There are some odd gaps in the HfP review coverage, which we blame on familiarity breeding contempt. We’ve not reviewed The Concorde Room in Terminal 5 since 2014, unbelievably, and we’ve never done proper reviews of some of the BA lounges in Terminal 5A (5B has better coverage, because it is always a novelty to go there – if you call 2017 ‘better’, that is).

This is a roundabout way of explaining why we’ve never covered the Sofitel Heathrow hotel at Terminal 5, despite it being directly attached to the British Airways terminal. We’ve covered MANY other Heathrow hotels – all of our London airport hotel reviews are here – but never this one.

The nearest we got was in 2016 when, for a short period, the club lounge was opened up to Priority Pass cardholders!

I had some Accor Suite Night Upgrade vouchers expiring, however, and a double points offer. I thought this made it worth the splurge before a flight last week.

We paid cash for our stay. The hotel didn’t know we were coming and we did not get a formal tour. What I found is probably what you will find.

In summary, it is a surprisingly accomplished hotel and in many ways justifies its five star luxury positioning. The biggest issue is that the rooms are looking dated, although they are still in good condition.

The hotel website is here.

Getting to Sofitel London Heathrow

If you have ever been dropped off at Terminal 5 by car you will have passed the Sofitel as you head up the ramp to the terminal doors. If you are taken to the hotel by car you can be dropped directly outside the entrance, but most people will arrive by public transport or from an arriving flight.

Once landside in Terminal 5, you need to head to one of the many lift banks into the short stay car park.

Handy tip – using the lifts opposite Marks & Spencer will save you a chilly walk through the car park.

The M&S lift bank brings you out facing this sign and a doorway:

You may think you’ve arrived. You’re wrong. You head down this corridor:

…. then this corridor:

…. then over a bridge:

…. then through the upper level of the hotel to the escalators you can just about see:

This drops you onto the ground floor of the hotel. You’ve made it.

Check-in at Sofitel London Heathrow

I had done online check-in the night before. If you are used to online check-in from chains that invest in IT, like Hilton or Marriott, you’re going to be disappointed here:

• you can’t select a room online, or even see your room number

• there is no ‘mobile key’ facility

The ONLY thing that happens with online check-in is that a pre-authorisation is taken from your credit card for the stay. This allows your key to be made up and left in an envelope at the front desk.

Here’s the problem.

I arrived at the desk, was asked if I had done online check-in, and said yes. A box was opened and an envelope pulled out with my name on. That was it.

The clerk had no idea I was in a top suite and no idea I had lounge access, so no additional help or advice was provided. I was given the envelope and pointed towards the lifts. End of discussion.

What was inside the envelope? Just my key. No welcome letter, nothing explaining where the lounge was or what time it opened, no information on the bars and restaurants …. nothing.

I’d say it was the sort of welcome you’d expect at a Holiday Inn Express, except that even there I’d expect a bit more communication. So, basically, a bad start.

The hotel has 605 rooms spread across six wings with a central spine, in a HHH formation. Despite the hotel being literally a few metres from the bottom of the runway, only a handful of room at the front of the first wings (rooms starting with a 6) would get any aircraft views. Aircraft views from the first few wings (1, 2, 3 and possibly 4, 5) are presumably obscured by the terminal.

If you want to look at aircraft from your room, stay at a hotel on Bath Road – you’ll pay at least 50% less too.

My suite at Sofitel London Heathrow

I’d used a Suite Night Upgrade certificate to guarantee a Premium Suite. You receive two of these when you earn Platinum status in Accor Live Limitless, with additional vouchers issued based on how much you spend throughout the year.

Whilst I had a suite, it was basically two rooms merged together. The bedroom area of the suite is virtually identical to a standard bedroom, judging from rooms I peaked into which were being cleaned. The only thing you won’t get is the sitting area.

Bedroom

Let’s start with the bedroom:

As you can see, the rooms are a good size with a very large, but slightly slopey, bed. Note that the bed has a throw on it, a feature which the Crowne Plaza at Terminal 4 (which has the same owners, Arora) has abandoned.

There is a lot of wood used which dates the room. The wood continues with the desk and unit:

The hotel opened in 2008 and has not been refurbished since, I believe. In truth, the style was probably out of date in 2008, and I can imagine that the design was signed off a long time before when work on the terminal began.

The biggest issue is that there are no sockets, of any kind, by the beds. This is shocking in 2023. No USB, no 3-pin plugs, nothing. If you want to charge your phone overnight you’ll be doing it at the desk.

Everything else was perfectly acceptable and in decent condition given 15 years of wear. Soundproofing is perfect – my room overlooked the approach road into Terminal 5 and I couldn’t hear a thing.

Bathroom

The bathroom is nothing to get excited about but, at the same time, delivered. There was a separate tub and shower – albeit not a huge shower.

A double sink would have been better, but this was offset by the best selection of freebies that I’ve seen in a hotel bathroom for a while.

Many of the controls in the bathroom were exceptionally stiff. I was struggling to turn on the hot tap on the sink and move the temperature control in the shower, which is ludicrous.

Living room

The suite came with a good sized living room. It was, as you can see, very brown:

The 2nd desk was useful, and would allow a couple to work and sleep without disturbing each other. There was a coffee machine (a bit light on capsules for my liking) as well as a kettle. The mini-bar was free and contained beer and spirit miniatures as well as soft drinks – I’m not sure if this also applies to standard rooms.

In Part 2 of this review – click here – I will take a look at the club lounge and run through the various restaurants and bars.

If you are reading this via email you were not sent Part 2. Please click here to read it on the HfP website.

The Sofitel London Heathrow website is here.

Accor Live Limitless update – January 2024:

Earn bonus Accor points: Accor is not currently running a global promotion

New to Accor Live Limitless?  Read our review of Accor Live Limitless here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our analysis of what Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

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

Yesterday I reviewed the Crowne Plaza London Heathrow Terminal 4 hotel (click here). As part of our project to re-review all of the Terminal 4 hotels, I also spent a night recently at the Holiday Inn Express.  Both hotels share the same building and, interestingly, share many of the same facilities.

This poses an interesting question for potential guests.  The Holiday Inn Express is around £30-£40 per night cheaper than the Crowne Plaza.  Whilst the Express rooms are smaller, they are not so much smaller. 

More importantly:

• both hotels share the same main bar (there is also a separate bar / casual dining restaurant on the Holiday Inn Express side)

• guests at both hotels can eat at the Urban restaurant, even though it is nominally on the Crowne Plaza side

• guests at both hotels can use the Crowne Plaza lobby level cafe

• whilst the hotels have separate reception areas, they use the same bank of lifts and the hotels are not separated by floor.  Each floor contains both Holiday Inn Express and Crowne Plaza rooms.

• Holiday Inn Express guests get free breakfast in the Holiday Inn Express restaurant, whilst breakfast in the Crowne Plaza restaurant for their guests is £17.95 (traditional English) / £14.95 (continental) for adults

The only area that is strictly out of bounds to Holiday Inn Express guests is the gym, which is only for Crowne Plaza residents.

Even if you are looking for a ‘classy’ experience, I wouldn’t blame you if you decided to save £35 plus the cost of breakfast by staying in a Holiday Inn Express room.  You can use the saving to have a few drinks in the smart shared bar or to put towards a meal in the Urban restaurant.  You can read more about the bar and restaurant in my Crowne Plaza Heathrow Terminal 4 review here.

Back to the Holiday Inn Express Heathrow T4 …..

Access to the hotel is via the gangway from the Departures level of Terminal 4.  The same gangway also leads to the Hilton Terminal 4 (reviewed here) and the Premier Inn (review) but the Holiday Inn Express is the nearest.

I’m not going to repeat what I wrote yesterday about the shared bar and restaurant. This review just focuses on the differences between the two hotels.

This was my room:

It is smaller than the Crowne Plaza room although the circulation space is the same. The extra space at the Crowne Plaza is taken up with the desk and, in the bathroom, the separate bath – the Express is ‘shower only’.

Ignore the fact that I had a view over the atrium whilst my Crowne Plaza room had an external view. This is purely the luck of the draw – both hotels have a mix of interior and exterior facing rooms. You can debate whether, as a Diamond Elite member of IHG One Rewards, I should have been given an external view.

As you can see, there is nothing to complain about.  Everything still looks new, the bed is a decent size and there are plenty of sockets including a USB B. 

The throw on the bed and a decorative red pillow, both present when I toured the hotel in 2018, were gone, as also happened at the Crowne Plaza. The images on the hotel website still show these items.

There is also a chair and a small work table, with an adjacent plug:

The only major difference to the Crowne Plaza rooms is the lack of a formal desk.  You get a kettle with tea and coffee, as you do in the entry-level Crowne Plaza rooms. Unless things have changed since 2018, you only get a Nespresso machine in a Club room at the Crowne Plaza.

Heading into the bathroom, everything is almost spick and span.  There is less room around the edges of the sink than in the Crowne Plaza but that isn’t a major niggle.  Toiletries are from dispensers, branded ‘Soak’, but this is also the case in the Crowne Plaza.

The shower is also perfectly acceptable – it is a sign of how good ‘budget’ hotels are these days that the facilities are better than many of us have in our own homes. There is only one shower head – you need to head to a Crowne Plaza room if you want the option of a rainfall shower.

You don’t get a bath at the Holiday Inn Express. You need to be in a Crowne Plaza room for that.

My one niggle was that the base of the tap was noticeably grimy:

This ‘hidden’ iron and ironing board is a useful touch – the mirror is on the other side.

Food and drink at Holiday Inn Express Heathrow Terminal 4

Guests are welcome to use the smart ‘Destination’ bar, shared with the Crowne Plaza, and use the ‘Urban’ restaurant on the Crowne Plaza side.

The image below is the ‘Holiday Inn Express side’ of the lobby, although guests at either hotel can wander around all of the facilities. The HIX also has its own dedicated bar which is more casual and perhaps better suited to families with small children.

I can imagine that some Crowne Plaza guests looking for a less formal or cheaper meal than offered at Urban end up on the Holiday Inn Express side.

I had fish and chips here, which came in at £14. It arrived in exactly five minutes (I checked the time on the receipt) which was a bit suspicious, but it did the job.

Here’s the thing. A few feet away, in Urban on the Crowne Plaza side, fish and chips costs £20, not £14. The description is identical – cod, peas, tartare sauce, chips. It’s all very odd.

In general, main courses are cheaper on this side of the hotel at around £14.

Breakfast

Breakfast is your typical Holiday Inn Express buffet. Whilst the seating area is spacious, the buffet area itself is very tight and it wasn’t always easy to move around.

Interestingly, the hot items (sausage, egg, beans) are identical to those served for £18 at the Crowne Plaza restaurant next door. You can tell because both hotels serve a specific sort of Cumberland sausage which is shorter and wider than usual!

There is a little more choice over at the Crowne Plaza but fundamentally there isn’t a lot of difference between the two breakfasts – apart from having your coffee waiter-served instead of self-serve, and of course the £18 per person price difference.

Conclusion

I was very impressed by the Holiday Inn Express London Heathrow Terminal 4, as indeed I am in general by modern Holiday Inn Express – and Hilton’s equivalent Hampton – hotels. They offer a quality of budget accommodation which would have been unthinkable a generation ago.

The co-location with the Crowne Plaza offers the best of both worlds. You have high quality but low(er) cost rooms and the ability to use the more upmarket Crowne Plaza bar, restaurant and lobby cafe if you want to eat or drink in a smarter environment – although you will pay a premium for the privilege.

For cash, rooms are typically £100 midweek (free breakfast included) at the moment, compared to £140 (room only) at the Crowne Plaza. I have seen the gap as low as £17 (£83 vs £100). Whether you intend to stay for breakfast – and, if you do, whether you’d get it free at the Crowne Plaza as a Diamond Elite member of IHG One Rewards – is likely to sway your decision.

Redemptions on a typical night were 16,000 IHG One Rewards points vs £83 per cash, so 0.5p per point. A night at £106 was 17,000 points so the ‘price to points’ correlation is not straight line.

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

The Holiday Inn Express Heathrow Terminal 4 website is here if you want to find out more or to book.  The Crowne Plaza website is here for comparison and here is our Crowne Plaza Heathrow Terminal 4 review.

IHG One Rewards update – January 2024:

Get bonus points: Our article on IHG’s January 2024 bonus promotion is here. You will receive double base points on every cash stay between 1st January and 31st January 2024. Click here to register.

New to IHG One Rewards?  Read our overview of IHG One Rewards here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on ‘What are IHG One Rewards points worth?’ is here.

Buy points: If you need additional IHG One Rewards points, you can buy them here.

You get a 100% bonus when you buy IHG One Rewards points by 2nd February 2024. Click here.

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

The Crowne Plaza London Heathrow Terminal 4 opened in 2018.  It shares a building with the Holiday Inn Express London Heathrow Terminal 4 and the two hotels have 700 rooms combined. It represented a chunky £80m investment by Arora Group, which also own the Sofitel Heathrow Terminal 5 amongst other properties.

I first stayed here just after opening in 2018. In recent weeks I stayed in both hotels – it was my first time in the Holiday Inn Express side – and got to see what, if anything has changed. We’re running the reviews back to back this weekend because so many facilities are shared. I paid cash for both nights.

We also recently re-reviewed the Hilton London Heathrow Airport Terminal 4 hotel – see here.

‘Two in one’ hotels are becoming more common

‘Two in one’ hotels, where one building contains two properties owned by the same group, are becoming more prevalent.  IHG has a joint Staybridge Suites and Holiday Inn on Bath Road which is also relatively new.  There is logic to it – you can justify a bigger building on scarce airport land, and there are cost savings to be had behind the scenes.

‘Two in one’ hotels vary in terms of how many, if any, facilities are shared. This Terminal 4 development is the most integrated I have ever seen – only time will tell if the Crowne Plaza suffers because of this, because you can pay less for a Holiday Inn Express bed and still use the same restaurant and bar, plus get free breakfast.  I’m getting ahead of myself though ….

Getting to the Crowne Plaza Heathrow Terminal 4

You access the hotel via the Departures level at Heathrow Terminal 4.  (Don’t go to Arrivals if arriving by tube or train, despite some signage encouraging it.)

If you have ever stayed at the Hilton Terminal 4 (review) or Premier Inn Terminal 4 (review) you will know the gangway that leads from the terminal to the hotels:

If you taking the tube or Elizabeth line from Central London, make sure you get a Terminal 4 train – not all stop there.  If you take the Heathrow Express, you need to change at Terminal 2/3 for an Elizabeth line train to Terminal 4.

Getting to Terminal 5 from these hotels is a bit messy, unfortunately – it is also a quite a distance if you look at a map.  You need to take the train or tube via Terminals 2/3.  Other options are the Hotel Hoppa bus or one of the local buses that stop nearby.  The hotel can also order you a taxi.

The Crowne Plaza Terminal 4 is the first hotel on the gangway.  You save a couple of minutes compared to walking to the Hilton or Premier Inn.

My room

One benefit of having a Holiday Inn Express in the same building is that the Crowne Plaza has had to invest in good quality rooms to stop guests trading down.  As you can see, they are classy:

There are not huge, however, and there isn’t a lot of difference in terms of space between the two hotels.  The two key things you get in the Crowne Plaza and don’t get in the Holiday Inn Express are a bath tub and a full size desk.

The little things are all there – individual reading lights, USB sockets by the bed, a variety of pillow types, a coffee machine, a robe in the wardrobe etc.

What you don’t get is anything with a big ‘wow’ factor. Whilst the room delivered everything I would expect from a Crowne Plaza, it doesn’t go above and beyond. I would have liked something – anything – special to make me feel that the premium over the Holiday Inn Express was worth it. Even the throw on the bed had disappeared since my last visit.

The standard rooms only sleep two people.  For a family, I would recommend a suite which is about 75% more expensive than a room but has a capacity of four people, as long as two are children under 12.

The fruit bowl and box of chocolates I received when I stayed here back in 2018 were absent. Whether this is covid or costcutting is not clear but it removed another reason to stay here vs the Holiday Inn Express side.

I did have a coffee machine in my room. Last time I stayed here these were not in the standard rooms (I had a Club room here) so you may not get one. All rooms have a kettle, two packets of biscuits (including Biscoff!), tea, coffee and two free bottles of water.

There is a fridge in the room, but it is empty – no mini-bar here.

If you need to work, this is where the Crowne Plaza scores over the Holiday Inn Express with a good sized desk complete with power sockets and a decent light.  Wi-fi was free and of excellent quality, although I struggled to get a good Vodafone calling signal on my phone.

Bathrooms at Crowne Plaza Heathrow Terminal 4

The bathroom had some snazzy silver tiling.  There was only one sink.

Toiletries were the standard Crowne Plaza ‘Antipodes’ brand in refillable bottles. I felt that the security put in place to stop these bottles being stolen (they are basically bolted down so you can’t pick the bottles up) was a bit pathetic in what is meant to be a premium hotel.

You get a big shower with a choice of rainfall or traditional water jets. You also get a totally separate bath. Full credit to the hotel here – it’s been a while since I stayed at a hotel with a bath and a standalone shower. There were also some additional toiletries beyond the usual, including lip balm and hand cream, plus a shower cap.

Views and noise

It goes without saying that soundproofing is EXCELLENT.  I did not hear any aircraft noise at all. 

In terms of views, some rooms directly face the Hilton Terminal 4 across the road which is quite an impressive bit of architecture by airport hotel standards. Others, including mine, look over the large model Qatar Airways aircraft on the approach road and the dull warehouses behind. Some rooms also face inwards over the atrium.

Let me show you how it looks inside.  The hotel is rhombus shaped.  Whilst both the Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn Express have their own check-in areas and receptions, they share the lift bank.  Not only that, but each floor has a mix of Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn Express rooms.  You walk out of the lifts and turn one way for the CP and the other way for the Holiday Inn Express.

This is a view from the 6th floor, where I was, looking down on the Crowne Plaza lobby cafe:

Food and drink

Talking of the cafe, here is a shot from the ground floor:

Below is the bar.  This is an interesting arrangement.  The Holiday Inn Express side of the ground floor – the areas are separated by the lift lobby – has its own bar / restaurant which serves drinks and a standard Cafe Rouge-style food menu.

There is also, behind the lifts, a stand-alone bar with two doors – one on each brands ‘side’ of the ground floor – which is pictured below.  Whilst decoratively it looks more like the Crowne Plaza, it is open to all guests.

Let’s talk about the club lounge

I had booked a club room so I could take a look at it, since IHG One Rewards status does not give you this automatically. You need to select an annual lounge pass as your milestone benefit after 40 nights. When I last stayed here, just after the hotel had opened, it wasn’t finished.

In truth, it was a waste of money.

Whilst open all day, the lounge only serves anything substantial between 6pm and 8pm. You can pick up ‘complimentary canapes and selected alcoholic beverages’ during this time. Unfortunately I wasn’t in the hotel then so I can’t tell you what it was, but judging by the size of the serving area it won’t have been much.

There is no breakfast served in the lounge. You are sent to the main restaurant. Since I would have got free breakfast in the restaurant anyway due to my IHG One Rewards Diamond status, paying for a Club room turned out to be a bit pointless.

Whilst the spread is always bigger in the restaurant, I prefer lounge breakfasts because they are easier. I don’t feel worried if I leave my belongings to head to the food, and I will often pop in and out within five minutes if I’m busy. You can’t easily do this in a big buffet.

During the day, the lounge has a coffee machine as well as a fridge of soft drinks plus some crisps and biscuits. As you have a coffee machine, water and biscuits in your room, only the free soft drinks add value.

Frankly, if you have free breakfast via status, there is little point in paying the £30-£40 premium for a club room unless you plan to hit the evening canapes and drinks hard.

However, as restaurant breakfast is £18 for a full breakfast and £15 for a continental, a couple without top-tier IHG status may find the Club premium worth paying. For the same price as you’d pay for two breakfasts you also get some evening canapes and drinks throw in, plus a coffee machine in your room.

Restaurant

The main restaurant is called Urban. Whilst on the Crowne Plaza side, it is usable by guests at either hotel. Last time I stayed here I said that it was the best meal that I had ever had in an airport hotel. Sadly my schedule didn’t allow me to eat here this time so I can’t say if that is still the case.

I did see a menu. To be honest, the food was a lot less ambitious than what I ate four years ago.

The mains are a mix of crowd pleasers (fish and chips, palak paneer, murgh makhani, gnocchi, nasi goreng, chicken biryani, sirloin, peri peri chicken, pork belly, seared salmon, beef burgers) at between £14 and £22.

Urban isn’t open for lunch. Breakfast is served 6-10 (11am at weekends) and in the evening from 5.30pm until 10pm. Given that this is an airport hotel with people coming and going at all hours and in various states of jet lag, I would have expected a little more flexibility.

It’s a smart albeit windowless space as you can see:

…. with a decent, although not life changing, buffet selection:

and

It was very quiet when I went down at 9.30am – the room photo above wasn’t taken out of hours, it was taken during the breakfast service.

Gym

There are a couple of other facilities worth mentioning.  There is a gym in the basement.  This is ONLY for Crowne Plaza guests so don’t book into the Holiday Inn Express side if you want to exercise.

There is a meeting room at the lobby level which can be booked even if you are not a guest.

Conclusion

The Crowne Plaza London Heathrow Terminal 4 hotel is an impressive property by airport hotel standards.

And yet ….

I can’t deny that it isn’t as good as it was when it opened. It is still in excellent decorative order. However, some elements are clearly worse (a less ambitious restaurant, no bed throw, no fruit or chocolate in the room, bolted down bathroom toiletries) and I couldn’t find any real improvements.

The Club lounge adds very little, given that it doesn’t serve breakfast and has little available apart from a two hour evening window of canapes. Giving Club room guests free restaurant breakfast probably seemed generous but, now that top tier IHG One Rewards members get free breakfast anyway, it simply devalues the lounge offering further.

You can’t knock the value on off-peak nights

That said, I can’t argue that the £30-£40 premium for the Club lounge is worth paying if there are two of you and you would pay for breakfast anyway.

Whilst I have been a little critical here, I should also say that pricing is currently very low. I paid £195 for a Club room, but there are standard rooms from around £100 on some days in December. This is actually cheaper than it was four years ago, despite rampant inflation since then.

A typical £135 standard room, which is about average at present, is 21,000 IHG One Rewards points. This is 0.64p per point which is decent value and well above our 0.4p target.

Throw in the free breakfast that an IHG One Rewards Diamond Elite member would get, and the Crowne Plaza Heathrow Terminal 4 begins to look very good value. In fact, with the Elizabeth line whisking you from Terminal 4 to the West End in 40 minutes, it is arguably worth considering even if you are not flying anywhere.

Tomorrow I will share a few thoughts from my night in the Holiday Inn Express which shares the building.

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

The hotel website is here if you want to find out more.  You can compare and contrast with the Holiday Inn Express Heathrow Terminal 4 website which is here.

Our recent review of the adjacent Hilton London Heathrow Airport at Terminal 4 is here.

IHG One Rewards update – January 2024:

Get bonus points: Our article on IHG’s January 2024 bonus promotion is here. You will receive double base points on every cash stay between 1st January and 31st January 2024. Click here to register.

New to IHG One Rewards?  Read our overview of IHG One Rewards here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on ‘What are IHG One Rewards points worth?’ is here.

Buy points: If you need additional IHG One Rewards points, you can buy them here.

You get a 100% bonus when you buy IHG One Rewards points by 2nd February 2024. Click here.

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

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.

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.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

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.)

In general, I am a big fan of Hampton by Hilton.  I know it is cliched, but they do usually have all the things I want (modern design, a down to earth menu of comfort food, free breakfast, free wi-fi, desks in the rooms) and none of the things I rarely use (room service, laundry etc).

Given the choice of a pre-dawn taxi from West London to Stansted, or staying overnight here and taking the 90 second walk to the terminal at 6.30am, I chose the latter. I have stayed here before and find it perfectly acceptable.

The hotel website is here if you want to book or learn more.

Where is Hampton by Hilton Stansted Airport?

One of the key selling points of the Hampton is that, like the Radisson Blu on the other side of the terminal, it is directly at the airport.  You don’t need a shuttle bus.

This being Stansted, of course, nothing is quite as simple as it seems.  The good news is that it only took us five minutes from the doors of our Stansted Express train to the hotel reception.

The downside is that you are required to walk outside – partly uncovered – and take a lift back down so you are level with the railways tracks.  There is then a covered walkway, but one which is uncovered from the sides – it won’t protect you from rain if the wind is blowing sideways.  Don’t expect a simple, level, fully covered stroll from the terminal to reception.

When we were departing, torrential rain was pouring down and it was impossible to get back into the terminal building without getting wet.

You can get a feel for what I mean here, from a picture I took in 2020 – the hotel is on the far left of the picture and I am standing at the far left of the terminal:

The lobby area is very similar to other UK Hampton hotels, and in a good way.  There was this welcome sign:

…. which partners with this motif outside the lifts:

The ground area is neatly zoned.  This is the far corner by some meeting rooms, to your right as you enter the lobby, and is the best place to work quietly:

You then come to the bar area. Because it was very busy I have used two official hotel images here, but they are accurate:

and

…. with a restaurant at the back:

We ate in the bar, with a modest list of burgers (around £17), salads (around £13) and paninis and pizzas.  The bill came to £71 for three burgers, one curry and a large bottle of water, so not exactly a bargain.

There is also a fitness centre on the ground floor which is surprisingly large – this is only a fraction of it but there people using the weights area:

Rooms at Hampton by Hilton Stansted Airport

Let’s take a quick look at my room.  Despite having Diamond status with Hilton Honors, I booked via Hotels.com because of their ‘double reward stamps’ promotion which ran recently. I wasn’t going to get any sort of upgrade at a Hampton and breakfast is free anyway so I wasn’t concerned about my elite benefits being ignored.

The rooms are perfectly acceptable – a decent size and with a desk (and decent access to two plug sockets and two USB sockets) plus the usual tea and coffee tray (no coffee machine) etc.

What you can’t fully see is that there is very little window space.  The windows are basically slats and the bulk of the wall is just that – a wall. You see it better in the PR image at the start of this article. Whether this was done to improve soundproofing – which is perfectly fine – or not, I don’t know.

Here is the other angle:

The bathroom was spotlessly clean and exactly what you’d expect for this sort of hotel – no bathtub, a single sink, toiletries in large containers bolted to the wall.  It was perfectly fine.

How is breakfast?

Everyone gets free breakfast at Hampton hotels, which is a key benefit of staying here.

Breakfast is served from 4am to 10am, or 11am at weekends.  You can’t argue with that.  We went down around 6am and it wasn’t too busy.

It is done in the standard Hampton style.  There is a decent selection of hot dishes, pastries, fruit (not the best selection) etc.  Everything is self-service, including coffee.  You can either perch on a stool with your food or carry it over to the restaurant.

The hotel now has a waffle machine, which my son enjoyed trying out, although it is more complex, heavier and potentially more dangerous (given it is permanently heated) than necessary.

The only thing that I found a bit odd was that the buffet was set up in two identical u-shaped areas which are not connected, and which do not contain the same items. Guests often don’t realise that there is more food in a separate adjacent area.

Is the Hampton Stansted Airport worth a visit?

Whilst I’d stayed at Hampton Stansted Airport before, the rest of my family had not and I think they were all happy with their stay.

The public areas and rooms look good, albeit bigger windows would have been nice.  The free breakfast is better than you may expect.  The bar and restaurant are perfectly pleasant places to pass an hour. There were a lot of families with young children although I expect it is quieter now that the schools have gone back.

I paid £119, booked a week in advance, and given some of the crazy hotel rates we’ve seen over Summer 2022 I can’t complain at that. Standard redemption rooms via Hilton Honors are capped at 35,000 points, so you will usually get around our target valuation of 0.33p per Hilton point.

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

The Hampton by Hilton Stansted Airport hotel website is here if you want to book or find out more.

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.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

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.)

It is probably the last stop in our tour of Courtyard hotels at UK airports. We started this trip just before lockdown – I reviewed Courtyard Inverness Airport in March 2020 – and as the country opened up we’ve been to Courtyard Luton Airport (fairly new), Courtyard Glasgow Airport (old but refurbished), Courtyard London City Airport (brand new) and Courtyard London Heathrow Airport (brand new).

We haven’t made it to Courtyard Aberdeen Airport yet. There are six other Courtyard hotels in the UK which are not at airports, with Exeter Sandy Park opening in April 2022.

The Courtyard London Gatwick Airport website is here. HfP paid for its own stay.

The photo tells the story

One glance at the picture above tells you that this is not a brand new Courtyard hotel. It doesn’t even use the current Courtyard logo.

A plaque in reception says that it opened in 2009, but it feels older. I’m not sure if it was rebranded from something else at that point.

This means that, with the best will in the world, it is never going to match the standards of Courtyard Heathrow Airport, Courtyard London City Airport or Courtyard Inverness Airport. These are all brand new hotels with the latest interior design scheme and all impressed me.

To be honest, I’d say that Courtyard Gatwick Airport is the worst of the UK airport bunch. It’s certainly not a bad hotel, and I’d happily stay here again if the price was right, but it is utterly forgettable.

Getting to Courtyard London Gatwick Airport

Gatwick isn’t short of on-site hotels. Even if are flying from the South Terminal, the train makes the connection to the North Terminal very easy. I liked the modern Hampton by Hilton in the North Terminal when I stayed there (review here, but not from my stay) and there are other options too.

The easiest way to get to the Courtyard Gatwick is to walk. Take any lift in the South Terminal marked ‘buses’ or ‘car rental’ and you pop out at ground level. From the lifts it is a well signed:

….. and flat – but not sheltered, so be wary of rain – walk.

You will read various different estimates of how long it takes to walk. From the exit of the South Terminal lifts to walking into reception took me nine minutes with hand baggage. You can see green hulk of the hotel in the distance after three minutes.

If you don’t want to walk there is the NSL airport shuttle (route G2) which operates every 20 minutes from 04.03 to 23.43. It costs £3 per person with children under 16 being free.

Check in

…. started off slowly, with both desks empty and the back office, seen via an open door, also empty. It took 3-4 minutes for someone to appear, but as she appeared in the company of a small child I imagine there was a good reason for the absence.

I was checked in quickly and my Bonvoy status acknowledged.

I had used a Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Elite ‘Suite Night Award’ to upgrade in advance to a Junior Suite. This wasn’t a ‘waste’ of a suite upgrade because it was due to expire in June and my alternative uses for it were slim.

My room

The hotel is ‘P shaped’. My room was next to the lifts, on a corner where two corridors met, and I would occasionally get other guests chatting outside my door. Overall occupancy was low and I imagine it could be more annoying if the hotel was full.

It was a decent size, although of course it was a Junior Suite:

My iPhone makes the room look brighter than it was. The sole window was only about two feet wide, with a view over an empty two level car park.

From the other direction:

As you can see, you get the standard curved Courtyard desk plus, in total, two casual chairs, a desk chair and a two seat sofa.

Connectivity at the desk was decent with a USB, two UK plugs and one European socket. There were another four UK sockets and two USBs by the bed.

The bathroom certainly wasn’t suite-sized as you can see:

and

That said, as an older hotel it had a bath as well as a shower which may please some. Toiletries were the Nirvae brand which often crops up at a Courtyard.

My room contained a Nespresso machine, a bath robe and slippers, but these may have only been there because I had a suite. There was also the standard tea and coffee tray and two free bottles of water.

I spent around eight hours awake in the hotel, seven of which were in the room working, and it was perfectly acceptable.

Food and drink at the Courtyard Gatwick Airport hotel

Courtyard hotels are meant to have a mini market. These can be impressive, with a decent range of food and drink available. Not at Courtyard Gatwick. The ‘market’ is actually a couple of vending machines:

This is especially annoying as there is nothing else very close to the hotel. There is, apparently, a McDonald’s and a KFC if you continue walking but it seemed a trot and I’m never that desperate for a McChicken sandwich ….

The bar and restaurant occupies one long space to the front of the hotel. There is an equally large space to the other side of reception which appears to be used as a break-out space for various meeting rooms, and seems a bit wasted.

What you can’t see easily from the photograph is that this is also a very tall space, as well as a very long one, and it really struggles to get any atmosphere. On the positive side, unlike Courtyard London Heathrow, the owners haven’t stuck in huge TV screens showing the news on mute every 10 feet.

As a Titanium Elite member of Marriott Bonvoy I got a $10 food and beverage credit. Breakfast is not free at Courtyard hotels so if nothing else it would cover most – not all, I imagine – of a breakfast for one.

Courtyard Gatwick has decided to retain automated food and drink ordering. You scroll through food and drink options from a small tablet on your table, and your items are brought to you. When you’re done, you pay at the bar.

It was the standard Courtyard / Hampton / etc menu – pizza, burger, curry etc. I had a Thai green curry for £14, which was a far bigger portion size than the curry I had at Courtyard Heathrow for a similar price.

Having a very early flight to catch, I didn’t stay for breakfast and can’t give you any feedback – sorry.

Conclusion

The Courtyard London Gatwick hotel is a perfectly average hotel which does its job well. There is absolutely no special reason to stay here, but also no special reason to avoid it – apart from the faff of walking from the terminal or paying for the shuttle bus.

In my case, it worked out well given that I could:

• burn a Suite Night Award and
• get $10 of F&B credit via my elite status and, via the current Bonvoy promotion,
• earn two elite night credits for a one night stay and
• earn 1,000 bonus Bonvoy points

I paid £107 but this can move around considerably. What really matters is how it compares with the other hotels which are in, or walkable from, the airport.

You also take a look at Rhys’s 2018 review of the Hilton London Gatwick Airport in the South Terminal, Anika’s review of the windowless cabins of YOTEL Gatwick Airport, a reader review of the BLOC hotel inside the South Terminal and Anika’s 2016 review of the Hampton in the North Terminal, which I have also used and liked.

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

The Courtyard London Gatwick Airport hotel website is here.

How to earn Marriott Bonvoy points and status from UK credit cards (January 2024)

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

The official Marriott Bonvoy American Express card comes with 20,000 points for signing up, 2 points for every £1 you spend and 15 elite night credits per year.

You can apply here.

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

20,000 points sign-up bonus and 15 elite night credits each year Read our full review

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points by converting American Express Membership Rewards points at the rate of 2:3.

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

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points indirectly:

• 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 Marriott Bonvoy points is 2:3.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Marriott Bonvoy 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.)

After multiple covid-related delays, the new-build Courtyard hotel at Heathrow is finally open.  Regular readers will know Courtyard has been opening aggressively at UK airports over the last few years, and we are currently trying to catch up on our reviews.

We have recently covered the excellent new Courtyard London City Airport, reviewed here, the fairly new Courtyard Luton Airport, reviewed here, and Courtyard Inverness Airport, which I reviewed here. There is a review of Courtyard Gatwick coming up later this month which should get us up to date.

I decided to give the new Heathrow hotel a visit. HfP paid for its own stay.

The hotel website is here.

Getting to Courtyard London Heathrow Airport

If it helps you get your bearings, Courtyard London Heathrow is situated directly next to the Best Western Ariel hotel, formerly a Holiday Inn. The Ariel is easy to recognise because it is circular.

The Courtyard is a new build hotel which fills a spot between the Ariel and, oddly, a bowling alley.

To get there, the easiest option is a bus from the Central Bus Station at Heathrow Terminal 2/3. This bus map (PDF) doesn’t show the Courtyard but does show the Ariel. There is a stop literally outside the hotel and you want a 105 or 111 bus.

If you are coming by Piccadilly Line to Heathrow, it is quicker to jump off at Hounslow West station, cross the road and get any bus heading to the airport.

You can also, of course, pay £6 each way for the Hotel Hoppa bus service, but this is currently running just once per hour on most routes.

Inside Courtyard London Heathrow Airport

Courtyard hotels follow a very similar template, although I was surprised by the large amount of public space on the ground floor.

The Heathrow hotel feels a lot bigger than the one at City Airport. Oddly, this isn’t the case – there are only 30% more rooms (180 vs 240).

With occupancy exceptionally low on my visit, the hotel felt a bit cavernous. That said, when guest numbers start to pick up, I think the huge amount of space and seating will be appreciated. There is a particularly pleasant area opposite check-in which looks like an airport lounge:

This is just one of the areas where the hotel has spent money unnecessarily in order to create a pleasant environment. The other is the impressive top floor Sky Bar, which hadn’t opened when I stayed but should be open by now. Here is what I could see through the locked door:

The staff told me that there is an outdoor terrace as part of the Sky Bar.

Rooms at Courtyard London Heathrow Airport

Oddly, I want to start off by mentioning the view from the lift lobby. When you arrive in the hotel, you can’t see the airport because of the buildings on the other side of Bath Road. It is therefore a surprise to come out of the lift and be faced with a glass wall with this view:

My room was at the back of the hotel, overlooking fields:

I think I got this because my Bonvoy profile requests a quiet room. I don’t know how good the sound proofing is in the rooms overlooking the runways, but you could certainly hear the aircraft through the glass in the lift lobby.

My room looked familiar

Here was a surprise. My room was the same as the one I had at Courtyard London City.

When I say ‘the same’, I don’t mean ‘the same size’, ‘the same shape’, ‘the same colour’. I mean it was EXACTLY the same. Even the desk chair was identical.

The rooms were, clearly, prefabricated elsewhere and dropped onto the site fully furnished. It was a little weird although clearly you wouldn’t notice unless you had stayed in both hotels in a short period.

The positive news is that I liked my room at London City and I still liked it when I found it copied at Courtyard Heathrow:

and

and

The bathroom is a little small but looks good. Toiletries were branded ‘Geneva Guild’ which was a difference to London City.

You also get the usual tea and coffee tray, safe etc. There were no elite amenities in the room (I have Titanium status with Marriott Bonvoy) but I did get a voucher at check-in for a free drink.

Food and drink

There is no formal evening restaurant, at least at the moment. I presume the main breakfast room will open at some point in the evenings since the eating area in the attractive bar can’t handle 240 rooms-worth of guests – it couldn’t really handle more than 15:

The menu was very similar to the one I ate from at Courtyard City. There is a mix of sandwiches (£6.50), wraps (£9), salads (£10ish), burgers (£15ish), pizzas (£15ish) and other mains. Given the price of the rooms this is fairly toppy – a couple could easily spend more on a modest snack than the cost of their accommodation.

I took a curry and used my free drink voucher for a bottle of beer. It was good quality food although for £15 the portion size could arguably be larger.

If you want a quick snack in your room instead, there is the usual Courtyard shop by reception:

The Sky Bar is meant to serve Asian food once open.

Breakfast is served in a large area behind the bar. This photo only shows around half of the seating:

The buffet was difficult to photograph – it is exactly what you’d expect from a mid-range hotel like this (coffee, juice, hot English breakfast items, fruit, pastries etc):

Got Marriott Bonvoy Platinum or Titanium status? The food and beverage credit at Courtyard is technically $10 per night, and that’s what you get if you use it against a restaurant meal. I got my breakfast bill wiped entirely, however.

Conclusion

For reasons I can’t really put my finger on, I didn’t get the same vibe from Courtyard London Heathrow that I got from the City Airport hotel.

Perhaps it was because I was in an identical room so the novelty had gone. Perhaps it was because the hotel was bigger or the staff not quite as friendly. Perhaps it was because Heathrow hotels attract a different crowd to City Airport.

I don’t want to do it down though. It is a brand new hotel, with all of the benefits that brings, and the rooftop bar (assuming it is now open) should be a lovely spot to have a drink on a sunny Summer evening.

The pricing is lower than Bonvoy’s Marriott and Renaissance hotels a few minutes away and the Courtyard is almost certainly nicer than both. The meals I had were perfectly fine.

With no Bonvoy hotels located at any of the Heathrow terminals, Courtyard London Heathrow is your best value choice if you want Bonvoy points and elite night credit and don’t fancy the longer trip down to the Moxy. I would happily stay again.

Rooms are currently as low as £58 per night, and never get above £70 if you book a couple of weeks in advance. The further in advance you book, the more expensive it gets, although it seems to settle at around £74. You won’t pay more than £100 at the moment even if you book at the last minute.

For a redemption, you are looking at 20,000 to 30,000 points per night in Category 4. Based on our target value of 0.5p per Marriott Bonvoy point, a redemption is poor value and you should pay cash.

The Courtyard London Heathrow Airport hotel website is here if you want to learn more or book.

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

How to earn Marriott Bonvoy points and status from UK credit cards (January 2024)

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

The official Marriott Bonvoy American Express card comes with 20,000 points for signing up, 2 points for every £1 you spend and 15 elite night credits per year.

You can apply here.

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

20,000 points sign-up bonus and 15 elite night credits each year Read our full review

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points by converting American Express Membership Rewards points at the rate of 2:3.

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

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points indirectly:

• 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 Marriott Bonvoy points is 2:3.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Marriott Bonvoy 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.)

I have been impressed by what Marriott has done with Moxy. The prices are usually very reasonable. Despite playing down the size of the rooms, I find them good quality and filled with everything you need. The large public areas generally remind me of a WeWork office space, which I see as a good thing.

The Heathrow hotel opened in 2018, but stripping out covid it is only really two years old. We paid cash for our stay and the hotel did not know we were reviewing it.

The Moxy London Heathrow Airport website is here. You can read our full series of London airport hotel reviews here.

The photo above is a PR shot because it looks better than my grey February sky efforts. All other pictures are mine.

There are two things to say up front about Moxy London Heathrow Airport:

• it is huge, with over 400 rooms – it’s not like most other Moxy hotels you may have visited

• whilst it is technically on Bath Road, like most Heathrow hotels, it is so far down that it is actually in Cranford. This is not an isolated airport hotel – you are surrounded by restaurants, cafes and corners shops. There are literally 10 places to eat within a two minute walk, plus a Tesco Express next door. The downside is a slightly longer bus journey to and from the airport.

Getting to Moxy London Heathrow Airport

I took a bus from the Central Bus Station at Terminals 2/3. Bus 105 or Bus 111 will bring you here. It is a simple trip – the bus leaves Heathrow, goes immediately onto Bath Road and you just stay on until the right spot.

Once you pass the big KFC on your right, it’s time to ring the bell. You are on the opposite side of the busy road to the hotel, but there is a pedestrian crossing next to the stop. Returning to Heathrow, there is a bus stop literally outside the hotel. If you want to be sure of where to get off, pull up Google Maps on your phone and watch as you head towards the hotel.

The DoubleTree hotel is very close, just a few seconds further down the road on the other side.

If arriving by tube, you don’t need to go via the airport. You can get off at Hounslow West and take a direct bus up Bath Road from the other direction. You want to be on the opposite side of the road to the tube entrance.

Check-in

Check-in went well. As with all Moxy hotels, the check-in desk is one side of a four-sided bar and restaurant serving area. Only one of three positions was staffed but only one person was ahead of me.

My Titanium status was acknowledged and I was offered my choice of £7.50 food credit or 500 points as an elite benefit. Impressively, I was even offered a welcome drink – either iced tea, or iced tea with gin. I took the latter ….

When I arrived in my room, I was surprised to find the room next door occupied. With the hotel at 15% occupancy at best, this wasn’t necessary. The walls are weirdly thin for a new hotel and I could clearly hear their conversations. However, when I returned to my room in the evening they appeared to have either checked out or gone to bed very early.

Note that the hotel takes a £10 per night ‘security deposit’ on your credit card at check-in. This is NOT a ‘hold’, it is a physical charge. It is refunded as soon as you check out. To be honest, it seemed a bit odd to ask a Titanium Elite member of Bonvoy to pay this.

My room at Moxy London Heathrow Airport

My room was certainly not huge, but did more than you’d expect for the £57 I’d paid.

Not only did I get a big bag of popcorn, two bottles of water and a Kit-Kat (four fingers no less), there was even a hand written welcome note. I’m not sure it meant to say ‘Thank you for coming at Moxy Heathrow’ with a little smiley face added, but it was a nice thought.

Here’s the bed and a decent chair:

Looking the other way, you have a useless desk with a stool plus, to the left, what passes for a wardrobe – ie three coathangers hanging off the wall:

The bathroom is very tiny but has what you need. There is a shower out of shot, but no bath:

Here was my tray of welcome goodies. I don’t know if these were linked to my elite status or not:

The lobby

What Moxy hotels miss in terms of room space, they make up for in lobby space. This Moxy has a lobby which is particularly huge, although with the hotel virtually empty the cavernous area wasn’t exactly buzzing.

There is a lot of hot desk work space, with decent chairs and charging points. I spent a few hours here, with ‘greatest sing-along rock classics of the 1980s’ booming out on the speaker system and it was, frankly, great.

Coffee or stronger drinks are permanently available at reasonable prices. Having a Tesco Express next door clearly means they need to control their pricing.

The same goes for the food menu. There is no restaurant so you need to grab a spot in the lobby and order at the bar.

It’s the sort of pizza / burger / curry mix you’d expect, with one thing you wouldn’t expect – pretty much everything is around the £8 mark. You could probably save a couple of pounds by visiting one of the takeaways down the road, but the chicken burger I had was far more accomplished than anything you’d get in a cardboard box.

Oddly, there are two hotels at Heathrow which have a Mini in their lobby. Only the Moxy has a huge stuffed bear inside though:

Breakfast

My view about food and drink being good value disappeared at breakfast. Moxy was charging £12.50 for a totally adequate but ‘nothing special’ buffet – mainly cereals and pastries with a couple of hot items:

and

I popped next door to Tesco, spent under £2 on some freshly baked pastries and brought down a cup of coffee from my room. As there is no dedicated eating area in the hotel, you can eat your own food or Tesco food at the tables – the hotel doesn’t mind.

Other features

As usual, there is a rack of lockers for guest use. They are less useful at this Moxy because you are unlikely to check out early, leave your luggage and then return for it later. Most people who check out are heading straight to a flight.

There is a decent gym on the ground floor, with lots of natural light – you’re not working out in a dark basement in this hotel:

Conclusion

I was impressed by the Moxy London Heathrow Airport hotel.

I thought it offered excellent value for money for the £57 I paid. Remember that, with the current Marriott Bonvoy promotion, I picked up 1,000 bonus points (worth £5) plus my base points plus the £7.50 food credit due to my status plus double elite night credits.

Taking the bus from Heathrow is clearly a bit of a pain but once you’ve found one it is a direct run down Bath Road.

Whilst its a longer bus ride than most Heathrow hotels, the Cranford location makes sense for the Moxy target market. If you’re paying £57 for your room, you are more likely to be looking for a takeaway or meal from one of the local shops than a pricier hotel meal, although to be honest I think you’d be making a mistake if you did.

Moxy isn’t just for 20-somethings. The average guest on my stay was late 30’s and in reality – a bit like WeWork – it’s for people who think that youth is wasted on the young and want to get back to that vibe.

The Moxy London Heathrow Airport website is here.

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

How to earn Marriott Bonvoy points and status from UK credit cards (January 2024)

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

The official Marriott Bonvoy American Express card comes with 20,000 points for signing up, 2 points for every £1 you spend and 15 elite night credits per year.

You can apply here.

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

20,000 points sign-up bonus and 15 elite night credits each year Read our full review

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points by converting American Express Membership Rewards points at the rate of 2:3.

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

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points indirectly:

• 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 Marriott Bonvoy points is 2:3.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Marriott Bonvoy 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.)

After multiple covid-related delays, the new-build Courtyard hotel at London City Airport is finally open. The brand is pushing out across UK airports – there is also a brand new Courtyard at Heathrow which we haven’t visited yet and the fairly new Courtyard Luton Airport, reviewed here, and Courtyard Inverness Airport, which I reviewed here.

I decided to try it out. HfP paid for its own stay.

The hotel website is here.

A bit of background

Historically there was only one hotel at London City Airport – the Travelodge. A wave of hotels have opened on the oppposite side of the airport in recent years, including a Hampton (review) and a Moxy (review), but it is a long and windswept walk to get there and virtually impossible with luggage or in the dark.

Not only is the Courtyard by Marriott London City Airport brand new, but it is a couple of minutes nearer the airport than the Travelodge. It also cuts out the need to cross a roundabout. To put it in perspective, here’s the view of the Travelodge from my room at the Courtyard:

The Courtyard advertises itself as being a good hotel for the Excel exhibition centre. As you can see from the photo above, it is close (the hotels says it is eight minutes walk) although it isn’t the most pleasant of strolls given the traffic and the need to cross the bridge over the dock.

Getting there

…. isn’t easy.

If you are staying at the Courtyard before your flight then you will pass the hotel on the DLR on the way to the airport so you know which direction to walk in. If you are staying there after a flight then you are a little stuck, as there is currently no signage. The Travelodge has no signage either so you can’t follow that.

Leaving the airport by the main entrance isn’t the quickest route, since you need to walk away from the hotel before you are able to cross the road and get onto the pavement – the City Airport approach road is only paved on one side.

The quickest route is take these steps at the foot of the DLR escalators:

You exit the station via a tunnel. To your right is a basketball court. If it is daylight, take the narrow footpath to the right of the basketball court and keep walking. You will eventually end up at the hotel.

If it is dark, I don’t recommend this option. Walk around the front of the basketball court and jiggle through the housing estate towards the hotel, or leave the airport via the main entrance and follow the pavement on the approach road. These are both slower routes.

The hotel

The Courtyard is built from a very mellow form of brick and the colour scheme continues inside, with ‘blonde’ woods dominant. The interiors are very well done.

Let me be clear here – if I told you that this hotel was a Hilton or a mainline Marriott then you’d believe me, as you can tell from the images. As I have said many time before on HfP, the quality of new-build hotels from Courtyard, and indeed Hampton by Hilton, is now on a par with a full service hotel. Obviously some services are missing but I doubt they are ones you will use.

If someone told me that they were going to stay at this hotel for their entire stay in London, I’d think they were smart. I paid £70 for my room, on a day when many luxury West End hotels were asking £400+, and my room was probably bigger, more modern and equally well equipped.

Check-in was swift, although occupancy was obviously modest. In general, the staff were unfailingly polite and cheerful – perhaps just happy to have someone to talk to! – and there does seem to be a sense of pride about their smart new hotel.

Here is a PR picture of the lobby:

Elite benefits

Technically, Platinum Elite and higher members of Marriott Bonvoy can take bonus points or a $10 food and beverage credit at a Courtyard hotel. Our guide to Marriott Bonvoy elite member breakfast benefits by brand is here.

Instead, Courtyard London City offered me:

• 500 Marriott Bonvoy points, or
• £7.50 to spend at the bar or restaurant, or
• free breakfast

I took the latter, which offered the most value. It is good to have flexibility though, since someone leaving early may prefer to use the bar credit and someone on expenses may prefer the points.

I was upgraded to a room facing the airport runway, and they weren’t fibbing about the view:

These rooms tend to carry a £15-£20 premium. You should note, however, that ‘runway view’ also means ‘Docklands Light Railway runs in front of your window’ view (the track is at the bottom of the photo above). The soundproofing is good but not perfect and you could clearly hear the rumble of the trains every few minutes, although it didn’t impact my sleep.

You can also, obviously, hear the aircraft but the London City schedule is pretty thin at the moment. If you are a light sleeper you may want to avoid these rooms but average and heavy sleepers will be fine.

It is quite cool watching the aircraft coming in to land a few feet from your window ….

My room at Courtyard London City Airport

The corridors are surprisingly wide and bright, which was a good start.

The room was what you would expect from a mid-range hotel, but done well. It was a substantial improvement on the refurbished room I had recently at Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport. It’s impressive what a little more money and a bit more design skill can do.

Note the relatively narrow window, which I imagine is a deliberate attempt to improve soundproofing. It makes the room darker than necessary but there are no shortage of lights which make up for it.

Here’s the bathroom, which was good:

Note that there is no bath, just a stand-alone shower. Toiletries are branded ‘Pure’.

The TV has full device connectivity via Bluetooth or Chromecast. This was great, allowing me to use BBC iPlayer on my iPhone and send the picture to the huge TV on the wall. It worked flawlessly. This is another of the benefits that you get from staying in a brand new hotel with the latest technology.

The room has a kettle, mugs, takeaway cups, tea, coffee and UHT milk – ie the usual.

The minibar contained two bottle of water and two cartons of fruit juice, all free.

Wi-fi was good and I was able to do a solid eight hours work from 2pm to 11pm, with a quick break for dinner.

Food and drink

As is common at mid-range hotels, the hotel has a small mini-market. In reality, it is more of a takeaway bar. The drinks selection is huge:

…. but the food was limited to crisps, porridge and some cereal bars. It is nowhere near what you’d get at, say, a Hilton Garden Inn mini-mart. If you’re not in the mood for a full evening meal then I suggest picking up a sandwich at the airport and popping it in the minibar fridge.

There is no separate restaurant. Instead, you have a large open plan bar and eating area:

and

The menu was a step up from your average bar menu but a step down from a ‘proper’ restaurant, which was the right thing to do given that there is only one eating option.

There is a picture of the menu here if you click. I went for an East London chicken curry at £15, which was surprisingly well presented and pleasantly warm (hot, not spicy). It was better than you’d expect.

Breakfast was served in the same area the next morning.

Again, this was a step up from your average mid-range hotel buffet. If I’m honest, it was substantially better than the breakfast I had at Crowne Plaza Sheffield a few weeks ago which is technically a superior hotel.

There were also a number of hot options which are not pictured – I had some sausages and scrambled egg and it was good.

Remember, though, that breakfast is not free for everyone at Courtyard hotels. You need to book a breakfast inclusive rate, have Platinum status or higher and choose it as your check-in amenity or pay on the day. I’ve no idea what it costs unfortunately.

Conclusion

Courtyard London City Airport is a very accomplished mid-range hotel, and excellent value for money if you can pick it up for the £70 I paid.

You are getting a brand new hotel and, more importantly, one where the owners chose to invest in quality design and fittings. The food is also of a high quality.

I am hoping that we can visit the new Courtyard Heathrow soon, although it is not currently available for booking until next March.

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

The hotel website is here if you want to find out more or book.

How to earn Marriott Bonvoy points and status from UK credit cards (January 2024)

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

The official Marriott Bonvoy American Express card comes with 20,000 points for signing up, 2 points for every £1 you spend and 15 elite night credits per year.

You can apply here.

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

20,000 points sign-up bonus and 15 elite night credits each year Read our full review

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points by converting American Express Membership Rewards points at the rate of 2:3.

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

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points indirectly:

• 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 Marriott Bonvoy points is 2:3.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Marriott Bonvoy 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.)

This 350-room hotel, situated on Bath Road and close to the new Holiday Inn and Staybridge Suites dual-branded property, opened in 2017. It was previously the unbranded Heathrow Hotel Bath Road, and before that was known as the Arora International Hotel Heathrow Airport.

The building underwent a refurbishment before rebranding as Hyatt and, as you will see, is in good shape inside.

The hotel website is here. Don’t get confused with the second Hyatt Place, which is often advertised as ‘Heathrow’ but is actually in Hayes and realistically far too far for comfort.

I went to the hotel after a morning meeting at Heathrow and worked from the room for the afternoon. I didn’t stay overnight so there are no pictures of breakfast or dinner. It made sense because the stay triggered a £100 American Express cashback offer with Hyatt plus 5,000 bonus World of Hyatt points via a targetted promotion I was sent.

Buses 4 or U3 from the Central Bus Station at Terminals 2 and 3 will drop you outside the hotel. Once you pass the combined Holiday Inn / Staybridge Suites you should prepare to get off when you see the long white hotel building on your right. From Terminal 5 you want the 423 which arrives from the other direction.

Check-in

The hotel is currently offering an interesting feature – a guaranteed 9am check-in for an extra £15 or a guaranteed noon check-in for £10.

I could probably have got a noon check-in anyway had I just turned up, but for the sake of £10 I paid up. The real value would have been arriving at 9am for an extra £15 and getting a potential extra 6 hours in your room.

I have no World of Hyatt status and got what I paid for – a relatively small but newly refurbished room:

…. with a good enough desk:

…. and a soul destroying view:

As you can see, the Autumn haze didn’t create a lot of light. Here is an official PR picture showing what it might be like in Summer:

The bathroom was acceptable:

Toiletries were branded Barney Kenet MD which wasn’t a brand I knew.

The shower was combined with the bath, as you’d expect for a mid-range hotel of this type:

Whilst there was certainly nothing exciting here – I have an upcoming review of Marriott’s new Courtyard London City Airport which is substantially better – I have to say that it delivered everything you need.

The wardrobe had a bathrobe in it, which is rare at this level. The desk had two UK plugs and two USB sockets. The wi-fi was fine. The kettle came with a more than adequate supply of tea, coffee and UHT milk. Whilst the room was a bit small and the view dismal, there was nothing to complain about in terms of facilities.

Food at Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport

As I said, I didn’t eat in the hotel at all.

You won’t starve, although that’s a good job as there isn’t anything else walkable unless you visit another hotel. (EDIT: according to the comments I am wrong. If you walk up Bath Road towards Terminal 5, you quickly come to an Indian restaurant called Kaniz and then, shortly after, a Chinese restaurant.)

As well as a formal restaurant:

…. there is a more laid back bar menu serving the usual mix of burgers, fish and chips, curry, salads, pasta, club sandwiches, pizzas etc – the sort of comfort food you crave in an anonymous mid-range airport hotel.

I should also add that there is a more than adequate gym in the basement:

Conclusion

There is nothing to dislike about Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport. The refurbishment was well done, albeit bland, and you will have a clean, modern and well priced hotel for the night. For most people, it’s enough. You wouldn’t be worried if your Mum announced she had booked in before her holiday.

That said, there are better options at Heathrow. If the price is the same, and you are not bothered about Hyatt points, status benefits or elite night credit, the new Holiday Inn – which you pass on the bus to get here – is a new-build hotel with a lot more style. Our review of the Holiday Inn Heathrow Bath Road hotel is here.

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

The Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport hotel website is here.

World of Hyatt update – January 2024:

Get bonus points: World of Hyatt is not currently running a global promotion

New to World of Hyatt?  Read our overview of World of Hyatt here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on what we think World of Hyatt points are worth is here.

Buy points: If you need additional World of Hyatt points, you can buy them here.

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

For reasons which will be revealed later this week, I have been spending a lot of time in UK airports recently. My tour started in Luton with an early morning flight, so an airport hotel seemed a sensible idea.

Having previously reviewed the new Courtyard by Marriott at Luton Airport we thought we would review the Holiday Inn Express, the closest hotel to the airport terminal.

The hotel website is here.

Location

As mentioned above, the Holiday Inn Express is the closest hotel to the airport terminal. It is still, however, a bit of a trudge along the main access road and underneath the taxiway connecting the terminal to the runway.

It is the first hotel you pass, by the roundabout. It is also next door to the Luton Signature private jet terminal which we have previously reviewed here.

Slightly annoyingly the main entrance is not on the roadside but around the back, by the car park.

Inside the Holiday Inn Express Luton Airport

The check-in desk is right next to the bar when you walk in:

Check in was super quick and easy, and the staff were very friendly. My IHG Rewards Gold status was acknowledged and I was offered a free drink from the bar or 500 points as my welcome amenity.

Behind the check-in desk you’ll also find a little mini market with a range of snacks on offer:

Rooms at the Holiday Inn Express Luton

As far as I can tell there are just three room types: a standard room, a standard room with twin beds and a standard family room with double bed and sofa bed. I booked the standard room and that’s exactly what I got:

As you would expect from a Holiday Inn Express everything is cheap and cheerful. That said, the room was fairly large:

The bed has sockets on each side:

As you can see there is a fairly large sofa/desk area to the right of the bed which I liked:

Opposite is a fairly dated TV as well as tea and instant coffee making facilities. There is no coffee machine.

Sound proofing is decent although not 100% effective. I could clearly hear the aircraft taking off from the runway.

The bathroom is small but adequate. You have a corner sink:

Plus a small shower:

Toiletries are completely unbranded – you get liquid soap and a combined hair/body-wash dispenser in the shower.

You also get plastic cups wrapped in plastic, which I always think is a bit stupid given that the hotel could easily cut out the plastic and provide reusable glass cups. It’s not like glasses are a new invention – they’ve been around for thousands of years and are fully reusable!

Annoyingly the shaver outlet wasn’t working which meant I couldn’t charge my electric toothbrush.

Bar and restaurant

Back on the ground floor you’ll find the bar and restaurant. Food is fairly basic, although there is a wide range available including burgers, curries, fish and chips, pizza, pies and pasta. You order at the bar and it is delivered to your table.

I went for the chicken and bacon salad:

It was pretty dull but kept me from starvation. The bacon could have been a little crisper and they forgot to provide any dressing when they first delivered it, although they quickly brought some.

This is also where breakfast is provided in the mornings, from 4am. I was expecting pre-packed ‘grab bags’ but they actually offer a small buffet including hot food:

and

Paper bags are provided if you want to take some ambient food away. Hot items obviously have to be consumed on site!

Conclusion

Holiday Inn Express Luton Airport is a perfectly adequate but otherwise uninspiring airport hotel. It gets the job done if you have an early morning flight and the staff are very friendly.

It is, for all intents and purposes, an ‘express’ hotel and you wouldn’t necessarily want to stay more than one night. Take a look at the new Courtyard by Marriott if you need a longer stay in the area, although this hotel does not offer free breakfast.

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

The hotel website is here if you want to book or find out more.

IHG One Rewards update – January 2024:

Get bonus points: Our article on IHG’s January 2024 bonus promotion is here. You will receive double base points on every cash stay between 1st January and 31st January 2024. Click here to register.

New to IHG One Rewards?  Read our overview of IHG One Rewards here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on ‘What are IHG One Rewards points worth?’ is here.

Buy points: If you need additional IHG One Rewards points, you can buy them here.

You get a 100% bonus when you buy IHG One Rewards points by 2nd February 2024. Click here.

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

This is our first review of a hotel at Luton Airport. I chose the Courtyard on this trip, partly because – with the brand about to open at both Heathrow and London City in the next few weeks – I wanted to get feel for what it offered.

With the opening of a new people-mover between the train station and terminal as well as a new ‘Luton Express’ rail service in 2022, you may find Luton Airport more attractive than you do at present.

We paid for own room and the hotel did not know we were reviewing it. You can see the Courtyard Luton Airport hotel website here.

Getting to the Courtyard Luton Airport hotel

There are five hotels at Luton Airport: the Courtyard, a Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express, an ibis and ibis Budget. Additional hotels are slightly further and include a Premier Inn.

The Courtyard is the newest of the lot and consequently sits furthest from the airport terminal. It opened in 2018.

Getting to the terminal requires a half-mile 13 minute walk that takes you along the main airport access road and underneath the taxiway that connects the terminal with the runway.

Alternatively, take the 100 or A local bus service that operates regularly from the Holiday Inn bus stop just up the road. This will whisk you to the terminal in a matter of minutes.

The Courtyard Luton Airport

First impressions of the hotel are good: it looks smart from the outside as you can see above.

On the inside, a fairly basic but well executed hat theme livens it up:

Whilst not particularly large, the hotel makes good use of space on the ground floor with several meeting rooms and a small open-plan business centre:

A seating area with airport departures:

A number of check-in desks:

The ‘Market Place’:

…. and a small restaurant / bar:

The hotel also has a gym but this was closed during my stay.

Check in

Check-in was quick and easy. As a Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Elite I was asked whether I wanted bonus points or $10 credit as my welcome amenity. I chose the credit which I immediately spent in the Market Place.

How close is the hotel to the runway?

Very. Take a look at this screenshot from Google Maps and you can see that it is maybe 250m from the end of the runway:

Despite this, the Courtyard doesn’t have any runway views. The runway is built on raised ground and is above the hotel no matter what floor you are on.

Here is the view from my room, with the runway up the hill:

I’ll be honest – take-offs are not completely silent. They are clearly audible, although not particularly loud. Luckily, although Luton Airport has a licence to operate 24 hours a day, night flights are few and far between.

Rooms at the Courtyard Luton Airport hotel

I was put in a standard king room on the 6th floor:

The rooms are a decent size and come with a good amount of storage space including a luggage rack and wardrobe:

You also get a desk and chair:

As well as an odd side table with perching seat – I’m not exactly sure what this adds!

You get your usual range of amenities including (empty) mini fridge, kettle with instant coffees/teas, ironing board, hairdryer, safe etc:

The bathroom

The bathroom features a frosted glass door and window, which adds a nice glow to the room when the light is on. The shower is basic but functional with just one non-rainfall shower head:

I particularly liked the cubby hole under the sink, which seemed like a good use of space:

More annoying was the flush on the toilet, which was obscured when you raised the toilet lid.

Toiletries are by Nirvae Botanicals and I was pleased to find a soap dish too (my personal pet peeve):

How was the Courtyard Luton Airport hotel?

This was my first stay in a Courtyard hotel but it won’t be the last, not least because the chain is increasingly popping up at airports.

Rob reviewed the new Courtyard at Inverness Airport earlier this year and a Courtyard is due to open at both London City and Heathrow in the coming weeks.

Courtyard seems to be a decent option if you are looking for a good value but clean and well run hotel. The fact that many in the UK are new builds only makes them more attractive.

The Courtyard Luton Airport is a Category 3 hotel which means you are looking at between 15,000 and 20,000 Marriott Bonvoy points per night, depending on the season.

Cash prices are just under £100 for a night in June, so you are getting acceptable value for your Bonvoy points at our valuation of 0.5p per point.

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

The Courtyard Luton Airport website is here if you would like to book or find out more.

How to earn Marriott Bonvoy points and status from UK credit cards (January 2024)

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

The official Marriott Bonvoy American Express card comes with 20,000 points for signing up, 2 points for every £1 you spend and 15 elite night credits per year.

You can apply here.

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

20,000 points sign-up bonus and 15 elite night credits each year Read our full review

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points by converting American Express Membership Rewards points at the rate of 2:3.

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

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points indirectly:

• 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 Marriott Bonvoy points is 2:3.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Marriott Bonvoy 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.)

Formerly the Park Inn, the hotel saw a complete refurbishment and rebrand over the summer. It now serves two different brands: the trendier Radisson RED, which Rob reviewed here, and a ‘standard’ Radisson which I review here.

As we have already reviewed half the hotel, we thought we should also take a look at the other half! The Radisson side is generally £20 – £30 per night cheaper than the Radisson RED side, even though all the facilities are shared.

Take a look at both of our reviews and see if you think this is justfied.

Inside the Radisson Heathrow hotel

The Radisson brand – as opposed to Radisson Blu, Radisson RED and Radisson Collection – is normally only seen in the US, so it was a little surprising to see it in London when the hotel re-opened.

The Radisson side is by far the larger of the two, with 637 of the 895 rooms. However, both sides share a single entrance, lobby and reception. There is no separation between the brands when you walk in unlike most dual-brand hotels.

This means that you get the trendy lobby complete with red phone boxes and a mini, just like a guest on the Radisson RED side.

Getting to the Radisson at London Heathrow

As the crow flies, the hotel is very close to Terminals 2 and 3. It is virtually impossible to walk, however, as you would have to walk through the tunnel that passes below the runway, which doesn’t have a pavement.

The easiest way to access the hotel is via a range of local bus services from any of the terminals. Buses take less than 5 minutes to the central bus station at T2 and T3 and about 10 minutes to Terminal 5. Rob’s review of the Radisson RED has more information on bus transfers.

Remember that local buses are free within the airport boundary so do NOT touch in with a payment card when you board.

Arriving at the Radisson

The hotel is tucked away just behind the main road, overlooking a car park. It has a pretty cool entrance:

When I arrived only one check in desk out of four or five was open and dealing with what appeared to be an extensive guest query. A queue had built up:

Luckily a second attendant arrived to deal with the rest of us!

During check-in I was asked if I wanted to use the pool or gym, which was available by pre-booking a timeslot. I figured I would, since I had nothing better to do!

To get to the lifts you walk past this row of (fake) red phone boxes:

The doors at the end are for the conference facilities, and the gym and pool are around the corner.

The rooms at the Radisson London Heathrow

I was given a room on the third floor:

I don’t think any of the rooms have particularly good views so it probably doesn’t make a difference which floor you are on. The hotel isn’t really high enough to get a good view of the runway.

Weirdly, there are no overhead lights in the room. Instead there are two lamps as well as two bedside lights. This makes it very cosy albeit not necessarily that bright.

Storage space is limited. There is a small open corner wardrobe immediately behind the door. This is probably less of an issue as you might think, as most people are likely to stay just one night at the hotel before or after a flight. To that end, a very large padded bench offers ample room as a suitcase rack.

You also get an armchair and decently sized desk:

The TV remote was wrapped in plastic with a label that suggested it had been fully disinfected between guests. The hotel also provided a mini bottle of hand sanitiser:

There is no coffee machine in the room, only a kettle and a selection of instant sachets and teabags etc. There is also no fridge or mini bar, despite a cupboard for one underneath. This is the same as Rob found when he stayed at the RED. The extra money you spend at the RED does not get you a proper coffee machine.

An ironing board and hair dryer are also supplied.

Bathrooms at the Radisson London Heathrow

The bathroom was decent, featuring a shower with dual shower head:

Toiletries provided were Radisson’s own ‘Simply Delightful’ brand in miniature bottles.

A bar of soap was provided but – bizarrely – there is nowhere to put the soap once you have used it. There is no soap tray so you have to decide between putting it directly on the counter top or leaving in the sink. Weird!

Eating at the Radisson London Heathrow

When it comes to food, you have two options. There is the ‘Hope & Glory’ restaurant bar, which serves both Radisson and Radisson RED, or there is a rather sad looking vending area:

As Rob noted in his review, the menu in the Hope & Glory restaurant is an odd mix of items. It seems to swing between basic pub food and a trendier brunch place!

I went for the cheeseburger, which was fine but really nothing special:

The second restaurant is currently closed.

I left before breakfast as I had lounge access at Terminal 5 and it was not included in my room rate.

The gym and pool at the Radisson London Heathrow

Since it was open, I thought I would check out the pool and gym. These are accessed via a fairly narrow corridor a few steps away from the lift.

I was expecting the facilities to be virtually empty as the hotel was very quiet, but there were a surprising number of people working out and swimming.

I’m not 100% certain but it seems like the pool and gym are open for public use.

You’ll also find a sauna and steam room in the pool area, although the steam room was closed in line with government guidelines at the time. The sauna, oddly, was open.

Whilst the addition of pool and gym are welcome, they are relatively small for a hotel this size. It must get pretty crowded on peak days.

Conclusion

Although it’s not as easily connected to the terminals as some hotels at Heathrow, the Radisson has been refurbished well and has some facilities you might not find elsewhere.

That said, the menu at the Hope & Glory restaurant is in desperate need of a rethink. There is a place for a basic but good quality restaurant here.

Looking at Rob’s review of the Radisson RED side of the hotel, there doesn’t seem to be much difference – apart from slightly trendier decor – between those rooms and the one I had on the Radisson side.

If the Radisson is noticeably cheaper than the Radisson RED, as it normally is, I would take that and spend the saving in the bar and restaurant.

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

Booking

You can book, or find out more about, the Radisson RED Heathrow here and the Radisson Heathrow here.

How to earn Radisson Rewards points and status from UK credit cards (January 2024)

Radisson Rewards does not have a dedicated UK credit card. However, you can earn Radisson Rewards points by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.

These cards earn Membership Rewards points:

• American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 60,000 Radisson Rewards points. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with four free airport lounge passes.

• The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 120,000 Radisson Rewards points

• American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 30,000 Radisson Rewards points. This card is FREE for life.

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:3 into Radisson Rewards points which is a very attractive rate.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 3 Radisson Rewards points.

Even better, holders of The Platinum Card receive free Radisson Rewards Premium status for as long as they hold the card.  It also comes with Hilton Honors Gold, Marriott Bonvoy Gold and MeliaRewards Gold status.  We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here.

(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.)

Over the Summer, big changes took place at the huge Park Inn hotel at Heathrow Airport.

If you ever drive to Heathrow Terminal 2 or Terminal 3, you will know the Park Inn.  It faces the roundabout where the huge Emirates A380 replica sits, just before you enter the tunnel.

The hotel was basically split into two.  Part of it became the Radisson RED – see the website here – which I am reviewing today.  The other, larger, part became a Radisson (NOT a Radisson Blu, but a Radisson – a brand usually only seen in the US).  The Radisson website is here.

The old Park Inn had 895 rooms.  The new Radisson RED has 258 rooms whilst the Radisson has 637 rooms.  This means that that the changes are fairly cosmetic as there has been no attempt to knock rooms together or otherwise change the configuration.

Why open a Radisson RED in an ugly 1960’s low rise building?

I had absolutely no idea what Radisson RED was doing there.  Radisson RED is meant to be for the cool kids, a cross between a Moxy and a Hotel Indigo, with funky bedrooms in converted historic buildings.  I don’t think the words ‘hip’ or ‘funky’ could ever be used to describe the old Park Inn building. 

I had to investigate, so I checked in. Let’s see what I found.

Getting to the Radisson RED at London Heathrow

Whilst, in theory, close to the terminals, you can’t walk there.

Regular readers will know that I refuse to pay £6 each way for the Hotel Hoppa shuttle bus, which in any event is only running once per hour at the moment from each terminal.

From the Central Bus Station at Terminal 2/3, jump on a 105 or 111 bus, both of which leave from the same stand. After a couple of stops you will pass the hotel on your left, and see an Esso garage approaching. Ring the bell and jump off – the stop is announced as Nene Road. It is only about 90 seconds walk back past the garage and through the car park to the reception. Local buses are free within the airport boundary so do NOT touch in with a payment card when you board.

First impressions …..

….. were mixed. The cheap Radisson side has smart white cladding:

…. whilst the posh / expensive / trendy etc Radisson RED side looks ugly as hell:

They have built this rather funky entrance, although when I arrived the effect was ruined by a group of German tourists on a Rosamund Pilcher tour sitting on it and smoking:

Checking in

This was odd. When I have stayed in dual branded hotels in the past, they have either been totally separate (eg Staybridge Suites and Holiday Inn at Heathrow) or at least had fully separate receptions (Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn Express at Terminal 4).

The Radisson and Radisson RED share the same reception. At no point during check in did the clerk mention which hotel I was in. It was a standard check-in and I was told my room was off to the left. Had I been in the cheaper Radisson part, I would have been sent to the right.

Was my status respected?

No. At no point was my Radisson Rewards Gold status acknowledged. I should have been upgraded, but given that I received a ground floor room facing directly into a wall, I will guess that I wasn’t. Given that I doubt the hotel was even 15% full this was impressive.

What is actually different between the two hotels?

It’s just …. weird. Everything – literally everything – is shared.

Only one restaurant is currently open for both hotels. The swimming pool (yes, it has a modest pool, far too small in reality for an 895 room hotel) and gym are shared. There is no lounge or special perks if you are in the RED side.

There is, on the cheap Radisson side, a large area with 4-5 vending machines, one of which even dispensed hot meals. I wasn’t told about this – I’m not sure if only Radisson guests are told, although anyone can use it.

I want to stress the lack of difference because, on the night I stayed, the Radisson RED was almost £40 more expensive than the Radisson:

Whilst I was in the hotel, I felt that I had been robbed. Why had I paid £39 more than guests on the other side?

My feelings have softened a little since I was there. RED rooms are, on paper, bigger than Radisson rooms (30 square metres vs 23 square metres). They are certainly better decorated, as we will come to in a minute.

If I was in a standard hotel and it was selling bigger and better decorated rooms for £39 more than standard rooms then that would be totally normal.

I also have no problems with Crowne Plaza Terminal 4 charging more than the Holiday Inn Express Terminal 4 – and that hotel mixes rooms from both brands on the same corridor. I think it is the lack of a separate reception and separate restaurants for each brand that made me feel I overpaid by going RED.

The rooms at Radisson RED London Heathrow

I had been given a ground floor room overlooking a wall, despite my Gold status. This meant that light was poor and I struggled to get decent photographs. There are two PR pictures higher up the page and they are a fair representation, although my room was smaller.

The bathroom was equally smart, with a grey / brown marble. The picture above the loo was of a typewriter, which was …. interesting. Toiletries came in squeezable non-plastic sachets, which was a novelty. There was only a shower – no bath.

In the bedroom there was a good sized desk with some more artwork above it:

However nice the room looked, it was let down by implementation. There was a cupboard for a minibar, but when I opened it ….. it was empty. I don’t mean the minibar was empty. I mean it wasn’t there.

There was the usual tea and coffee tray. However, there were no mugs. I had been given two paper cups instead. Classy. The coffee sachets were Tchibo which does not exactly justify a £39 room premium.

The public areas

The hotel does look good, I have to say. Remember that you get to see all this irrespective of whether you book the RED side or the cheaper Radisson side:

and

and (yes, they put a car in the lobby):

‘Hope and Glory’ restaurant

The owners have also put a lot of money into the refurbishment of the bar and restaurant. Unfortunately, their love of ‘bare bulbs’ lighting means that my photos were ruined, so here is a PR shot:

This is NOT your usual hotel ‘club sandwich’ food. The list of mains is:

• Superfood buddha bowl
• Fresh herb falafel
• Avocado on toast
• Caesar wedge salad
• Glorious cheeseburger
• Beetroot and kale
• Bucatini alla norma

There are also four stone baked pizzas to choose from, which is what I chose:

The second restaurant is currently closed. I was not in the hotel for breakfast as I had an early start at a Virgin Atlantic press event in Terminal 2 (report to follow).

Conclusion

It is now two weeks since my stay and I still don’t know what I think.

In terms of the rooms, restaurant and public areas, the Radisson RED is probably the most attractive hotel at London Heathrow. I know that’s a fairly low bar, but it does look good.

The hotel then ruined it by ignoring my elite status, giving me a room looking into a wall which blocked all my light, failing to supply a minibar or proper cups and – fundamentally – failing to justify the chunky price premium compared to the rooms on the other side of the reception desk.

Realistically, the hotel needs to separate the two hotels better. At the very least, there has to be something extra for RED guests. Whether that is a private lounge, a free mini bar, free breakfast or …. whatever ….. it needs something to create differentiation.

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

Booking

You can book the Radisson RED Heathrow here and the Radisson Heathrow here.

How to earn Radisson Rewards points and status from UK credit cards (January 2024)

Radisson Rewards does not have a dedicated UK credit card. However, you can earn Radisson Rewards points by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.

These cards earn Membership Rewards points:

• American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 60,000 Radisson Rewards points. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with four free airport lounge passes.

• The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 120,000 Radisson Rewards points

• American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 30,000 Radisson Rewards points. This card is FREE for life.

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:3 into Radisson Rewards points which is a very attractive rate.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 3 Radisson Rewards points.

Even better, holders of The Platinum Card receive free Radisson Rewards Premium status for as long as they hold the card.  It also comes with Hilton Honors Gold, Marriott Bonvoy Gold and MeliaRewards Gold status.  We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here.

(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.)

We last reviewed this hotel back in early 2017.  It recently underwent a renovation so I thought it was time for another look.

Why stay at the Hilton Garden Inn London Heathrow?

The hotels at Heathrow Airport generally force you to make a choice.

Option 1 is to stay at the Sofitel Terminal 5, Hilton Garden Inn T2/T3, Aerotel T3 or one of the many Terminal 4 hotels.  You will be directly connected to the airport, and pay a premium.

Option 2 is to waste your evening and your money on the slow and expensive Hoppa Bus (£6 one-way, currently only running once per hour per terminal) between the terminals and a cheaper hotel.  You can also take the free local buses but, in general, this is a lot of faff – especially at night or with luggage.

There is a third way – the Hilton Garden Inn at Heathrow.  This hotel, formerly a Jurys Inn and still managed by them, is just outside Hatton Cross underground station.  There are two advantages of staying here:

You get there a lot quicker if arriving by tube – you get out at Hatton Cross before the airport.  Other hotels require you to travel to the terminals, head to the bus station and take a Hoppa Bus.  You would save around 30 minutes.

In the morning, you walk back to the tube and take the one or two stops to the terminals.  There is no need to wait for a Hoppa Bus and the tube fare is less than the Hoppa fare.

I booked in using the £55 ‘day use’ rate.  I had plenty of time to see the hotel in daylight but was not there overnight.

What is a Hilton Garden Inn?

I have stayed in two Hilton Garden Inn hotels now and I still have no idea!  I have been in far worse ‘mainline’ Hilton properties.

In general, a Hilton Garden Inn seems to fit in the (small) gap between a Hampton and a Hilton.  The lack of free breakfast, unless you have Hilton elite status, is a key point to note compared to a Hampton.

Getting to Hilton Garden Inn London Heathrow Airport

It only makes sense to pick this hotel if you are arriving by tube, due to the time saving.  The route is not exactly glamorous.  It is also NOT signposted.

You exit Hatton Cross tube by the doors to the right.  Do NOT go left into the bus station:

Head to your left and walk past the bizarre Atrium Hotel Heathrow which we reviewed here:

The hotel is visible on your left behind the warehouses although you don’t see any signage until you get nearer.  There is a back door you can use to enter to save a few seconds walking round.

Check in was swift.  My Hilton Honors Diamond status was acknowledged and I was offered my two free bottles of water as an amenity.  As a Diamond I was also due 750 Hilton Honors points or a free breakfast.  The hotel was still serving breakfast when I arrived but I took the points.

There was little they could give me in terms of Diamond upgrade although I got a top floor room with a view over a field full of horses.  This is the same sort of room I had in 2017 which is either a coincidence or Diamond policy.

Rooms at Hilton Garden Inn London Heathrow Airport

The refurbishment of the hotel has not been total.  The reported spend was only £4 million.  The bedroom area was totally unchanged from my 2017 stay:

…. with the same desk:

The bathroom had been transformed, however.  The old ‘shower over a bathtub’ look with a 1970’s style sink had gone.  Toiletries were upgraded from Peter Thomas Roth to Crabtree & Evelyn (although comments below from people who use them more than me imply it is actually a downgrade).

This is what you get today:

The bar and restaurant

Where this hotel really shines is in the public areas, which is a good job as there is nothing else within easy reach.  The hotel makes an effort to keep you occupied.

The ground floor has changed completely, although everything is still in the same relative position.

Here is new look ‘Jack’s’ bar, which is currently the only place you can eat.  The main restaurant is not open after breakfast but the bar opens at noon.

The Costa Coffee stall, which was usually not manned anyway, has gone.  There is now casual seating which sprawls out of the restaurant and bar, and is handy at the moment as it allows greater distancing.

The hotel also has a shop, which has been substantially upgraded since my last visit.  There is a lot of choice here – sandwiches and cold snacks, proper ready meals which can be microwaved, lots of toiletries, bottles of wine etc.  It is probably the biggest selection I’ve ever seen in a UK hotel.

Whilst I didn’t visit the gym, comments below suggest that it is now very impressive following refurbishment.

Should you stay here?

All in all, I remain impressed by the Hilton Garden Inn London Heathrow Airport at Hatton Cross.  The recent refurbishment is definitely an improvement.

Whilst the hotel is usually cheap, it is classier than, say, a Holiday Inn Express.  Whilst there is nothing going on nearby, the bar, restaurant and shop will keep you going.

If you are heading to Heathrow by tube, the Hilton Garden Inn is far more convenient than any of the hotels which require the Hoppa Bus.

If you are arriving by cab or Heathrow Express it is a different story.  You will need to get the Hoppa (or take the tube to Hatton Cross) and the hotel is no more convenient than any other option – although you will have an easier trip back to the airport in the morning via tube if you stay here.

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

The hotel website is here if you want to book or find out more.

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.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

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.)

Better 18 months late than never, the new Aerotel inside Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 3 has finally opened.  Anika was originally booked to stay there in April 2018.  The delay was so long that Anika has managed to marry, move temporarily to the US and become 39 weeks pregnant since then 🙂  The final review therefore fell to me.

The location of Aerotel makes it ideal for anyone flying with Virgin Atlantic, Delta, Qantas, Cathay Pacific, American Airlines or the handful of British Airways flights that depart from Terminal 3. It is also within walking distance of Terminal 2, and you can use bus, tube and train within the free Heathrow zone to get to other terminals.

To avoid confusion, it is LANDSIDE.

Aerotel provided us with a free room for review purposes.

The Aerotel London Heathrow website is here if you want to find out more or book.

Where is Aerotel?

Aerotel is owned by Plaza Premium, the company that also operates a variety of lounges worldwide.  This includes the Terminal 2 lounge (review) which has won the Skytrax World’s Best Independent Airport Lounge for three consecutive years.

This is not the first Aerotel to open. They are also available in Abu Dhabi, Beijing (the new Daxing airport), Cebu, Guangzhou, Kuala Lumpur, Muscat, Rio and Singapore.  You can check out all the options on the Aerotel website here.

They are generally bookable by the hour although there is a six hour minimum at Heathrow. The concept is that if you are connecting or have an early morning flight, all you need is a place to crash and freshen up. You do not need the myriad of amenities – and therefore additional cost – that most conventional hotel concepts include.

The Aerotel at Heathrow Terminal 3 is located in the arrivals portion of the terminal. If you are arriving by tube, make sure to follow signs for arrivals. These are not always clearly signposted as you are walking against the usual flow of traffic! The lobby is at the opposite end of where you would walk out from arrivals, next to the rental car counters. If you keep walking straight you will see it.

Whilst it IS sign posted, the logo is very small and makes it very hard to see from a distance.  That said, the signs have been up since early 2018, so regular Terminal 3 travellers will be familiar with them even though the hotel was not open.

The lobby, however, is open to the terminal and is the most stylish thing in the arrivals area.

Whilst the lobby is on the ground floor, all the rooms and amenities are on floors 1 and 2, accessible via staircase or lift. I had a room on the second floor, which is also the location of the ‘Library’ lounge dining concept.

The rooms at Aerotel Heathrow

Here is my room, a double:

and

…. although single rooms and family rooms are also available. None of the rooms, as far as I am aware, have windows.

As you can see, the rooms are small. The bed is up against the far wall and there is a small walking space around the other two sides. There is a small surface for opening your suitcase and hanging a few items, and that is it. You also have a kettle and a couple of mugs and a selection of teas, as well as a wall-mounted TV and free WiFi.

The bathroom is equally small, although with a large shower.  I struggled to photograph it due to the angles:

The shower is recessed into the rear slightly more, making it a larger space. It is stocked with reusable pump-action Urban Skincare products.

The Library, AKA the restaurant-lounge

Marketing material also mentions the Library, which is a sort of restaurant-lounge concept. I was eager to check this out although, ironically, it has no books stocked.

It was much smaller than I expected, although I suppose with just two floors this isn’t a particularly big hotel. I was the only guest when I arrived, although someone turned up after me.

Inside the Library you’ll find a selection of papers and magazines, including The Times and FT, as well as 24 hour news on TV (muted) and a departures board for all Heathrow terminals.

There is also a cafeteria style fridge with snacks, drinks and sandwiches:

In addition, you can order from the small a la carte menu. This includes an all day breakfast, soup, beef bourguignon, chicken tikka masala, vegan Thai vegetable curry, vegetable lasagne, stir fry and king prawn Wonton soup. The most expensive item is £10 which seems remarkable for an airport hotel!

I went for the beef bourguignon:

As well as a small dessert:

This is obviously not Michelin dining. I would say the food is about on par with what you would find in a decent airport lounge. For £10 or less, however, it is very good value. Even an airport Wetherspoons would set you back more.

Conclusion

Apart from the lounge there are no other amenities. No gym or swimming pool, or other public spaces …. which is fine by me.

Aerotel does what it sets out to do very well: gives you a space to rest and refresh without all the extra bits you don’t need.  In fact, I was surprised at how nice the rooms looked despite their size.  The bathrooms, too, look stylish.

Pricing seems a little high at the moment but it depends on your length of stay.  The Hilton Garden Inn attached to Terminal 2 is walkable from Terminal 3 although it is a long trot via the tunnel which links both terminals to the tube.  Our Hilton Garden Inn Heathrow Terminal 2 review is here.

If you are flying in or out of Terminal 3 then Aerotel wins for convenience.  If you are using one of the other terminals the existing on-site hotels (Sofitel at T5, Hilton / Premier Inn / Crowne Plaza / HI Express / Yotel at T4, Hilton Garden Inn at T2) offer more space and more services and will be handier.

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

You can see more about Aerotel and book on the website here.

Hotel offers update – January 2024:

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.

Want to buy hotel points?

• Hilton Honors is offering an 80% to 100% bonus when you buy points by 12th March 2024. Click here.

• IHG One Rewards is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 2nd February 2024. Click here.

On Tuesday morning I caught the 8am Qatar Airways flight to Doha for a meeting with Qatar Privilege Club and to take a look at Qsuite.  That story is coming up next week.

I had planned to get up around 4am and head out to the airport.  However, a broken night on Sunday due to a sick child meant that my wife was keen for a good sleep, so on Monday morning I thought I’d take a look at the Terminal 4 hotel prices for same-day check-in.

To be honest, I was 90% certain that the best deal was going to be 20,000 IHG Rewards Club points for the Holiday Inn Express Terminal 4.  What I actually found was:

• Crowne Plaza Terminal 4 – £135, review here
• Holiday Inn Express Terminal 4 – £155, review here (crazy, as it shares a building with the superior Crowne Plaza)
• Hilton Terminal 4 – £215, review here
• Premier Inn Terminal 4 – £52

If you don’t know Heathrow Terminal 4, all four hotels are attached to the same fully enclosed walkway that runs directly into the departures hall.  The Crowne Plaza / Holiday Inn Express building is around a three minute walk whilst the Premier Inn and Hilton take five minutes.

£52, booked at 11am on the same day as I was checking in, was a no-brainer.  I was planning to arrive around 10pm and leave at 5.30am, so I didn’t need anything except a comfy bed and good soundproofing.

I like Premier Inn.  Whilst I kept it quiet at the time, I spent the weekend at the brand new one on Great Yarmouth seafront recently, for a golfing trip.  You really can’t complain – the quality is surprisingly high and it is almost certainly the best hotel in Great Yarmouth.  It seems the Beefeater restaurant attached is also the best restaurant in Great Yarmouth.

Anika did a full review of Premier Inn Heathrow Terminal 4 a couple of years ago – click here – on one of her more glamorous HfP assignments.  She claims it is a 7-minute walk down the walkway but my legs are longer – I timed it and it took me 5 minutes.

I won’t repeat her coverage so here are a few quick pointers.  The room is perfectly acceptable – I ended up with an accessible room so it was a little bigger than average:

Premier Inn uses Hypnos beds which are great.  You get a tea and coffee tray for free and basic wi-fi is free.  The wardrobe is ‘open’ but this isn’t an issue for an airport hotel aimed at one-night stays.

I should warn you that Vodafone reception on my wing (the building is triangular) varied from one bar of 3G to none at all:

The free wi-fi is also exceptionally slow, although perfectly fine for email and HfP WordPress work.

The pleasant and bustling lobby area has a 24/7 Costa Coffee:

…. a bar (usurprisingly quiet at 5.30am) and a restaurant, not pictured:

Breakfast is £10.50 for the full hot and cold menu, or £8.50 for the ‘continental’ cold menu.  As I was leaving at 5.30am I didn’t try it.  There are plenty of vending machines in the building as well.

It is crazy that this hotel was less than half the price of any of the alternatives.  Even factoring in the free breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express Terminal 4, the Premier Inn is still exceptional value.  If you need a hotel at Terminal 4, you don’t need to have any concerns about taking the ‘bargain’ option.

How to book the Premier Inn Heathrow Terminal 4

I booked on the Premier Inn website here.  I was under the impression that you couldn’t book Premier Inn hotels via any third party site with a loyalty scheme, so that means you cannot benefit from Hotels.com Rewards or anything similar.  Premier Inn itself does not have a loyalty scheme.

However, on Tuesday a HfP reader mentioned in the comments that this hotel can often be found on hotel booking site Rocketmiles – and it is, albeit only at ‘flexible’ rates.  This lets you earn Avios, Virgin Flying Club miles, Heathrow Rewards points or various other rewards with your booking.  It seems I missed a trick.

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

Hotel offers update – January 2024:

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.

Want to buy hotel points?

• Hilton Honors is offering an 80% to 100% bonus when you buy points by 12th March 2024. Click here.

• IHG One Rewards is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 2nd February 2024. Click here.

At HfP we try to keep abreast of all of the hotel openings that occur in and around Heathrow.  So far this year we have already covered the new Hilton Garden Inn at Terminal 2 (review) and the new Holiday Inn (review here) and Staybridge Suites (review here) on Bath Road.  Last Autumn we covered the new Holiday Inn Express at Terminal 4 (review here) which shares a building with the new Crowne Plaza at Terminal 4 (review here).

The Atrium Hotel Heathrow was one that particularly piqued our interest. Whilst most airport hotels belong to big chains (IHG, Marriott, Hilton etc), this one was curiously unbranded.  At 612 rooms it is also gigantic.  It bills itself, on its website, as “the capital’s latest icon” …… how could we resist?

Given these peculiarities, I gave Atrium Hotel Heathrow a try before my Upper Class Suite flight to New York on Virgin Atlantic’s new A350 (review to follow).

Getting there

Since I was coming straight from the HfP office, I took the tube to Hatton Cross. Once you emerge from the underground the distinctive blue and yellow cladding is immediately visible.

Getting to it from the station is a short walk across a maze of traffic lights to cross the junction:

I walked around the building a little, unsure of where reception was. It turns out there are two: one angled towards the tube station and one around the back. I went to the front one, which is on a lower level to the road and has this surprising tile feature:

Inside the Atrium Hotel Heathrow

Here is reception which, when I arrived at just after 5pm, was deserted except for two members of staff:

…… and checked in. It looks like some staff are still being trained because a manager came out to show the staff how to do it.

From the front reception to my room was a bit of a walk. To get to the lifts you walk through a large corridor that passes a cafe area:

…… before passing the second reception (marked air crew, although they seemed to deal with everyone). You then walk through some double doors and are presented with four lifts.

I was on the 4th floor (there are 5 in total).

The room

I got to my room (this hotel is far larger than it looks – there are corridors everywhere) and opened the door:

The first thing I noticed was the smell of damp. Remember, this hotel is only a few months old!  I’m not sure where the damp was (could it be in the central air system?). I thought about contacting reception but decided against it – I couldn’t be particularly bothered to faff about for such a short stay.

Like most hotel rooms the bathroom is immediately to the left, with the bedroom by the window. Here is the bathroom, which features a very nice shower:

Toiletries are branded with logos of all the hotels owned by the parent, which include Shendish Manor and Regency Park Hotel:

….. although they are really oddly scented – not particularly pleasant.

Here is the sleeping area, with a double bed I later found out appeared to be just two singles moved together (!):

and

There is a large wardrobe, desk and coffee/tea facilities:

The strangest thing about the room was the abundance of mirrors. There is a large mirror behind the bed, a medium sized one above the desk, a large mirrored wardrobe door, an equally large wall mirror opposite the wardrobe….and then two of the walls in the bathroom are also completely mirrored!

As you might expect, given its name, this hotel has a large atrium which the internal rooms overlook. This is my view into the buffet / restaurant / bar area:

The Bridal Suite

The hotel also has a bridal suite on the fourth floor. I didn’t see inside it but my experience with my own room does not bode well.  I’m not sure who would want to spend their honeymoon, or part of their honeymoon, in a soulless hotel with nothing to do at Hatton Cross …… although I accept that the function rooms are probably some of the largest in the area if you are planning a big wedding.

This is the end of Part 1.  You can read Part 2 of our Atrium Hotel Heathrow review here.  It gets weirder ….

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

Hotel offers update – January 2024:

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.

Want to buy hotel points?

• Hilton Honors is offering an 80% to 100% bonus when you buy points by 12th March 2024. Click here.

• IHG One Rewards is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 2nd February 2024. Click here.

The Hilton Garden Inn at Heathrow Terminal 2 has now been open for a couple of weeks, so we thought it was time to check it out.

HfP paid the £90 cost of the room itself.  We were not actually flying anywhere – hanging around in Terminal 2 is what we do for fun ….

The Hilton Garden Inn Heathrow Terminal 2 website is here.

As you can see from the image below, this is an oddly shaped hotel squeezed into a small patch of land between the car park and the road.  I’m not sure if it was previously empty or if another structure was demolished.

What is a Hilton Garden Inn?

This is the obvious question, as least for our UK readers.  There are only a handful of Hilton Garden Inn hotels in the UK and some of those – the best known is at Hatton Cross, just outside Heathrow and reviewed here – were conversions from other brands.

As a new build, Heathrow Terminal 2 is presumably designed to the ‘full’ HGI specification.  What this seems to mean is:

• small and unexciting rooms
• a shower with no bath
• an ‘open’ wardrobe
• a decent work desk
• an empty fridge but no minibar
• tea and coffee making facilities, plus a free bottle of water
• a small snack shop in the lobby
• a restaurant and bar
• a laundry room

It is certainly NOT at the level of a new Hilton such as, say, London Bankside.  What I don’t fully understand is how it differs from a Hampton by Hilton.  Both are pitched at the three star market.  Arguably Hilton Garden Inn has a more corporate feel with Hampton targeting the leisure / family market.  Hampton has free breakfast for all guests whilst Hilton Garden Inn does not.

How do you get to Hilton Garden Inn Heathrow Terminal 2?

Whilst Terminal 2 and Terminal 3 are connected via a series of underground corridors which link both of them to the tube and Heathrow Express platforms, the Hilton Garden Inn is techinically in Terminal 2.  It is, basically, stuck onto the back of the car park!

It couldn’t be easier to find as long as you do one thing – leave Terminal 2 Arrivals by the door directly opposite the Plaza Premium Arrivals Lounge.

If you do this, it is idiot proof.  Walk forwards into the car park, keep walking forwards through the car park, do not move left or right, and you will be in the hotel!  You do NOT go up any steps so it is easy if you have luggage.

and

The lobby

The ‘new hotel’ smell hits you as soon as you enter the walkway from the car park to the lobby.  The lobby is actually a lot funkier than the rooms:

I was checked in quickly and my Diamond status acknowledged.  This didn’t seem to count for anything, though, as I was given a room on Level 5 – the first floor of bedrooms.  It goes as high as Level 13.

It meant I had this view from my window.  I am grateful that the Hilton Garden Inn has the best soundproofing I have ever experienced.

The room

The first thing that hit me when I opened the door was a blast of cold air.  The thermostat had been set to a rather aggressive 18 degrees compared to the usual 22-24 degree.

The room was disappointingly bland.  You have grey / green wallpaper, grey / green carpet and grey bed bases.

The chair is also grey, livened up (a very tiny bit) by a dark wood table!

There is no wardrobe, only a small open rail, but that is perfectly fine for an overnight stay.

Full credit to Hilton for including a desk.  The curve was unnecessary, cutting down the working space, but apart from that it was fine.  There were four UK plug sockets and two USB chargers within easy reach.

The desk also contained a kettle, tea / coffee and a free bottle of Hildon water.  There is an empty fridge, visible in the picture under the desk, but no mini-bar – the fridge is for any items you bring yourself or buy in the lobby shop.

The bathroom contained a shower but no tub.   It was high quality, with a choice of rainfall or hand-held.  Whilst the water pressure was perfect, the water ‘flow’ was a little odd – it was as if the holes in the shower head were smaller than normal!  It looked like a lot of water was coming out but you didn’t feel that you were getting very wet.

Toiletries were by Crabtree & Evelyn:

The view was, of course, terrible as I mentioned above.  However, if I had been higher up, I would have had a good view of the runway.  I am a little confused as to why a Diamond member – and my status was acknowledged at check-in – was given a room on Level 5 which is clearly the worst one.

(EDIT: it seems that a Diamond does NOT get upgraded at a HGI.  You learn something new every day.  However, this still does not explain why you would allocate them a standard room on the worst possible floor.)

No mobile signal …..

The Vodafone signal in my room was appalling.  It never got beyond two bars and was often at one bar.  The one telephone call I attempted to make had terrible reception and eventually cut out.  I ended up using Skype which was fine, as the wi-fi was very good.

Other amenities

The hotel will soon have a rooftop bar which promises to have some exceptional views.  It will not open until August, I believe, so I couldn’t test it out.

In the lobby is a small snack shop:

The bar and restaurant

Hilton Garden Inn has a bar, ‘The Apron Bar’ and restaurant, ‘The Apron Restaurant’.

Both are well designed and pleasant places to spend some time, despite being on the lower level and so at the same level as the supports holding up the road overhead.

Here is a shot of the bar.  Only after I had eaten in the restaurant did I realise that the bar has its own menu and I could have eaten there instead:

The restaurant was OK.  The staff were great, the menu was well presented and the mix of ‘classics’ – grilled steak or chicken, burgers, fish and chips, chicken tikka, pizza, pasta, salads – probably well suited to the target market.

and

Here was my £15.50 fish and chips – the fish looked overcooked but was actually fine:

Here’s a tip.  Do not do what I did, which is accept a seat near the entrance.  Your view is basically ‘all the trash that the hotel and Heathrow decided to dump under the ring road’.  Not attractive.

Move towards the back of the room and you can look at this instead, although only a handful of table have this view:

To be honest, I don’t understand why the hotel insisted on building a rooftop bar and didn’t move the restaurant to the top floor instead. The ambience would have been much improved.

Breakfast

Hilton Honors Diamond members do not AUTOMATICALLY get free breakfast at a Hilton Garden Inn.

HGI is the ONLY Hilton brand where a Diamond has to opt in to get a free breakfast.

You CAN have it, but you must change your ‘MyWay’ benefits option 24 hours before checking in.  The default MyWay option is to refuse the free breakfast and award you 750 bonus points – which I’d value at £3 – instead.  Don’t forget to do this.

Breakfast itself was perfectly acceptable for a Holiday Inn-style hotel, with a decent selection of cereals, pastries and hot items.  See:

and

It isn’t life changing, however, and if you have airport lounge access then I certainly wouldn’t bother paying to eat breakfast in the hotel.

Conclusion

What did I think of the Hilton Garden Inn Heathrow Terminal 2?  I’m in two minds, to be honest.

The key positive points are a) that the hotel is brand new, so everything is modern and fresh and b) it is directly connected to Terminal 2, saving the cost and time of taking the Hotel Hoppa bus.

At £90 – and I’ve seen it as low as £80 – it is good value for money, although you can pay nearer £140 on many nights.

Arora, who own it (and who also own the Sofitel Terminal 5 and the combined Crowne Plaza / Holiday Inn Express in Terminal 4) could have done better.  The room decoration scheme is too dull and the restaurant should be on the roof.  Some Vodafone mobile phone reception would be handy too, as would not having housekeeping banging on my door at 8.45am – especially as reception had asked me when I was leaving and I said 10am.

Having said all that ….. if you are flying from Terminal 2, it isn’t worth staying at one of the other hotels just to avoid this place.  The staff are very pleasant, the restaurant and bar are smart and the soundproofing is exceptional.  Don’t expect to be blown away though.

The good news is that, following the burst of recent activity, we now have a lot of good hotels directly connected to Heathrow’s terminals. 

Whilst the Sofitel in T5 is a premium 5-star product, Terminal 4 has a new-ish Premier Inn T4 (reviewed here) and Holiday Inn Express T4 (reviewed here) together with the upper-midscale Crowne Plaza T4 (reviewed here) and the old Hilton T4 (reviewed here).  Terminal 3 will soon have the Aerotel from Plaza Premium directly in the arrivals hall.

There are very few airports which have so many different hotels directly linked to their terminals, especially at lower price points, which is good news for everyone using Heathrow.

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

The Hilton Garden Inn Heathrow Terminal 2 website is here if you want to book or find out more.

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.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

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.)

Last month we reviewed the new Staybridge Suites hotel at Heathrow which you can read here.  Staybridge Suites shares a building with the new Holiday Inn Bath Road but the latter wasn’t open when I stayed.

Facing an early morning flight to Berlin, I thought I would come back and try the Holiday Inn.  HfP paid for its own room, which was £79.

The hotel website is here.

Getting to the Holiday Inn London Heathrow Bath Road

Detailed instructions on getting to the hotel by free local bus are in our Staybridge Suites review.  This is actually the nearest hotel to the Heathrow Central Bus Station at Terminal 2 and it is just a six minute ride on the U3 which stops opposite.  There are also buses from Terminal 5 or you can pay £5 for the Hotel Hoppa which comes to the hotel door.

Checking in

The lobby is very smart and you can see right through the building to the bar and restaurant.  You can easily tell that this is a cut above your average Holiday Inn.

Check-in was quick and pleasant, with an upgrade given to me as a Spire Elite member to a King Executive Room.  My prepaid room had not actually been charged in advance, which was the same situation as at the Staybridge Suites in December.

Only when I got to my room did I realise that I hadn’t been offered points or a drink and snack voucher as a welcome amenity.  I went back to reception and was told that the clerk had assumed I’d want points “because everyone does” and had added them automatically.  (When I checked my email, I had a confirmation showing 500 points added.)  If you’re spending your own money or can’t expense alcohol, ignore the 500 points, only £2-worth, and take the pricey drink and snack instead.  I ended up with both.

My room

Before I go on, I should say that the lift lobby is bizarrely dark.  You go through a set of double doors, which blocks light from the lobby, and then you only have a few spotlights in the life area.  I actually checked to make sure the lights weren’t half dead, but they were all on.  It is just odd and potentially a little unnerving for some people.

After my very spacious one-bedroom suite at the Staybridge Suites, it was a bit of a shock to walk into my standard sized Holiday Inn room.  My last few hotel stays had all been suites or junior suites, either through upgrades or because we booked one to fit the kids in.

Let me be clear.  There was absolutely nothing wrong with the room at all:

It had a big king bed:

…. a corner sofa (perhaps a little too big for the room if I’m honest):

…. a decent desk:

…. a coffee machine and, in the wardrobe, two bathrobes – presumable ‘executive room’ perks.  There was also an ironing board in the wardrobe and a minibar, although it only contained two bottle of water, a Diet Coke and a Fanta!  In retrospect I imagine these were free as an executive room perk but it wasn’t mentioned at check-in.

There was a very decent bathroom with Gilchrist & Soames toiletries (potentially upgraded as I was in an executive room):

…. and a huge shower, although no bath:

There is a ‘woody’ theme to the entire hotel which is a little retro but works OK.  The wooden bathroom door felt a little out of place, perhaps because it was similar to the main room door.

Let’s not talk about the view:

Some rooms overlook the atrium and do not have an outside view.  You’re not missing much if this is the alternative.  You will NOT get this view at the Staybridge Suites as that is on the other side of the building.

Food and drink at Holiday Inn Bath Road

The food and drink offering is where the hotel really scores, in my view, and why I’d come back here.  The designers have done a genuinely excellent job.

Note that I took these pictures in the middle of the afternoon which is why there is no-one about.  It was busier later in the evening when I came down for dinner.

There will eventually be three areas.  The cafe is not yet open but that is off to one side anyway.  Under the atrium is an ‘all day dining’ restaurant’ which is Italian-themed.  It is easy to mess up a cavernous space but the the seating had been cleverly arranged with partitions to still feel intimate:

The real wow factor came from the open kitchen in the middle of the atrium.  There are also a number of bar seats available on the edge of the kitchen itself, so you can sit and watch your food being cooked literally right in front of you.  This is something I generally expect to see in a higher end restaurant than a Holiday Inn.

The bar is equally impressive as you can see.  A lot of the drinks appear decorative – the amount of Laurent Perrier Rose (£50 per bottle in the supermarket so substantially more here) on the display will keep them going for a few years, I imagine – but it looks fantastic.

You can also eat in the bar, which I did:

A good quality plate of fish and chips was £16 and I used my Spire Elite amenity voucher for a large glass of white wine.

As I had an early flight the next morning I didn’t stay for breakfast.

There isn’t much else to add.  There is a fitness centre on the first floor but no pool and no Club Lounge.  Internet was impressively fast – I had nine apps on my phone to update and it whizzed through them.

Conclusion

Holiday Inn London Heathrow Bath Road is a high quality hotel.  The bar and restaurant are on a par with the new Crowne Plaza in Terminal 4 and the room quality is close.  The room could have been a little bigger and, although a lot of guests will be grateful for it, shoe-horning in the corner sofa may have been a mistake.

If you are going to be in the hotel for a full day, you might prefer a one-bedroom suite in the Staybridge Suites next door.  This gives you a lot of extra space and, whilst the Staybridge Suites has no restaurant, you can take the five second walk to the Holiday Inn for dinner.  You also get free breakfast at the Staybridge Suites.  (For clarity, the two hotels do not connect internally.  You need to walk out of one, take 10 steps and walk back in through the other entrance.)

For a short stay, where you don’t need the room space, the Holiday Inn Bath Road will definitely do the job.  If you don’t want to pay the premium to stay in a hotel attached to the terminals, this is a very good choice.

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

The Holiday Inn London Heathrow Bath Road website is here if you want to find out more.

IHG One Rewards update – January 2024:

Get bonus points: Our article on IHG’s January 2024 bonus promotion is here. You will receive double base points on every cash stay between 1st January and 31st January 2024. Click here to register.

New to IHG One Rewards?  Read our overview of IHG One Rewards here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on ‘What are IHG One Rewards points worth?’ is here.

Buy points: If you need additional IHG One Rewards points, you can buy them here.

You get a 100% bonus when you buy IHG One Rewards points by 2nd February 2024. Click here.

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

IHG is on a bit of a roll at Heathrow at the moment.  We recently reviewed the (very nice) new Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn Express connected to Terminal 4.  Today I want to review the new Staybridge Suites London Heathrow Bath Road which has just opened.

Staybridge Suites is one of IHG’s ‘extended stay’ brands.  Rhys reviewed the new Staybridge Suites in Manchester in December which was the first time we’d ever covered one, but I was keen to take a look myself.

These are the features you can expect to find at a Staybridge Suites:

• standard rooms with kitchenettes, but primarily 1+ bedroom suites with a separate bedroom and lounge / kitchen / dining area
• limited hotel facilities, including no housekeeping at weekends unless specifically requested
• evening social events
• no restaurant and no bar but a pantry selling lights snacks and microwavable meals
• free breakfast

Whilst in theory they are designed for contractors on extended stays, I think a lot of people book them purely because you get a lot of space for your money or because they need a room to accommodate children.  The average length of stay is probably shorter than you think and they don’t look twice if you only book for one night.

Our stay at Staybridge Suite London Heathrow Bath Road was paid in cash.  We paid just £76 for a one-bedroom suite.

This is a dual branded building which is 50% Staybridge Suites and 50% Holiday Inn.  The Holiday Inn Heathrow Bath Road website is here.  The Holiday Inn was not open when I visited but will be any day now.  The hotels are totally separate inside.

Getting to Staybridge Suites London Heathrow Bath Road

Regular readers will know that I hate staying at airport hotels which are not directly connected to the terminals.

The Staybridge Suites is surprising easy to reach however.  From the Central Bus Station at T2/T3 it took just 6 minutes on the U3 bus which stops directly opposite.  You can also get a 105, 111, 140 or 285 bus to Newport Road.  This stop is further away.  From T5 or Hatton Cross you can get the 423 which stops opposite.

You have to cross a 4-lane road with no sort of pedestrian crossing to help you.  This could be tricky with luggage and/or small children and/or in darkness.

The local buses are free.  The £6 Hotel Hoppa bus also stops here.

My suite

Check-in was efficient and the woman behind the desk was exceptionally bubbly and enthusiastic.  This may be because she wasn’t used to seeing many guests – the property still seemed exceptionally quiet.  I was given a tour of the common areas and, as a Spire Elite, given two vouchers for a free drink and snack.  There is also a points alternative but there is a lot more value in the refreshments.

The hotel has a bit of an Orla Kiely feel as you can see from the corridors, which were pleasantly light and wide:

Let me give you a tour of my suite, which was very spacious and – for £76 including breakfast – very good value.

The living area contained a round dining table with three chairs:

…. and a kitchen unit.  The kitchen was very comprehensive – there was a fridge, a two ring induction hob, a kettle, a full set of saucepans, a full set of kitchen utensils, a dishwasher, a microwave, a sink, a full set of crockery for 4 people, glassware inc wine glasses and a cafetiere.  It was everything you’d expect and of course it is all brand new.

The kitchen area has mock-wood lino flooring.  The living area is carpeted, as is the bedroom.

The living area has a long sofa which would happily seat four, an armchair, two tables, a lamp and a TV.  What the suite doesn’t have is a desk – you need to work at the kitchen table or in the business areas in the lobby.

The bedroom is not huge but was perfectly pleasant with a 2nd TV.  The wardrobe contained 12 coat hangers so you won’t be short, although the inclusion of some drawers means that the space available for long hanging items such as dresses or coats is modest.  An iron and ironing board is provided.

The windows are far slimmer than they had to be.  The architect decided that slim windows would look more modern, clearly.  This may be true, but it also means that there is less natural light than there could have been.

The bathroom was also a good size.  There was no bath which, for an extended stay property, was a missed opportunity.  The shower was very large but there was only one sink which was relatively small.  You do get a lot of counter space which is important if you are staying for longer and have brought full size products.

Toiletries were Gilchrist & Soames.  They came in bumper sized containers which are not meant to be taken away, although they are not bolted to the wall.

You don’t get a washing machine, but there is a laundry room on the first floor:

There is also a modest fitness room.

There are some interesting touches to make the room look more like a home which it takes you a while to spot.  There is no marketing literature, at all, on display.  There is a clock on the wall.  The light switches and power sockets are standard domestic ones.   This is all done to give a more ‘homely’ feel to long stay guests.

Soundproofing is outstanding.

The public areas

There is no restaurant and no bar.  Literally within days the Holiday Inn next door will be open which solves the problem.  I was left with snacks from the pantry.  There is nothing else walkable from the hotel unless you head to the Leonardo Hotel nearby.

(It is worth noting that the ‘free drink and snack’ voucher given to elite IHG Rewards Club members includes 200 ml bottles of prosecco, although not spirits.  As well as the kettle and cafetiere in your room, there is 24/7 free coffee available from a machine in the breakfast area.)

There is a LOT of public space at the Staybridge Suites for milling around which is rare in new hotels.  On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights the hotel holds social events where you can get a free drink and meet other guests – unfortunately I was there on a Monday.

If you don’t want to work in your room, you can choose from this space:

…. or this space:

…. or this room, called The Den which has a smart skylight:

Breakfast at Staybridge Suites London Heathrow

Here is the breakfast room, in a picture taken in the afternoon which is why it is empty.  I found the use of picnic tables for the bulk of the seating to be weird.  Breakfast runs from 6am to 9.30am which isn’t great if you want to sleep in.

The buffet looks relatively small but actually contained everything I wanted.  There is a buffet here:

…. and some hot items:

Two things did annoy me.  Firstly, as the top picture shows, cereal is served from the usual domestic cardboard boxes.  This looks messy and is probably unhealthy, as most people end up putting their hands in the box to scoop out the contents once it gets low.  Secondly, fruit juice is poured from supermarket cartons – it wouldn’t have hurt to decant it into jugs.

It is worth noting that, even though the hotel was virtually empty, I couldn’t get a standard table to myself.  My only options were to eat at a stupid picnic table or eat in the lounge at a low table.  I did the latter.  Once occupancy picks up, table sharing for breakfast will be unavoidable unless they add some more furniture and rip out the picnic tables.

Conclusion

This was my first visit to a Staybridge Suites and I was impressed.  Everything is new and shiny, rates are low, you get a lot of space if you take a one bedroom suite (I paid £76 in IHG’s recent Flash Sale) and it is literally just 6 minutes on the bus from the Central Bus Station.

I am still happier in hotels attached to the terminal, purely for convenience, but if you want to save some money then Staybridge Suites London Heathrow Bath Road is worth a look.

My only criticism is whether, if you do need a place for a longer stay, Bath Road is where you want to be.  If you were seconded to Heathrow for a couple of weeks, would you prefer a suite here to staying in a traditional hotel room in a nearby town with shops, pubs and restaurants within walking distance?  Some people would, some wouldn’t.

As an IHG Rewards Club redemption Staybridge Suites Heathrow is currently 25,000 points.  This gets you the standard ‘Studio Suite’ and not the one bedroom suite which I had.  The new Holiday Inn in the same building (website here) is the same price.  This is fair pricing given typical cash rates of £100 and my standard valuation of IHG Rewards Club points at 0.4p.

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

The Staybridge Suites London Heathrow Bath Road website is here if you want to book or find out more.

IHG One Rewards update – January 2024:

Get bonus points: Our article on IHG’s January 2024 bonus promotion is here. You will receive double base points on every cash stay between 1st January and 31st January 2024. Click here to register.

New to IHG One Rewards?  Read our overview of IHG One Rewards here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on ‘What are IHG One Rewards points worth?’ is here.

Buy points: If you need additional IHG One Rewards points, you can buy them here.

You get a 100% bonus when you buy IHG One Rewards points by 2nd February 2024. Click here.

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

With an early morning meeting in the diary to plan Virgin Atlantic’s sponsorship for our Christmas party, I ended up spending the night at Gatwick Airport.  We decided to kill two birds with one stone and add another hotel to our collection of Heathrow and Gatwick airport hotels reviews – click here for the full list.

We booked the hotel using 30,000 Hilton Honors points from Rob’s account, since it was a last-minute booking where cash rates were higher than you’d usually expect.

The Hilton is the only full service hotel directly connected to the South Terminal, but getting to it is a bit of a challenge.  You have to exit the terminal and cross the bus lane to the short stay car park, take the lift up one floor to floor 2 before turning right through a set of automatic doors. Then it’s a long walk through this soulless corridor:

The hotel itself is in a huge 1960s building. It’s wide rather than tall, with over 800 rooms on four floors. It was difficult getting a sense of the building as it has many different wings and zones. Here is the lobby atrium:

Trying to find your room can be a bit of a challenge given the confusing signage:

With a Diamond upgrade, I was given a room much larger than I needed. It had a King bed as well as two singles:

and:

…. with two large wardrobes, a small table and four chairs and a desk, all of which seemed to be older than me:

Connectivity is a little lacking, as you’d expect for an older hotel. There is only a single plug socket beside the bed and to use this you had to unplug the bedside lights!

The room comes with an empty mini fridge, kettle and tea/coffee selection. If you are an Hilton Honors Diamond status holder they give you your two bottles of water at check-in, which you must carry up yourself.  This would be annoying if you have lots of bags, which luckily I didn’t.

The décor is in fairly good shape despite having a slightly outdated design.

The room itself was very dark. This is constrained by the building itself – it only has very narrow windows. You can see the curtains next to the black panels in this courtyard view from my room:

The bathroom is clearly an older format, with a shower over the tub, but it was clean and newer than the furniture in the room.  It came with Crabtree & Evelyn products:

and

The bed itself was comfortable. In most hotels I find myself overheating since the rooms are temperature controlled and the duvets heavier than they need to be. At the Hilton, however, the lighter duvet was perfect for me.

This is an airport hotel with many guests staying in order to catch very early flights. This wouldn’t have been a problem if the room had a bit more soundproofing. .… I ended up waking up at the same time as an Italian family next door. I was also woken a few times by doors slamming shut.

Breakfast is served on the ground floor in the Garden Restaurant. It is the usual selection of hot and cold food, though I did spot some smoked mackerel! No smoked salmon, however, unlike at the Crowne Plaza I stayed at recently.

and

and

Executive Lounge

The Executive lounge, open to those in Executive rooms and those with Hilton Diamond status, is mainly set up with tables and chairs alongside a few sofas.

The only newspapers they had were the i and the Irish Independent (!), which I thought was a little disappointing.

The lounge serves free continental breakfast in the mornings:

and

…… as well as complimentary drinks and canapes early evening.  I didn’t see these as I arrived very late.

Conclusion

Though it won’t be winning any design awards in a hurry, the Hilton London Gatwick Airport does have the unique selling point of being the only hotel within walking distance of the South Terminal building, even if it is a maze to get to!  That said, there are a number of walkable options at the North Terminal – primarily the new(ish) Hampton by Hilton which we reviewed here and which has free breakfast for everyone – and there is a free monorail linking the terminals.

The Hilton Gatwick building is very spread out, and thanks to its size it felt both a little soulless and difficult to navigate.  With a little clearer signage, and potentially some room renumbering, they might be able to make it a little easier.

On the whole, it was a pleasant but not outstanding experience as you’d expect from your average airport hotel.  Hilton Diamond members will find it better value as they will get free lounge access.  Cash rates vary – they were around £149 when we booked but I can see midweek rooms as low as £71 in January.

The standard Hilton Honors redemption price is 30,000 points although it drops a little lower on dates where cash prices are also low.  Given our standard value of a Hilton point of 0.33p, a redemption can be good value on nights where prices are £100+.

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

You can find out more about Hilton London Gatwick Airport on its website here.

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.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

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.)

Or, to be more accurate, a quick overview.  Yesterday I reviewed the new Crowne Plaza London Heathrow Terminal 4 hotel (click here), which is where I spent the night, but I got a tour of the Holiday Inn Express.  Both hotels share the same building and, interestingly, share many of the same facilities.

This poses an interesting question for potential guests.  The Holiday Inn Express is around £35 per night cheaper than the Crowne Plaza.  The rooms are totally different in design and, whilst the HIE rooms are smaller, they are not so much smaller.  More importantly:

both hotels share the same main bar (there is also a separate bar / casual dining restaurant on the Holiday Inn Express side)

guests at both hotels can eat at the excellent Urban restaurant, even though it is nominally on the Crowne Plaza side

guests at both hotels can use the Crowne Plaza lobby level cafe

whilst the hotels have separate reception areas, they use the same bank of lifts and the hotels are not separated by floor.  Each floor contains both Holiday Inn Express and Crowne Plaza rooms.

Holiday Inn Express guests get free breakfast in the Holiday Inn Express restaurant, whilst breakfast in the Crowne Plaza restaurant for their guests is £17.95 (traditional English) / £14.95 (continental) for adults with children 3-12 half price

The only area that is strictly out of bounds to Holiday Inn Express guests is the gym, which is only for Crowne Plaza residents.

Even if you are looking for a ‘classy’ experience, I wouldn’t blame you if you decided to save £35 plus the cost of breakfast by staying in a Holiday Inn Express room.  You can use the saving to have a few drinks in the smart shared bar or to put towards a good meal in the Urban restaurant.  You can read more about the bar and restaurant in my Crowne Plaza Heathrow T4 review here.

You should also read my Crowne Plaza T4 review if you want to know the options for getting to and from other Heathrow terminals.

Back to the Holiday Inn Express Heathrow T4 …..

Access to the hotel is via the gangway from the Departures level of Terminal 4.  The same gangway also leads to the Hilton Terminal 4 (reviewed here) and the Premier Inn (review), but the new Holiday Inn Express is the nearest.

Here is a typical room I was shown:

As you can see, there is noting to complain about there.  Everything is brand new, the bed is a decent size and there are plenty of sockets.  There is also a chair and a small work table, with an adjacent plug:

The only major difference to the Crowne Plaza rooms is the lack of a formal desk.  You get a kettle with tea and coffee, as you do in the entry-level Crowne Plaza rooms – you only get a Nespresso machine in a ‘business’ room at the CP.

Heading into the bathroom, everything is spick and span.  There is less room around the edges of the sink than in the Crowne Plaza but that isn’t a major niggle.  Toiletries are from dispensers in standard Holiday Inn Express style.

The shower is also perfectly acceptable – it is a sign of how good ‘budget’ hotels are these days that the facilities are better than many of us have in our own homes.

This ‘hidden’ iron and ironing board is also a useful touch – the mirror is on the other side.

Here is the same shot of the lobby that I used yesterday in my Crowne Plaza review:

This is the ‘Holiday Inn Express side’ of the lobby, although guests at either hotel can wander around all of the facilities without issues.  This is the bar which also serves food.  I can imagine that some Crowne Plaza guests looking for a less formal meal than offered at Urban will end up here.

This is looking off to the side – the free Holiday Inn Express breakfast buffet is served down here.  It was late afternoon when I took these pictures so I didn’t photograph the food.

I though this newspaper spread was a nice touch, especially for solo travellers – although perhaps they over-ordered China Daily …..

Conclusion

I was very impressed by the Holiday Inn Express London Heathrow Terminal 4, as indeed I have been by all of the recent HIE hotels I have seen which use the new ‘Generation 4’ design scheme.

The co-location with the Crowne Plaza offers the best of both worlds here, with high quality but low(er) cost rooms and the ability to use the more upmarket CP bar, restaurant and lobby cafe if you want to eat or drink well.

For cash, rooms are typically £75 midweek (free breakfast included) at the moment, compared to £110 (room only) at the Crowne Plaza.  Redemptions are 20,000 IHG Rewards Club points per night compared with 30,000 points at the CP.

The next Heathrow openings which are directly connected to the terminals will be the Hilton Garden Inn Terminal 2/3 – which has the same ownership as this hotel, Arora Group – and the Aerotel inside Terminal 3.

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

The Holiday Inn Express Heathrow Terminal 4 website is here if you want to find out more or to book.  The Crowne Plaza website is here for comparison.

The Crowne Plaza London Heathrow Terminal 4 has just opened.  It shares a building with the Holiday Inn Express London Heathrow Terminal 4 and represents a chunky £80m investment by Arora Group, which also own the Sofitel Heathrow Terminal 5 amongst other properties.

To put the hotel in context, at almost 700 rooms across both brands it is the largest hotel to open in the UK this year and the largest IHG hotel opening anywhere in Europe this year.

IHG offered me a free night to take a look.  As you will see tomorrow I also got a tour of the Holiday Inn Express part of the building, although I did not stay there.

‘Two in one’ hotels are becoming more common

‘Two in one’ hotels, where one building contains two properties owned by the same group, are becoming more prevalent.  IHG has another opening at Heathrow in January, when a joint Staybridge Suites and Holiday Inn opens on Bath Road.  There is logic to it – you can justify a bigger building on scarce airport land, and there are cost savings to be had behind the scenes.

What varies from development to development is how closely the hotels are integrated.  At Westfield Stratford, for example, a Holiday Inn (reviewed here) and Staybridge Suites share the same building but do not share facilities.

In contrast, this new Terminal 4 development is the most integrated I have ever seen – only time will tell if the Crowne Plaza suffers because of this, because you can pay £35 less for a Holiday Inn Express bed and still use the same restaurant and bar, plus get free breakfast.  I’m getting ahead of myself though ….

Getting there

You access the hotel via the Departures level at Heathrow Terminal 4.  (Don’t go to Arrivals if arriving by tube or train.)  If you have ever stayed at the Hilton Terminal 4 (review) or Premier Inn Terminal 4 (review) you will know the gangway that leads from the terminal to the hotels.

If you taking the tube from Central London, make sure you get a Terminal 4 train and not a Terminal 5 one.  If you take the Heathrow Express, you need to change at Terminal 2/3 for the TFL Rail train to Terminal 4.  Alternatively, get the TFL Rail (ex Heathrow Connect) service from Paddington in the first place.

Getting to Terminal 5 is a bit messy, unfortunately – it is also a quite a distance if you look at a map.  You need to take the train or tube via Terminals 2/3.  Other options are the Hotel Hoppa bus or bus number 482 or 490 from bus stop 7 (free service).  The hotel can also order you a taxi.

The Crowne Plaza Terminal 4 is the first hotel on the gangway.  You save a couple of minutes compared to walking to the Hilton or Premier Inn.

My room

One benefit of having a Holiday Inn Express in the same building is that the Crowne Plaza has had to invest in impressive rooms to stop guests trading down.  As you can see, they are very classy:

There are not huge, however, and there isn’t a lot of difference in terms of space between the two hotels.  The little things are all there – individual reading lights, USB sockets by the bed, a variety of pillow types, a robe in the wardrobe etc.

The standard rooms only sleep two people.  For a family, I would recommend a suite which is about 75% more expensive than a room but has a capacity of four people, as long as two are children under 12.

The room came with a fruit bowl and a small box of chocolates.

There was no coffee machine in the standard rooms, which is a shame as it would have been a good way of creating more differentiation with the Holiday Inn Express.  However, if you book a ‘Business’ room for an extra £20 or so then it appears that you do get a Nespresso machine and a Bluetooth speaker system.

In a standard room you get a kettle, two packets of biscuits (yeah!), tea, coffee and two free bottles of water.

If you need to work, this is where the Crowne Plaza scores over the Holiday Inn Express with a good sized desk complete with power sockets and a decent light.  Wi-fi was free and of excellent quality, as you’d expect from a new build hotel.

The bathroom had some snazzy silver tiling.  There was only one sink.  Toiletries were the standard Crowne Plaza ‘this works’ brand which I find fine.

You get a big shower – wider than the picture shows – with a choice of rainfall or traditional water jets.

It goes without saying that soundproofing is EXCELLENT.  I did not hear any aircraft noise at all.  In terms of views, some rooms – including mine – directly face the Hilton Terminal 4 across the road (which is quite an impressive bit of architecture by airport hotel standards) whilst others face towards the terminal.  Some also face inwards over the atrium.

Let me show you how it looks inside.  The hotel is rhombus shaped.  Whilst both the Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn Express have their own check-in areas and receptions, they share the lift bank.  Not only that, but each floor has a mix of Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn Express rooms.  You walk out of the lifts and turn one way for the CP and the other way for the Holiday Inn Express.

This is a view from the 4th floor, where I was, looking down on the Crowne Plaza lobby cafe which has a surprisingly good cake selection!

Here is a cafe shot from the ground floor:

Below is the bar.  This is an interesting arrangement.  The Holiday Inn Express side of the ground floor – the areas are separated by the lift lobby – has its own bar / restaurant which serves drinks and a standard Cafe Rouge-style food menu.  There is also, behind the lifts, a stand-alone bar with two doors – one on each brands ‘side’ of the ground floor – which is pictured below.  Whilst decoratively it looks more like the Crowne Plaza, it is open to all guests.

and

Here’s a view looking up from the lobby:

Restaurant

The General Manager, Andrew Brown, gave me a tour of the hotel.  When we went into Urban, the main restaurant (on the Crowne Plaza side but usable by guests at either brand) he told me what a great team of chefs he had assembled and how impressed he was by the food.  This is, of course, what you’d expect him to say.

I got a shock though.  I had the best meal that I have ever had in an airport hotel.

Here is the interior – this is also where breakfast is served:

This was a scallop and risotto appetiser

And this was my ‘three ways’ pork main course:

It was very good.  If you are looking for a Heathrow hotel where you can eat well, in particular if you are meeting a client, I strongly recommend the Crowne Plaza Terminal 4.

Club Lounge

There WILL be an Executive Lounge at the hotel, but it will not be open until January 2019.

There are a couple of other facilities worth mentioning.  There is a gym in the basement.  This is ONLY for Crowne Plaza guests, so don’t book into the Holiday Inn Express side if you want to exercise.

There is a meeting room on lobby level which can be booked even if you are not a guest.

Finally, a few shots from breakfast.  There is a decent spread including a cook who can rustle up eggs and various other made to order items.

I’ve never seen so many pots of jam on a buffet ….

Conclusion

The Crowne Plaza London Heathrow Terminal 4 hotel is an impressive property.  As a brand new hotel – it even still smells new – it is obviously in excellent decorative order and has the high quality wi-fi, plethora of plug sockets and modern shower that you’d expect.

What you don’t always expect from a brand new hotel is good service and a fine-tuned restaurant, but I’m pleased to say that everything is working well in those areas too.

It is plusher and a little cosier than the adjacent Hilton – and you save a couple of minutes each way walking to and from the terminal.  The Hilton Terminal 4 has a lounge, of course, which may swing it for Hilton Diamond members, but the Crowne Plaza will have its own lounge space from January.  We need to see if Spire Elite members are given free access.

Tomorrow I will share a few thoughts on the Holiday Inn Express which shares the building.

Cash rates at the Crowne Plaza Heathrow Terminal 4 start at £110 for advance booking (room only) for midweek dates in December / January.  This is about £35 more than the Holiday Inn Express and you will get free breakfast there.  For points, the Crowne Plaza is 30,000 points per night which – at my notional 0.4p valuation – is about right.  The Holiday Inn Express is 20,000 IHG Rewards Club points per night.

Thanks to IHG for arranging my stay and for Andrew Brown and his team for showing me around.

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

The hotel website is here if you want to find out more.  You can compare and contrast with the Holiday Inn Express Heathrow Terminal 4 website which is here.

The YOTEL at Gatwick Airport opened about a decade ago and despite it being right inside the South Terminal, we’ve never paid much attention to it.  The idea of sleeping in a windowless tiny cabin seemed a bit odd – though it turned out to not be an issue at all.

YOTEL offered Head for Points a free stay in a Premium room to give it a try and as I had an early morning Vueling flight to Barcelona (that fun story will follow tomorrow), I checked in at the YOTEL Gatwick.

What is YOTEL?

Founded by Yo Sushi creator Simon Woodroffe, YOTEL is based on Japanese capsule hotels.  YOTELs have rather small rooms, called cabins, and are designed for short stays.  You can pay by the hour and stay as little as four hours.

The YOTEL brand consists of two different hotel concepts

• YOTELAIR – airport hotels
• YOTEL – city hotels

The YOTEL New York which opened in 2011 was the first city hotel offering small and functional rooms at an affordable price in a central location. With most people spending the majority of time in the city and not the hotel room, this concept does make sense for people who want a particular level of quality but are less concerned about space.

The airport hotels are a similar design but with less communal space.  Most guests will only want to book the rooms to sleep and take a shower.

They have a loyalty scheme – sort of ….

Club@YOTEL is the loyalty scheme for the chain, although it doesn’t offer much in the way of benefits.  Members get 10% off stays at the YOTEL New York, YOTEL Singapore and YOTEL Boston – and that’s it!

You can read more about Club@YOTEL and sign up here.

You can also Virgin Flying Club miles when you stay with YOTEL, as long as you are also a member of Club@YOTEL:

• Earn 500 miles for a single stay of at least 3 nights at YOTEL New York
• Earn 100 miles for a single stay at YOTEL Heathrow, Gatwick, Amsterdam Schipol and Paris Charles de Gaulle airport

You can find out more about this on the Virgin Atlantic website here.

Club@YOTEL is also a partner with Flying Blue, the Air France / KLM frequent flyer scheme.

My night at YOTEL Gatwick

There is only one other hotel which is closer to the departure gates than the YOTEL and that is the BLOC hotel (which a reader reviewed for us here). The YOTEL is literally a 5 minute walk from the train station and around 7 minutes from airport security.

For clarity, YOTEL Gatwick is landside and not airside.  (BLOC is also landside – there are no airside hotels at any UK airport as far as I know, except for the ‘by the hour’ rooms at No 1 Lounge in Heathrow T3.)  If you are in transit through Gatwick, you will need to clear immigration and, the next day, pass back through security to get to your connecting flight.

YOTEL is in the Gatwick South Terminal which is used mainly by British Airways.  There is a free monorail linking the North and South Terminals so you shouldn’t be put off if your flight is from North.  Trains from London arrive at the South Terminal so you are likely to pass through it irrespective of where you are flying from.

As you come out of the station you turn right, walk towards Costa and take the lift down. The YOTEL is next to the Regus Express business centre.

Check in

Mission Control, the hotel’s reception, was to the right and as the hotel is very small and there was no one else waiting, check in was super quick.

I was offered a complimentary hot drink and asked if I needed a hairdryer as there were none in the rooms.

If you need anything from a coffee cup to pyjamas or a toothbrush, you can purchase it at Mission Control. You can also pre-order a quick breakfast for £6.95, buy a curry for £4.95 (ready in 15 minutes) or get a bottle of wine for £12.

The cabin

The cabins are along a hallway and it felt a bit like walking along the cabins on a cruise ship – probably, as I’ve never been on a cruise ….

The occupied cabins had the curtains closed and the empty ones didn’t which means you could look inside the cabin from the hallway.  I was in Premium cabin number 7:

The pink light was a bit irritating but it only took me a minute to find the light control centre by the bed.

After I shut the curtains (you just pull them down) I turned the pink light off and the normal light on.  The bed was in sofa-mode by default:

Next to the bed was the ‘bathroom’.  You could shut the curtains and there was a sliding door which needed to be closed when taking a shower as otherwise the smoke detector might apparently go off.

The shower was larger than average, which you might find surprising given the small size of the cabin overall.  There was a handheld shower head as well as a rainfall shower.

There was one bottle of combined bodywash and shampoo in the shower.  Whilst I’m not the biggest fan of these ‘2 in 1’ products, it was actually decent.

The design of the cabin is very clever I must admit.  A table and chair are stored within the wall storage unit (see below) which also had a TV and four UK sockets.

The table could be flipped up and when the bed was in sofa mode there was enough room to sit at the table.

Wifi was complimentary and didn’t need a password.

As most guests only stay for a few hours or overnight, there was no proper wardrobe.  There was one lonely hanger for a jacket or a shirt.

There was also some storage underneath the bed which should fit two cabin bags or one regular suitcase.

There was a button to turn the sofa into a full sized double bed.  The mattress was very comfortable and I slept well.

Conclusion

Due to its location inside the airport the YOTEL is a great choice for early morning flights or when landing very late.

I believe the most important things an airport hotel has to offer are a comfortable bed, a good shower and easy access to the airport itself.

The YOTEL Gatwick does tick all three boxes and I can see myself booking a cabin again in the future. The only downside could be storage as with two people and more than two suitcases in the cabin, it could feel a bit cramped.

For stays longer than a few hours, do shop around.  The Hampton by Hilton inside the North Terminal is a ‘proper’ hotel which I reviewed here.  You’re unlikely to beat the YOTEL pricing if all you are doing is passing the time during a long stopover or arriving late for an early flight the next day.

Thanks to the YOTEL team for arranging my stay.  You can find out more, and book, on the YOTEL website here.

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

This HfP article tells you how Club@YOTEL, the YOTEL membership scheme, works and what the benefits are if you are planning a stay.

Hotel offers update – January 2024:

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.

Want to buy hotel points?

• Hilton Honors is offering an 80% to 100% bonus when you buy points by 12th March 2024. Click here.

• IHG One Rewards is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 2nd February 2024. Click here.

I’ve ticked off a lot of the key goals in the frequent traveller field.  Etihad First Class Apartment?  Check.  Lufthansa First Class and the Frankfurt First Class Terminal?  Check.  The Qatar Airways First Class Lounge in Doha?  Check.  Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse at Heathrow T3?  Check.

One thing still escaped me though …. I’d never taken the driverless pods at Heathrow Terminal 5.  It gnawed away at me every time I took a taxi to the airport and drove past them.

On Tuesday, I got my chance.

The biggest downside of staying at one of the hotels at Heathrow which is NOT directly connected to the terminals is the slow and painful process of getting to or from the airport.  The local Heathrow buses are free (this article explains which ones to take) but you need to get to the relevant bus stop and know where to get off.  This is tricky enough before you start to consider carrying your luggage.

The Hotel Hoppa bus service picks up directly from outside the terminals and drops you directly at the hotels.  However, the journey can be slow because each bus stops at a number of different hotels on its route.  It also costs a rip-off £5 per person each way.

If you stay at the Thistle Hotel at Heathrow, there is a third option.

The Thistle is situated next to the Heathrow car park from where the driverless pods take you to and from Terminal 5.

The Thistle has done a deal with Heathrow Airport to allow its customers to use the pods.  This being Heathrow, it is not a free service – you are charged £5 per person, each way, all of which is apparently paid to the airport.

My trip

I needed to stay at Heathrow on Tuesday night and decided to give the pods – and therefore the Thistle Heathrow hotel – a try.

It is well known that this is, to put it mildly, not the most modern hotel at Heathrow.  That was reflected in the £85 price, booked the day before.

Getting to Thistle Heathrow from the airport via the pods

I took a taxi to the hotel.  However, if you are coming from Terminal 5, you simply following the signs for Pod parking on Level 2 of the car park and select Station B.  When you arrive, 5 minutes later, there is a short walkway to your right which leads you to a gate.  You can buzz reception from here to have the gate opened for you, in return for having £5 added to your bill.

My room

This is not meant to be a full review of the Thistle Heathrow hotel.  I arrived at 10pm and left at 7am.  However, I will show you a few pictures.

I had heard bad things about this place.  Frankly, without the Pod access, there is no reason – at all – to stay here.

And yet …. it tries.  The staff were very friendly.  They have moved with the times and installed a ‘grab and go’ fridge in the lobby so you can get a half-decent snack:

The rest of the hotel is untouched from the 1980s.  I got a very weird feeling walking through it.  It was a throwback to when I first started staying in UK hotels when I was 19 or 20 on university work placements.  Anyone else remember when Thistle ran the Avon Gorge Hotel – soon to relaunch as a Hotel du Vin – overlooking Clifton suspension bridge in Bristol?

The room … well, it was OK.  Whilst the room was small, the bed was big, comfy and clean:

The bathroom had clearly been redone in the last five years or so and, whilst not huge, was perfectly fine for a hotel of this calibre:

The weird thing was the desk.  It was, very possibly, the original desk.  I have never, ever, had a hotel room with a desk so old.  It was at least 30 years old.  The photo below does not do justice to the chips, odd stains and general sense of junk that it gave off:

It is weird.  For £100 they could have replaced it with something decent.  A few thousand pounds has been spent on the bathroom but the desk is ancient.  Wi-fi was at least free, but slow as I found when trying to upload these images.

Here is a blast from the past for those of you aged 45 or above:

Do you see the MCT logo on the bedside control panel?  That stands for ‘Mount Charlotte Thistle’ which is what the group was called back for a while in the 1980s.  I hadn’t seen that logo for literally 25 years.

There isn’t much more to say.  The rooftop (although this is only a 2-story building, with no lift) restaurant apparently has a great viewing terrace over the runway.  The bar looked like your average 3-star hotel bar.  I didn’t use either – I ate at home and decided to have breakfast in the Plaza Premium T5 lounge.

In conclusion, you can clearly do better.  For the £85 I paid, it was fine.  For comparison, the Hilton Garden Inn at Hatton Cross was £130 and the single bed rooms at the Holiday Inn Arial were £120.  Arriving at 10pm and leaving at 7am, the Thistle Heathrow Terminal 5 did the job and being able to get the pod to Terminal 5 was a real time saver.

Getting back to the airport via the pods

In Part 2 of this review – click here – I will talk about how the pods work and about how easy it is to get there from the Thistle.  I even made a little video ….

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

You can find out more about the Pod service on the Thistle Heathrow Terminal 5 website here.

Hotel offers update – January 2024:

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.

Want to buy hotel points?

• Hilton Honors is offering an 80% to 100% bonus when you buy points by 12th March 2024. Click here.

• IHG One Rewards is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 2nd February 2024. Click here.

After attending the launch party for the Stobart Jet Centre next door, it seemed crazy to head all the way back to West London just to head back into the City the next morning.  The fairly new Holiday Inn Southend was offering a £64 rate including breakfast so, with some Accelerate promotion targets to tick off, I thought I would check it out.

Holiday Inn Southend (click here for the website) is a modern hotel and very well located for the airport. 

Whilst it is not directly connected to the terminal, it couldn’t be much closer.  The walk from Southend Airport railway station is around 4 minutes and from the terminal around 3 minutes.  The walk is not covered but there are no roads to cross until you reach the mini-roundabout outside the front door and the pavement is very wide and in good condition.

Some money has clearly been spent on the exterior design of the hotel:

The car park was busy but that seemed to be due to the ‘room and parking’ airport packages being heavily advertised by the door.  The lobby itself was deserted and apart from the receptionist I didn’t see a single person between the front door and my room.  I was also totally alone when I had breakfast the next morning.

Check in was pleasant but my Ambassador Spire Elite status was fundamentally ignored.  There was no acknowledgement of my status – despite the fact that I have no proof that I wasn’t the only guest in the entire hotel, as I never saw anyone else – and no upgrade despite the lack of guests.

I was offered some bonus points or a drink and snack as recognition of being “an IHG Rewards Club member”.  There was no mention of Spire status either verbally or on the voucher itself.  I reckon a Gold member would have got exactly the same.

My room

I had a Standard Room with a sofa bed and I had nothing to complain about.  As you can see, it was large and well maintained, with a good sized desk.  Internet was free but a little slow.

There were tea and coffee facilities and a safe, together with plenty of lighting.

The only things I found a bit weird were the very tiny bathroom (with an in-bath shower), an odd green light inside the bathroom and the bathroom door itself, which looked like a house door.  The green glow from the bathroom seeped through the glass panel of the bathroom door to odd effect!

The toiletries seemed OK but were in dispensers bolted to the wall.  You need to be upgraded to get miniature bottles at this hotel.

1935 Rooftop Bar and Restaurant

The real selling point of the Holiday Inn Southend, apart from the location, is the 1935 bar and restaurant.  Very excitedly, it tells you that it is “the first rooftop restaurant and bar in Essex” as well as “a first for Holiday inn across the UK”.

It is a smart space.  I didn’t eat here in the evening – the Stobart Jet Centre party was well catered – but I did pop in for breakfast.

One thing to note is that there are premium ‘cooked to order’ breakfast dishes available for a reasonable £2.50 supplement – poached haddock and eggs, smoked salmon and scrambled eggs and a ‘dish of the day’.  At quieter times the kitchen also cooks all standard egg dishes to order to reduce waste.

Plan B, if you don’t walk to eat here, is the 30 second walk to the McDonald’s opposite the hotel!

There are excellent views across the airfield from the restaurant and half of the rooms.  Unfortunately, arriving in darkness and leaving in darkness, I never saw them.

Leisure

There is no pool at the Holiday Inn Southend but there is a fitness suite.  It had some treadmills, cross trainers and spin bikes – as much as any traveller passing through was likely to need.

Conclusion

There is nothing to complain about at the Holiday Inn Southend / Holiday Inn Southend Airport, apart from a lack of elite recognition.  The hotel is new, fresh and clean with good sized rooms and a ‘statement’ restaurant.  I would be more than happy to stay here again.  The walk to the airport terminal is a short and safe one and you are only likely to have issues if it is raining.

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

The Holiday Inn Southend website is here if you want to learn more.

IHG One Rewards update – January 2024:

Get bonus points: Our article on IHG’s January 2024 bonus promotion is here. You will receive double base points on every cash stay between 1st January and 31st January 2024. Click here to register.

New to IHG One Rewards?  Read our overview of IHG One Rewards here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on ‘What are IHG One Rewards points worth?’ is here.

Buy points: If you need additional IHG One Rewards points, you can buy them here.

You get a 100% bonus when you buy IHG One Rewards points by 2nd February 2024. Click here.

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

We will be having a bit of a Gatwick South phase on Head for Points over the next week or so, as I get around to telling you how I found my trip to New York in Norwegian’s Premium Cabin.  You’ll also see what Rob made of the No 1 Lounge in Gatwick South which I looked at last year.

As we knew all this coverage was coming up, we were interested when reader Graham offered us a review of the BLOC hotel inside London Gatwick’s South Terminal.  It has been on our ‘to do’ list for a while.

We usually politely turn down such offers, but as the BLOC Hotel is inside the terminal itself – landside, directly next to security screening – and therefore an interesting choice for early and late night flights, we thought it would be great to find out a bit more.  Because it is landside, it is also suitable if you are flying from Gatwick North as the monorail is only about two minutes walk away.

As usual, we have edited Graham’s article in places and any errors are probably ours!

Over to Graham:

“Travelling on an early morning British Airways flight to Dubrovnik last week, rather than set off at an unearthly hour to travel to Gatwick, my partner and I decided to try the BLOC Hotel at Gatwick’s South Terminal.

Opened in 2014, the hotel consists of 245 rooms over four floors, ranging from a basic 97 square foot room right up to a VIP double room with 237 square feet of space. There is also a ‘Runway Suite’ complete with lounge and kitchenette and panoramic views of the runway.

Importantly, if you book the basic room, you may be in for a surprise – namely, that these rooms have no windows at all!

We opted for a standard double room which BLOC refer to as a Vista double room.

Location

The key USP with the BLOC hotel at Gatwick is the location. It would be difficult to find a hotel closer to the departure gates than this:

Technically, the entrance to the hotel is located on the 3rd floor of the South Terminal, however as floor zero is restricted to authorised staff only, the entrance and reception are effectively on the 2nd floor immediately next to departures and security.

I timed the walk from the hotel reception/lobby to the Gatwick Premium / Fast Track boarding pass readers and it came in at a very impressive 15 seconds. If you take advantage of BA’s twilight check in service (as we did), you can literally stroll out of the hotel and be in the impressive new BA lounge within minutes.

Check in

The hotel check in was very efficient and took less than one minute, however as this hotel has no bar or restaurants, there is no need for staff to take a credit card to authorise any extras.

I had asked for a room with a runway view and the hotel had honoured this request by providing us with a room on the 5th floor at the very end of the building overlooking the apron.

The view from our room is not actually dissimilar to those from the BA lounge.

The room

Our room consisted of a small entrance lobby, with a clothes rail with four hangers and space for storing luggage, a compact all-in-one bathroom/wet room with shower and a double bed only accessible from one side. There was no desk in this room though I understand that desks come as standard in some of the other rooms.

The room, like all of the hotel, is finished in dark wood panelling.

There was also additional luggage storage space near the window of the room, however the space is not conducive to storing a large suitcase flat so that you can fully open it. Luggage stands would therefore be a welcome addition.

Unfortunately, it was difficult to photograph a true representation of the size of the room due to an abundance of mirrors. However, whilst the room was compact, it was certainly not claustrophobic.

The bed was not only more comfortable than I thought it would be, it was also exceptionally long. I am 6 foot tall and there was a good foot and a half of unused bed length wise.

The bedding is of a good standard with Egyptian cotton sheets and a duvet. At the end of the bed there is also a 32″ Samsung television.

Due to it being a swelteringly hot day, I was concerned that the room may be stiflingly hot, but the air-conditioning was actually very effective indeed. The air-conditioning is controlled by a Samsung tablet located at the side of the bed which amongst other things also controls the lights and electronic blind.

You can also check out from this tablet and deposit your key in the quick drop box at the hotel reception.

Two bottles of complimentary mineral water are provided in the room, though it would have been nice to have had an actual glass rather than a plastic disposable one. A hairdryer is also provided in the room.

Wi-Fi was very easy to access and the signal was easily strong enough to stream content.

Travel adapters and corkscrews are available from reception and there are also ironing facilities (our floor had a reasonably sized room with two ironing boards and irons along the corridor).

BLOC also provides a booklet of vouchers and offers for shops and restaurants (for use both before and after security) though there is nothing earth shatteringly good in terms of offers. 10% off in M&S was quite welcome on the return leg though ..…

Noise-wise, BLOC has done a very good job at soundproofing the rooms. I heard no noise from adjacent rooms and there is only a very faint rumble from departing aircraft.

The bathroom is an all-in-one wet room with shower, sink and toilet with good quality fittings. The water pressure for the shower was more than adequate. Decent quality towels are also provided.

One point to note is that once you have showered, the floor can become quite slippery if you enter the bathroom shortly afterwards. Zenology soap and body wash are provided by the hotel although it would be difficult to make the body wash stretch to more than one person!

Booking

BLOC Hotels is not part of any loyalty program.

We would recommend that you book via Hotels.com here and collect nights towards your free Hotels.com Rewards stay after 10 nights.

You can obviously also book on the BLOC Hotels website here.

Conclusion

I rather liked this hotel.  Of course, there are more opulent accommodation offerings at Gatwick – here is Anika’s review of the Hampton by Hilton at Gatwick North – but if you are looking for a convenient hotel within seconds of security then this ticks all the boxes.

The hotel is simple but what it does, it does well and has an element of Scandinavian simplicity and chic to it.

Our room cost £92 and considering the location and convenience (not to mention the novelty of waking up to a view of 737s and Airbus A320 series at the end of your bed – assuming you have not opted for a windowless room!), I would happily use this hotel again for an early morning departure.

This hotel room was entirely paid for by myself.”

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

Hotel offers update – January 2024:

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.

Want to buy hotel points?

• Hilton Honors is offering an 80% to 100% bonus when you buy points by 12th March 2024. Click here.

• IHG One Rewards is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 2nd February 2024. Click here.

Whilst Rob was enjoying the sun in Italy, I got to ‘enjoy’ the Piccadilly Line sauna towards Heathrow.

ibis Styles invited Head for Points to have a look at their new hotel at Heathrow Airport and to find out more about their concept.  I was a little uncertain about what to expect – ibis hotels have a reputation for being spartan – but I was very impressed by what I found.  Here is my review.

What is ibis Styles?

ibis Styles is Accor’s economy and design brand.

Unlike ibis Budget hotels, every Styles hotel has got their own unique interior design, reflecting the area it’s in. Located right next to Heathrow Airport on Bath Road, ibis Styles London Heathrow is all about aviation.

Room rates at ibis Styles always include breakfast and free fast wi-fi.

Where is ibis Styles Heathrow?

There are only two airport hotels connected to Heathrow Airport – the Hilton at Terminal 4 and the Sofitel at Terminal 5, plus the box-like Yotel inside T4. The other hotels are a little bit (occasionally, a lot) further out but well connected with local buses and the Heathrow Hoppa airport hotel shuttle bus.

I took the Piccadilly Line to Hatton Cross and got on the 285 bus to Nene Road. The ibis Styles Heathrow is right across the road from the bus stop.  It is worth mentioning that local buses in the Heathrow area are free of charge so don’t touch in with your Oyster card.

(Rob ran this article back in March on which bus routes serve which hotels at Heathrow.)

Reception / Check-in

The reception area is bright and airy:

Next to the entrance is an interactive screen where you can access hotel information as well as flight departure times.

My room

I stayed in one of the seven biggest rooms. Most of these are accessible for people with reduced mobility.

The bed was comfortable and the pillows weren’t too thick.

The sofa in the corner can be turned into a bed for two which makes this room perfect for a family of four:

The room had no wardrobe, only some hooks and hangers, but as you are most likely to only spend one night at an airport hotel this is no problem.

The bathroom was very practical with a shower, sink and toilet. The duck in the window next to the mirror is one of three designs that you can find throughout the hotel’s bathrooms.

There was a 3 in 1 shampoo / shower gel / face wash in the shower, which I only used to clean my make up brush – after my experience in Liverpool I decided to start carrying my own shampoo around.

A kettle and complimentary bottles of water are stored in an aluminium travel case next to the bed.

Other rooms

This is a standard family room at ibis Styles Heathrow with a double bed and a sofa bed. As the picture shows, the design of all the rooms is the same.

This picture shows a standard room which doesn’t have a sofa bed. The flight related artworks above the beds vary from room to room.

Restaurant

The ibis Styles Heathrow restaurant is open for breakfast (free for all guests) in the morning and serves a la carte for lunch and dinner. Kids portions are 50% off.

At the far back of the restaurant is another aviation related artwork.

Here is the proof that I don’t always eat burgers and steaks – I actually used to be a vegetarian until I moved to London ….

I had a very pleasant tomato soup and a salad for dinner.  And some wine.

Breakfast

If your flight is very early, you can order a small breakfast from 4:30am.  If you’ve got more time, you can enjoy a breakfast buffet from 6:30 until around 10:30. The hotel is apparently quite flexible about this, depending on the schedule of the guests. If a large number of people are still eating at 10:30 they won’t start putting things away.

If you prefer a cooked english breakfast, you can order it for an additional charge of £5 but as I was happy with the buffet selection I didn’t order hot food.

Bar

Here is a picture of the bar which is in between reception and the restaurant.

You can get free coffee and tea all day.

Conclusion

I was very impressed by the ibis Styles Heathrow. Bearing in mind that this is a 3* property, there is nothing to complain about. On the contrary I found the service to be excellent, the design fun and really enjoyed my stay.  I would happily stay there again.

Breakfast and fast wi-fi are included in the room rate and there is free coffee and tea all day. The only thing you could be spending money on when staying at the ibis Styles Heathrow is lunch, dinner or a drink.

If we’re honest, the overall standard of hotels at Heathrow – as with many major airports – is not great, irrespective of brand or star level.  I think you’ll find the new ibis Styles to be a lot better than many higher star-rated properties and if you give it a try, you won’t be disappointed.

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

The hotel website is here if you want to know more.

Accor Live Limitless update – January 2024:

Earn bonus Accor points: Accor is not currently running a global promotion

New to Accor Live Limitless?  Read our review of Accor Live Limitless here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our analysis of what Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

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

Rob had sent me to Bordeaux to review the InterContinental Bordeaux – Le Grand Hotel. As I had an early morning flight, the logical conclusion was for me to have a look at the Hampton by Hilton London Gatwick Airport the night before.

It’s so easy to find that I had problems finding it. Let me explain.

I took the train from central London to Gatwick’s south terminal and then the transit to the north terminal. I couldn’t see any signs for the Hampton by Hilton and somehow ended up in the departure area (and decided to have my flight ticket printed as BA was having issues with their app).

When I went back down, I finally saw signs (in between a lot of easyJet orange) pointing towards the end of the easyJet check-in. The hotel website could have simply said ‘follow the orange’.

Check-in was quick and simple and the staff were friendly.

The room had everything you need when spending just a few hours awake in a hotel:

A bathroom with shower. Toiletries were limited to shampoo, conditioner, shower gel and soap.

A window facing construction works.

A kettle and instant coffee – oh how I love instant coffee …..

A decent sized TV.

A desk – I bought a new small laptop for travel reasons so the size was ok.

And most importantly a comfortable bed.

The 2 hours I was awake, I spent at the bar.

I really wanted to eat a salad but ‘unfortunately’ I ordered food after 10pm, was therefore too late for the healthy option and my dinner looked like this:

I had to get up at 5:30am – way too early for me to eat breakfast. But did have a look at the breakfast room which looked ok. The red plastic trays however were bothering me a bit …..

Continental breakfast is being served from 4am. After 6am you can get proper English breakfast which, judging by the number of serving containers, should not have left you hungry.  Breakfast is FREE at Hampton by Hilton hotels which is a major selling point.

There was no time for that though.  I decided to have a bite in the ‘BA alternative’ No 1 Traveller lounge instead …. not my greatest idea ever as you will see.

My verdict on the Hampton Gatwick Airport hotel

As a Hilton HHonors redemption you are looking at 30,000 points per night.  Based on Rob’s valuation of 0.3p per point, this is not a bad place to spend them.  A room is typically £100 midweek and £90 at the weekend.

The Hampton by Hilton Gatwick Airport hotel did its job.  It was new, it was clean, the room was an acceptable size and, most importantly, it was an easy walk to and from the north terminal.  I didn’t want to be messing around with shuttle buses at 5.30am and with the Hampton it wasn’t necessary. Job done.

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

You can find out more about the hotel, and book, on this page of the Hilton website.

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.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

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.)