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Best cheap hotels for under £150
The best budget hotel stays in the UK, as rated by Which? Travel’s undercover team of inspectors
Our undercover inspectors stay at hundreds of UK hotels to bring you honest and impartial reviews you can trust.
And we’ve experienced enough terrible budget hotels in our time (we’re looking at you, Britannia) to know when we’re getting real value for money. But cheap doesn’t have to mean basic, either: our secret inspectors have enjoyed stylish townhouses and slick city stays for under £150.
All hotels listed here were scored at least 3.5 stars by reviewers.
We stayed at these hotels within the past three years. Prices are for a Saturday night (peak price) and prices were checked in October 2025. All scores are out of five.
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This beautifully restored Grade-II listed guesthouse feels like somewhere Gatsby might call home. The bar is a sumptuous cavern of wood panelling, fringed lampshades and retro prints in gilded frames. In the heart of the old city, Hort’s is a 10-minute walk to the harbourside.
Rooms The Roaring Twenties theme continues upstairs in our spacious boutique double, overlooking the old Guildhall – with scalloped blue velvet armchairs, marble-topped cabinets and Art Deco mirrors.
There’s an honesty bar stocked with treats, including relaxing face masks (£3.85). The complimentary homemade port and chocolates were also a nice touch. Only a few stray crumbs on the parquet floor brought us back down to earth. Book direct to request a lazy late check-out until 1pm.
Food and drink The Hort family apparently served Bristol’s first cocktails – and you’ll find plenty in the bar downstairs (from £10), alongside classic pub dishes (including a Scotch egg flight, three for £19). Our made-to-order breakfast of avocado and poached eggs on toasted sourdough was first-rate.
Our verdict An opulent 1920s city-centre bolthole at a great price.
If you want to spend less this could be a good choice, especially for its proximity to Glasgow Central train station and other city centre attractions – you shouldn’t have to fork out for additional taxi fares. (Queen Street station, with trains to Edinburgh, is only an eight-minute walk away.)
Don’t judge the hotel by its exterior: it was once a grand building, designed for the Caledonian Railway Company in 1905, but the city’s grime has taken its toll on the brickwork. Take a lift up to the sixth floor, however, and you’ll find spotless accommodation.
Rooms Our large double (£10 more than a standard room) felt like a mock-up bedroom in an Ikea store with its open shelving, simple white bucket chair and minimalist decor. Arty orange-and-grey wallpaper added colour to one wall in an otherwise stark, high-ceilinged room. We can’t fault its comfort, though.
Food & drink There’s no restaurant, but homemade cakes, traybakes and ice cream are available 24/7 – we enjoyed vanilla and raspberry cupcakes and vegan white chocolate ice cream at 9.30pm. Breakfast (an extra £11 if you don’t book your room direct on the Grasshoppers website) is in The Kitchen, a sort of self-service canteen where guests sit on red plastic chairs and share wooden tables. While the cereals, fruit and Scottish fry-up were passable, we wouldn’t rush to eat there again.
Our verdict A spick-and-span, good-value hotel, but buy breakfast elsewhere.
Reviewed January 2024.
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A red carpet lines the steps up to the Queen Anne-style property, and the opulence continues inside with vaulted ceilings, columns and plush, heavy drapes. The Roseate has the hallmarks of a five-star hotel, with its small sauna and steam room. However, scuffed walls, sagging lobby sofas and pleasant yet inattentive staff mean it fell short of a true five-star experience.
Rooms Our room is part of ‘The House’ – a separate apartment-style block. It’s neutral and minimalist, except for deep-sapphire velvet chairs and arty orb lighting. In contrast, the palatial classic room in the main house, with mahogany and baroque furniture and fuchsia and taupe walls, better matches the hotel’s sumptuous style (for £24-£38 more).
Food and drink Our crispy-skinned seabass with herby crushed potatoes is tasty, but small for £28. The continental buffet breakfast is more generous, and our cooked-to-order chunky stack of American pancakes (included) is indulgently drenched in syrup and topped with bacon.
Our verdict A stay here is a steal, but the cheapest rooms lack the decadence of the main house.
It’s a bit cheeky to include Voco St David’s in our round-up as it’s £1 over our £150 budget, but that extra pound goes a long way. In 1998 St David’s Spa, Wales’ first five-star hotel, opened on Cardiff docks. Looking like a cruise liner jutting into the bay, it was hailed as the latest addition to ‘Cool Cymru’.
Almost 30 years later, renamed Voco and now owned by InterContinental, it’s sleekly luxurious rather than hip. We prefer it this way. Everything works. There’s no trendy lighting or confusing app. The staff are friendly, without acting like they’ll be fired if they forget to smile. We love the lobby, flooded with light by its seven-storey atrium, and the spa with its 15-metre swimming pool. Even better are the views across the bay towards the undulating roof of the Welsh Senedd.
Rooms Standard rooms are a decent size, with understated decor and tasteful seascape paintings. Guests can enjoy a dip in a deep bath and choose from a selection of fancy toiletries.
Food and drink Breakfast is in the Tir a Môr (Land and Sea) restaurant, with floor-to-ceiling windows looking across the bay in three directions. It’s busy, but the fast turnover means the abundant buffet remains fresh and appealing.
Our verdict No longer cool, but incredibly good value.
Reviewed in March 2025.
Cardiff was top rated for its accommodation and shopping. See how small, medium and large cities scored in our best UK cities for a short break survey
Cheap hotel in Essex: The Bell Inn, Horndon on the Hill
A blue plaque proclaims that a gentleman was burned at the stake in the courtyard of The Bell Inn. Now, that same paved terrace is festooned with fairy lights. Set in the quaint village of Horndon on the Hill, this family-run 15th-century coaching inn, with its open fire and half-timbered walls, is as olde worlde as it gets.
More rooms can be found in the Georgian annexe up the street; there’s a picnic lawn backing on to scenic green fields, with the jarringly industrial Thames Estuary cranes just visible in the distance.
Rooms Cheap Snug rooms still have room for a king-size bed. Or splurge on a Super Comfy: ours had a glass-tiled open-plan bathroom. The (mercifully more discreet) separate toilet is tucked under the eaves (watch your head if you’re long-legged). Elsewhere, there are bags of room and character. We especially loved the back-lit beams and original cast-iron fireplace.
Food and drink There are ales on pump, an extensive wine list and a creative, locally sourced menu. Breakfast is served in the Ostlers – a separate brasserie-style restaurant – with continental options, the classic full English and everything in between.
Our verdict Innovative food in a frozen-in-time setting, and the price is right too.
Reviewed May 2023.
How we review hotels
Unlike all other national UK travel magazines and newspaper travel sections, Which? Travel never accepts freebies. We pay wherever we stay.
All our hotel inspections are done anonymously. We book a standard double room online, just as you would, and we sample the hotel’s facilities, just as you would.
That means no special treatment, no reviewer upgrades and no opportunity for the hotel to influence our verdict.
And no matter how bad the hotel is, we always publish the review, warts and all.
Our hotel ratings
We use an overall star rating for the hotel based on what we think you should expect for the type of accommodation (B&B, luxury hotel, etc) and price.
All our ratings strictly adhere to the following criteria:
0 stars A dreadful hotel. We wouldn't recommend staying here.
1 star A sub-standard hotel that we think is well below average in its category.
2 stars An adequate hotel that we think has room for improvement.
3 stars A solid hotel that meets our expectations.
4 stars An excellent hotel that we think is above average in its category.
5 stars An exceptional hotel that we think is among the best of its type.
Sometimes, all you need is a clean hotel room and a bed to crash in for the night. So whether you're looking for a cheap hotel in London, or you're looking for a bargain in Birmingham, we've outlined the best-rated cheap hotel chains, (all which scored 70% or higher in our UK hotel chains survey – as rated by Which? readers).
