Book your London hotel months ahead & save?

Can you get better London hotel deals by booking many months ahead? London Hotels Insight investigates (image credit below)

My attention was grabbed the other day by the publication of a very cool London events calendar for 2011.  This got me thinking: can you save money by planning your trip to London many months in advance?

More specifically, do London hotels reward you with lower prices when you book ahead of time?

We’ve certainly been trained to think that way with low cost airlines.  And there are after all a number of cheap London hotels that act like airlines.

But the answer is more complex than may first appear.  In reality, hotels in London are busy throughout the year and there are also certain unexpected “hotspots” – even if you’re booking in advance.  Sometimes, it has to do with seasonal factors while at others it can simply be caused by an important conference or exhibition – or perhaps a Royal Wedding.

Either way, long-range London hotel prices can be disappointingly high.  Some testing conducted by London Hotels Insight revealed a very mixed bag: some bargains to be had yes, but relatively few and far between.

Despite the ongoing investment in new hotels, there is fundamentally still a shortage of hotel capacity in London in relation to demand.  And the surge in new hotels for London 2012 probably won’t be enough to change that.

Booking in advance with sites like LondonTown.com and HotelMap.com reduces risk since you don't usually put down cash in advance

But I do think that the LondonTown.com 2011 Calendar is a valuable tool in helping you schedule a trip to London around your favourite event.  There is a wealth of mouthwatering plays, exhibitions, festivals, gigs, sport and special events set to light up the UK capital in the next 12 months.

For example, highlights in February alone include the UK Wedding Show, the start of Frankenstein at the National Theatre, the Chinese New Year celebrations and more.  And in the second half of 2011 there is the Wireless concert in Hyde Park in July, the Thames Festival in September and the London Film Festival in October to name but a few.  A host of useful info is presented with each listed event: a map with local amenities, travel connections and a list of top-rated nearby hotels for you to choose from.

And there are further benefits to making advance hotel bookings with LondonTown.com insofar as you do not usually pay in advance…so your risk of booking a long way ahead is substantially reduced.  Contrast this with some of the tempting “special offers” on hotel websites where reading the small-print reveals onerous terms or a non-refundable rate.

So while there are definitely long-range London hotel bargains around, my advice in the end would be to shop carefully and keep your wits about you.

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Photo credits: Anita Szeicz’s photostream.