Where to Stay in London: Best Hotels for Every Budget

London is expensive and sprawling, so choosing the best hotel is super important for building a great trip. When choosing where to stay in London, you’ll need to think about what you want to see and do and find the best hotel in your budget close to those spots or an easy tube ride away. We’ve researched and booked hotels all over the city, and these are the ones we recommend for every budget and travel style.

👉 Building your trip around the food? Our sister site Foodie Frontiers covers where to eat in London, from Borough Market to the Soho spots we visit every trip.

Where to Stay in London at a Glance

Here’s the quick version if you’re deciding fast. Each pick is covered in full below.

Best budget stay near a train station: Generator London, a stylish base near King’s Cross
Best budget stay for location: The Z Hotel Soho, compact rooms in the middle of the West End
Best mid-range pick: Mimi’s Hotel Soho, next to the Dog and Duck, our favorite pub for food
Best for loyalty points and a rooftop: Canopy by Hilton London City
Best tech-forward stay: citizenM, with Tower of London and Bankside locations
Best luxury stay with a food scene: The Ned London, in the old Midland Bank
Best classic splurge: The Savoy London on the Strand
Best Hilton free night award targets: Conrad London St. James and The Waldorf Hilton, London

Getting around: Taxis are expensive, traffic is horrendous, and Ubers are unreliable in our experience. London is all about walking and the tube. Every hotel here is near a station.

Where to Stay in London on a Budget

London hotels have a reputation for being pricey, and it’s mostly earned. But a few places give you a stylish, central room without the high price tag, as long as you don’t expect much space.

Generator London: Best Budget Stay Near a Train Station

Generator London is our go-to budget spot if we’re traveling on from King’s Cross. It’s comfortable and stylish in a way most budget places aren’t, and it’s an easy base that puts you right near the Eurostar and the tube network in a short walk. Book it if you want a fun stay in a good price range and don’t mind a younger, livelier crowd in the common areas. You can book a shared room, but we get a private room with its own bathroom.

The Z Hotel Soho: Best Budget Stay for Location

The Z Hotel Soho won’t give you much space, but it’s a location you can’t beat for the price. It has 85 compact rooms around a courtyard on Moor Street. It’s a five-minute walk from Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, and Covent Garden, right in the theatre district. The rooms are small and some have no window, which the booking page labels clearly, so check the room type before you book if that matters to you. These are pretty much pods. For a couple who plans to be out all day and back only to sleep, this works great.

Pro Tip: The Z Hotel has several London locations, including Covent Garden, Holborn, and Gloucester Place. The Soho property is the most central for first-time visitors, so we recommend booking this one.

Best Mid-Range Hotels in London

This is the tier we book most, and it’s where London hotels get much more comfortable.

Mimi’s Hotel Soho: Best Mid-Range Pick

Mimi’s Hotel Soho is one of our favorite hotels in London for the vibe, the price, and the location. It’s right next door to the Dog and Duck, which serves our favorite pub food, and a short walk from the theaters and our favorite things in SoHo. We stayed in a Lux room, which was spacious had a window and a small foyer. The staff and the little downstairs bar were lovely. Some rooms don’t have windows, which the website states clearly, so we booked the Lux room specifically to get one and have more space. It was actually gorgeous and very comfortable.

Canopy by Hilton London City: Best for Points and a Rooftop

Canopy by Hilton London City is our other mid-range favorite, and the best one for Hilton loyalty. We stayed in a Wellness Junior Suite on our last visit and had dinner at Penny Squares downstairs. The Florattica rooftop bar is expensive but great for small plates and city views. The hotel is lifestyle focused, so it also rents you bikes, and we got a free upgrade to a room with a Peloton. It’s in a quiet pocket of London City near Aldgate, and it’s an easy walk to the Tower of London, Borough Market, and the Sky Garden.

Best Luxury Hotels in London

When you’re looking for a splurge, London does grand as well as any city in the world. Two stand out for us, for different reasons:

The Ned London: Best Luxury Hotel With a Food Scene

The Ned London is in the old Midland Bank building in London City, about ten minutes from Sky Garden. The ground floor offers a whole collection of restaurants under the original banking hall columns, and the brunch is outstanding.

The Savoy London: Best Classic Splurge

The Savoy London is a classic luxury hotel on the Strand, with Kaspar’s for seafood and the American Bar for a proper cocktail. This is the grande dame pick for an anniversary or a first trip to London that you want to be memorable. It’s also walkable to Covent Garden and the West End theatres, so the location is perfect.

citizenM: Why We Keep Booking It

We’ve been staying at citizenM a lot lately, all around the world. So it gets its own section. After many stays across different cities, it’s become one of our reliable go-tos, and now that it’s part of Marriott, more travelers can get perks by staying here. The concept is exactly the same at event location with a few local variations, so we thought we’d dive in here on what it’s all about.

We love the concept. citizenM is a swanky, tech-forward hotel with locations in the heart of whatever city you’re in, at a price below the properties around it. The beds are comfortable, the blackout curtains and soundproofing work wonderfully for jet lag, and the in-room iPad controls the lights, curtains, and TV. Check-in is a self-service kiosk, and the communal spaces is part lounge, part bar with a 24-hour canteen. We think of it as the grown-up version of the hostels of our youth, only you get a sleek private en-suite room.

There are some major drawbacks though, that make it not right for everyone:

The rooms are tiny, and the bed is pushed against the wall on three sides. So even for a couple, one has to climb over the other to get up at night.
The lobby snacks and drinks add up fast, so be careful not to dip too much into what you saved on the room.
You will find friendly staff to help you, but it’s not a place with a concierge or even a dedicated front desk.

CitizenM is best for solo travelers and couples, and short stays.

In London, two locations stand out most for us. citizenM Tower of London is the highest-rated of the city’s citizenM hotels. It’s near the Tower and Sky Garden, with great views if you pay extra for the higher-floor rooms. citizenM London Bankside is on the South Bank, a short walk from Borough Market and the Tate Modern.

Points Tip: You can now book citizenM with Marriott Bonvoy points, so you can earn and redeem on stays. This is particularly appealing when you get a transfer bonus from a credit card program. But the best tea to book is the hotel itself for the price, location, and design.

👉 For the full rundown, here’s our honest citizenM review covering eight things we love and four we don’t.

This is our room in Copenhagen but they all look the same

Our Hilton Free Night Award Wishlist for London

This is our luxe-for-less strategy. We save our free night certificate from our Amex Hilton Aspire card for a city like this, where one certificate can get you a free night at a very expensive 4- or 5-star hotel. The annual free-night certificate works for a standard room at almost any Hilton property with standard award availability, with no category cap, so you can use it for a 40,000-point or a 160,000-point standard award. We haven’t stayed at these yet, but these three London properties are on highest on our list to try with this strategy:

Conrad London St. James

Conrad London St. James tops our wish list. It’s a five-star hotel a short walk from Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, and Big Ben, near St. James’s Park. You can book it with the annual Aspire certificate whenever there’s standard room award space.

The Waldorf Hilton, London

The Waldorf Hilton, London is our second pick, and not to be confused with the new Waldorf Astoria below. It’s the 1908 Edwardian hotel on Aldwych, in the theatre district, a short walk from Covent Garden and the Royal Opera House. It’s also bookable now with a free night certificate on standard award availability.

Waldorf Astoria London – Admiralty Arch

Waldorf Astoria London – Admiralty Arch is our aspirational spot, and a completely different property from the Waldorf Hilton on Aldwych. This is Hilton’s top-tier Waldorf Astoria brand, and a new luxury flagship hotel near Buckingham Palace with restaurants from Clare Smyth and Daniel Boulud. Hilton is targeting an autumn 2026 opening, but reward bookings aren’t expected until March 2027 at the earliest. We’re watching for a future certificate.

Pro Tip: Redeeming a Hilton free night certificate has to be done over the phone rather than online, and the certificate covers standard rooms only, not suites. Check the current exclusion list at HiltonHonors.com before you count on any single property, check standard award space online before calling, and have a backup or two in mind.

Our AmEx Hilton Aspire card comes with a $550 annual fee, but we get a lot of credits that cover the cost of it like CLEAR (for one person), $50 per quarter in airline credits, as well as resort credits and elite perks. Even if you don’t want to chase credits, the free night is worth it alone for a luxury stay. We recently stayed at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington, DC, with a certificate when the cash fare was $1,200 after taxes and fees.

Best Areas to Stay in London

The hotels above cover many budget ranges, but the neighborhood you pick is also super important:

Soho and the West End are the best base for first-time visitors, because they are walkable to the theatres, restaurants, and nightlife, with Mimi’s and the Z Hotel right in the heart of it.

London City is quieter at night but central and well-connected, and it’s where Canopy and the Ned are. We love this area of town if we’re not looking for nightlife, but even still, Shoreditch is very close by.

The South Bank, near Borough Market and the Tate Modern, is our pick for food and river walks, with our favorite spot being citizenM Bankside.

King’s Cross is a smart budget base for the transport links on the Eurostar and beyond. We’d stay at Generator Hostel here.

If you’re looking at capsule or pod-style hotels to save money, London has strong options, including the Z Hotel group and citizenM, focused on small, well-designed rooms in central spots throughout London.

Where to Stay in London: Frequently Asked Questions

What Is the Best Area to Stay in London for First-Time Visitors?

Soho and the West End are the best base for a first trip. They’re walkable to the theatres, Covent Garden, restaurants, and nightlife, with tube stations all around. Mimi’s Hotel Soho and the Z Hotel Soho both put you right in the middle with affordable accommodations.

Where Should I Stay in London on a Budget?

Generator London near King’s Cross and the Z Hotel Soho in the West End are two stylish budget picks. Both have compact rooms to keep the price down, and both are central and well-connected. citizenM is another affordable option with better rooms if you can stretch your budget slightly.

Are London Hotel Rooms Really That Small?

Often, yes, especially at the budget and pod-style hotels. Places like the Z Hotel and citizenM keep rooms small on purpose to offer central locations at lower prices. If space matters, book a Lux or corner room category, or move up to a mid-range hotel like Canopy by Hilton London City.

Can You Use a Hilton Free Night Certificate in London?

Yes. The Amex Hilton Aspire free night certificate works on a standard room at almost any Hilton property in London with standard award availability, with no category cap. Conrad London St. James and The Waldorf Hilton, London are two strong central options. Redemptions have to be booked by phone.

Do You Need a Car in London?

No. London’s tube, bus, and rail network covers the city, and central neighborhoods are walkable. A car is a liability with the confusing traffic patterns, congestion charge, and parking costs, so stay central and use public transport.