How to get a lovely hotel room for less than £150 a night
With rising costs in the hospitality world and £1,000-a-night luxury hotel rooms no longer exceptional, finding a stay for a snip is trickier than ever. But there are still ways and means.
It might be that you take a midweek city break, travel outside of high season or seek out the latest loyalty programmes and tricks to unlock deals on rates at far-from-budget-looking hotels.
Or it could mean seeking out more under-the-radar properties. Some of the loveliest and most affordable are the tiniest and most personal – guesthouses by passionate first-time hoteliers, who are prepared to go above and beyond.
You might find yourself at a breezy Greek island bolthole where the owners share tips for tucked-away tavernas over breakfast. Or a designer home-from-home away from the crowds in Tenerife with an honesty bar and charming cane furniture in the garden. The important thing is that you’ll have found a lovely place to stay, while at the same time saving money that can then be spent on all the other things that make a holiday special.
1. No 1 York by GuestHouse, North Yorkshire, UK
Hotels price by demand – so if you can avoid the weekend for your city break you can bag a bargain. Sunday is the new Saturday night. In a grand Grade-II-listed Regency townhouse, a 10-minute amble from York Minster, No 1 York by GuestHouse has bedrooms with huge sash windows and quirky minibars shaped like dollhouses, cocktails in the Rhubarb Bar and treatments using local Yorkshire lavender in the spa.
This slowly expanding group has other hotels in Bath and Margate similarly housed in heritage townhouses – plus a new one opening in Brighton this July. Its free-to-join GuestBest membership scheme also gives up to 10 per cent off best available rates, a £20 discount on spa treatments and a lovely lazy noon checkout to max out your stay.
Book it: Doubles from £110.20, room only for GuestBest members (01904 644744; guesthousehotels.co.uk)
2. Holm, Somerset, UK
Restaurants (and pubs) with rooms often offer a more affordable overnighter than an all-the-bells country house hotel. Here, deep in the South Somerset countryside, chef Nicholas Balfe opened his provenance-centric, passionately seasonal restaurant in the pretty village of South Petherton in 2021, adding seven beautiful bedrooms upstairs last November.
The deal is even sweeter if you book a two-night stay Wednesday to Friday before July 25, as you’ll receive a complimentary tasting menu for two during your stay; while the recently launched set lunch menu is a delicious £25 for two courses, £29 for three. Menus might include the likes of trout crudo with ginger pickled rhubarb or pork loin with smoked jowl, apple and black garlic.
Book it: Doubles from £149, including breakfast (01460 712470; holmsomerset.co.uk)
3. The Barnsdale, Rutland, UK
The Signet Collection is another quietly growing, temptingly priced name to remember. Its first two properties – The Mitre right on the river at Hampton Court and family-minded The Retreat at Elcot Park in the North Wessex Downs – took tired country hotels and injected them with eye-catching interiors and a peppy new energy. Last year it added The Barnsdale on the edge of Rutland Water.
All the design hallmarks are there: jazzy prints, antique touches, sweet bunk beds for children. The dining room spills out into a sunny orangery and there’s a new spa coming in the summer. Keep an eye out too for Signet’s next addition: The Alfriston, which will zip up the former Deans Place Hotel in the South Downs and is due to open this winter.
Book it: Doubles from £120, including breakfast (01572 724678; barnsdalerutland.com)
4. Mhor 84, The Trossachs, UK
The Trossachs are like a beginner’s Highlands – hills and glens, lochs (Loch Lomond, famously) and forests less than an hour north of Glasgow. Just set back from the A84, the main artery that climbs from Stirling into the mountains, Mhor 84 is a brilliant base for would-be explorers.
In true motel style, it’s a hub for all-comers, geared-up hikers, mountain-bikers, local dog walkers and outdoorsy families who fuel up on full Scottish breakfasts, smoked haddock rarebit and chunky venison burgers between adventures. Bedrooms (some upstairs, others out back) are simple, painted white with cosy blankets and quirky art.
Book it: Doubles from £130, including breakfast (01877 384646; mhor84.net)
5. Parador 44, Cardiff, UK
Welsh Grupo 44 brings a sunny slice of Spain to Cardiff dishing up tapas (whipped cod roe, sherry-braised ox cheek) and vermouth at Bar 44 and wood-fired fish and meat at Asador 44. In 2022 it added Parador 44 with nine Andulusian-inspired bedrooms upstairs.
Ornate wooden Spanish doors and shutters are refashioned as headboards, a communal honesty bar is stocked with Port Vell Barcelona gin and cava and each room is named on a sherry theme (Copita, for example, is a glass used to serve the drink). Back downstairs in the morning, the grill turns out Spanish fry-ups (chorizo sausage, morcilla de burgos black pudding) and “flamenco” eggs with piquillo peppers and smoked leeks.
Book it: Doubles from £127, including breakfast (029 2002 0039; grupo44.co.uk/parador44)
6. The Hoxton, Vienna, Austria
Ennismore’s Sharan Pasricha is now a hospitality superplayer (the man behind the revival of Gleneagles and Estelle Manor) but he started out with The Hoxton in East London. There he nailed the formula for funky city hotels that don’t break the budget, stripping out nice-to-haves like gyms and spas, dialling up the design and making the restaurant and bar a neighbourhood hangout.
But Hoxton doesn’t rest on its market-cornering laurels (it’s now in 12 cities worldwide) and its latest game-changer is the Dis-loyalty programme: encouraging members to explore new hotels with perks including 20 per cent off every first-time stay and 10 per cent off return visits (across all Ennismore hotels for £12 a month). It also gives half-price rates at just-opened hotels for the first three months, such as this headturner in Vienna. A hands-down bargain.
Book it: Doubles from £60, room only with Dis-loyalty discount until June 30 (0043 1380 0955; thehoxton.com/vienna)
7. citizenM Rome Isola Tiberina, Italy
Colour-popping citizenM is among a handful of “affordable luxury” names that have appeared on the hotel landscape over the past decade or so (see also: 25hours, Moxy and Ruby Hotels). For its Rome outing – the brand’s 33rd – it has commandeered an outwardly bland 1950s building in the buzzy Trastevere neighbourhood. Inside, the signature bright interiors are taken up a notch with the entire ground floor ceiling painted in a geometric mural by Rome-based street artist UNO.
Elsewhere it’s high-tech meets high-design: check-in is by DIY screens, the bar-canteen is open 24/7 and rooms make clever use of small square footage with wall-to-wall king-size beds positioned in windows and everything from blinds to colour-changing mood lighting controlled by iPad or the hotel’s app. Join its mycitizenM+ scheme (£9 a month) for an extra 15 per cent off.
Book it: Doubles from £136, room only (0039 06 8587 1180; citizenm.com)
8. Palau Fugit, Girona, Spain
In Girona’s historic Barri Vell, this 18th-century baroque palace reopened as a beautifully designed hotel last year: vaulted ceilings, stone arches and hidden courtyards juxtaposed with contemporary furniture and sculptural lighting.
The Costa Brava is still touching 20C in October, and rates at Palau Fugit are just as tempting then, when you can sip vermouth with views of the city’s ramparts on the terrace, unwind in the cave-like spa carved into the limestone rock and explore the Gothic churches, impressive art galleries and cobblestone lanes of this good-looking town an hour north of Barcelona.
Book it: Doubles from £135, including breakfast (0034 872 987362; palaufugit.com)
9. Hotel Château d’Eau, Paris, France
Funky Parisian hotel group Touriste drafts in a different in-demand designer for each of its hotels – Luke Edward Hall for Hôtel Les Deux Gares, Beata Heuman for Hôtel de la Boétie – and still manages to charge rates that look like pocket-change compared with the splashier names in the French capital. Its latest opening is Hôtel Château d’Eau near the Gare du Nord.
This time it’s the turn of cool French duo Necchi Architecture, who’ve riffed off the disco scene of the 1970s and 1980s and Serge Gainsbourg’s Parisian home (now open as a museum since last September if you fancy a snoop). That translates into vintage ceramic panthers guarding the door, plenty of stainless steel and 50 shades of brown with a très chic twist.
Book it: Doubles from £138 (0033 14770 9910; hotelchateaudeau.com)
10. Mama Shelter Nice, France
This personality-packed French brand first made a name for its affordable, quirky hotels by planting them in previously untapped (some might say undesirable) neighbourhoods – its first opening was way out in Paris’s 20th arrondissement in 2008 when Belleville was still pretty edgy.
Its latest hotel, which opens this summer in sun-drenched Nice, might not be on the Promenade des Anglais, but it is less than half a mile from the Old Port in the central district of Riquier. There’s a rooftop pool surrounded by fringed parasols and sun loungers, murals inspired by Matisse and Argentine barbecue on the menu in the maximalist restaurant. Already well-priced, Mama Shelter is now part of Ennismore’s empire, so join Dis-loyalty to unlock 50 per cent off rates all summer long. A whole lot of fun.
Book it: Doubles from £120, room only including Dis-loyalty discount (0033 17577 5252; mamashelter.com)
11. Apollo Palm, Athens, Greece
The Greek capital is having its “the new Lisbon” moment, buzzing with contemporary art galleries and hip restaurants and bars. The 48-room Apollo Palm, which opened last year in the bohemian neighbourhood of Psyrri, slots right into the scene with its retro Palm Springs-inspired interiors – lots of creams and brass with flashes of yellow and leopard print – and rooftop cocktail bar with views of the Acropolis (a handful of the bedrooms also look out on the archeological wonder).
There’s also a natural wine bar in the leafy courtyards and soon-to-open (very on trend) listening bar Studio Olala to cement its status as a cool creative hotspot.
Book it: Doubles from £117.90, including breakfast (0030 210 321 8560; apollopalmhotel.com)
12. Nostos, Serifos, Greece
Husband and wife Harrys and Bianca Spyridakos met while working at a hotel on Mykonos. Harrys has hospitality in his blood, and when his Grandpa Giorgos’s old hotel Nostos on the nearby, more under-the-radar island of Serifos became available, the couple jumped at the chance of creating their own Cycladic escape – which they opened last year.
Their motto “fine hospitality does not have to come with a five-star price tag” is refreshing, as are the minimalist white and concrete interiors (courtesy of Greek architectural firm C-O Lab). Rooms range from a small and sweet, and wildly cheap, Mini room to spacious Maxis with Aegean Sea views and a hot tub on the terrace.
Book it: Doubles from £57, including breakfast (0030 2281 051677; nostosboutiquehotel.com)
13. The Well, Oslo, Norway
Scandinavia is known for its sauna culture, sweating it out to a happier mind and body. The spa element of The Well opened in 2015, the largest spa in northern Europe, set in peaceful Norwegian woodland outside Oslo. Naturally there are saunas for every taste, from the 45C meditation sauna to the 90C Finnish number (although note: in true Nordic style there’s no swimwear allowed, except on Tuesdays). But it also draws wellness inspiration from far further afield, with its Japanese bathhouse, hamam and rhassoul clay rituals.
The hotel was added in 2021 to up the immersion: huge windows look out to the forest and there’s a digital detox box in every room to lock up your phone.
Book it: Doubles from £148, including breakfast and access to the spa facilities (0047 4804 4888; thewell.no)
14. Wilmina, Berlin, Germany
Out in West Berlin’s leafy Charlottenburg, the Wilmina hotel had an incongruous start to life as a courthouse and women’s prison. Far from erasing that darker side to its history, its bones have been sensitively incorporated, combining a number of cells into serene bedrooms, leaving the bars on the tops of windows, which have been extended downwards to let in more light.
Light and nature is the theme here, with a soaring five-storey glass-topped atrium and secret gardens, while the hotel’s Lovis restaurant has a vegetable-centric menu. The hotel is a member of Design Hotels and signing up to its (free) community gives access to regular discounted stays, including up to half-price rates at new openings and Wilminia currently has 25 per cent off until June 12.
Book it: Doubles from £115, room only (00800 3746 8357; designhotels.com)
15. Coco Hotel, Copenhagen, Denmark
This is the first hotel from popular Danish restaurant group Cofoco (Copenhagen Food Collective). It has 17 restaurants across the city, from Nordic Vækst and Høst, through Italian osteria Vespa to the Jah Izakaya and Sake Bar. Here, there’s Café Coco on the ground floor of the hotel, which runs from croissants and coffee in the morning to plates of charcuterie and French 75s in the evening. Booking a stay at Coco, in the happening Vesterbro district, gives guests 15 per cent off their bill at any of those outposts.
But it’s not just good food and good times here. Cofoco is serious about its sustainability efforts too. All its restaurants and the hotel are powered from a huge solar park it built out of town, planting a tree for every stay and offering 10 per cent off for guests who arrive by bike.
Book it: Doubles from £96, room only (0045 3321 2166; coco-hotel.com)
16. Marqí, Sintra, Portugal
Arriving at Marqí, tucked in the hillside near Sintra about 30 minutes from Lisbon, is like walking into a Slim Aarons picture – even more so if owner, and Danish photographer Mikkel Kristensen has picked you up from the airport in his vintage cream Mercedes. It was this kind of throwback Chateau Marmont-style glamour that first attracted Kristensen to the gothic house, built as a party pad for a civil engineer called Fernando Talvez in the 1980s (there’s still his private discotheque, “Nando’s Place”, in the basement).
True to the vibe, Kristensen, along with friend and artist Mikas Emil, spent the pandemic driving a van around Portugal picking up retro furniture: curvaceous lounge chairs, marble side tables. Come in shoulder season and the fires will be lit and the vinyl spinning.
Book it: Doubles from £150 (00351 925 219 655; marqi.holiday)
17. Casa Céu, Algarve, Portugal
This breezy four-bedroom guesthouse is in the salty fishing town of Olhão on the Algarve coast – handily just 15 minutes’ drive from Faro. The sun-bleached setting is reflected in the interiors, all natural materials and neutral shades: crisp white linen sheets, rattan lampshades, tiled floors adding a splash of pattern and colour.
Owners Lara and Dário have created a peaceful, grown-up haven. Breakfast is served on the rooftop terrace as the couple help guests plan their laidback days over local cheeses, homemade yogurt and freshly baked cake. Days might be spent sailing to the Ria Formosa islands or horse riding on the white sand beach at low tide.
Book it: Doubles from £107, including breakfast (00351 938 388 498; casaceu.pt)
18. Hotel Hevresac, Menorca, Spain
Menorca’s sleepy capital Mahón had a bit of an international injection when gallerists Hauser and Wirth opened an ambitious outpost on Isla del Rey in the harbour back in 2021. There’s an equally artsy outlook at Hotel Hevresac, eight bedrooms spread over a former merchant’s townhouse.
The sensitive restoration has preserved wooden beams on the ceilings and encaustic tiles on floors, and added clever spruce partitions to divide original room footprints into en-suite bathrooms and wardrobes. The pictures on the walls showcase an interesting mix of contemporary Spanish artists, and there are yoga mats, beach umbrellas and oodles of books to borrow – it’s got a “make-yourself-at-home” ease to it.
Book it: Doubles from £128, including breakfast (0034 655 997349; hotelhevresac.com)
19. San Diego Boutique Hotel, Tenerife
While the largest of the Canary Islands might be best known for its fly-and-flop resorts that line the south coast, head inland and there are plenty of quieter corners to discover, from hilltop villages to the volcanic peak of Mount Teide, Spain’s highest point. In the north of the island, San Cristóbal de La Laguna is a Unesco World Heritage Site for its numerous churches and grid of streets lined with colourfully painted mansions.
A short walk from the centre, San Diego Boutique Hotel has turned a former family home into an elegant five-room bolthole. There’s a spa therapist on call for Thai massages and breakfast is served on the glazed terrace overlooking the gardens.
Book it: Doubles from £102, including breakfast (0034 682 497479; hotelboutiquesandiego.com)
20. La Dama del Porto, Lake Maggiore, Italy
This stylish restaurant with rooms is on the peaceful eastern shore of Lake Maggiore. Two of the five bedrooms look out to Isola Madre and Isola Bella across the water, the others onto Cerro di Laveno town – all have balconies to let the lake breeze in.
It’s a family affair: brothers Davide and Matteo Gasparini (along with Matteo’s wife Claire) opened the restaurant La Dama del Porto in October 2021, and added the bedrooms upstairs six months later. While the menu puts a creative contemporary twist on classic Italian flavours, the bedrooms are more muted and minimalist, letting the scenery take centre stage.
Book it: Doubles from £75.25, including breakfast (0039 0332 130 0195; ladamadelporto.com)
