Hotels In the airport

When you really do not want to wake up

A few weeks ago I had one of those horrible 6am flights out of London Heathrow airport. Not much could be worse really ! A flight at this time entails waking at 3am or so and then spending 50 pounds on catching a taxi to the airport, such fun !

But there can be a better way… I thought if I travelled the night before on the London Underground or by bus it would cost me all of a few pounds, which I could then put towards a hotel at the airport. Meaning I could wake up at 4am instead of 5am.. hmmm. Especially as I was flying out of Terminal 4, where there seems to be only one hotel actually at Terminal 4. No disrespect to the Hilton but this is not the cheapest hotel out there where it is likely to be around $180 a night unless you get lucky by finding a better deal on my site !

The other hotels at Heathrow are not suitable for Terminal 4 due to the layout of the airport. It would still entail a taxi ride at 3:30 am, so all I would save is maybe a little stress.

But then I remembered the Yotel chain. When I was passing through Amsterdam Schipol on time I saw they had a Yotel in the departure area and that they had a Yotel at Heathrow too. So I checked and lo behold, there is a Yotel at T4, and to make it even better it is landside, not airside like in Amsterdam.

Yotel offer very small rooms. Micro rooms. Tiny, really tiny. If you are sharing you better be intimate with the other person!

But the benefits are good. They charge by the hour which makes them good value, as it is unlikely you will be staying more than 8 or 10 hours. They offer wifi free of charge, and being in the airport there is no shortage of coffee places or restaurants! But beware that the air quality was poor, a bit like you were stuck in a storage container at the airport ! But then, you kind of are in a way.

Tags : airports

Written : 2014-11-04