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Accommodation planning: hostels and house-sharing


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Some hostels available, as of 21 Sept 2011.

St Pancras YHA London Hostel

(~£24.44 per night for a dorm, private: £60-100)

http://www.hihostels.com/dba/hostels-London---St-Pancras-YHA-018025.en.htm

Oxford Street YHA Hostel

(~£27.15 per night for a dorm, private: £66-118)

http://www.hihostels.com/dba/hostels-London---Oxford-Street-YHA-018007.en.htm

Holland Park Hostel London

(~£20.20 per night for a dorm)

http://www.hihostels.com/dba/hostels-London---Holland-Park-YHA-018004.en.htm

London Central Hostel

(~£26.58 per night for a dorm - or £174.71 per night for a room with 6 beds)

http://www.hihostels.com/dba/hostels-London---London-Central-YHA-018282.en.htm

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As Lipbalm rightly points out, we need to start looking at accommodation for international visitors sooner rather than later.

Hotels are likely to be very expensive, especially in London and doubly especially so close to the Olympics. If you can afford them great. Equally great of course is if you already know someone in the UK you can stay with. Otherwise we'll need to look into other options. Here are two.

(1) Staying with UK AVENites

(2) Hostels

Regarding (1), we've already had some generous offers from UK AVENites to let people stay over. Of course we have to be cautious here. You should only stay with someone you know and trust. I have a number of further precautions in mind here, which I'll say more about it due course. However I think the idea is feasible.

So if anyone can offer a bed (or 2? 3?), I'd like you to repeat your kind offer here. It would also be useful to know how long you can put people up for, as people will obviously be staying in the UK for several days.

OK now on hostels. I've not used Hostels so much myself, but someone recommended to me Hostelling International. It's well worth checking these out.

http://www.hihostels.com/dba/Hostels-London-list.php?lang=E&city=GB|0040

At least some of them still have rooms available. The prices seem quite reasonable too, especially if you don't mind living in a dormitory. I've seen quotes of just over £20 per night in the latter case.

Of course the ideal thing would be to get a shared hostel with other AVENites. Or possibly even do a joint rent of a house, if we can find anywhere that can accommodate enough people for the thing to be economical.

So please people, let's discuss this here. I'm interested in hearing people's travel plans if you have them yet. Date in and date out. And where you'd like to stay. Further, if you live in the UK and are willing to spare a bed, please give the details here. :)

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JJButterworth

Hopefully I can crash at an AVENites place for the week but failing that a hostel won't be too bad. This is a major sticking point for me makeing it to World Pride.

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A hostel would be cool. Hypothetically. But as awesome as this whole idea is, and as much as I want to see London (and other parts of Europe) I don't think I'll be in a financial position to buy a transatlantic plane ticket. :mellow: Being a wannabe European in North America is hard.

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I would suggest calling The Baden Powel House. Its the scouts hostel/main building in London, but they may well be able to house the entire Aven brigade for the few days around pride. Called up a fair bit before, and giving a group order, should give a decent price. I can vouch for it being a very good quality hostel, having stayed there a couple of times. They will preferentially book people to do with the scout movement, but it should be worth a try.

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JJButterworth

I would suggest calling The Baden Powel House. Its the scouts hostel/main building in London, but they may well be able to house the entire Aven brigade for the few days around pride. Called up a fair bit before, and giving a group order, should give a decent price. I can vouch for it being a very good quality hostel, having stayed there a couple of times. They will preferentially book people to do with the scout movement, but it should be worth a try.

That sounds like good news.

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Yeah that sounds like a plan. A bunch of AVEN folks in one place shouldn't be too bad. I'd still lie to visit Scotland and Ireland as well.

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Woah. Turns out Aer Lingus is rather cheaper than I expected for transatlantic flights. Just so y'all know. I found a US$858 round trip from Boston to London in June. (I'm sure prices will go up as the date approaches.)

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Just registering my interest n' such! I'd be down for whatever...cheaper is better, for me and the sad US dollar. :P I'm very bad at planning trips, so...I'm just going to watch this thread for now. 8)

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I am more than happy to phone these people and inquire.

Here is the huge potential problem though. Before booking this, I will need actual commitments. I know it's a long long way in advance, but booking early may be the only way of getting good prices. And in order to book, I'm fairly sure they'll need an actual cash deposit.

So.... who here (a) is definitely coming from abroad, (b) wants to book a shared AVEN residence? I'll wait a week or so and see how many responses I get, and then consider phoning the people.

And please, if you are a UK AVENite who can offer a bed, post that here! Maybe if no-one posts I'll go through the original thread, which contained the offers, and see if these still stand.

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certianly as soon as you select those they will ask for a deposit or full payment

I admire michaels organisation but to ensure those who want to come ..can..the possibly of a decent list of reasonable places is posted then let the individuals book themselves

I'm only suggesting this as my experience is no matter how many say they will come..most will drop out and if michael is responsible in some way he could be left up shit creek

but it's great he's offering to do some groundwork to help others

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.most will drop out and if michael is responsible in some way he could be left up shit creek

Sound words, I would strongly advise against anyone making a booking on accommodation or any service/product which requires monies to be pre-paid on behalf of others. You'll lose money, at best, you'll be seriously inconvenienced. There will be some who despite your efforts in organising, will treat the matter of payment lightly, if not neglecting it completely.

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I'm with Joshua, who despite wearing denim often speaks sense and bad puns.

But it'd still be possible to take the rough numbers and get ideas of prices from there - it's possible Michael could ask how that would vary on numbers both up and down. Good hostels wont mind and will help without demanding money just for asking those questions! Even if some pull out the info should be flexible and useful.

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Thanks PiF, Joshua and Bris. You are completely right of course.

I like PiF's suggestion of making a list of places people can look into. When anyone books, they could note it in this thread and I'll keep a tag at the top of how many people are booked into each place. That way people could choose to book the places that are already housing AVENites - if they still have room of course.

OK I'll try to get to this shortly.

I still think I could try booking a larger place if I have enough commitments and people are willing to send their share of the deposit. (I hate collecting money, but as long as it's for something specific - and is not just general donation collection - I'm willing to do it.)

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I think a list of places is a really great and helpful idea. Also, I just send emails to some friends who have been to London a few times; maybe they can recommend some places. I will post their answers as soon as I get them. :)

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Oh my goodness, that would be so amazingly fun... Living the beat life... XD I don't know my plans for next year, but I'd love super, super cheap beat travel to the UK! Were it in North America, I'd just drive and sleep in my car/camp. <3

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I think a list of places is a really great and helpful idea. Also, I just send emails to some friends who have been to London a few times; maybe they can recommend some places. I will post their answers as soon as I get them. :)

Great! Please do let me know as soon as you have anything.

I will now start adding some suggestions to my opening post. I'll start off with the Hostelling International (HI) centres I can find that have rooms at around the right time.

Oh my goodness, that would be so amazingly fun... Living the beat life... XD I don't know my plans for next year, but I'd love super, super cheap beat travel to the UK! Were it in North America, I'd just drive and sleep in my car/camp. <3

I really really hope you can make it! Shall I put you on the interested list?

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  • 3 weeks later...
Guest member31022

I am happy to offer floorspace (with potential mattress as there is a spare somewhere in this house) for 1 person, but that's on the condition that I have met this person prior to the event, and, for the sake of my housemates, that they're about my age (~20) However, I do not live in London, I live in Oxford.

An alternative, if London is expensive/full is to look into hotels, hostels or B+Bs in Oxford, and then I can co-ordinate people getting to London from there (there is a 24 hour bus service, or an daytime train). It's an hour and a half bus journey (though traffic can make this anything up to 3), or an hour by train. It's about £15 for a return, so it won't add a lot on to the budget.

We have a hostel with prices from £19 a night http://www.centralbackpackers.co.uk/index.php?area=prices

As for hotels, they're much dearer (but probably cheaper than London!) and B+Bs are very variable.

(This is more an option for late bookers, I think, since Oxford is less likely to fill up than London)

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I am SO SORRY that it took me this long to post. My life developed a self-will on its own (can you actually say that??) but now everything's in order once again. The friends I've talked to have always stayed in different bed and breakfast hotels near King's Cross. They were always quite pleased with their stay there. They also said that bed and breakfast hotels are cheaper than normal hotels in most cases. I have no idea, if a bed and breakfast is actually cheaper or a useful alternative for us, though.

I hope I'm not too late. Sorry again.

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hostelworld.com :) You can find REALLY inexpensive hostels there, especially if you get a group together.

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The Evil Cashew

Randomly throwing my 2 cents in as i seem to have wandered in here...

Someone mentioned the Baden Powell House..

I will suggest Pax Lodge: Its the Girl Guide/Scout main center (World Center) in London.

Now i am not sure at all what the requirements are for staying there...

Seems like anyone can rent a room there. check out the visitors section.

http://paxlodge.org/en/home

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Another random suggestion here after also wandering in...

A further option to consider is staying in student rooms at a London university. Many rent individual self-catering rooms out during the summer and they're reasonably priced. I looked at this website which shows 2011 prices:

http://housing.london.ac.uk/cms/short-term-housing/halls-of-residence.html

All of the Hall rates are for private rooms. Some of them are priced similarly to the hostel dorm rates listed above, which is a really good deal and some are more expensive. In comparison to the above rates for private hostel rooms they are cheaper. And they take group bookings so perhaps they offer discounts. If there were enough of you maybe you could book an entire corridor!

I don't know if they could advise on availability so far in advance, but if you started getting firm responses it might be worth looking into. Just be aware it's a really popular accommodation option so it may well already be booked up. But I thought I'd mention it :).

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Thanks so much for looking into this Cash and RachM. I'll be back with WP in about a week or so; unfortunately I'm a little slammed at the moment.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Hey all -

I don't know where I'll be living in July since the lease on my apartment is up in April, but if I can swing it at all, I'll host a few people.

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  • 1 month later...

RHUL my old university, near Egham Surrey, 20 mins drive by car and 40 mins by train have some rentable rooms.

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I can potentially make space for 2 or 3 known people on the 7th and 8th but will need to clear up for when my housemates get back on the Monday.

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  • 1 month later...
Gho St Ory Qwan

I'm interested in this but don't know what my situation will be like for money or accommodation. >_<

I'd love the idea of shared accommodation though.

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I would suggest calling The Baden Powel House. Its the scouts hostel/main building in London, but they may well be able to house the entire Aven brigade for the few days around pride. Called up a fair bit before, and giving a group order, should give a decent price. I can vouch for it being a very good quality hostel, having stayed there a couple of times. They will preferentially book people to do with the scout movement, but it should be worth a try.

I have stayed here before,many years ago,as I used to be a Scout and it is a great place.I still know people in the Scouts who have used it recently and they said they are a lot more accomadating when it comes to helping groups out.A scout is a friend to all,after all.

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I are poor student, so I'd be very very grateful for any offers of a floor to crash on. Doesn't even need to be a good floor. If not I will go for one of the hostels.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hmm, maybe look into Premier Inns and places that are an easy commute into London rather than central London itself.

I live in Brighton which is a good place to stay and the train into London is about 45mins. I would usually offer space but its just that if I go to London I will probably end up staying with a friend or my gf in London so I can't really offer someone else's house.

It's possible someone could stay at my place in Brighton while I'm not there as I have 3 housemates and we are very used to have all sorts of random people staying with us, the real problem is that if I say to my housemates, hey can you be in on the 7th July to let someone into the flat, then they won't be able to give me an answer till the week before the event in all liklihood.

I guess if we met beforehand, like on the Friday or something, I might feel comfortable giving you my house keys but that might also be more awkward because I live above a social centre and my front door key also happens to let people into the back of the social centre so its not just my trust really.

Anyway, I guess the gist of all this is if someone finds themselves randomly in Britain with no-where to stay cus a plan falls through or if you're the kind of awesome person who just turns up to shit and makes plans as they go along I could be the host for you!

Also just to reiterate what I said in another thread. WHO NEEDS TO SLEEP WHEN YOU CAN STAY UP ALL NIGHT PARTYING!

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