I then had a conversation with Dan Martin, of BusinessZone.co.uk over a pint. Dan pointed out that LastMinute.com have something called “Top Secret Hotels”, which were basically generally very nice hotels at pretty dang low prices. So, next time I was planning a trip to London, I fired up the Last Minute site and searched for hotels in London, and then narrowed my search to “Top Secret Hotels Only” to bring up a list of about 20 mystery hotels. In case you havent worked out what a top secret hotel is, its basically when you book a hotel based solely on a title, description, star rating and a rough idea of the location. You do not know the name of the hotel, or even the chain which it belongs to (if any). This process may seem a little risky, as you could get a pretty crap hotel, but fear not, there is a site which reveals what the hotels are before you book!

Your Secret Hotel provides a list of hotels which are in the top secret list on LastMinute and “reveals” them for you, so that you can find out what you’re booking before you book. They also have a submit a hotel page, allowing you to inform them of the true identity of a top secret hotel if they do not already have it on their site.

So, to cut a long story short, I managed to get a very nice 4* hotel in Shepherds Bush for under £100 and the next time I’m going down to London, I have managed to bag 3 nights at a 5* hotel for just £294. Had I booked through the hotel’s website, I would have been charged just under £500! I should also point out at the time of me going down, a travellodge for 3 nights was coming in at over £300. Good deal huh?

So, if you are travelling to London (or anywhere actually, they seem to have most cities covered on LastMinute) and dont want to pay over the odds for your room, give LastMinute.com and YourSecretHotel.co.uk a look.

Enjoy!

I was lucky enough to get my hands on an iPad earlier this week (blog post coming very shortly explaining how I managed to get it for free!) and so naturally had to get my hands on a case to keep my new gadget safe (I’m a little bit clumsy!). I initially bought one of the official Apple cases…

It looks alright, but after spending 24 hours with it I realised it wasnt really what I was after. This appears to be created more for functionality, as in you can make the iPad stand horizontally or vertically, I guess for if you’re wanting to watch something on it without holding it. I decided I’d try and find something a little more stylish that did a better job at protecting the ipad, rather than simply making it easier to stand on its own. The Apple case doesnt really do much to convince me that it’d keep my iPad safe if I were to drop it.

So, after a bit of research, I came across a company in London called Knomo Bags. I fell in love with pretty much everything they have immediately! With a price tag of £54.99, their iPad Slim Sleeve was a little pricier than I was hoping to pay, but with it being made from real leather, and it looking damn swish, I decided to take a punt and ordered it in brown.

The case arrived this morning and I’m so impressed with it I have to share it with you lot. If you have an iPad you must get your hands on one of these. Knomo obviously give a lot of attention to detail. This case comes in a very nice brown leather finish and also has a velvet material on the inside, I guess to make sure your iPad feels loved at all times! With such a snug fit, you might think it’d be a little tricky to remove the iPad, but Knomo obviously had their common sense hat on while designing this product and included a pull tab that slides your iPad out an inch or so, allowing you to grab it with ease.

It is well worth £54.99 and I’ve now got my eyes on a Laptop Bag and potentially a suitcase aswell! Although their stuff is quite expensive, in this case (pun very much intended!), you get what you pay for.