Best hotels for under £200

Our undercover inspectors stay at hundreds of UK hotels to bring you honest and impartial reviews you can trust.

For less than the price of many big-brand chains, you can stay at some of the UK's best hotels. There are luxury stays in Manchester and Bath for under £200, while the historic George Hotel in Inveraray is a bargain if you want somewhere that will impress for around £100.

We completed stays at the hotels included within the past two years. Prices are for a Saturday night (peak price) and correct at the time of publication. All scores are out of five.

The George Hotel, Inveraray, Scotland

Peak price: £103 

Check rates at the George Hotel with Booking.com

Score: 4

Near Loch Fyne, this convivial hostelry has been owned by the Clark family since 1860. On our visit Kris, who’s currently at the helm, chatted with locals, overnight guests and four Austrians who’d travelled to Inveraray to tour the neo-Gothic castle. The George, a former coaching inn, has an atmospheric cocktail bar which is the main dining area - it still has its original 18th-century stone walls and flagstone floor, as well as settle benches and a crackling open fire. Meals are also served in the modern, light conservatory. 

Rooms: Access to the main building’s 18 bedrooms is up a winding, tartan-carpeted staircase and along creaky corridors filled with antiques and oil paintings. Our standard room had a spacious ensuite bathroom with a walk-in shower, and two love seats in a ‘chit chat corner’. Book the Merchant’s Suite for a raised spa bath, double rainfall shower and wood-burning stove. 

Food & drink: Food is served from midday and includes the likes of haggis, neeps and tatties (£12), a seafood selection featuring Loch Fyne salmon (£16) and pan-fried scallops (£18). Do enjoy a nightcap too - if you’re unsure which whisky to order (there are 400 to choose from), knowledgeable bar staff are only too happy to help you find your favourite.

Our verdict: A friendly, good-value haunt that’s full of character - one visit won’t be enough.

Reviewed: November 2022.

The Old Bakery Hotel, Warwickshire, England

Peak price: £110

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Score: 4

Few towns have a park as beautiful as Kenilworth’s Abbey Fields. A stroll past the lake and the ruined abbey brings you to the Old Town’s historic High Street and The Old Bakery’s weathered brick facade. This crooked-timbered 16th-century Elizabethan building – once the eponymous bakery (established in 1825 and still churning out bread and cakes until the mid-1990s) – is now a 14-room hotel with two saloons and a little courtyard. It looks like a traditional pub by night, with its dark wooden beams and rustic mismatched furniture, but by morning it’s more akin to a chic café, when light floods its welcoming front parlour.

Rooms: At £110, a night’s sleep here is cheaper than any ‘budget’ chain hotel we checked nearby. There are no baths, just a shower, but everything is clean and comfortable.

Food & drink: The pub concentrates on booze rather than food in the evenings, so there’s no dinner, but an excellent selection of beers and guest ales. Breakfast is simple but generous, with a decent fry-up, filter coffee, fruit and cereals.

Our verdict: Great-value stay in a beautiful location.

Reviewed: September 2023.

The Yard in Bath

Peak price: £179

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Score: 4

A former 18th-century coaching inn, The Yard in Bath was gutted from top to bottom and yet still gives a nostalgic nod to its past life. The carriage archway’s folding panelled doors open to a stylish café-cum-winebar, wrapped around a serene Grade II-listed courtyard. Just a five-minute stroll from the Royal Crescent, the hotel is filled with plants inside and out– olive trees, vases of fresh lilies and herbs in terracotta pots. Parking costs an extra £15 a night if you’re lucky enough to bag a coveted spot (check when booking). A two-night minimum stay is required.

Rooms: The 14 rooms, which are arranged across three floors, are luxuriously furnished by local designers, including the feature wallpaper (birds in our room) and soft woollen throws. The ‘Cosy’ rooms offer the best value, with a king-size bed and all the same features (including a coffee machine and fresh milk) squeezed into a more compact space. For almost double the price, the largest suite has a freestanding bathtub and a roof terrace. The only downside is that most rooms face a noisy street, with vibrations every time a bus trundles past.

Food & drink: Forget the stodgy full English: twee hampers of locally sourced delights are delivered to your room at 8am or served in the café downstairs. These include buttery croissants, organic natural yoghurt, homemade granola and fresh fruit. If you’re still feeling a bit peckish later, continue your culinary tour of Somerset with a custard tart (baked in Bath not Portugal) or a cheese and charcuterie board sourced from local farms. Wash it all down with a frosty Gem amber ale or a bottle of organic wine.

Our verdict: Elegant and airy, with plenty of local touches –this modern bolthole nails luxury without the inflated price. Just don’t forget your ear plugs.

Reviewed: March 2022.

Boys Hall, Kent, England

Check rates with Boys Hall

Peak price: £180

Score: 4.5

The ordinary location (deep in the Ashford suburbs, tucked behind a Wickes and a car dealership) only makes this Jacobean manor house– clad in wisteria from bed rock to gable – all the more spectacular. Charles I may have stayed here when hoofing it from the Roundheads, but this is Boys Hall’s first turn as a hotel – its historic old bones of beams and fireplaces have been lavishly restored. With just 10 rooms set around the original carved oak staircase, it feels intimate and we’re ushered inside for tea and cake.

Rooms: While our spacious double has a four-poster bed and the sort of hefty timbered wardrobe that could house Narnia, contemporary fixtures and decorative tiles make it brighter and happier than most historic stays. Everything feels luxurious; from the sweeping floral drapes you need two hands to close, to a tea and coffee station with a choice of milks. There is also a complimentary slice of cake on arrival. 

Food & drink: The restaurant is the main event. You’ll find fabulous fine dining (the Michelin Guide is sure to catch on soon) under huge timber joists in the brightly lit conservatory or on the terrace overlooking the landscaped gardens. Service is warm, prices are fair and there’s lots of local flavour, from Romney Marsh lamb to Kentish wines.

Our verdict: There’s little to recommend the location, but this luxury stay is almost faultless.

Reviewed: September 2023.

Eleven Didsbury Park, Manchester

Check rates at Eleven Didsbury Park with Booking.com

Peak price: £180

Score: 4

The leafy suburb of Didsbury is famously well-heeled, and this Victorian townhouse hotel certainly holds its own. Communal rooms are almost womb-like, filled with tactile rich-toned fabrics and curiosities – from toucan bookends to Moroccan lanterns. The pretty walled garden, with century-old yew trees and a heated patio, feels a world away from the frenetic city centre of nearby Manchester.

Rooms: Snug is often a euphemism for shoebox, but not here. The smallest Snug still has wriggle room and a walk-in monsoon shower. We were upgraded to the cavernous Comfy, with a claw-foot roll-top bath in a geometric-tiled alcove. Attention to detail is everywhere, from the coffee pod menu for the in-room machine to the brimming bookcase (we only wish we were staying long enough to read all the books).

Food & drink: Small plates (such as the Thai butternut squash soup with roti) and mains are available, alongside a well-stocked bar. Take breakfast in the garden lounge or on wicker chairs in the exposed brick conservatory. Or hang your order on the back of your door for room service. We couldn’t fault our fresh fruit salad and eggs benedict, but the full buffet (£16 when we stayed) is a little steep for what it is.

Our verdict: Luxurious without being stuffy, this lovingly furnished bolthole feels joyously indulgent.

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 take place anonymously. We book a standard double room online, just as you would, and we sample the hotel’s facilities, just as you would. We never let on that we are from Which?

That means no special treatment, no reviewer upgrades and no opportunity for the hotel to influence our verdict.

And no matter how badly the hotel fares, we always publish the review, warts and all.

Our 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 would not recommend staying here.
• 1 star – A sub-standard hotel we think is well below average in its category.
• 2 stars – An adequate hotel we think has room for improvement.
• 3 stars – A solid hotel that meets our expectations.
• 4 stars – An excellent hotel we think is above average in its category.
• 5 stars – An exceptional hotel we think is among the best of its type.