My review of the new Premier Inn hotel at Heathrow Terminal 4

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This is our review of the brand new Premier Inn hotel at London Heathrow Terminal 4.

There is now a Premier Inn hotel at Heathrow Terminal 4, with a covered walkway connecting it to the terminal, which opened three weeks ago.

For the first time, you no longer need to pay a premium price to stay in a hotel which is directly connected to the airport. I only paid £49 for my room (flexible rate) and, pre-opening, they were available pre-paid for as little as £29.

In the past, you have had to choose between the premium priced Sofitel at Terminal 5 or the Hilton at Terminal 4. To save money you had to look off site. My favourite option is the new ibis Styles which I reviewed last year, but this requires a slow trip on the expensive Hoppa Bus or one of the free local buses. Rob is a fan of the Hilton Garden Inn at Hatton Cross, one tube stop before the airport.

The Premier Inn Heathrow Terminal 4 looked like it would tick all of our boxes – brand new rooms, low prices and a direct connection to the terminals. We wanted to know whether this hotel is a good choice for an early morning or late night flight so I checked in for the night to review it.

(EDIT: We have a newer, 2019, review of the Premier Inn Heathrow Terminal 4 which you can read here.)

How do you get to the Premier Inn Heathrow Terminal 4?

The tube ride from Kings Cross was one of the worst ever. I don’t know what happened to the Piccadilly Line over the last few years, but it just seems to be getting busier, slower and hotter each time I take this tube line and there is always a big chance of the destination being changed just before getting close to the airport.

Once I got to Heathrow Terminal 4 it was fairly easy to find the Premier Inn hotel. With luggage it’s best to get the lift up to the departure area, then turn right and keep walking until you get to the walkway which leads to the Hilton Terminal 4 and the Premier Inn.

I timed the walk. It was 5 minutes from the tube station to the check in area and a further 7 minutes along the covered walkway to the Premier Inn Heathrow Terminal 4 reception.

Premier Inn Heathrow Terminal 4 review

As you walk through the doors you find two armchairs in front of you. The reception area is to the right.

Premier Inn Heathrow Terminal 4 review

The Premier Inn check in area had a bunch of self check in terminals, which I had never used in a hotel before, as well as receptionists who were happy to help. I entered my name for the reservation to come up, had the option of adding prepaid breakfast and / or dinner – which I didnt, and after a short while my keys came out of the machine.

Premier Inn Heathrow Terminal 4 review

My Premier Inn Heathrow Terminal 4 room

The room had a double and a single bed (not sure why they put that in):

Premier Inn Heathrow Terminal 4 review

There was a good size desk with sockets, a coffee and tea station with kettle and much hated instant coffee.

The wardrobe was open with only a few hangers, but as the Premier Inn Heathrow Terminal 4 is an airport hotel you wouldn’t have much to unpack anyway.

Wifi was free, but extremely slow. If you require faster wifi you can purchase Ultimate Wifi for £5/24 hours which promises to be 8x faster.

Premier Inn Heathrow Terminal 4 review

The bathroom was a good size with shower / bathtub and a 3 in 1 shampoo / conditioner / shower gel mounted to the wall.

I used it to wash my hair as I had left my shampoo at home and it was, surprisingly, ok.

This was the view from the window. As you can see the Premier Inn is a triangular shape. The hotel only has one bank of lifts which means if you are unlucky, you have to walk quite a bit until you reach your room.

Premier Inn Heathrow Terminal 4 review

Dining and drinking at the Premier Inn Heathrow Terminal 4

There was a Costa Coffee on the ground floor which is open 24/7.

Premier Inn Heathrow Terminal 4 review

The Premier Inn also has a restaurant ‘Thyme’ which is a bit further down to the right and a bar which is to the left.

Breakfast is served from 5:30 am – 10:30 am. The Premier Inn breakfast costs £10.50 and continental breakfast £7.95 but as I had to leave the hotel at 5 am I had breakfast in the BA lounge instead.

Premier Inn Heathrow Terminal 4 review

Getting to your plane

The Premier Inn Heathrow Terminal 4 hotel is, not surprisingly, perfectly placed for Terminal 4 departures.

For Terminals 2 and 3, the best option would be to walk into Terminal 4 and take the Heathrow Connect train to Terminal 2 and 3.

Terminal 5 is trickier. Taking the train is complicated, requiring either a Heathrow Connect with a transfer to a Heathrow Express or a tube to Hatton Cross and then a change to another tube back to Terminal 5. It is easier to take the Hoppa Bus from outside the Hilton next door, a local bus or ask the hotel to book you a minicab (£9). I chose the latter.

Conclusion – do we recommend Premier Inn Heathrow Terminal 4?

The Premier Inn at Heathrow Terminal 4 is next to the Hilton (which Rob reviewed in 2015) and an ideal choice when flying from Terminal 4.

The hotel is brand new, the room was a good size, the bed comfortable and the walk to Terminal 4 less than 10 minutes. Even when flying from Terminal 5 it’s worth considering the Premier Inn Heathrow Terminal 4 due to the cheap rates compared to the Sofitel. My room was £49 (flexible rate) but you can get a room from as little as £40 if you prepay.

The Premier Inn website is here. I don’t think that you can book Premier Inn hotels via any third party site with a loyalty scheme, so that means you cannot benefit from Hotels.com Rewards or Expedia Plus Rewards. Premier Inn itself does not have a loyalty scheme.

Hotel offers update – December 2021:

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.

Want to buy hotel points? There is currently a special offer running with IHG Rewards (80% bonus to 4th January 2022) and World of Hyatt (30% discount, equivalent to a 43% bonus, to 30th December 2021).

Category

Airport Hotel Reviews (London)

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Andrew says:

13 Jun13 June 06:01

We stayed there last week and had a room overlooking the runway which was much closer to the runway than the hotels on Bath Road are – was great watching the transatlantic arrivals in the morning.
- Clive says:
  
  13 Jun13 June 13:53
  
  Lucky you weren’t on an inside room in the apex of the triangle, otherwise you might have been watching another kind of landing strip!
linda says:

13 Jun13 June 06:47

We used to love Premier Inns, but on a recent stay the room was so hot and the quilt so thick we did not sleep at all. Even with the duvet off the room was well over 20c, you cannot open the windows even a crack and the a/c will not go below 19c. We stayed at the Hampton Inn Gatwick north instead and it was superb with free breakfast.

So this has put us off using Premier Inns in the future.
- Duncan Stevenson-Price says:
  
  13 Jun13 June 07:34
  
  I’ve fond this to be annoying variable with Premier Inn hotels. Some have good A/C, but in others it’s poor or non-existent. Hotels with no A/C are identifiable online, but those with BAD A/C are just hit and miss.
  
  I’m a bit weird in that I tend to like to sleep in an ice box.
- JAXBA says:
  
  13 Jun13 June 13:11
  
  I found at the T5 Premier Inn that they could override the AC in the office; they had a central control, you just had to keep asking them to turn it down.
Ed says:

13 Jun13 June 06:59

Does anyone know the best way to negotiate a room with a runway view?
- Claire Blake says:
  
  13 Jun13 June 07:09
  
  We stay at the Premier Inn Manchester airport and just ask for a airport view room – never been refused!
Neil says:

13 Jun13 June 07:43

I also stayed there last week and thought it was excellent value. It took me about 30 minutes to get there from Clapham Junction ( 16 minutes train to Feltham) then 15 minutes on a route 490 from Feltham station to the bus stop directly outside the Hotel. I was pleased to find the bar open untill 2am!

I think Anika wasted her money to get to T5. I used the Bus times app to see a 490 approaching at 0530am and walked down and jumped on that. The app showed 2 bus routes drom
The bus stop directly outside, both frequent , fast and free.
Emma says:

13 Jun13 June 07:58

Looks good, we’ll probably look to stay here next year, it’s good to have some more options that don’t involve shuttle buses.
Anna says:

13 Jun13 June 08:01

Will there ever be a reasonably priced hotel within walking distance of T5?!
Emma says:

13 Jun13 June 08:01

Off topic but is it possible to book Aer Lingus reward flights through BA Exec?

The flight shows on avios but not on the BA site so I’m thinking not.

I’m after the connecting ba saver reward flight through exec and aer lingus through avios but would prefer it on one booking in case of delays.
- pauldb says:
  
  13 Jun13 June 08:22
  
  You will have to phone BAEC but it should be possible (check the taxes sound reasonable).
- Rob says:
  
  13 Jun13 June 09:00
  
  Yes, but you must call. Taxes are far lower via BAEC so it is worth it.
  - Emma says:
    
    13 Jun13 June 13:31
    
    I phoned BAEC, I’m not entirely sure they know what they’re doing!
    
    I ask them to confirm the cost in avios and taxes to change my existing ticket to the aer lingus flight, which he did find on their system, and also add a reward saver flight.
    
    He said he couldn’t work out how many avios were needed and that we’d need to pay an additional £200 in taxes even thought the taxes shown on the avios and ba sites are lower than what I paid.
    
    He said you can’t combine the reward flight with another flight on the same booking, so I think I’d be better moving miles to avios and booking there and then booking the reward flight separately, maybe the day before as I’m paranoid about delays and cancellations having been caught up flying in 27th May BA fiasco and also having been delayed more than two hours on three out of the last 5 BA flights I’ve been on excluding the cancelled one.
    
    I’m not sure if it’s worth the hassle of changing given how much hard work it can be with BAEC.
    - Rob says:
      
      13 Jun13 June 14:15
      
      If you add a connection from UK on the same ticket you need to pay £150 in long-haul business class Air Passenger Duty. Bad idea, despite the security (but is Aer Lingus going to stiff you for a delay caused by its sister company?)
  - Julian says:
    
    13 Jun13 June 14:08
    
    Why did you need to use the hotel wifi (frequently useless and unreliable and also insecure in many hotels) when still back in good old Blighty? My 4G package with Virgin is way faster than any hotel wifi system and gives me 4GB of data and 2,500 minutes of calls for £12 per month. Of course that isn’t enough for streaming hours of movies I’l grant you but isn’t the boring old hotel telvision set a good enough alternative?
    - Rob says:
      
      13 Jun13 June 14:13
      
      I think Anika has a rubbish data allowance with her contract!
      
      TV’s old hat Julian if you’re under 30, apparently. Best to trust Grandpa Simpson on this one: “I used to be with it, but then they changed what ‘it’ was, and now what I’m with isn’t it. And what’s ‘it’ seems weird and scary to me.”
      - anikaanika99 says:
        
        13 Jun13 June 15:18
        
        No I don’t 😉 But I forgot to mention that phone reception wasn’t great in the room…
      - Michael Jennings says:
        
        13 Jun13 June 15:51
        
        Lots of people do use hotel WiFi, because they are foreigners, or they don’t have a great data allowance, or whatever. I think that makes it reasonable to mention it in a review.
        
        The hotel sounds good, though. I’ll probably try it next time I have an early departure from Heathrow.
Chris says:

13 Jun13 June 08:02

Re: the busy Piccadilly Line – when LHR passenger numbers are increasing year in year, every single year. And drivers are discouraged by congested roads and drop-off tolls. And no new public transport has been built in decades- this is the end result.

Boris Island was the only long-term option.
- Talay says:
  
  13 Jun13 June 08:12
  
  Perhaps Boris can bring that idea back when he is PM ?
- pauldb says:
  
  13 Jun13 June 08:20
  
  Crossrail?
- Sean Chiang says:
  
  13 Jun13 June 08:40
  
  Cross Rail ?
  - Genghis says:
    
    13 Jun13 June 08:46
    
    Technically isn’t Cross Rail still being built (present continuous)?
    - Gavin says:
      
      13 Jun13 June 13:52
      
      The Elizabeth Line

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.