London Hotel Alternatives: Why You Should Consider an Airbnb

Hi friends, and thanks for stopping by to read about London hotel alternatives and why you should consider an Airbnb.

Airbnb should not be confused with a B&B, the British bed and breakfast where you get a room and breakfast.

Bed and breakfast establishments are still around. I stayed at lovely a bed and breakfast for 3 nights up in Tarbert, Scotland.

Pricey.

Supply and demand. Stay in a little village in the off season only to discover there are few options for budget travellers.

Once the Airbnb movement became more popular, hosts decided they could make the same amount of money for less hassle and stopped serving breakfast.

Some Airbnbs do offer a small continental breakfast, like tea and toast. I’m not a huge breakfast person. Yogurt or oatmeal does me. Overnight oats are one of my favorite breakfast options.

Hotels in London are pricey. It would be unlikely to find a decent hotel for under £100. Expect to pay closer to £200 a night. An alternative is staying at a hotel at Gatwick or Heathrow airports where decent budget hotels can be found for under £100.

I’m an international housesitter and I usually have gap days inbetween housesits which means I have to find somewhere to stay for a couple of days. Here are a few reviews of Airbnbs where I’ve stayed in the Greater London Area. All with nearby public transit.

Here I want to add if you’re having trouble viewing or saving the Airbnb listing, change the “.ca” in the url to the extension your country uses. ie: “.com” or “co.uk”

Trent Park Equestrian Centre Airbnb

When I arrived in London in July, 2023, I spent the first few nights at the Trent Park Equestrian Centre Airbnb and wrote a blog post about it.

It’s a great place for a horse lover to stay. I won’t rehash my review again. You can read the blog post dedicated to the Trent Park Equestrian Centre.

I did try to stay there again in late July, 2024 because once again I was housesitting for the same family in London and needed to find a nearby place to spend one night. However, there was no availability.

Out of curiosity, I looked well into 2025 for availability and didn’t find an open date. I’m not sure if this means they have a long term boarder in that room or if they’ve currently put their Airbnb on hold.

Double Rm & Private Bathroom Southgate Metro

Seeing as how I needed to find another place to stay for the night of July 30, I saw a room near the Southgate Underground, on the Piccadilly Line.

This Airbnb is just down the street from where I shop at Asda when I’m housesitting in London.

The listing was simply called Double Rm & Private Bathroom Southgate Metro.

This is where it gets difficult for me to quote the correct price. Airbnb charges me in Canadian dollars and I was charged $108. Around £59 perhaps?

The room is in a condo where the homeowners live. The guest room has their own bathroom and the hallway door to the rest of the condo is closed, giving both sides privacy.

And I can’t believe I forgot to take pictures! But the photos on Airbnb are accurate. This is a nice clean room and amenities as in the description.

The homeowners got a pretty good deal out of my quick stay. I was having dinner with the family I was housesitting for. Ironically at the same restaurant we ate at last year, and just a quick walk up the street from this condo. I arrived around 8pm. The homeowner picked me up early the next morning, around 6:30am.

Short and sweet. It’s a lot of money for 12 hours stay, but what can you do. It was cheaper than the nearby Premier Inn. The homeowners are pleasant and quiet and quick to respond to texts.

The location is excellent for visitors arriving on the Piccadilly Line. It’s a two minute walk from the Underground. The street has lots of eating options, the Asda grocery store up the block, plus a couple of smaller grocery stores. Definitely consider this Airbnb for convenience if you can’t afford an expensive central London hotel.

Comfortable Double Room close to station

My next housesit was still in the Greater London Area, in the south, vicinity of Wimbledon. I had two days to kill inbetween housesits.

I found a new Airbnb listing where the owner was offering a slight discount for the first 5 customers. It was within walking distance to the train station and looked good to me. There is a shared bathroom, but I figured I could deal with that. It was simply listed as Comfortable Double Room close to station.

And this time I remembered to take photos!

Although I didn’t use the kettle, I loved the tray with a selection of instant coffee, tea, and cookies. And yes, I did enjoy the cookies!

The house is about a 10 minute walk from the Worcester Park train station. In this part of London the trains are overground. The train goes into London’s Waterloo station, about a 30 minute trip. From here take the Underground to where you want to go in London. Or walk. It’s an easy walk to the Thames Riverbank. Or get off the train at the stop before, Vauxhall, where the Victoria Line is located.

Great hostess!

Linz was very welcoming and I was able to share the house with her and her sweet dog. I enjoyed chatting with her in the living room and watching TV on the comfortable lounge in the conservatory overlooking the backyard. I had bought yogurt at the grocery store to make overnight oats and Linz offered me up a whole lot of extra ingredients to give it more pizzazz..

My cost for two nights was $155 Canadian dollars, so call it around £45/night.

This was one of my favorite places to stay and I highly recommend staying with Linz if you get the chance. However… she has listed her house for sale so it’s unknown how long this Airbnb will be operating. 😢

Cozy Double Room , near station

I had just finished a housesit in Lee-on-the-Solent and would be taking the Eurostar the next day to Brussels, Belgium to begin my Big Eurail Adventure.

That meant I needed to spend one night in London, as close to St. Pancras International train station as possible. The King’s Cross Underground station on the Piccadilly Line is across the street, so I needed to find a place to stay close to an Underground station.

I found a listing on Airbnb simply called Cozy Double Room, near station. And the station it is closest to? That would be the Holloway Road Station on the Piccadilly Line. This Airbnb is about a two minute walk from this underground, so very convenient. And about a 10 minute ride on the Tube to reach St. Pancras/King’s Cross.

I encountered a couple of issues, though not necessarily the problem of the Airbnb operators.

The first thing was I couldn’t find the address! Seriously I’m following the numbers and it skipped right past the house number I was looking for. I finally pulled up the listing that showed a photo of the adjacent business, a bike shop, and was able to find the small doorway, out of numbering sequence.

There is a keypad to get into the building and the operators had sent me the instructions, so no problem getting in. However the first thing that happened when I opened the door is I nearly tripped over a suitcase that was blocking the way up the stairs. From somewhere above a lady yelled down “sorry”. I stepped over the suitcase and headed up.

I have a backpack. This staircase would be difficult for anyone with larger luggage to navigate. There is no elevator in this building. Even though I didn’t see or speak to any other occupants, I get the idea that they are students at the nearby university who occupy rooms on the upper floor.

The bedroom also has a keypad to gain access. Again, I had no problem getting in. It’s a very nice, large room.

The room has an attached shower and sink.

The toilet is shared. It’s the room right next to this bedroom. There’s a shower in that bathroom so if someone’s using the shower and you need to go potty, could be a problem. The only rooms on this floor, which is the first floor up that flight of stairs, is this bedroom, the next door bathroom, and a kitchen. I did not go up the next flight of stairs so I don’t know if there is another bathroom up there.

The busy street outside is noisy – I had earplugs so no problem. There are lots of dining options and shopping for blocks in both directions.

Who’s trying to get in?

There was a rather unsettling experience around 9pm that night. I was lying on the bed using my laptop when I heard someone accessing the security pad outside my room. I heard the beeps, but they didn’t have the correct number sequence to enter the room. The person made a second attempt. At that point I got off the bed and stood at the door and yelled: “Who’s trying to get in here?” A man responded: “It’s Robert. Sorry, I have the wrong room.”

My first thought was that he’s hooking up with one of the female students upstairs and went to the wrong room. There is no secondary lock inside this room. No chain or deadbolt.

The next morning I messaged the Airbnb operator to let her know what happened and she apologized. Robert was another Airbnb client who doesn’t follow instructions too well. Apparently he tried to get into every room in the building!

My cost for the night was $113 Canadian dollars. So around £62.