MichGuy

I'm making hotel / guest house reservations for our fall trip in the UK. I'm seeing a lot of rooms that are described as having a "full size" bed. Can anyone tell me if this is the same as an American full size bed?

I presume it is because I also see the occasional queen size and king size beds. But yikes, two adults (even regular size) in a full size bed is close quarters.

And am I the only one who thinks that the price of accommodation in the UK is over the top? Makes Switzerland look like a bargain.

J62

Yes. A UK full is essentially the same as a US full

A UK king is similar to a US queen.

this chart explains the different sizes & names. LINK

raincitygirl

Are you talking about all of the UK being over the top for accommodation or just London? Because I'm sure the whole UK is not over the top expensive for accommodation. Certainly London is not a cheap city and for me the difference between the pound and my dollar is not in my favour but I was just in London in November and last April and stayed in 2 nice hotels and wasn't overly horrified at the price.
Hotel prices in my own city have gone up significantly since covid and we travel to NYC fairly frequently and I find hotels there expensive.

janisj

"And am I the only one who thinks that the price of accommodation in the UK is over the top? Makes Switzerland look like a bargain."

That is a VERY general question/statement. Sort of like saying "cars are expensive " -- are you talking a Kia Rio or a Ferrari?

I find hotels in London being a bit cheaper for the same sort of quality as in Manhattan. In a few cities (Bath, Oxford, York, Edinburgh, etc) properties can be pricey but not nearly 'London-pricey'. In the countryside wonderful accommodations can be dirt cheap all the way up to eye wateringly expensive - depending on whether budget chains, village B&Bs, or world famous country house/castle hotels.

In general, the US$ has been quite good against the £ for several years now, so that really helps. CA$ and AUS$ are tougher.

bilboburgler

I think you have to factor in some other stuff when looking at holidays. Certainly most London museums are free at the point of entry, while premade sandwiches in the UK and what passes for street food are way lower than Switzerland, on the other hand wine is cheaper in Switzerland unless you mean local wine when it is the other way around.

London of course is not Geneva, there is a saying, "when you are tired of London you are tired of life". Without upsetting any Swiss Fodorites, when you are tired of Geneva it is a normal day.

crellston

"Full size bed" is not a term we use in the UK but probably equates to our "double bed" i.e 4' 6" wide

Next size up would be the King Size (your Queen Size) 5' 0" . Next is the Super King which is equivalent to your King at 6' 0"

The majority of hotels will have Queen Size beds but increasingly many are offering the option on rooms with two single beds (3' 0") that are joined to make a Super King

I agree that the cost of accommodation here has increased significantly. I don't know that it is "over the top" - the free market finds its own level as it always does , but hotels rates are very definitely way higher than they were prior to the pandemic. I dont think it is anything to do with the £/$ exchange rate , if anything that has moved in your favour. I think it is partly due to high inflation (just the last two years have seen CPI increase by approx 20%) coupled with hotels recouping pandemic losses. It is the same with eating out. Restaurant prices have also seen very significant increases.

It is not just the UK, I am looking at a return to Mexico and the same hotels I used just a few years ago are now 50-100% more expensive.

hetismij2

We found accommodation in the UK to be very expensive, sometimes ridiculously so, and it seemed the fewer facilities the more it cost. It is the reason we abandoned plans for a proper UK holiday last year and just visited relatives. Nice to see them all of course, but a week or two on our own would have been good as well. It is also the reason I could not attend a couple of funerals in the UK. Added to the silly price of crossing the North Sea it was just beyond reasonable.

UK beds can be small, both in width and in length, but are not as bad as many French beds.

janisj

All those things also apply to the US. Hotels here are generally much higher than they were in January 2020. There is also serious inflation in the States. I'm doing a short 'staycation' close to home next week -- the exact same room that cost me $197+tax in early 2020 is $289+ next Thursday and the hotel's steak house is running close to twice the prices. Car rentals are another thing that in some parts of the US rates are 3+ times of pre-pandemic.

Sure there are VERY expensive hotels in the UK but there are also very good value for money properties -- I couldn't swing visiting 2 to 3 times a year if everything was 'over the top expensive'

hetismij2

I guess it depends on what you regard as over the top expensive really.

We like self catering and are happy to stay in a static caravan on a campsite if it is in the right area but trust me many hotels, B&Bs and self catering places in the UK are over the top expensive for many people, certainly those of us on a fix income pension, who cant afford one transatlantic a year, let alone three.

MichGuy

Janisj is certainly correct and "over the top" was an exaggeration. It's just that I'm accustomed to finding good hotels or guest houses outside of the major cities for around US$150 per night, breakfast included. On this trip it's a struggle to find the same kind of place for under US$200. London and Edinburgh are over US$300 per night. This all adds $1000 to the cost of a three week trip.

And we've also seen the same kind of increases here in the US as well. Aren't we glad that inflation is only 5%?.....

bilboburgler

I think the UK is also suffering from Brexit, fewer cheap Europeans coming for a years work, elevated minimum wage, a significant mental health rise possibly due to Covid Isolation and, dare I say it, an enhanced realisation by some people that they can survive pretty well without working (whole back story to this that I will avoid). So staff are harder to find and more expensive, imports are more expensive from Europe etc etc.

WeisserTee

Some of Switzerland's "eye wateringly" high prices are due to the very strong Swiss franc. When we moved from the UK to Switzerland 16 years ago, you needed almost two francs to buy a pound. Now a franc buys you roughly 90% of a pound. And more than 100% of a euro or US dollar. But there are still some good values, especially with public transportation. Swanning around on the SBB site and sussing out the specials can make train travel surprising affordable compared to the UK (and you will virtually always get a seat, even at rush hour, wish I could have said the same for my work commute in the UK).

The larger Migros and Coop grocery stores have inexpensive but perfectly adequate restaurants and lots of takeaway food items. Plus regular restaurants often offer good lunch deals and certain specials (the Prima restaurant in Basel, for example, charges just 16 francs on Monday evenings for their delicious range of homemade pizzas cooked in a wood-fired oven).

Christina

Here is another table
https://oddmattress.co.uk/what-is-th...ican-mattress/

Believe it or not, couples in the US routinely slept in full size beds for years and years. Queensize beds didn't exist until the late 1950s or early 1960s in the US.