What I liked

• Location. 5-minute walk from Terminal 5
  
• Modern design
  
• Comfy bed
  
• 24-hour fitness centre
  

What Could Be Improved

• No room service after 11pm
  
• Small room
  
• No in-room coffee machine or water
  

The Booking

I paid £166 for a family room. It was an entry level room. Basically just a normal room with an extra bed. So my family of 4 had to squeeze in.

£166 is pricier than most Heathrow hotels. For comparison, I paid £66 to stay at the Ibis Styles. That being said, I think the Sofitel was good value.

The Ibis Styles is a 3* hotel on Bath Road. About 3 miles from Terminal 5. A one way taxi costs £30. The total journey, including wait time is around 40 minutes.

If I’d stayed at the Ibis Styles on this occasion, I would have made 2 taxi journeys. So I would have paid £126 in total (room cost + taxis). I also would have wasted a lot of time. In comparison, the £166 for the Sofitel looks pretty good value.

I booked direct on the Sofitel website. I don't have any sort of status with Accor. I didn’t get an upgrade

I had an 8am flight in the morning. 8am is stressful enough for a family of 4. So an airport hotel definitely helps. I woke up at 4am and got to the BA check-in desks at 5.45am.

I felt pretty smug to arrive at 5.45am. Looking forward to 1 hour in the lounge, and a relaxed breakfast. However, BA had messed up my son's ticket!

The check-in agent called someone, who was working at home. They took over 1 hour to sort my son’s ticket. We got through security at 7.15am. We had just enough time to buy some potato chips and rush to the gate.

If you’re on a budget, then I wrote a must read article. A guide to Best Western Hotels in London. They offer a range of modern and well located hotels. At a fair price. 

The Location

The Sofitel is the only Hotel by Heathrow Terminal 5. You can walk there via a covered walkway. I arrived at 11pm, and it felt like a long walk. But it's only 5 minutes.

You feel like you haven't left the terminal. Indeed, my daughter was confused. She didn't understand how we could sleep in an airport terminal!

There are signs for the Sofitel as soon as you get to the arrivals hall.

The Hotel

Like any good airport hotel, the Sofitel charges through the roof and crams the rooms in! The lobby is tiny. But it has a nice design feature in the centre. View the image at the top of the article.

There's a bar and restaurant on the ground floor. They also have room service, which stops at 11pm. This feels really silly for an airport hotel! Where people are arriving all night.

For comparison, the Hyatt Regency at LAX Airport has a 24-hour Starbucks café. It’s worth checking out that review, to see how much bigger things are in the US! They have an outdoor pool and a massive lobby.

The Sofitel has a spa and a fitness centre. The fitness centre is open 24 hours. The spa offers treatments at an extra cost. Given that I was at the hotel between 11pm and 5am, I didn’t visit the spa or the fitness centre.

In terms of decoration, the hotel is uber modern. Lots of glass and shiny surfaces. To be honest, the design is interchangeable to many 4*/5* business hotels around the world.

The hotel is branded as a Sofitel, which is Accor’s luxury brand.

The Room

I booked a family room. I stayed with my wife and two kids. I appreciate that I was able to do this. Many hotels don’t allow four people to stay in one room. They force you to book two rooms.

The room had the following features:

• Double bed and separate single bed
  
• Small desk
  
• Mid-sized TV
  
• Modern bathroom
  
• Tea and instant coffee
  

The room itself was small. It was just an ordinary room. In addition to the double bed, there was a single bed to one side. The single bed was tiny.

As always, my wife took the double bed with the two kids. I took the single bed.

There was no bottled water in the room. This was annoying. It meant we had to drink water from the bathroom tap. It was too late for us to get water from anywhere else.

There was some basic tea and coffee facilities. English breakfast tea and instant coffee. No Nespresso machine or tea selection.

A luxury airport hotel should have a coffee machine. People wake up early and want a cup of coffee. I don’t drink coffee personally, but I know many people can’t function without it!

There was a window that faced to the interior of the hotel. We didn’t have a window to the outside. Given that we were in the room from 11pm to 4am, it didn't really matter.

The double bed was really nice. A large bed, thick mattress and fluffy bedding. I laid on it for 5 minutes, before my wife kicked me off!

The bathroom was small and functional. There was a separate bathtub and shower. Like the rest of the room, the bathroom had a modern design. Lots of shiny tiling.

The toiletries were branded by ESPA. Judging from their website, they look to be a high end brand.

Make sure to check out the slideshow. I took loads of photos of the room.

Conclusion