As demand for rooms from people wanting to pay their respects to the Queen increases, London hotel rates are soaring to unprecedented levels.
At the five-star Goring in Belgravia, close to Buckingham Palace, the cheapest double room on Sunday night is £1,550 – excluding breakfast.
Along at the riverside Marriott County Hall, a double room facing across to the Palace of Westminster is selling for £1,036 on Saturday or Sunday night.
On Saturday night, no Premier Inn within a three-mile radius of central London is available for under £211 for a double room. The cheapest London property in the chain is Wandsworth, for £147. The suburb is about five miles away from the Palace of Westminster.
On Sunday, the night before the funeral, the four-star Indigo hotel in Leicester Square is priced at £531. The Premier Inn at County Hall, across the river from the Palace of Westminster, is selling double rooms for £207. At Elephant & Castle, a mile further away, a double room at the Travelodge is £200.
Many properties are completely sold out on Sunday night, including the InterContinental Park Lane.
Tim Hentschel, chief executive of the London-based booking service HotelPlanner, said: “Since last week’s news, hotel occupancy in London is now approaching 95 per cent – about 20 percent higher than normal for this time of year.
“Rates are up for hotels in all star categories and HotelPlanner expect rates to double as we get closer to the funeral.
“Prior to Her Majesty’s passing, room rates had already increased by 50 per cent year-on-year.”
Many travellers may decide to stay outside London and travel in for the day of the funeral.
At Stevenage Holiday Inn Express, close to the station, rooms on Sunday are available at £112. Trains to the capital take as little as 20 minutes, but passengers are warned they could be extremely busy.
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