What is happening in May 2022 in London?!?! No room at the Inn alert!

[nini]

So, of course our British Isles for May 2021 was cancelled and we re-booked for

May 2022. After hours of research last year, I booked our hotel.

They have no vacancy for most of May 2022. But the have rooms for April and June.

I have checked alternate hotels on or list and NOPE! Possibly, it may be too far out for some

but even the one my daughter stayed in is booked, and that was not in what you would call a

prime location.

I have e-mailed our hotel of choice to verify vacancies- and they have 3 locations! All booked.

[John Bull]

Just scanned central London for random dates in May '22.

There are available properties, but yes -  80 to 90% show fully booked.😟

Ditto random dates in June.

Nothing to do with some special event, more about pent-up demand due to the pandemic. 

 

Easy way to check the scale of availability is on booking.com's website.

Enter your dates and the location "central London".

When the list comes up, click "view on map" on any property. 

The map shows all hotels, both booked and available.

Because hotels are dense in central London, zoom in - more properties will appear. 

This for the random dates that I chose - just click the cross (top right) to remove the map and enter your dates.

https://www.booking.com/hotel/gb/park-plaza-westminster-bridge.en-gb.html?label=gen173nr-1FCAEoggI46AdIM1gEaFCIAQGYAQm4ARfIAQzYAQHoAQH4AQuIAgGoAgO4AoCKq4EGwAIB0gIkZTYzODRmNjAtMjk4ZC00ZWFiLWIyOGUtMzhiMjAwNzRmZDRk2AIG4AIB;sid=4a074654ba5c5732bfdf68ed14f20b8e;all_sr_blocks=18001603_265983888_0_0_0;checkin=2022-05-10;checkout=2022-05-14;dest_id=2280;dest_type=district;dist=0;group_adults=2;group_children=0;hapos=1;highlighted_blocks=18001603_265983888_0_0_0;hpos=1;no_rooms=1;room1=A%2CA;sb_price_type=total;sr_order=popularity;sr_pri_blocks=18001603_265983888_0_0_0__68765;srepoch=1615062822;srpvid=cddf9092cea100d2;type=total;ucfs=1&#map_opened-hotel_header

 

Almost all bookings are cancellable without penalty, so part of the problem may be folk - or more likely tour agents - covering their backsides by over-booking, so availability may increase.

 

I suggest you book soonest on cancellable terms, and check back from time to time.

 

JB 🙂

 

[styme123]

Wow! I was thinking of rebooking my British Isles cruise for Aug 22 maybe I should even shoot for Aug 23 instead?

[CruiserBruce]

Interesting...most places don't allow booking more than 365 days in advance...that would be my suspected cause.

[Ray66]

The UK will celebrate Her Majesty The Queen’s 70th anniversary as monarch with a blockbuster weekend of celebrations.

The May Bank Holiday Weekend will be moved to Thursday 2 June and an additional Bank Holiday on Friday 3 June will see a four-day weekend to celebrate Her Majesty The Queen’s  Platinum Jubilee.

Activity will build across 2022 in the run up to the four day weekend, when the eyes of the world will turn to the UK.

Members of the Royal Family are expected to take part in the celebrations over the extended weekend and in the run-up to it.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54911550

[gma rae]

Thank you for that information. I have been working on a hotel for May 30-June 2, 2022 and have been experiencing difficulty in both room availabilty and costs in my preferred hotels, all of which are near Westminster and St James. Now I understand why.

If June 2, 2022 is a Bank Holiday will public transportation be operating? We need to get to Southampton for a cruise on June 2, 2022. We were looking at a tour company to take us with a side trip that day to Stonehenge.

Maybe we need to change our cruise dates! Although with the Jubilee if we can get a hotel it may be great people watching.

[nini]

John Bull- Thank you for all of the information!

 

I had a response from the hotel we booked for May 2021 and he said

that their calendar has not been extended yet.

He offered to check on vacancies and hopefully to get us booked!

 

However, I agree with John Bull that we all have massive cases of cabin fever

and should book ASAP for lodging.

[phabric]

16 hours ago, gma rae said:

 

We need to get to Southampton for a cruise on June 2, 2022. We were looking at a tour company to take us with a side trip that day to Stonehenge.

www.internationalfriends.co.uk go on embarkment and disembarkment days from certain London hotels, LHR hotels to and from Southampton and Dover with a stop to Stonehenge.

 

It is cheaper to book through www.londontoolkit.com.

 

I have taken them from Southampton and Dover to my London hotel.

[nini]

GREAT NEWS!

The hotel we booked with for September 2020, replied to me

and even though May 2022 is not yet available for reservations

on their website, they were able to book us for May 2022 for

three nights at their promotional rate!!!

They still had our records from the original reservation which also had

our CC #.

 

YAY!

[John Bull]

21 hours ago, nini said:

GREAT NEWS!

The hotel we booked with for September 2020, replied to me

and even though May 2022 is not yet available for reservations

on their website, they were able to book us for May 2022 for

three nights at their promotional rate!!!

They still had our records from the original reservation which also had

our CC #.

 

YAY!

 

Perseverance pays off 🙂

BTW that booking.com site only goes out as far as June, so I should have realised that many hotel sites wouldn't yet be taking May bookings. 🙄

 

JB 🙂

[nini]

It was odd, because I went directly to a few hotel websites and some

went beyond April 2022. booking.com may have been a clue, but I

prefer to book directly through the hotel.