Heathrow – Ibis Heathrow

Since I have a flight from Heathrow which leaves relatively early in the day (well, afternoon, but I need to sit in the lounge for six hours) I thought I’d get a nearby hotel for the night before. It transpired that the rail fares were expensive to do that, and Accor had a “buy two nights get one free” offer, so I went for three nights at this Ibis Hotel on the Bath Road which also worked with my £10 rail fare.

One thing I hadn’t realised until reading the reviews of this hotel is that Heathrow Airport offer a free bus service to the hotels on Bath Road. It was introduced to limit traffic between the airport and the limited surrounding area, but that meant I could get to the Ibis for free. Very handy, as I really don’t like the National Express Hoppa bus, it’s unnecessarily expensive and price gouges, a dreadful image for the company in my view.

There’s a large dining area, all was clean and organised.

One of the more generous vouchers that I’ve seen, and actually one of the clearest in what customers could order.

I went for a free pint of London Pride, very lovely.

And there is the London Pride. I very much liked the big chairs, gave a feeling of privacy for those customers wanting a private chat. I was on my own though, so didn’t need the privacy, but I liked the chairs anyway as they looked exciting. I don’t get out much…..

The room was clean and had everything that I realistically needed for the stay. Well, other than a Greggs chicken bake, that would have been nice.

The plug for the kettle was about two inches long as it had been cut back. However, there was no nearby socket to plug it into, so the set-up wasn’t entirely practical.

I’ve heard about this, but never seen it. The hotel will probably claim it’s to do with tracking their towels during the cleaning process, but realistically, it’s to stop customers pinching them. I’ve never stolen a towel from a hotel (bar once at a hostel in the US where I left with it by mistake), namely because it’s theft, but I approve of efforts to stop people doing it.

Anyway, the stay was all fine, no noise problems either internally or externally and the staff were all friendly. The member of staff at the bar was particularly engaging, and for an airport hotel it met all my expectations.