The UK budget hotel sector is forecast to grow from its current market share of 12% to 26% over the next 2o years. At present the largest 4 players are Premier Inn, Travelodge, Holiday Inn Express and Ibis hotels. I decided to look at each of these budget hotel chains to judge which is the best. Sometimes you don’t have lot of choice if you are staying in less populated location there may only be one brand located there.

I’ve never stayed at a Premier Inn because I’ve never found a cheap room with them. I checked on their website and the cheapest room was £49 a night for room only. If you’re travelling for leisure they have various “2 for !” offers at local attractions such as National Trust properties, city bus tour etc, you just print off a voucher once you’ve booked your hotel. If you’re travelling with kids, up to 2 kids, up to the age of 15, can eat breakfast free when one adult buys the full breakfast for around £8.

Travelodge have good availability of cheap rooms, sleeping up to 2 adults and 2 kids, starting from £19 a night for room only, if you book at least 3 weeks in advance. The majority of rooms in which I’ve stayed had been good or acceptable with the occasional dodgy room, usually at older Travelodges, in need of refurbishment.

Holiday Inn Express also have some good offers with family rooms starting at £39 per night including continental breakfast. I’ve stayed at several Holiday Inn Expresses over the years and always been happy with the quality of the rooms and breakfast.

I’ve never stayed at an Ibis hotel, although I’ve seen them appear on price comparison sites but never at really low prices in the UK. However when I looked at their site they had some fantastic 3 night weekend offers in other countries such as 102 Euros for 3 nights including breakfast in Oporto, Portugal. Unfortunately I didn’t find nearly such cheap prices in the UK and I tried several searches for the 3 night weekend offers in the UK and none of the hotels I tried in Scotland had any availability. I found there website pretty poor e.g. when I did a search for a specific date the first result didn’t display availability or price, I had to click again to ascertain this.

Travelodge tops my list due to the number of rooms available on its £19 and £29 Saver Rate plus they have hotels all over the UK. Holiday Inn Express is a good choice if you can find a room on the advance booking, non refundable £39 per night especially for accommodation and breakfast for a family of four. Premier Inn is also worth looking for families if you can take advantage of their 2 for 1 and free kids breakfast offers.

What’s your opinion, do you have a favourite budget hotel chain the UK?