London hotels worst reputation in Europe? I don't think so...

London hotels got the worst collective ratings of any hotels in the top 50 cities Europe, according to a the hotel price comparison website www.trivago.co.uk.

I'm not disputing their findings. Their study found that London was rated the "worst" city in Europe in terms of overall reputation, with a rating of 72.2. Next worst in Europe was Birmingham at 74.15, while the bronze medal, if you will, went to Copenhagen at 74.29.

The best European cities for hotels were Dresden (82.32), Krakow (81.09) and Bruges in Belgium at 81.03.

The study was based on factors such as room price and hotel quality.

But I think prices skewed this study quite a bit.

The press release I read initially said London hotels got the worst collective scores out of 1000 European cities. But then I found something lower in the release that indicated at least three Euro destinations had lower ratings; Sliema in Malta, Lloret de Mar in Spain and El Arenal in Spain.

The bigger issue to me is the expense issue. Of course London hotels will do worse in a study that includes price. London hotels are some of the highest in the world. Why? Because people LOVE TO GO TO LONDON and hotels can get away with charging more.

Ditto for New York, folks, and Sydney and San Francisco and Paris. You'll probably get more value out of a Days Inn in Belleville than a nice hotel in Paris, but where would you rather stay on vacation?

I wonder about one other thing. The website is British-based, and it's quite possible that Brits are harder on their own hotel industry than they are on a hotel in another country. Just a thought....

Anyway, it's always tricky to analyze these types of studies. I'm sure London has some work to do, but I've consistently had good hotel stays in London. And some places are quite reasonable.

You can go onto various websites today and find perfectly good hotels for less than $150. If you're looking, try some outlying areas with good access to the tube for better deals. I find the Bayswater area, north of Hyde Park, ideal for bargain shoppers as it's close to major sights and has a couple of tube lines running through the region. Yet there are tons of inexpensive, clean hotels. You'll get a small room and a basic breakfast, but there are a lot worse things to say about a hotel than that....