Cheap hotels in London

So yours truly here at cheaphotelsinlondon was thinking a bit today about the travel market and where it is in general. If you think back just 10 years ago the vast majority of people were still booking/organising their holidays through a vast network of high street travel agents. These shops in your local town or city were really your only option as far as booking a holiday or hotel. If we look forward today it seems like the market as done a complete u turn with the vast majority of trips are booked by people using the internet and booking the separate parts of the trip themselves with individual companies. Its rare now that people even think about a package deal when they just assume that they can get a much better price by cutting out the middleman and going direct to the hotel or airline. This doesn’t just apply to hotels in central London but hotels all over the world, indeed many hotels now report that were they used to deal only with travel agents they now work mostly with online hotel sites like Laterooms or lastminute.com. I suppose for them it doesn’t really matter who they are dealing with as they are paying commission to whoever sends them the booking. Makes me wonder why most hotels don’t spend more on a bit of marketing themselves, i suppose the smaller ones cant afford it but for the larger chains there really is no excuse. Alot are still stuck in a time warp and the internet just seems like a step to far. Eg many big chains in London are still pumping out brochures like its going out of fashion, i mean seriously who wants to order and wait for a brochure when you can just hit a website and find out all you need to know.

So do i think high street travel agents are all going to go out of business? Well not exactly, they can still offer some good deals especially if you have a big booking with a couple of rooms and a long flight. Its in these cases they can use the leverage with the chains to bring the price down. However at the same time you have to realise that they are not well placed for changes in the market (eg the current rescission) as their costs and overheads will be ongoing and constant no-matter the market conditions. Its much easier for a website to scale back on different expenses that a physical shop which will have rent and static staff costs. All this has led to a dramatic rise in internet bookings for cheap hotels in London over the past couple of years, even if it is primarily to check prices and compare hotels. For many its just an automatic thing now to use google or their favourite travel site to get the best deals that i don’t see how high street shops will ever come back. In fact i have found that its not just budget but also luxury hotels in London that have been affected by this shift in public habit. Many business people need to book a hotel with very short notice and as we all know the quickest way to book a hotel now is the internet, even the phone can come second place now as you have to spend so much time giving over personal details and the different room options. Why bother talking to someone on the phone or in a shop if you already know what you want and you can just pick it there and then right in front of you. I suppose we all still take it for granted but the idea that the customer would have access to so much information about a hotel would be crazy just a few years ago. Many sites now have every option possible when it comes to searching for a hotel, you can specify everything from non-smoking to if pets are allowed! I know for some this level of detail is too much but for others it’s a life saver, especially if you do have special requirements like travelling with young children or a disability.

Ok so im rambling a bit too much here i know but i do find it very interesting how the hotel market particularly in London city has changed and how people looking for the cheapest hotels now have the whole market laid right out in front of the them to choose from. As always my advice is to look around as much as possible before committing to anywhere, and the internet is making that easier than ever.

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