London Hotel Options, From Budget to Deluxe

The city offers a wide range of lodging choices, packaged or a la carte. And you can't always go by price.

When I recently booked an air-and-lodging package to London, travel provider Go-today.com offered a choice of 18 hotels in six levels, from "budget" to "superior deluxe" -- with corresponding upgrades in amenities and cost.

Just how bad is rock bottom? My main concerns were cleanliness and proximity to the Tube -- and my snug room at the budget-category My Place Hotel, near the Earl's Court station in West London, passed the test. (See below for details.) Then, to get a better sense of what the other options were, a colleague and I checked out the rest of the lodgings on Go-today's list, touring guest rooms, inspecting public facilities, speaking with guests and judging the hotel's general upkeep and location. As most of these hotels pop up in both package and hotel-only searches on Expedia.com, Orbitz.com and other sites, the list gives a good idea of what's out there in the London package deal world.

All properties have private baths, and continental breakfast is generally included when the room is booked as part of a package . The package price quoted is Go-today's air-hotel price from Washington for a four-night stay last month, per person double. The room-only price is a rate we found through Web searches for a double room at the property for a Saturday-night stay next month, not as part of a package deal.

-- Anne McDonough

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Budget

· Apollo Hotel, 64 Queensborough Terrace (Bayswater)

Package price: $719. Room-only price per night:$113 (found on Orbitz.com).

Details: There's little charm at this 46-room hotel, located on a West London street lined with other small hotels and a hostel. The lobby's green marble floors give way to dreary dark floral carpeting in the residential part of the building. Try to avoid getting a room on the ground floor, as they're the smallest and seemed dark. The best thing the Apollo has going for it is that it's just a few minutes' walk to Kensington Gardens, and getting to the heart of town is easy on the Central, District and Circle lines via the nearby Queensway or Bayswater Tube stations. There's no Internet on-site for guests.

Info: 011-44-20-7727-3066, apollohotel@btinternet.com.

· My Place Hotel, 1-3 Trebovir Rd. (Earls Court)

Price: $739. Room-only price:$221 (Expedia.com, Hotels.com).

Details: Less than two minutes from the Earl's Court Tube station on the Piccadilly line (convenient when you're taking the Tube from Heathrow), My Place is a few-frills, six-story hotel that shares a basement floor with a nightclub. Try to get a room on the top floors to avoid the noise. On the plus side, guests get free admission to the club. My clean single on the sixth floor was dominated by the tiny but comfortable single bed; a TV, mini-fridge, safe and hair dryer rounded out the amenities. Most guests appeared to have booked as part of a package and took advantage of the generous continental breakfast, including unlimited hard-boiled eggs, toast, cereal, yogurt, juice and coffee. Wireless Internet runs about $8 per hour.