Having spent 11 days seeing friends and family around England, it was time for us to head to Amsterdam for a few days.
Our flight was due to leave London Heathrow Airport at 11 am, but we’d most recently been in Ellesmere Port in the northwest of England (near Liverpool). Ellesmere Port is about 3.5 hours from Heathrow, so there was no way we wanted to do that drive early in the morning.
We therefore decided to drive down the night before and stay at a local airport hotel. There were a lot of hotel options in the same price range, so I picked the Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport due to Hyatt’s promotion at the time – I’ll explain why in the ‘Cost’ section later.
Here’s a review of our one night stay at the Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport.
Check-In
We hadn’t left Ellesmere Port until early evening, so we didn’t get to the hotel until almost 10 pm. After unloading our rental car, I drove it down into their parking lot, then headed back up to check in.
We were next in line at the front desk, but it took a while for the people already being served and then us to be checked in. That meant it took almost 15 minutes to get our room keys for room 509.
We were needing to repack that night as all our stuff was spread across multiple bags. As a result, we loaded everything on to a luggage cart, but it wasn’t easy to maneuver the cart through their hallways as the doorways were so narrow.
This hotel used to be the Heathrow Hotel Bath Road, but in 2016 it was renovated and became the Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport. The hallways are therefore still fresh and clean.
Bedroom
When entering, the bathroom was on the left, the main bedroom area on the right and a separate galley office area was at the end of the room on the left.
I’d stayed overnight at the Holiday Inn London Heathrow Ariel in the past and the room was tiny and fairly sparse. This room on the other hand was larger than I’d been expecting and decorated very nicely, so it was a great surprise.
We’d booked a king bed and it felt larger than the king bed in our room at the Comfort Inn Arundel. As is always the case when staying at Hyatt Places, the bed was extremely comfortable and so we slept very well that night.
In front of the bed was a chaise lounge. It didn’t look particularly comfortable to sit in and so just put some of our stuff on it.
The room’s short, open closet was to the right of the bed and contained an iron and ironing board. It looks like there are cupboards above the closet, but they didn’t open.
To the right of the closet were some shelves with a hairdryer and roll of toilet paper. I’m not sure why the TP was stored out there rather than in the bathroom though.
To the right of that was a cupboard containing a safe and mini fridge.
Above those were the tea and coffee making facilities with a selection of three different types of tea. If you’re from the US and aren’t used to UK hotels, you get an electric kettle and instant coffee rather than a coffee maker and brewed coffee.
I was also grateful for the bottle opener as I had a bottle of porter to finish off that night. That meant I didn’t have to did around in our suitcase to find the bottle opener we’d brought with us.
Opposite the bed was a wall-mounted TV. Shae went to bed almost as soon as we got to the hotel, so I’m not sure what the TV channel selection was like as I don’t think there was a printed channel guide in the room.
Off to the left of the room was a fairly long galley office area with a desk and chair. On the desk was a welcome amenity of a few apples. I’m not sure if that’s offered in every room or if it’s because I have Globalist status with Hyatt.
It was nice having this area as it gave us some space to repack our bags before our flight the next morning. The lamp on the desk was perfect as it gave sufficient light without lighting up the whole room and thus disturbing Shae’s sleep.
It was dark when we arrived, so it wasn’t until the next morning that I noticed we had a view of the airport.
Bathroom
When entering the bathroom, the sink and a good-sized counter top were on the right hand side.
The toiletries were the standard Barney Kenet M.D. brand we’ve had at all our Hyatt Place stays. Having said that, the Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport also had bottles of shower gel and body lotion (lotion not pictured below) which aren’t usually offered at their US properties based on our experience.
In the middle of the room was the toilet…
…while a bathtub with shower was on the left. It took us a couple of minutes to work out how to turn on the shower. We turned on the tap, but there wasn’t anything to push or pull to change it from filling the tub to turning on the shower. We eventually realized that you have to rotate the tap away from you to turn on the shower. Once it was finally on, the shower had pretty good water pressure.
Many UK hotels I’ve stayed at haven’t provided washcloths, so I appreciated that they’re provided at this hotel. The bath towels were also large by UK hotel standards (that’s a hand towel pictured below though).
Breakfast
I’m a little confused by the breakfast situation at the Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport. Before our stay, I’d received a couple of emails asking if I wanted to pay for any upgrades or amenities like early check-in or breakfast.
Paying for breakfast threw me as it’s included for free at all Hyatt Place properties worldwide when booking directly.
Or so I thought.
When emailing with Nick and Greg from Frequent Miler, Nick spotted in Hyatt’s terms that there are five Hyatt Place properties worldwide that don’t offer free breakfast, one of which is the Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport.
In my opinion, that’s extremely cheap on their part, especially seeing as their emails had said breakfast would cost £12.95 ($17) rather than it being priced a little more reasonably.
We were planning on eating at an airport lounge in the morning and so weren’t actually worried about having breakfast at the hotel. When checking in though, I asked about the breakfast situation. I have Globalist status which gives you free breakfast at all Hyatt properties – whether in the hotel’s restaurant or lounge – so I wasn’t sure if that meant I was eligible for free breakfast.
The front desk agent said that breakfast was included with my room. That didn’t clear anything up as it made it sound like breakfast was free with the stay rather than being anything to do with my status. Check-in had already taken longer than expected by that stage and I was tired, so I didn’t seek further clarification.
To make things even more confusing, the in-room breakfast menu lists two prices for breakfast. Continental breakfast was £12.95 ($17) which was the price listed for breakfast in their emails before our stay. It also listed a full English breakfast as an alternative option for £15.95 ($21).
If you eat breakfast down in the restaurant, I’ve therefore got no idea whether it’ll be free, £12.95 or £15.95. If you’ve ever stayed at the Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport and had breakfast, please let me know in the comments below if you had to pay and how much it cost.
Other Dining
Just off from the front desk was a bar and restaurant area. It was packed when we arrived, so I didn’t end up taking a photo. It’s open 24/7 which makes sense seeing as it’s an airport hotel.
If you’d rather eat in your room, there’s a dinner and drinks menu you can order in-room dining from.
Amenities
The hotel apparently has a 24/7 fitness room, business center and meeting rooms available. I didn’t have a chance to take photos of any of those amenities though.
Shuttle Bus
Similar to many other hotels at Heathrow airport, the Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport doesn’t have its own shuttle bus. Instead, you can take the Hotel Hoppa bus from Terminals 2, 3 and 5 which, at the time of writing, costs £4.50 per adult one-way. It looks like up to two children can travel with an adult for free.
The bus runs every 20 minutes throughout the day other than from midnight until about 4 or 5 am (depending on which terminal you’re traveling from/to).
Parking
Seeing as we had a rental car, we chose to park at the hotel rather than use the Hotel Hoppa bus. Unfortunately the hotel charges £12 ($15.50) per 24 hours to park there.
That’s one downside to staying at virtually all hotels at Heathrow airport. There’s no way to actually get to any of them for free as you either have to pay to go by bus, taxi or to park there.
You have to pay for parking at the front desk before you leave. We had to drop our car back off at the rental company at 7:15 the next morning, so given how long it had taken to check in, I was wary about lines at the front desk in the morning.
As a result, I asked them to charge the parking fee to our room. They were happy to do this, but they advised they couldn’t produce the ticket for the next morning until after midnight. I was still up at that point, so I headed back down to the front desk at about 00:15 and they were able to give me the ticket.
Check-Out
Seeing as we had our ticket to exit the parking garage, checking out in the morning was easy. We simply dropped our keys in a box in the lobby and went straight to our car.
Pet-Friendliness
Most Hyatt Places we’ve stayed at have been pet-friendly, but it doesn’t look like the one at Heathrow airport accepts them.
Location
The location of the hotel was perfect for us as it was only a few minutes away from Hertz for dropping off our rental car.
There isn’t much else to say other than that it’s close to the airport and there are a couple of restaurants that look like they’re within walking distance.
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi was free at the hotel and seemed like a good speed based on our limited use of it during our stay.
Cost
We paid £62.10 ($81) for our one night stay at the Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport, as well as the £12 ($15.50) for parking.
There were a couple of hotels that cost closer to £50-55, but I chose this one due to Hyatt’s latest promotion. That offers 1,000 or 1,500 bonus points per night starting from your second stay. We’re due to have a 5 or 6 night stay at a Hyatt Place in the next few weeks, so that’d be worth 7,500 or 9,000 bonus points so long as we’d had another stay before that, hence choosing this one night stay.
As it turns out, this wasn’t our first qualifying night during the promo period, so we earned 1,500 bonus points for this stay. That’s because our stay at the Park Hyatt New York a few weeks beforehand had been an eligible stay. I didn’t think stays booked using category 1-7 free night certificates counted based on how a past promotion had worked, but apparently it did count.
Taking into account the base points and 30% bonus for having Globalist status, we earned a total of 1,939 World of Hyatt points which is great for a stay costing less than $100. I earned an additional 389 points by paying with my World of Hyatt credit card.
Final Thoughts
The Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport is a great hotel option if you need somewhere to stay the night before or after a flight. Its rooms are a decent size, they’re nicely decorated and the bed is extremely comfortable.
If you’re used to staying at Hyatt Places elsewhere, be aware that it seems like you have to pay for breakfast. The hotel didn’t have many amenities, but those don’t tend to be as necessary at airport hotels seeing as most guests just want somewhere clean and comfortable to sleep.
Overall, I’d highly recommend this property.
Our Rating
Room = 4.5 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 3.6 / 5
Food = N/A (as we didn’t eat there)
Location = 4.5 / 5
Service = 3.8 / 5
Overall Value = 4.7 / 5
Total = 4.22 / 5
Address
Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport, The Grove, Bath Road, West Drayton, United Kingdom, UB7 0DG
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