There are lots of different stories about the hotels during Expo, some places seem consistently bad and some seem to have had a one-off blip. Anyone want to compare notes? This is mine for the weekend just past.

Hotel: Holiday Inn Express
Where: Canning Town
Distance: 15min walk to ExCel, or take DLR close by.
How much, and when did you book: £69 for two people per night, booked on 8th Sept.

Your experience: Storme and I haven't stayed there before. We booked a "standard room" online because we couldn't find the option for a double, and when we arrived we were allocated a twin room and told there were no doubles left, but the staff managed to find us one after 10 minutes of poking at their computer. The room was fine, nice bed, standing shower, has basic toiletries and clean towels. There was also a kettle with tea bags etc.

The reception seemed understaffed at times but they were friendly and helpful. They let us check in a bit early and check out a bit late with no extra charge.

There was complimentary breakfast! Toast, jam, cereal, sausages, scrambled eggs etc. It wasn't high quality but it was stomach-filling.

There are no bars or restaurants attached to the hotel, so we ate near ExCel and went to PTI for drinks.

The hotel is about 5 minutes from Canning Town DLR. The walk from there to ExCel takes about 15min but there are no horrible steps to negotiate.

Would you recommend it? Yes But try booking by phone instead so that you get the room type you want.

Hotel: Custom House Hotel
Where: Custom House
Distance: Minutes from ExCel centre
How much, and when did you book: Booked in mid August through Otel.com, was £50 a night inc. continental brekkie for a double bedroom, stayed 3 nights so £150 split between two people

Your experience:
Arrived on the friday, the staff I found were a bit fail and the majority of the ones we spoke too didn't speak very good english...
Went up to our room only to find it was a smoking room and STANK of smoke. Not nice

On the plus side, we had a little shower-room, t.v, loo, sink and kettle with tea, coffee, sugar etc.

Bed was a bit hard though O.o might bring my own pillow next time too...brick pillows are not fun!!

We had complimentary continental breakfast in with our booking which was alright, to be fair, I'm allergic to near enough everything on the Continental breakfast so I can't judge the quality of croissants, bread and toast O.o I just stuck with coco pops and fruit XD Either way, it was nice being able to have something to eat before expo

The hotel had 3 places to eat, the Café, Bar and Ho Lee Chinese.
Ho Lee was PACKED on saturday night so the service was rather slow, but once we ordered our food it only took about 15 mins to come out.
Me being allergy-fied I can't eat certain things (wheat DX ) and I found the staff in Ho Lee were quite knowledgable about this which I found quite refreshing.

The Bar staff were less so which annoyed me to some extent, they didn't really 'get' what I meant and didn't seem to understand what i meant by 'ingrediants lists' or 'wheat flour'. My man ended up chatting with the chef (he's a chef too X3) and sorted out some food for me *yay* Bar closed at midnight too which is alright for a hotel! *whoop*

We had some drinks at the Bar too which were kinda pricy but to be expected in central london, the bar staff got our drink orders wrong a number of times and forgot some of the drinks too.

Would you recommend it?
Yes, mainly for the fact that it is mildly cheap for somewhere right next to ExCel and the DLR. If I booked again I'd definately specify 'NON-SMOKING' (didn't think there were 'smoking' hotel rooms any more D: ) and bring a pillow to make things more comfortable when I sleep It's mainly the conveniance factor though, it was so nice rolling out of bed, grabbing noms and getting changed to walk to ExCel, no huge bags to take in and pay for them to put them in the cloak room ^^

And here's another one for the weekend:

Etap (London City Airport)
Where: Silverstown
Price: £48 per room per night, booked in mid August. £32 each for three people staying two nights.
Distance: About fifteen minutes walking, and sign-posted to both entrances. DLR is also nearby.

Experience: The rooms are pretty basic (bed/shower/toilet/tv, one plug socket) and there isn't a restaurant on site, although there is breakfast available in the morning (no idea what said breakfast is, though, I didn't have it). There is a garage next door to the hotel, and you can get food from there for decent prices if you don't want to go looking for a place to eat.

All the rooms are a double and a single, with the single above the double. The rooms are pretty small, so you'll probably feel cramped once you start unpacking stuff if you've got three people in the room.

The staff were friendly enough, there's a couple of them who do have heavy accents which I can see being problematic for some people, but everyone I spoke to was pretty willing to answer questions and whatnot. (:

There's pretty much nothing to do in the area (the nearest take-out is about twenty minutes walking and that's when you know where it is), but the DLR is about five minutes away.

You'll need to bring some of your own basics if you want them e.g travel kettle, cutlery etc. You might even need to bring a sleeping bag if you aren't comfortable with sharing a bed with a friend in a full room, because there's only the one type of room available for booking.

Would you recommend it? If you're on a budget or just want a cheap option, yes as the price is pretty fantastic. There are MUCH better hotels you could be staying in, but if you're just looking for somewhere to sleep and dump your stuff, the Etap's an excellent choice.

Hotel: Travelodge
Where: London city Airport
Distance: 0.25m, it is quicker to walk than drive as it is on the other side of the river.
How much, and when did you book: Booked end of May. cost £29 for 3 people!!!!

Your experience:
Arrived late saturday night, lovely room, tea, coffee and tv provided, nice bathroom, double bed and sofa bed. parking only £5 for 24 hours.

we got extra tea and coffee in the morning when we asked. staff very nice and helpful.
They have there own restraunt and bar. i think breakfast has to be booked in advance.

This hotel is great if you want to walk there, but to drive you have to go far out because of the river. still £29 for 3 people is a complete bargin!



Would you recommend it?
YES!!! a complete BARGIN! i have no complaints!

Hotel: Premier Inn
Where: Beckton
Distance: 5 stops on the DLR. The hotel is right next to the station. Took us about 15 minutes to get to the Expo Center.
How much, and when did you book: About £65 per night for two people, stayed 3 nights. Booked in July.

Your experience: The hotel was clean and tidy and very purple. We had a double room which was really big, with a desk and a chair, (single rooms had a sofa apparently). Bathroom was nice. 2 sets of towels, but the bath wasn't very deep...and no free toiletries Good tv, with Freeview and you could get WiFi in your room if you asked, (possible extra change, I don't know)

The hotel itself is a bit of a maze, but lots of signs to tell you where to go. Made up of two building with key card entrance so nobody can get in without a key.

Breakfast is £7.95 each for a full buffet. Which is really nice, (didn't need to eat until the evening). Eggs and porridge to order and everything you can think of is included. There is a Brewers Fayre attached to the hotel, which does nice cheap meals and doubles as a bar.

There is a REALLY big ASDA over the road from the hotel, which is handy if you forgot anything, or if you hungry after the Expo (open till midnight most days).

Only complaint is that the room was like a sauna, and no a/c to speak of.

Would you recommend it? Yes, if you don't mind having to get on the DLR in cosplay/getting change at the expo.

Hotel: Etap Hotel
Where: London City Airport
Distance: About 5 - 10 minute walk to ExCel east entrance. DLR about 5 minutes walk.
How much, and when did you book: £40 something per night for 2 people. Booked end of August

Your experience: It was... okay. It was really, REALLY basic. Very small (the smallest me and my brother have ever been in) and not much privicy. Toilet didn't have a lock on it and my brother very much disliked the bunk bed. The sheets were DIRTY and had dirty strange marks all over them =/

I only ever saw one hotel staff. He had an acecent(sp?) and was hard to understand. But he was helpful enough. Breakfast was all there although the toaster did burn me =/

Would you recommend it? If you want very cheap... then yes. But I certainly won't be staying there again if I can help it. So it's really a no from me.

Hotel: Ibis
Where: Next to ExCel
Distance: Like 2 seconds of ExCel (West?) enterance xD
How much, and when did you book: £280 for three nights (three person room), booked November-ish. I'm not sure on prices/ when hotel was booked 'cause I didn't book it xD;

Your experience:
Quite good tbh~
We booked a room for 2 adults and a 'child' and for 2 single beds.. They gave us a double bed but we weren't really complaining about it XD Really comfortable bed - Difficult to get up in the morning.
Room was a little on the small side (we had alot of stuff, tho)
If you use the shower, the bathroom is likely to flood a little >>;;
Bathroom door has no lock x__x;; But the door closes securely. We said that if the door is closed, theres somebody in there and don't go in. I ttly didn't make up this rule, forget about it and a little later walk in on somebody in the shower >>;;
Nice clean towels 8D 8D Our towels go replaced when the cleaners went round in a bag outside the room (We had the do not disturb sign on the door)
We also had a kettle with tea bags, etc.
Alot of toilet paper was supplied XD
One pillow per person in the room, can ask at reception for more but you gotta' get there quick 'cause everybody is after them XD (We missed out oTL)
Only real issue is that whatever you say in the room can be heard quite clearly outside the room XD Even when you talk quietly o_o;;

Reception staff were friendly and helpful~ Although a little slow and there was often a que at reception ><; The reception staff we talked to had understandable accents and were wellspoken in English. They wore a badge to tell you what nationality they were 8D

You gotta' pay for breakfast ;--; I don't rly eat breakfast so no comment on what it was like xD

There is a barrr~ (I think?)
The lounge/ lobby is a little small tho (then aagin, I didn't venture much past the toilets/ automatic doors)
Convienient convience store is convienient. (Just across the road) and theres plenty of places close by to find food~ (We walked across the bridge towards Custom House and ate from the takeaways by there) Also went to PTI a few times to sit aorund in that lounge/ get drinks.

Would you recommend it? Yes~ 8D We'll prolly be staying they next year~ We love how close it is to ExCel XD
*Don't try and cram people in the rooms, though - They're not big enough

Hotel: Custom House
Where: Near Excel centre
Distance: Very,very close- 3 minutes,I'd say?
How much, and when did you book: £169 for a double room for 3 nights - very cheap in my opinion ^^

Your experience: The rooms were slightly lacking - bathrooms are tiny and I hate that shower, it takes ages to get to the right temperature >< They do provide a kettle/hairdryer/soaps and things though which was awesome, totally wasn't expecting the hairdryer! The staff, for us,were nothing short of amazing. Though some had difficulty with english, they couldn't be more helpful. One of my friends had issues with their brace, and they helped us to get hold of the emergency number for her dentist. When we wanted to get directions to the local asda, they gave us a DLR map and circled the stops we needed ^^ Very awesome. Breakfast was nice too, we might shell out for the full english next time because my boyfriend was complaining that he wanted bacon all weekend

Would you recommend it? Very much so if you prefer service over actual room quality; but really, how much time do we spend in the room at expo other than to sleep?

Hotel:Custom House
Where: Turn right from Excel front entrance.

i'd give it a 7/10 ... amazingly cheap considering other options, we cheated and got 6 people in a double room xD. but the full cost was around the £160 mark. the rooms in my opinion are fine for the amount of people supposed to be in the room, but the bathrooms are probably only 2/3 of the size provided... the shower isnt even a cubicle but thats it xD i didnt have breakfast so i cant comment. the ground floor has a nice array of options for a night as always although i wound up wandering different bars at other places with friends xD..

All in All:
Price was more than fair.
Room was adequate(sp)
bathroom was on the small side.
Location is great.
Staff are Helpfull.
Night options are great.
I recommend this hotel