Apartment rentals in London?

[Mushe]

Hi all, we will be in London for 5 nights in September, and just discovered that our hotel, booked on points, cannot accommodate us with a crib in our room type, and we don't have enough points to upgrade to the correct room type.  We have a 21 month old, and he would not do well trying to bed share, especially since the room we booked only has a queen. 

I'm aware of HomeAway and VRBO, but am wondering if anybody has a recommendation for another service to find a rental apartment in London.  We could just look for another hotel, but since we're already adding the cost of lodging, I thought it might be nice to look for an apartment instead. 

Thanks!

[frlcb]

Have you looked into just renting a crib from somewhere else? Like these? (they are called cots in the UK)

www.babyequipmenthirelondon.co.uk/
www.thebabyloft.co.uk/



there is also holidaylettings.co.uk, and

[Brit]

Or packing a tent? We have this one. It packs down super small and weighs just 4 lbs. I can squeeze it into our carseat bag that we check. We have brought this a few places where we weren't going to have a crib.



Tiny Tent

[Mushe]

Thanks, guys! Our hotel said that the room type is just too small for a crib, but we were planning to look at renting a crib if we find an apartment. We bought and tried a blow-up toddler bed, but our kiddo really didn't tolerate it. I'm not sure if a tent would be any better for him, since he could climb out. We were initially going to get a PeaPod, which looks identical to Brit's suggestion, but they've become almost impossible to find with the recall.

I'll ask MH how he feels about just renting a PNP type thing for our hotel, if we can get it in the room on the sly.

[frlcb]

What hotel are you staying in?

[Deleted]

airbnb.com

[Mushe]

Aug 12, 2013 13:43:03 GMT -5 frlcb said:

What hotel are you staying in?

Sorry, I'm a dork and don't know how to tag, so I'm quoting instead.

It's the Waldorf Hilton.  I think we'll have to read some TripAdvisor reviews on the room size. 

And thanks Rock-n-Voll and V for the FlipKey and AirBNB recs, I'll check those out too!

[Mushe]

Thanks, RockNVoll! I was expecting it to do something in the preview, I guess.

[frlcb]

I would be surprised if you couldn't find a corner for a pnp in a Hilton. I have been in some small hotel rooms in London but none where you couldn't at least have space for that.

[Mushe]

frlcb, that's what we were thinking! We're a little scared of showing up there with kiddo and being turned away, though. H's boss is from England, and told him to just walk in like we own the place. It would save us a ton of $$ to just be able to use the accommodations we've already booked, so I'm going to do some more intense Googling to see what I can find on the room size.

[frlcb]

Aug 12, 2013 15:31:17 GMT -5 Mushe said:

frlcb, that's what we were thinking! We're a little scared of showing up there with kiddo and being turned away, though. H's boss is from England, and told him to just walk in like we own the place. It would save us a ton of $$ to just be able to use the accommodations we've already booked, so I'm going to do some more intense Googling to see what I can find on the room size.

How old will your baby be when you are there? I just don't think this will be an issue.

[Mushe]

frlcb - he'll be 21 months

[Mushe]

We could be over thinking this! We bought the aforementioned blow up toddler bed to bring with us, and had figured if we're self-sufficient, why would it matter to them. But a weekend trip this summer proved he's not ready for a toddler bed, so we've been scrambling to get a PnP or other crib in all our accommodations. It's a long trip, so we're feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the arrangements that need to be made.

[Deleted]

we've used www.holiday-rentals.co.uk with success in the past

[sunshinedaydreams]

Hey, Mushe! We rented through Boutique London Lets last summer. I can't remember how I found them, but we had a great experience. We stayed in one of the Grosvenor places with two bedrooms and it was pretty affordable and close to a lot of things, including two tube stops, Westminster Abbey, several restaurants/pubs and St. James Park.

[Mushe]

sunshinedaydreams, I should have known to ask you! I'll check it out, thanks.

[expatjen]

When we took our 2 yr old to London last oct, we stayed at the Cheval apartments at Glouster park. It was a 1 bedroom with 1.5 bath, a kitchen, living room and foyer. It also came with a washer/ dryer. We were there for about 8 nights. It was a 2 min walk from Glouster park tube station and there was a waitrose & sainsbury next to the station we got our groceries from. I would definitely stay there again.

[Mushe]

Thanks, expatjen! I'll check it out.

My update is that we received a second response from the hotel telling us that it will be fine. Hmm. Sent them our confirmation number, and as long as we get a response that our room type is fine from this person, we're going to roll with it.