Secret Hotels of London

Caring Hotel  24 Craven Hill Gardens, Bayswater, tel. 7262-8708, fax 7262-8590, caringhotel.co.uk. Tube: Queensway or Lancaster Gate. 25 rooms; double with bath £72 ($103), double with shower but shared toilet £56 ($80), basic double with sink only [British Pound]50 ($71). No elevator. English breakfast included. Just a few minutes' walk from Kensington Palace and Hyde Park and with great transport links, including the efficient and cheap A2 Heathrow bus, this property pops up time and again in travel guides and also has a strong following. It lives up to its name: There's a woman's touch to the pretty candy-stripe wallpaper and poinsettias in the hall. The owners, the Kalcov family, are hands-on and keep prices consistently low, even while offering great service and immaculately clean, spacious rooms. The Kalcovs' philosophy is pragmatic: "We are not about luxury, but we are clean, tidy, and an oasis in a quiet street." A few doors down is the Hempel, one of London's smartest minimalist hotels. It is quite likely you'll bump into a celebrity or a posh nob who is paying ten times as much for his or her simple room!

Gower Hotel  129 Sussex Gardens, Sussex Gardens, tel. 7262-2262, fax 7262-2006, stavrouhotels.co.uk. Tube: Paddington. 21 rooms; double with bath £55 ($78). English breakfast included. This is basic accommodation, yet without being in any way austere or spartan. The bedrooms are more spacious than the price would suggest, and the sunny madras bedspreads are pretty enough to want to steal. Sussex Gardens is a budget hotel mecca, with its central location (five minutes' walk from Hyde Park) and ease of access to Heathrow airport via the high-speed Paddington rail link; it seems a sensible place to rest. But choosing the right hotel here is like negotiating a minefield. Yet again, it is the family-owned budget hotels that manage to provide affordability, comfort, and a smile. The Stavrou family, owners of the Gower, makes no claims to flashiness or to being a fancy hotel, but the high number of repeat visitors speaks for itself.

New England Hotel  20 St. George's Drive, Victoria, tel. 7834-1595, fax 7834-9000, newenglandhotel.com. Tube: Victoria or Pimlico. 25 rooms; double with bath from £60 ($86). English breakfast included. A smart neoclassical hotel, it's nicely decorated in bright colors, autumnal shades in the bedrooms, and a blue marine theme with dolphin tiles in the bathrooms. All the rooms have big, double-glazed windows; the property has been impeccably maintained, and an elevator was recently added. Victoria is a popular tourist area, and many of the cheaper hotels here are small and perhaps a little too personal. The Patel family offers great service but you do not feel you are living in someone's home. Since last September 11, London's hoteliers are desperate to see Americans again, and although the New England actually falls outside our budget price criteria, owner Jay Patel has said anyone mentioning this article will be guaranteed a double room for £60 a night for a minimum stay of two nights.

Garden Court  Hotel 30-31 Kensington Gardens Square, Bayswater, tel. 7229-2553, fax 7727-2749, gardencourthotel.co.uk. Tube: Bayswater. 32 rooms; double with shared bath £58 ($83), double with bath £88 ($125). Large continental breakfast included. This place is a find. A beautifully decorated and spacious lobby suggests a £150 price tag, so the Garden Court's knock-down prices are a real surprise. The lobby boasts leather '50s-style armchairs and a quirky life-size wooden Beefeater, the fireplace twinkles with fairy lights, and there is expensive-looking wooden parquet flooring. Huge fresh-flower arrangements are delightful. All the bedrooms are different, and while some are a little dark, the fashionably distressed furniture looks nice and is obviously carefully chosen. Throughout are some unique pieces of furniture, mirrors, and pictures, and in a pretty and sunny dayroom there's a writing desk, books, the daily papers, and unlimited tea, coffee, and hot chocolate. Lively Portobello Road, with its fabulous antiques and clothes market, is just a ten-minute stroll away, and Westbourne Grove offers some cheap, spirited, ethnic eateries.

The Big Splurge (under £70 for a double room)

Niki Hotel  16 London Street, Paddington, tel. 7724-4466, fax 7723-7191, nikihotel.co.uk. Tube: Paddington. 72 rooms; double with shower or bath £60-£88 ($86-$125). English breakfast included. With excellent connections to downtown London and beyond via the mainline and Tube stations just two minutes' walk away, and Hyde Park a ten-minute walk away, this hotel feels much different from the many Paddington tourist hotels. It's a real family affair, owned by Greek Cypriot Pantelis Demosthenous and adorned with a cute picture of his village-dwelling parents in the lobby, along with architectural drawings of historic Greek buildings and Greek Orthodox icons. The light is warm and relaxing, and service is the same. Next door is a Greek taverna where you can get discounts on your meals. Rooms are small, neat, and comfortable.

Prince William Hotel  42-44 Gloucester Terrace, Paddington, tel. 7724-7414, fax 7706-2411, princewilliamhotel.co.uk. Tube: Paddington or Lancaster Gate. 47 rooms; double with bath £65-£75 ($93-$107). Continental breakfast included. Ten minutes' walk from Hyde Park, the Prince William is housed in a 200-year-old National Trust building retaining many of its original features, such as an ornate tiled fireplace and wrought iron balconies on the second floor. In a recent refurbishment, parquet flooring was laid down in all the rooms, and there is new beech furniture throughout. The hotel is decorated in a fresh and simple Scandinavian style; the only splash of color is in the bedspreads, curtains, and the fresh flowers in every room; other than that, the hotel is white and bright. Customers are largely European and the hotel advertises as being gay-friendly.

An-Nur Hotel  74 Queensborough Terrace, Bayswater, tel. 7243-9600, fax 7243 9601, an-nurhotel.com. Tube: Queensway or Bayswater. 60 rooms, double with bath £60-£70 ($86-$100). Included: continental breakfast in summer, hot breakfast buffet in winter. On a quiet street, near Queensway and a two-minute stroll to Hyde Park, this recently refurbished hotel normally falls outside the budget price bracket, but management assures us it's keeping prices well below the usual rack rate of £105 ($150), even for late bookings. Owned by Prince Jeffri of Brunei, it's popular with all nationalities, and the staff speaks a dazzling array of languages. Service is impeccable; the extremely professional employees clearly enjoy their work. Breakfast is taken in an attractive conservatory by the lobby, and hot beverages and cookies are available in the dining room throughout the day at no charge. Rooms are pleasant, their small bathrooms mosaic-tiled in primary colors. It's a good sign that the An-nur has many returning business travelers.

Regent Palace Hotel  Piccadilly Circus, West End, tel. 7734-0716, fax 7734-6435, regentpalacehotel.co.uk. Tube: Piccadilly Circus. 920 rooms; basic double with sink £69-£89 ($99-$128), double with bath £119-£129 ($171-$185). Breakfast £4.95 ($7) for continental or £8.50 ($12) for English. Bang in the heart of London's lively West End, steps away from swinging Soho and overlooking the flashing ads of Piccadilly Circus, is probably the only affordable lodging in the area (or at least of those that you don't have to share with ladies of the night). It's a slightly aging, functional, but well-maintained property which, because of its popular location, manages to avoid the miseries of cheap-hotel syndrome. In the basement, you'll find one of London's best known bar/restaurants, The Atlantic Bar & Grill. Probably the best deals are available through Web agents who have been known to sell rooms here for as low as £39 ($56) a night (try the budget hotels section of hotel-london.co.uk).

Rhodes Hotel 195 Sussex Gardens, Sussex Gardens, tel. 7724-7392, fax 7723-4054, rhodeshotel.com. Tube: Paddington or Lancaster Gate. 18 rooms; double with bath or shower £65-£80 ($93-$114). Continental breakfast included, English breakfast £3 ($4.25) extra. This small hotel is beautifully decorated with murals by a local artist famous for his copies of original artworks in the British Museum. Chris Crias has owned the Rhodes for 24 years and still proudly mans the reception desk in the cozy red lobby, where guests often settle down with a bottle of wine bought from a local shop and relax for the evening. There are tasteful old photographs and botanical prints on the walls; one ceiling even mimics the Sistine Chapel's. In the Greek-themed breakfast room, classical music plays and the radiators are hidden behind elegant wooden screens, and the food is superb (even "continental" breakfasts include ham, cheese, and veggies). Rooms are pretty and comfortable enough to while away an afternoon in. The fact that the Rhodes has air-conditioning (rare in the U.K.) makes it popular with Americans. You're a five-minute walk to Hyde Park, ten minutes to Oxford Street, and the museums of South Kensington are a pleasant stroll across the park.