May 8, 2007
Europe and the sinking dollar: What do we do now?
I'm not sure that the full impact of recent exchange rates -- $2 for a British pound, $1.35 for a single Euro -- has yet sunk into the psyche of Americans planning a European trip. Or that they've considered the radical new tactics that a cost-conscious trip there will require.
Because the average guesthouse room -- I'm talking a modest guesthouse and a double room -- is currently renting for £100 in London and for at least 100 € on the continent, the cost for lodgings is therefore $200 a night per couple in London and nearly $150 in Europe. Multiply those costs by 14 nights, and for a pair of Americans traveling together, the average two-week trip can start off with a $3,000 tab for lodgings alone.
So what's to be done? It's clear to me that the cost-conscious American must, from now on, seek out not hotel accommodations, not even guesthouse accommodations, but so-called "private homestays" -- a low-cost, $40-per-person room in a residence whose owners are simply supplementing their income by renting out an occasional room. If you'll go to www.happy-homes.com or www.athomeinlondon.co.uk, you'll find such $40 per person accommodations in London. You'll find the same for Paris at www.goodmorningparis.fr or www.bed-and-breakfast-in-paris.com; and in Rome at www.b-b.rm.it.
For years, many of our Frommer's travel guides to Europe have laid a heavy stress on alternative, non-hotel accommodations, and my daughter's recent series (Pauline Frommer's London, Pauline Frommer's Paris and Pauline Frommer's Italy) is especially full of internet services for private homestays, university accommodations, hostels, and guest-accepting convents and monasteries. And you can bet that I'll be returning to the private homestay in future issues of this daily blog.
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Because the average guesthouse room -- I'm talking a modest guesthouse and a double room -- is currently renting for £100 in London and for at least 100 € on the continent, the cost for lodgings is therefore $200 a night per couple in London and nearly $150 in Europe. Multiply those costs by 14 nights, and for a pair of Americans traveling together, the average two-week trip can start off with a $3,000 tab for lodgings alone.
So what's to be done? It's clear to me that the cost-conscious American must, from now on, seek out not hotel accommodations, not even guesthouse accommodations, but so-called "private homestays" -- a low-cost, $40-per-person room in a residence whose owners are simply supplementing their income by renting out an occasional room. If you'll go to www.happy-homes.com or www.athomeinlondon.co.uk, you'll find such $40 per person accommodations in London. You'll find the same for Paris at www.goodmorningparis.fr or www.bed-and-breakfast-in-paris.com; and in Rome at www.b-b.rm.it.
For years, many of our Frommer's travel guides to Europe have laid a heavy stress on alternative, non-hotel accommodations, and my daughter's recent series (Pauline Frommer's London, Pauline Frommer's Paris and Pauline Frommer's Italy) is especially full of internet services for private homestays, university accommodations, hostels, and guest-accepting convents and monasteries. And you can bet that I'll be returning to the private homestay in future issues of this daily blog.
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Labels: accommodations, budget, england, france, guesthouse, italy, london, paris
Fifty years ago, 
Arthur Frommer is generally acknowledged to be the nation's foremost travel authority. He is the founder of the
