Garrard House
Garrard House is a 3-star hotel in Reading Town Centre, Reading, a sensible choice for sightseeing around Stratfield Saye House without overspending.
Guests typically choose Reading Town Centre for its balance of location and price; Garrard House is a good fit if you want to be near the action in Reading.
Because pricing is set live by the hotel and its suppliers, the figure shown here is a recent snapshot; check the current rate for your exact dates before booking.
Key facts
What’s included
Around Reading Town Centre
How many nights in Reading and a sensible itinerary
Two nights is enough for Reading itself: one day for the Abbey Ruins, Reading Museum (which holds the full-size Bayeux Tapestry replica), Forbury Gardens and the Oracle, and one evening walking the Thames Path from Caversham Bridge to Sonning Lock for dinner at The Bull. If you are using Reading as a Thames Valley base, plan on four or five nights so you can day-trip to Windsor, Henley, Oxford and Marlow without repacking.
A workable shape: night one and two in the town centre for the sights and evenings out on Friar Street; move to Caversham or Sonning for nights three and four if you want river walks and pub dinners; add a fifth night in Henley or Marlow during regatta season if the budget stretches. Anyone coming for the Reading Festival should book three nights (Thursday to Sunday) and expect a 20-minute walk or shuttle from any hotel to Richfield Avenue.
What Reading hotels actually cost
Budget (£55-85) covers the Premier Inn Caversham Road, Ibis Reading Centre and Travelodge Central — clean, small rooms, breakfast extra, no parking included in the centre. Mid-range (£90-140) is the bulk of the market: Novotel, Holiday Inn, Pentahotel, Crowne Plaza Reading and Voco at Green Park all sit here, with parking included at the out-of-town ones. Top-end (£160-260) means Malmaison in the old station building, the Roseate on the Forbury, or country-house style at Sonning’s French Horn and Henley’s Hotel du Vin.
Rates spike hardest for three fixed dates: the Reading Festival weekend (late August bank holiday, expect £280-450 for a mid-range room), Henley Royal Regatta week (first week of July, £250+ within 10 miles), and Royal Ascot week in June if you are staying anywhere between Bracknell and Windsor. Corporate demand from Green Park, Thames Valley Park and Microsoft’s Thames Valley Park campus keeps Tuesday and Wednesday nights 20-30% above weekend rates the rest of the year.
The Reading Festival trap and other things worth knowing
The single thing catching visitors out is the Reading Festival’s footprint. Richfield Avenue is a 15-minute walk from the town centre, which means every hotel from RG1 to RG4 — including Caversham and Emmer Green — treats the late-August bank holiday as peak. If you are visiting for anything else that weekend, either book six months out or pick Wokingham, Bracknell or Newbury and take the train in.
The other trap is assuming Reading is a commuter dormitory not worth staying in. Caversham has genuine Thames-side pubs (the Baron Cadogan, the Griffin), Reading Abbey Ruins reopened in 2018 after a long restoration and now has the free Abbey Quarter walking trail, and the Blade building’s rooftop bar gives you the Chilterns on a clear day. Skip Whitley and Southcote as bases unless price is the only factor — the connections into town from Caversham or Earley are better for the same money.
