England has scores of upmarket hotels, ranging from bland business-oriented places to plush country mansions, as well as budget accommodation in the form of hundreds of bed and breakfast places (B&Bs) and youth hostels. Nearly all tourist offices will book rooms for you, although the fee for this service varies considerably. In some areas you will pay a deposit that's deducted from your first night's bill (usually ten percent), in others the office will take a percentage or flat-rate commission - on average around £2, but twice that amount in tourist centres like London and Oxford. Another useful service operated by the majority of tourist offices is the "Book-a-bed-ahead" service, which locates accommodation in your next port of call for a charge of about £2.
There is no formalized nationwide system for grading hotel accommodation in England, but the tourist authorities and various private organizations classify hotels on a system of stars, crowns, rosettes or similar badges, typically with five stars being the top rank. The grades used by the AA and RAC are the most reliable, as they combine evaluation of facilities with a degree of subjective judgement – thus a hotel offering a whirlpool in each room will not earn its five stars if the management is bloody minded or the hotel food atrocious. Though there's not a hard and fast correlation between standards and price, you'll probably be paying in the region of £50–60 per night for a double room at a one-star hotel (breakfast included), rising to around £100 in a three-star and from around £200 for a five-star – in London you pay twice that. In some larger towns and cities you'll find that the larger hotels often offer cut-price deals on Saturdays and Sundays to fill the rooms vacated by the week's business trade, but these places tend to be soulless multinational chain operations. If you have money to throw around, stay in a nicely refurbished old building – the historic towns of England are chock-full of top-quality old coaching inns and similar ancient hostelries, while out in the countryside there are numerous converted mansions and manor houses, often with brilliant restaurants attached.
At the lower end of the scale, it's sometimes difficult to differentiate between a hotel and a bed and breakfast (B&B) establishment. At their most basic, these typically English places – often known also as guest houses in resorts and other tourist towns – are ordinary private houses with a couple of bedrooms set aside for paying guests and a dining room for the consumption of a rudimentary breakfast. At their best, however, B&Bs offer rooms as well furnished as those in hotels costing twice as much, delicious home-prepared breakfasts, and an informal hospitality that a larger place couldn't match. B&Bs are graded by the same organizations as those which grade England's hotels, but using slightly different conventions – for example the AA awards "Q"s (for quality) rather than stars. As a guideline on costs, it's easy to find a one-Q place for under £40 per night for double B&B, and right at the top end of the scale, there are some four-Qs for as little as £70 – farmhouse B&Bs are especially good value. As many B&Bs, even the pricier ones, have a very small number of rooms, you should certainly book a place as far in advance as possible.
Finally, don't assume that a B&B is no good if it's ungraded. There are so many B&Bs in England that the grading inspectors can't possibly keep track of them all, and in the rural backwaters some of the most enjoyable accommodation is to be found in welcoming and beautifully set houses whose facilities may technically fall short of official standards.
The network of the Youth Hostels Association consists of some 240 properties in England and Wales, offering bunk-bed accommodation in single-sex dormitories or smaller rooms. A few of these places are spartan establishments of the sort traditionally associated with the wholesome, fresh-air ethic of the first hostels, but most have moved well away from the old-fashioned, institutional ambience.
Membership of the YHA is open only to residents of England and Wales (overseas visitors must join the Youth Hostel Association of their home country): membership costs £3.50 per year for under-18s, £9.50 for others, and can be obtained either by writing to the YHA or in person at any YHA hostel. Members are issued with a directory of all the hostels in the YHA. Membership of the YHA also gives you membership of the hostelling associations of the sixty countries affiliated to Hostelling International (HI). Foreign visitors who belong to any HI association have automatic membership of the YHA; if you aren't a member of such an organization, you can join the HI at any English or Welsh hostel for a £9.30 fee.
Over most of England, prices for under-18s range from £3.85 per night to £8.65, while for over-18s the range is £5.65 to £11.40 (London hostels are more expensive). Students aged 18-25 can get a £1 reduction on production of a valid student card. Length of stay is normally unlimited, and the hostel warden will provide a linen sleeping bag for a small charge. The cost of hostel meals is similarly low: breakfast is around £3.30, a packed lunch is about £3.50 and evening meals start at just £4.40. Nearly all hostels have kitchen facilities for those who prefer self-catering.
At any time of year it's best to book your place well in advance, and it's essential at Easter and Christmas and from May to August. Most hostels accept payment by Mastercard or Visa; with those that don't, you should confirm your booking in writing, with payment, at least seven days before arrival. Bookings made less than seven days in advance will be held only until 6pm on the day of arrival. If you're tempted to turn up on the spur of the moment, bear in mind that very few are open year-round, many are closed at least one day a week even in high season, and several have periods during which they take bookings from groups only. Always phone-we've given the number for every hostel mentioned. Most hostels are closed from 10am to 5pm, with an 11.30pm curfew, although six of the London hostels offer 24-hour access.
At best, independent hostels offer facilities commensurate with those of YHA places at a lower price and in a less constricted atmosphere. However, many of these hostels make their money by over-cramming their rooms with beds, kitchens are often inadequate or non-existent and washing facilities can be similarly poor. That said, a lot of people find the freedom to smoke, drink and chat-up fellow travellers is ample compensation for the less than salubrious environment. Some cities have YMCA and YWCA hostels, though these are only attractive if you're staying for at least a week, in which case you can get discounts on rates that otherwise are no better than budget B&Bs.
In England's university towns you can usually find out-of-term accommodation in the student halls, though in many instances this gives you the frugality of hostel dorms at the cost of a more comfortable B&B. In some instances, however, this may be the only budget accommodation on offer in the centre of town-for example, if you were to bowl into Durham in high summer with nothing booked in advance. All the useful university addresses are given in the guide, but if you want a list of everything that's on offer, write to the British Universities Accommodation Consortium, Box 1547, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD (0115/950 4571).
In the wilder parts of England, such as the north Pennines, north Yorkshire, Dartmoor and Exmoor, the YHA administers some basic accommodation for walkers in camping barns. Holding up to twenty people, these agricultural outbuildings are often unheated and are very sparsely furnished, with wooden sleeping platforms, a couple of tables, a toilet and a cold water supply, but they are weatherproof, extremely inexpensive and perfectly situated for walking tours. You do not have to be a YHA member to stay in any of these. Similar barns, often called bunkhouses, are run by private individuals in these areas- we mention the useful ones.