unless you're utterly loaded. Especially if what you're interested in is the Olympics. Find somewhere with good ratings a bit further out that has convenient public transport links both for the Olympics and central London. The places further out will probably be a bit less stuck-up than the central London ones and may appreciate getting in some early bookings (with deposits) - times are hard, y'know. -- Dweller ( talk) 16:40, 2 February 2011 (UTC)
Does anyone know when Brigitte Bardot's song Moi je joue was recorded and released? Thank you.-- Jeanne Boleyn ( talk) 10:33, 31 January 2011 (UTC)
Hello, could anyone tell me who this actor is? I created that Photoshop a while ago, I'm just not sure who I used anymore.-- 213.196.210.36 ( talk) 15:03, 31 January 2011 (UTC)
I photoshopped the actor's head into the Star Trek scenery, so ignore Star Trek. Also ignore Travis, it's the name of my RPG character. I vaguely recall that the actor's name contained either the first name Alan or the surname Allen.-- 87.78.55.186 ( talk) 08:56, 1 February 2011 (UTC)
whats the song playing when theyre talking about Suge Knight in Tupac Resurrection? -- 81.23.48.100 ( talk) 16:48, 31 January 2011 (UTC)
Entertainment desk | ||
---|---|---|
< January 30 | << Dec | January | Feb >> | February 1 > |
Welcome to the Wikipedia Entertainment Reference Desk Archives |
---|
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages. |
This is in continuation with a question I had asked on Jan 24th. We are planning to visit London for 2012 Olympics. Having visited London once earlier last year we fell in love with the place. The city has history and charm, loads of it. While hosting the Olympics is always good for a city from the infrastructure point of view, do Londoners have to milk the world and fleece them to host the Olympics. We are in the process of hunting out a decent place to stay. The following write up shows how some hotels are demanding a ransom...
Just to update you all about our attempts to secure a booking with a london hotel....I have heard from more London hotels and every day gives me more shocking and preposterous quotes. We wanted to check with the best hotels ( 5 Star), the not so expensive hotels( 4 and 3 star), the budget hotels and last but not the least the travelodges as well. While Im personally disturbed by what I read on trip advisor about travelodges, I think given the exorbitant rates these hotels are quoting, we would have no other options but to go in for travelodges. To start with I enquired with one of the best hotels - Taj London - aka 51, Buckingham Gate. On their website, it says 350 pounds per night for a junior suite it sounded ok to us and we decided to ( half heartedly) raise our budget for London Olympics ( from 10,000 pounds to 15,000) and I sent them an email for a quote. We requested to stay for 18 nights from 27th July till 13th August 2012. They came back with a quote of 17,100 pounds !!!!! for 18 nights without VAT and without breakfast... WTF??? Are London hotels killing the proverbial golden goose? Who would in their right mind stay in a hotel and pay 17,100 pounds and pay extra for taxes and breakfast and lunch and dinner??? Coming to the 3 star range, I tried the Strand Palace at the Strand, they have come out with a quote of 6300 pounds sounds steep again but manageble - this includes all taxes and breakfast. We might finally go in for this. The travelodges I havent contacted them yet. Pretty distrubed after reading the reviews on tripadvisor. At times we feel tempted to ditch the whole plan and spend the money else where and stay in a 7 star luxury hotel and watch the Olympics on TV... we might actually end up staying in much more luxurious place and spend less, but yet again the lure of London and the Olympics are tempting us, feeling very angry and let down. Does anyone know any good place to stay? More expensive than Travelodges less expensive than the Strand. Around 250 pounds per night for a couple. A clean and hygienic safe place would do. Dont they have the culture of home stays, where people can pay say 3500 pounds and stay with a family for the 18 days?? Why is London soooo expensive?Is there no rational solution to this? -- 213.130.123.12 ( talk) 04:24, 31 January 2011 (UTC)
Thanks everyone for your replies, I had posted this question on 24th and we got quite a few helpful replies and worked on those lines and yesterday we were at our wits end, my husband reposted this question and at the outset let me tell, we are both very thankful for all the replies we have received so far. Karenjc you had guided us once with the Afro Celt music and now again with the London Olypics accomodation, thanks a lot. Thanks too to all other individuals who have chipped in their valuable inputs. What we dont understand is, when the Olympic Organising Committee can sell tickets as early as March 2011 online, why cant they have a tie up with several London hotels say 2star, 3 sttar 4 star and 5 star and start giving confirmed room bookings online? When a tourist is ready to make a 100% payment upfront whats stopping them. By selling event tickets alone and leaving the overseas tourists in the lurch with absolutely no idea where they would stay, the Olympic organising committe is magic a big mistake. Leaving us at the mercy of the London Hotel industry is so unfair. It might be argued, no where in the world would an Olympic Organising Committte help in arrranging hotels, but not every city is London. London being one of the most expensive places in the world, even 350 pounds per night is not sufficient for a tiny rathole in central london during the games period. The visiting tourists would feel fleeced. Can everyone affford to spend 20,000 pounds only for rooms and another 6000 pounds for tickets and another 5000 pounds for food?? what about transport, shopping and unexpected expenses? Initially we set aside 10,000 pounds for the whole Olympics trip hoping to finish travel, accomodation, food and tickets within that budget for the two of us. Later reality dawned on us and we realised it would cover virtually nothing. So, in our desperation we upped our budget from 10,000 pounds to 15,000 pounds for those 20 days but this is the max we can shell out. If still we dont find a reasonable place, we might have to forget our plans and watch the event on TV but my husband insists we should go there and is dooing this basically as a gift for me. Its really sad to see him worry about this, he is dashing off mails after emails to most hotels and almost all of them have tripled their prices for the period between july 2012 and august 2012. We however saw some pretty impressive pictures about B&B at Belgravia, Marble Arch and in some other areas within zone 1. But sadly the owners of these properties say its too early to make any commitments for the Olympics. They wanna play the waiting game and go with the highest bidder, cant blame them. Make hay while the sun shines. But they should have some realistic time limits, we just cant wait indefinitely. The event tickets are expected to go on sale by mid march 2011 and according to the official websites are expected to be sold out by april 2011, so we truely are in a catch 22 situation. we are planning to pick up tickets for almost 5000 pounds and will have no commitments on the accomodation till September or October 2011. I sincerely hope things fall into place and common sense prevails and the tourists from other countries come and have a good stay and leave safe and happy. Thanks again for your patience and your help.--Fragrantforever 06:15, 1 February 2011 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fragrantforever ( talk • contribs)
I'd strongly argue that staying in Zone 1 is a mistake unless you're utterly loaded. Especially if what you're interested in is the Olympics. Find somewhere with good ratings a bit further out that has convenient public transport links both for the Olympics and central London. The places further out will probably be a bit less stuck-up than the central London ones and may appreciate getting in some early bookings (with deposits) - times are hard, y'know. -- Dweller ( talk) 16:40, 2 February 2011 (UTC)
Does anyone know when Brigitte Bardot's song Moi je joue was recorded and released? Thank you.-- Jeanne Boleyn ( talk) 10:33, 31 January 2011 (UTC)
Hello, could anyone tell me who this actor is? I created that Photoshop a while ago, I'm just not sure who I used anymore.-- 213.196.210.36 ( talk) 15:03, 31 January 2011 (UTC)
I photoshopped the actor's head into the Star Trek scenery, so ignore Star Trek. Also ignore Travis, it's the name of my RPG character. I vaguely recall that the actor's name contained either the first name Alan or the surname Allen.-- 87.78.55.186 ( talk) 08:56, 1 February 2011 (UTC)
whats the song playing when theyre talking about Suge Knight in Tupac Resurrection? -- 81.23.48.100 ( talk) 16:48, 31 January 2011 (UTC)