I tried a new hotel for me recently – part of the Hilton family of hotels, the Doubletree Heathrow Airport.
Location
The property is further away from the airport than most of the other hotels I have used – well outside the Heathrow Free Flow travel area which provides free bus journeys in the area around the airport. This provides a sensible alternative to the expensive Hoppa buses which serve the hotels as long as you do not mind a walk. The Doubletree is about 15 minutes away by bus and the 105 and 111 run 24 hours per day. The Doubletree is marked below with a red arrow.
It is cheaper to use an Oyster card to travel on the bus than to pay cash on the bus. (£1.40 Oyster, £2.40 cash)
Location
The hotel is located on a main road but only a small number of rooms overlook the busy Bath Road. Opposite are a small parade of shops, including a Dominio’s Pizza, an own brand friend chicken shop and a Tesco metro. These are all less than a 5 minute walk away on the main road.
Reception
Entering through two sets of double doors you enter the walk way which links the original building from the bedroom block. Reception is about half way along.
I was greeted warmly, told that I could have breakfast as a Gold member of HHonors but that as it was in my room rate, it didn’t matter. In addition I noticed that they didn’t start breakfast until 7am suggesting that they don’t see themselves as an airport hotel. By contrast the Hilton at Terminal 4 starts at 5am.
I was directed to the lifts behind Reception where I needed to swipe my card to gain access to my floor.
Room
The room was quite small and overlooked the rear car park and some very run down garages attached to the nearby homes.
There was free WiFi available which was pretty slow. A small TV, kettle and tea/coffee were provided. The bathroom had a decent sized bath tub.
Summary
If you can get a hotel closer to the airport for the same price as this property I would do this, as the Doubletree is some distance away. The rooms are unexceptional.
Yes, but did you get the cookie though?
How timely. I just booked at the Hilton Terminal 4 where I usually stay and was trying to decide if the Doubletree price is low enough to forgo the chance of an upgrade to an Executive room at Terminal 4. You have given me more to think about. Thanks!
Very useful review. It does seem a little less than I would expect from a Doubletree.
I’ve stayed there a couple of times. Both times (as HH Diamond) I’ve had an Exec Room upgrade – certainly a fair bit more spacious that the room you got, it was a corner room with a couple of sofas and a table and also looked out over the main road rather than the rather horrible view you had! Soundproofing was excellent with regards noise from the road/air and I slept well.
Breakfast was good, with the usual full hot/cold Hilton buffet. I agree as a hotel with ‘airport’ in the name they should start serving earlier. The Hilton Edinburgh Airport is a bit slow as to when they start serving too, but they sensibly let you swap your breakfast coupon for a drink at the bar the night before if you wish – this DT could certainly follow that example.
Agree the TFL buses are cheaper, although I must admit for convenience I just took the Hotel Hoppa. Although the hotel is a little further out than some of the others when you factor in the Hoppa timings I found you ended up having to factor in pretty much the same amount of time for this hotel as for many others. Personally I only really find onsite hotels within walking distance allow you to not have to give half-an-hour or so for the bus!
As I say I’ve stayed a couple of times and have a couple more stays planned this year (as well as one at the Hilton Heathorw ‘Terminal 5’, that is not exactly close to T5!). At around £50/night including free breakast/internet as a Diamond member I was pretty happy – a pretty cheap price for a stay credit too!
I certainly wouldn’t go in with high expectations but for a place for night before a flight I thought it wasn’t that bad.
@Peter – Yes indeed, with a health warning about nuts