Accommodation
Book your room as soon as possible for popular places and the lowest prices. This particularly applies during July, August, and December. Sometimes you can book in advance without paying, settling the bill at the property. You can also often cancel without a penalty, as long as you do so at a specified time before arrival.
When to book your UK places to stay depends on a range of factors. Where you want to stay – and when – being the main ones.
The busiest times in the UK are the summer months of July and August, and around Christmas and New Year in December. If you want to visit then, book early for both the best prices and places!
When you’re visiting cities like London, Glasgow, Bath, and Edinburgh, book your room as soon as you can so you can stay somewhere centrally located, affordable, and pleasant. If you don’t, you’ll end up with whatever’s left – which is unlikely to be the best places.
For example, we recently booked a room in Edinburgh for late May to early June. So not the busiest time of year, but even when booking four months ahead, our choices were already pretty limited. In that particular city, the Edinburgh Festival throughout August and Hogmanay (Scottish New Year) are the busiest times.
If you want to stay at a famous hotel, or need a room type like a large family room – then book earlier. Top London hotels can fill up very fast indeed – even when staying there costs thousands of pounds per night!
Using a platform such as booking.com can be helpful. When checking room rates, the payment and cancellation policies should be visible. Sometimes you can pay for your room after arriving at the hotel. Or you may be able to cancel up to a set time in advance – such as 24, 48, or 72 hours, or a number of days or weeks ahead – without incurring a fee.
If you’re looking for affordable places to stay in the UK, then we recommend B&Bs – bed and breakfast places. These tend to be small, family-run establishments, offering home comforts and a freshly cooked breakfast each morning with bacon, eggs, and more.
The most popular places to stay in the UK include London, Edinburgh, and parts of Scotland that are too far away for a day trip, such as the Isle of Skye. Spots along the scenic NC500 route in Scotland can also book up fast. Glasgow, the biggest city in Scotland, is also popular.
In England and outside of London, tourist honeypots like the Cotswolds, Bath, Oxford, Cambridge, and Stratford-upon-Avon are where accommodation books up quickly. If it’s a popular place to visit, then it follows that any good hotels will get booked up fast.
