The Hoxton – a hotel with pot luck pricing!

The Hoxton is a hotel with an intriguing difference. You might spend £150 a night on a room here. Equally, you can stay here for £1.

True, your fingers will need to be fast on the keyboard for you to take advantage of the special one pound offer. But if you book ahead you can almost always get a good rate – prices rise as you get closer to the date you want to book. So you might end up staying at this designer hotel for less than the price of a tired B&B much further out of town. (Currently, the website has offers for July this year at £30.)

Hoxton isn’t a high class neighbourhood but it is incredibly trendy, with art galleries and boutiques springing up in streets that used to shelter rag trade and secondhand furniture  businesses. It’s also a ten minute walk from Liverpool Street Station, so you’re close to the tube system and the City.

The hotel itself is up to the minute, with spacious bedrooms, modern decor that’s minimalist but gaudy at the same time – lots of black and red and some funky design to give the place a sense of humour. (I particularly like ‘boring sign no 5′ which warns you to use the safe provided in each room.) Bare brick surfaces and industrial (1970s rather than steampunk) touches in the public areas keep it gritty – very much in the Hoxton aesthetic.

Little touches like the (free) prepacked breakfast, which includes granola and yoghurt, are nice – you can also choose to pay for a cooked breakfast in the restaurant. Even better, the hotel doesn’t do profiteering on little items like beers and Mars bars – the prices for the bar are extremely reasonable. And wifi access is free!

This is luxury living on a budget. Very well worth considering if you’re not impressed by the plush lifestyle of the West End and want something a bit more up-to-the-minute and edgier. For the price of an Ibis, you’re getting a whole lot more. This one definitely gets my vote.

Simply because the hotel is so close to the City, and attracts a business clientele, you can get some very good rates at weekends – worth knowing about.

Where: 81 Great Eastern Street, EC2 (Old Street tube is slightly closer than Liverpool Street)