Flexible Accommodation

No – not hotels with rubber walls for those likely to be driven mad by the stress of presenting a paper to a large audience, but the philosophy that the ICML administration will be adopting towards finding accommodation for delegates.

1. General

London does not have the huge, integrated conference hotels common in North America, and 8ICML will not, therefore, have a single designated conference hotel, as happened at the 7^th congress in Washington and the 6^th in New Delhi.

London is never a cheap place to stay, and this will be even more true at the height of the millennium summer. The Library Association which is providing the financial and administrative support for ICML is concentrated its efforts on securing low-cost accommodation of various kinds.

2. Hotel Accommodation

Experience at recent IFLA conference and other international events has shown that foreign visitors to the great European cities will find the best value in hotel accommodation by booking combined flight/hotel packages. Our assumption is that substantial numbers of overseas visitors will rake advantage of the savings offered by these packages, and that many more will arrange to stay at a hotel familiar from previous visits – or will stay privately with family or friends.

Accordingly, the registration package not include any options for ICML to book hotel rooms on your behalf. Instead, information about where to find the best value in London hotel accommodation, including web addresses wherever possible is given below:

Travel Inn Capital
There are four Travel Inn's in Central London offered excellent budget accommodation.  Details are on www.travelinn.co.uk.  Prices, slightly increased from 1999, are currently £62.95 per night inclusive of government tax.  As of 8 May, both Travel Inn County Hall and Travel Inn Putney Bridge are full.  Try Travel Inn Town Bridge (195 bedrooms); or Travel Inn Euston (220 bedrooms) on the Central Reservations telephone +44 (0) 870 242 8000 or fax +44 (0) 20 7940 3719 (Town Bridge); +44 (0) 20 7554 3419 (Euston).

Alternatively try:

Days Inn London Waterloo
Newly-opened and, thus, likely to have room availability, is Days Inn one of the first of this American budget hotels opened in the UK.  With the same facilities as Travel Inn's.  This 162 bedroom hotel is two tube stops from the Congress Centre - located opposite the Imperial War Museum on the South Bank.  Room cost £69.50 inclusive of government tax per night.  Reserve on freephone +44 (0) 800 0280 400; fax +44 (0) 22 7922 1441; email: waterloo@daysinn.co.uk; website: www.daysinn.com

3. Student Residences

Central London is reasonably well provided with residential accommodation for university students, which is available at a variety of levels of comfort and price. We have already reserved a bloc of rooms within easy reach of the congress centre; these are safe and clean but definitely fall within the "no frills" category and are priced as such at around £25 plus £4.37 government tax per night inclusive of breakfast - with a minimum 4 night stay.  These rooms at Wigram House and Westminster can be ordered on the Registration Form.

Bed and breakfast" accommodation – being a "paying guest" with a family in their home – is something of a British tradition, and one which the organizations are continuing at ICML. A number of librarians who live in the London area have indicated their willingness to take ICML delegates into their homes, either at low cost or in some cases without charge.

This is clearly something that needs a careful definition or responsibilities and their careful elucidation to both host and guest, and there is a small group of volunteers in charge of these arrangements.

Request a Private Homes questinnaire from Penny Bennett: penny.bennett@bma.org.uk; telephone: +44 (0) 20 7383 6842; fax +44 (0) 20 7388 2544