Best with parking
Innkeeper's Collection Birmingham (NEC), Meriden
Meriden, Warwickshire
11.1 miles from the city centre
Best for: a room above a pub rather than a hotel and arriving by car
Not on BookingPrice not listed
Stay type
Hostels and budget stays in Birmingham
Birmingham hostels and budget accommodation compared by what you actually get: a bed in a dorm, a capsule, a private budget room or a guest house.
Cheap covers four different kinds of stay in Birmingham and they are not interchangeable. A dorm bed, a capsule, a private room in a budget hotel and a room in a guest house all appear at similar prices, and the difference between them is the whole experience.
This page separates them, because a listing that shows a low headline price tells you nothing about whether you will be sharing a bathroom with eleven people.
The four products
- A dorm bed. The cheapest option. Shared room, shared bathroom, lockers. Sociable, and a poor idea before an early start.
- A capsule. Your own enclosed bed with a curtain or panel, in a shared room. Considerably more private than a dorm bunk and usually only slightly more expensive.
- A private budget hotel room. Small, functional, private bathroom, no frills and rarely any breakfast. The most common answer at the lower end of the market.
- A guest house room. Similar price, more character, often with breakfast and parking included, but with shorter reception hours.
Where the cheap rooms are
Birmingham's budget stock splits between the city centre, where you pay for position and get a very small room, and the outer ring and Hagley Road corridor, where the same money buys more space and usually free parking.
Which is better depends entirely on whether you have a car. Without one, two return journeys a day will erase the saving from staying out. With one, an outer hotel with free parking frequently beats a central room outright.
Editorial picks
Which one to choose
Each pick names the situation it suits. A hotel that is right for one trip is usually wrong for another.
Best value here
Birmingham Central Backpackers
Birmingham city centre
around 15 minutes on foot to New Street
Best for: the lowest nightly cost and a 15 minute walk into the centre
8.3/103,437 reviewsBudget
Best for rail arrivals
easyHotel Birmingham City Centre
Birmingham city centre
around 3 minutes on foot to New Street
Best for: rail arrivals (3 min from New Street) and a tight budget
8.1/105,404 reviewsBudget
Compare
Hostels and budget stays in Birmingham in our selection
Scroll the table sideways on a small screen. Tap a column heading to sort.
| Hotel | Where it is | Walk to New StreetStraight-line distance between coordinates, converted to an indicative walking time with an allowance for street routing. It is for comparing these hotels against each other, not a measured route. | Price bandThe band this property normally sits in according to listing data. Not a live rate and not a quote for your dates. | Review scoreReview score with the number of reviews it is based on, because a high score from a handful of reviews is a weaker signal. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 easyHotel Birmingham City Centre | Birmingham city centre | 3 min walk0.13 miles | Budget | |
 The Duke of Wellington Hotel & Bar | Birmingham city centre | 10 min walk0.40 miles | Budget | |
| The Black Horse (JD Wetherspoon)Northfield | Northfield | 5.5 milestoo far to walk | Mid-range | No Booking review score |
 ibis budget Birmingham Centre | Edgbaston and Hagley Road | 10 min walk0.44 miles | Budget | |
 Birmingham Central Backpackers | Birmingham city centre | 15 min walk0.55 miles | Budget | |
 The Fountain Inn Digbeth | Digbeth | 20 min walk0.73 miles | Lower mid-range | |
| Innkeeper's Collection Birmingham (NEC), MeridenMeriden, Warwickshire | Meriden, Warwickshire | 11.1 milestoo far to walk | No price band listed | No Booking review score |
Distances are straight-line, calculated from each property's own coordinates. Walking times are derived from those distances with an allowance for street routing, so treat them as indicative for comparing hotels against each other rather than as measured route times.
Thumbnails show the nearest landmark or the area each property sits in, never the property itself. We hold no licensed photograph of these hotels and we do not generate one.
A dash means we could not establish that detail, not that the answer is no. We leave it open rather than guess.
Practical details checked: September 2026
Common questions
Are there hostels in Birmingham city centre?
Yes, though not many. Our selection includes central hostel accommodation with capsule-style beds, which is a meaningful step up in privacy from a standard dorm bunk.
What is the cheapest way to stay in Birmingham?
A dorm bed, followed by a capsule, followed by a private budget room. Whether the cheapest is the best value depends on how you travel and how early you need to be up.
Is a budget hotel outside the centre better value?
With a car, usually yes, because free parking is common on the outer ring and non-existent in the middle. Without a car, the transport cost normally cancels the saving.
Do budget hotels in Birmingham include breakfast?
Generally not. It is usually a paid extra, and at the very bottom of the market it may not be offered at all. Guest houses at similar prices more often include it.
Are pubs with rooms a good budget option?
They can be. You get a private room, usually food downstairs, and often a more welcoming attitude to dogs than a city hotel. The trade is that the bar below you is open in the evening.
