Review: the Hilton London Heathrow Airport hotel at Terminal 4

This is our review of the Hilton London Heathrow Airport hotel at Heathrow Terminal 4.

I had to be at Heathrow at 5am recently to catch the first flight to Helsinki on my recent Finnair press trip. With the Hilton T4 having undergone a refurbishment since our last review in 2015 I figured it was a good opportunity to stay and take a look.

Hilton kindly provided our room for review purposes.

The hotel website is here.

You can read our full series of London airport hotel reviews here.

Getting to the Hilton Heathrow Terminal 4 hotel

Heathrow Terminal 4 has four hotels within easy walk of the terminal building thanks to a long covered walkway that connects a Premier Inn, Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn Express:

The Hilton is at the very end of the walkway – probably about five minutes walk – but it is better than trying to navigate the spaghetti of Heathrow access roads out in the open. You eventually pop out just to the side of the front entrance:

Built in 1991, the building reminds me of the Norman Foster-designed Sainsbury’s Centre at my old university, UEA. With the vast central atrium and glass panelling it is almost identical, albeit some 15 years younger. Here is a better photo from the hotel website:

Inside the Hilton at Heathrow Terminal 4

The refurbishment during covid was mostly to the vast atrium which is home to the cafe, restaurant and other hotel facilities. This is what it looks like when you step in:

Check-in was very quiet when I arrived around 2pm, although the cafe and lounge were busier and there was a conference going on in the conference centre. I was seen straight away and promptly checked in.

You can get a better view of the atrium from the bridge that connects you to the rooms:

As you can see it is vast and bright. The OXBO cafe is in front with the OXBO restaurant is behind. Both overlook an artificial lake/pond.

Rooms in the Hilton T4 at Heathrow

I was given a room on the fifth floor, which is as far as it goes. The corridor to the room was much darker, with funky airport-inspired dot-matrix displays displaying the room numbers:

Unlike the public areas, I don’t think the rooms have been refurbished since at least 2015, although they are still in surprisingly good nick. The only giveaway is the style of the decor, which isn’t quite a la mode, and the chunky flat screen TVs!

To my surprise, I had been upgraded to one of the suites:

The design of the building means that half the rooms overlook the atrium whilst the other half have external views. I was in one of the former, which meant the room was fairly dark. There is virtually no natural light, in part because the windows are also tinted for additional privacy. If I were here for more than a quick pre-flight night I would have preferred some natural light, but as it was I wasn’t too bothered.

To the right was the bathroom, with a shower setup:

Toiletries were the standard Crabtree & Evelyn Hilton set, with a whole range of amenities available:

You then had the living area, with a sofa, coffee table and very large desk:

The addition of a mirror next to the desk would’ve made this a decent dressing table for anyone inclined. There was a large wardrobe in the living space.

A small free-standing mini bar was also available, with a Nespresso coffee machine:

To the left was the bedroom, with a king size bed:

and

Although not recently refurbished, I was pleased to see that there was a mains and USB plug socket on both sides of the bed!

Opposite the bed was another wall-mounted TV.

I was perfectly happy with the room. The bed was comfortable and the air conditioning worked just fine, and I got a good amount of sleep until I was awoken at 4:30am by my screaming alarm.

If you want to see a shot of a standard bedroom, here is one sent in by a reader from a recent stay:

Executive lounge and dinner at Hilton Heathrow T4

I had an Executive room which gave me access to the Executive lounge. This would also be a benefit for any Diamond members of Hilton Honors, irrespective of room booked. The lounge is just by reception, on the ground floor to the side of the atrium:

and

All day refreshments are available from 6:30am until 10pm and incude tea, coffee, soft drinks and light snacks such as fruit and my favourite Penn State Sour Cream & Chive Pretzels:

Breakfast is from 6:30am until 10:30am (11am at weekends) whilst happy hour is 6pm until 8pm.

The lounge itself is not huge and sadly doesn’t have any views – it would have been nicer in the main atrium or overlooking the lake – but it was a nicer spot to work than in my room.

During happy hour, a range of canapes were provided as well as house wines, beers and spirirts. The hot options were KFC-style chicken and some deep fried jalapenos (delicious).

Dinner at OXBO

I didn’t have too much in the Executive lounge because I was planning to have dinner at the OXBO restaurant. I am not sure who owns the OXBO name but I’ve previously eaten at the OXBO inside the Hilton Bankside (review here).

OXBO serves mainly British food – think burgers, pie, fish and chips, chicken curry etc. I opted for the smoked salmon starter, which it turns out is absolutely massive, practically an entire fish, more than enough for two to share! It’s bigger than it looks here:

I then had the ribeye steak and the staff kindly swapped out the chips for the tenderstem brocolli side which I was pleased with:

To be perfectly honest, I didn’t have massively high expectations – airport hotels rarely serve great food – but was pleasantly surprised. The staff were friendly and the food was actually very good – better than the lunch meeting I had round the corner from our City office last week.

If dinner is anything to go by then breakfast should be pretty good as well, although I was up too early to try.

Conclusion

The Hilton London Heathrow T4 is clearly very convenient if you’re travelling on Qatar Airways, Etihad or any of the other T4 airlines. The recent refurbishment has turned the atrium into a genuinely nice place to be, as shown by the hotel guests enjoying the cafe throughout the afternoon.

The rooms remain unchanged but are still comfortable and in good shape, although it is a shame that half the rooms only have windows overlooking the atrium.

The service and food in the restaurant is genuinely good and I wouldn’t hesitate to eat here again before a flight. You may even want to pop down here for a meal if you are staying at the nearby Premier Inn.

Rooms are available from £130 per night, rising to around £230 for suites. Redemptions are from 36,000 Hilton Honors points per night.

You can find out more, and book, on the hotel website here.

PS. The hotel used to have a pool, but it has now gone. I don’t know if it has been physically demolished or simply closed due to the cost of heating or refurbishing it.

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How to earn Hilton Honors points and status from UK credit cards (January 2024)

There are various ways of earning Hilton Honors points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

Do you know that holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE Hilton Honors Gold status for as long as they hold the card?  It also comes with Marriott Bonvoy Gold, Radisson Rewards Premium and MeliaRewards Gold status.  We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

Did you know that the Virgin Atlantic credit cards are a great way of earning Hilton Honors points? Two Virgin Points can be converted into three Hilton Honors points. The Virgin Atlantic cards are the only Visa or Mastercard products in the UK which can indirectly earn Hilton Honors points. You can apply here.

You can also earn Hilton Honors points indirectly with:

• American Express Gold (20,000 bonus Amex points)
• American Express Rewards Credit Card (10,000 bonus Amex points)

and for small business owners:

• American Express Business Gold (20,000 bonus Amex points)
• American Express Business Platinum (40,000 bonus Amex points)

The conversion rate from American Express to Hilton points is 1:2.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Hilton Honors points. 

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)