My review of the Hilton London Heathrow Terminal 4 hotel

This article is my review of the Hilton London Heathrow Terminal 4 hotel.

This is the first part of my series on my recent trip to Abu Dhabi.  Other articles cover the Etihad lounge in Heathrow Terminal 4, the Business Class Studio on the new Etihad A380, the Jumeirah At Etihad Towers hotel in Abu Dhabi, the Etihad Premium Lounge in Abu Dhabi and the First Class Suite on the Etihad Boeing 777.

My recent Etihad flight to Abu Dhabi departed from Heathrow Terminal 4 at 9.15am.  Whilst not so early, my desire to spend some time in the lounge meant that I was looking at a very early start.

My wife, keen not to be woken in the early hours, agreed to donate 20,000 soon-to-expire Hilton HHonors points so I could book a ‘cash and points’ room at the Hilton London Heathrow Terminal 4.  (I explained in this article how I decided whether or not to use points for this stay and why I chose the Hilton.)

Back in ‘the olden’ days’ before Terminal 5, British Airways long-haul flights primarily departed from Terminal 4.  When I was travelling economy and had no lounge access, I would occasionally wander along the tunnel to the Hilton and have a drink in their huge atrium lounge rather than hang around in the terminal.  That was a long time ago and I hadn’t been in there for literally 10 years.

(As I arrived in darkness and left in darkness, I have used some official hotel pictures here to give you an idea what the hotel looks like in daylight!)

On a quiet Sunday night, my Etihad chauffeur (provided free with my redemption flight) took just 30 minutes to get me to the hotel.  Check-in was swift.  Amazingly, even though my wife is now only a Hilton HHonors Blue member (and the stay was booked in her name via her account) I had been upgraded to a club room and given executive lounge access.

With the lounge closing at 10pm, I had just 30 minutes to spare so I popped in before going to my room.  It is on the ground floor, immediately to the right as you enter.  You enter by swiping your room key.

As expected, all of the fresh food and drinks had been cleared away.  I sat down with a newspaper and a member of staff appeared, apologised for turning off the coffee machine for cleaning, and offered to get me a drink.  I requested a cappuccino and she rang through to the café to order one.  Quite impressive.

Having drunk my coffee, I took the lift up to my room.  The hotel appears to have had a substantial refurbishment in recent years and is in excellent condition.

The first surprise was in the corridors, where door numbers have been replaced by airport-style dot matrix indicators!

The theme continues inside the room with this dot matrix map of Europe!

Luckily it goes off when you turn out the lights.  Annoying, the light inside the mini-bar does not go off (looking at the comments below, apparently there is a switch behind it which does the trick!)

Whilst not the biggest room in the world it has, as you can see, been refurbished recently and looks as good as new:

I even got a welcome gift.  Given that my wife is only a Blue Hilton HHonors member – and the card actually said ‘thank you for being a Blue member’.  Oddly, the comments below suggest that this is not assume given to all Hilton HHonors guests.  I did eat the fruit, having had nothing in the lounge.

The bathroom was also newly renovated as you can see:

There isn’t much else to say.  I was asleep by 11.30pm and awake at 5.30am.  I jumped into the executive lounge when it opened at 6am for a coffee and then headed into the tunnel ….

…. and into Terminal 4.

Let’s summarise my review of the Hilton London Heathrow Terminal 4 by saying that it was far more pleasant than I expected, both in terms of room quality and the generous welcome given to a base level Hilton HHonors member.

If Terminal 4 is convenient for you, I recommend it.  You can also get to Terminals 1, 2 and 3 free of charge via Heathrow Express.

The hotel also has a shuttle bus to Terminal 5 – I forgot the price they were asking but, frankly, I found it worryingly high.  It would not be my first choice if I was departing from there.

How to earn Hilton Honors points and status from UK credit cards (December 2021)

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 Gold and MeliaRewards Gold status.  We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel 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 points), the American Express Rewards Credit Card (5,000 bonus points) and – for small business owners – American Express Business Gold (20,000 bonus points) and Business Platinum (40,000 bonus points).

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.)