Reading · Hotel shortlist
The best hotels near Festival
Mei-Lin Zhou Japan
These are my five favourites in Reading, out of the 17 that qualified. I read what other travellers scored them before I picked, so the order follows the guests, 4.8 down to 4.6.
All five are inside 1.0 km of Festival, so you can walk it.
Highest rated of the five
The Merchant
★★★★★4.8 from 428 reviews
The Merchant comes out on top of this list, and not narrowly: 4.8 from 428 guest reviews is a score that holds up at that volume, which is the whole test here. A perfect ten from nine people does not beat it.
It is a 5 star property and found under poi.
17 hotels in Reading qualified for this list and five made it. The Salem Inn is the one I would book if the first is full.
All five, ranked
-
The Merchant
★★★★★4.8 from 428 reviews
under 200 m from Festival, about a 1 minute walk
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The Salem Inn
★★★★★4.7 from 1,362 reviews
200 m from Festival, about a 2 minute walk
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Morning Glory Bed & Breakfast
★★★★★5 from 140 reviews
1.0 km from Festival, about a 12 minute walk
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The Stepping Stone Inn
★★★★★4.8 from 101 reviews
500 m from Festival, about a 6 minute walk
- Parking
- Pet friendly
- Air conditioning
- Accessible
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Northey Street House Bed and Breakfast
★★★★★4.6 from 138 reviews
800 m from Festival, about a 10 minute walk
- Parking
- Kid friendly
- Air conditioning
How this list was put together
17 Reading hotels qualify for this list. We ranked them on guest rating first and on how close they are to Festival second, then took the top five.
Two things decide these lists. The first is my own time in the city: every hotel on this page is one I have stayed in, walked into and looked at, or gone back to check. That is where the shortlist starts, and it is why some well reviewed places are not on it.
The second is the numbers, and those are what set the order. The rating and review count come from the big travel sites, pooled through Google, so a score here reflects Expedia, Booking, Hotels.com and the rest together rather than any one of them. I also read the review breakdown by topic, which is where the figures on service, breakfast and location come from. Hotels with fewer than forty reviews are left out altogether, because a rating that thin is not a rating. No more than two come from one neighbourhood.
What I do not do is move anyone up the order. The ranking is the guest score, highest first, and nobody pays to be on the list.
Distances are straight lines from published coordinates, so the real walk is a little longer. Amenities are as recorded by Google Hotels and can change without notice. Rates are an indicative nightly figure for a midweek autumn stay, not a quote. Check the booking page before you commit.
Mei-Lin Zhou Japan
Works agency hours in Vancouver and spends all 18 vacation days abroad. One new country and one repeat visit per year. Five trips to Japan and a running list of ramen shops.
Trip Grapevine earns a commission on bookings made through the links on this page. It costs you nothing, and it does not change the order of the list, which is set by the measurements above.




