An April 1 Travel article incorrectly said that former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko stayed at London's Sheraton Park Lane hotel before his November 2006 death from radiation poisoning. Litvinenko did not stay there, but he met with a hotel guest there in the weeks before his death, and the hotel was one of several locations in the city where traces of contamination by polonium-210 were detected.
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London Hotel Options, From Budget to Deluxe
At the My Place Hotel in Earls Court, left, you may want to ask for a room above -- far above -- the basement nightclub. The Holiday Villa Hotel in the Bayswater area, right, features Malaysian accents and a small sauna/spa area.
(Photos By Anne Mcdonough -- The Washington Post)
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Tourist
· Holiday Villa Hotel, 37 Leinster Gardens (Bayswater)
Price: $759. Room-only price:$152 (Quikbook.com).
Details: Malaysian accents and a small sauna/spa area in the basement are what set this 100-room hotel apart from the numerous others in the Bayswater area. (It's also two doors down from the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre.) The rooms are clean, with a peach-and-green color scheme, and the mostly European clientele seemed to cheerfully ignore that mattresses were being piled outside and replaced when we visited. "It's okay, about what's advertised," said guest Steve Auger of Washington, who'd booked the hotel on a package with Virgin Vacations. Wireless Internet is about $10 an hour; Internet is also available via two coin-operated computers in the lobby. Nearest Tube stations: Bayswater and Queensway.
Info: 011-44-20-7258-0269, http:/
· Bloomsbury Park Hotel, 126 Southampton Row (Bloomsbury)
Price: $789. Room-only price:$225 (Thistlehotels.com).
Details: The Bloomsbury Park has a phenomenal location just two blocks from the British Museum (the closest Tube stations are Russell Square and Holborn), and stained-glass windows add a period feel to the lobby. Rooms we saw were clean if spare, and offered a hot water heater and a selection of teas and instant coffee. But the hotel is showing its age with old carpeting and institutional bathrooms. According to an employee, the 95-room hotel is set for a refurbishment; the bar has been closed since summer. Wireless access is available for about $12 per hour.
Info: 011-44-87-0333-9104, http:/
Standard
· Holiday Inn London Kensington Forum, 97 Cromwell Rd. (Kensington)
Price: $819. Room-only price:$174 (IChoicehotels.com).
Details: Just look up -- way up -- to see the Kensington Forum, the tallest hotel in the United Kingdom, with 27 floors and 906 rooms just two minutes from the Gloucester Road Tube station. An alcove on the top floor offers one of the best panoramic views of the city you'll get outside of the London Eye; it's worth being a guest just for that (the elevators are key-operated), and many rooms offer similar views. If you've stayed at a Holiday Inn before, you'll recognize the pillow menu; you can order your favorite via the TV. The building itself is imposing in a vaguely Cold War way, but the rooms are super-clean, spacious and . . . as intended . . . familiar. There's a 24-hour fitness center, a Starbucks on the ground floor and wireless Internet in the lobby for about $12 an hour.
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