London
categories: Transport | Hotels | Tourism
There is no official registry of hotel rooms in London, but the estimated the number of hotel rooms in Greater London in 2000 was put at 101,269.
According to figures produced in support of London's 2012 Olympic bid, there were more than 70,000 three to five star hotel rooms within 10 kilometres of Central London in 2003. Interestingly the main growth was a huge rise in the number of rooms within the City of London, while Kensington and Chelsea actually had a small fall. This is comparing figures since 1981. The main concentration of luxury hotels is in the West End, especially in Mayfair. London's five star hotels are quite small on average by international standards. The largest has only 459 rooms and nine of them have fifty or less. The range is very wide, including:
• Traditional purpose built grand hotels such as the Ritz, the Savoy and the Dorchester.
• Recent conversions of grand late 19th and early 20th century office buildings into hotels such as One Aldwych and the Renaissance Chancery Court.
• Townhouse hotels such as 13 Half Moon Street.
• Modern chain hotels such as the Four Seasons London and the London Hilton on Park Lane.
• Modern boutique designer hotels such as the St Martins Lane Hotel.
Currently the most profitable hotels and those with the most consistently high room occupancies are hotels around the 5 major London Airports. Heathrow and Gatwick peforming the best and becoming meeting and conference centers in their own right.
2006 was the year that environmentally friendly hotels started to become a marketing tool. Among the first to achieve certified levels were the Novotel London West and all the Marriott properties in the capital.
Hotels below the five star category are found throughout the city, but tend to be slightly further away from the key centres of activity. The largest concentration of mid priced hotels is probably in Bloomsbury on the northern side of the city centre. The largest cluster of hotels in the suburbs is around Heathrow Airport, most of which are modern chain hotels. The largest concentration of new hotel building is in East London around London City Airport in places such as Canning Town.
The developers of Shard London Bridge, which will be the tallest building in London if it is built plan to let part of it to a hotel operator.
Some notable hotels
• One of the more unusual hotels is the Sunborn Yacht, a floating hotel by the Excel centre in East London and constructed for that purpose.
• The 3 star 1,630 bedroom Royal National Hotel in Bloomsbury is the largest hotel in the United Kingdom by number of rooms.
• The Hilton London Metropole in Paddington is the largest 4-star hotel in London and the United Kingdom. It has 1,058 bedrooms and extensive conference facilities.
T• he Russell Hotel in Russell Square, Bloomsbury, which dates from 1898, has one of the grandest exteriors of any London hotel, but it is rated 4-star.
• The Guoman Tower Hotel (formerly Thistle) near Tower Bridge is one of the largest hotels in London with over 800 rooms, and is regarded by some as one of the ugliest and most insensitively located brutalist buildings in the city. However others find its location by St Katharine Docks and the Tower of London as quite relaxing and scenic.
• In 2005 planning permission was granted for the creation of a new hotel at St Pancras railway station. This will incorporate parts of the former Midland Grand Hotel, probably the most spectacular hotel building ever constructed in London, which operated from 1873 to 1935.
Source: