The Aviator hotel, a 169 roomed luxury hotel in a little town called Farnborough. Situated on the main Farnborough Road (A325), it's placed in the best spot they could have chosen. Well, first a little information on the town and location as this will explain why they have spent £40m and built a great big five star hotel in this neighbourhood.
As I've mentioned above, Farnborough is a relatively small town with roughly fifty five thousand inhabitants. It's certainly not the liveliest of towns, there aren't lots of pubs, no real
night life, a few high street shops but no huge shopping centre or amenities (although they have just started some building work redeveloping the town centre). So why would you plonk a massive luxury hotel on our doorstep? Well, one thing Farnborough does have is a small but expanding
airport and excellent commuter links to London, Reading, pretty much anywhere in the South of England really.
The Aviator hotel was built in 2008, opening just in time for the 2008 air show (every two year there is a major week long air tattoo where the likes of the red arrows etc appear in our skies). And being on the perimeter of the airport is how the Aviator will prove to be so popular. It also happens to be owned by TAG aviation who own the airport!
So onto the hotel...
As mentioned there are 169 rooms in this five star hotel. Mainly aimed at business clientele and extremely rich visitors that may have flown in on their private jets (oh how the other half live!), this hotel is absolutely the crème de la crème of residences. The entire hotel is immaculate, with big conference rooms on the ground floor, three eateries including the skybar which overlooks the airport runway. The other two are the brasserie, where the menu changes daily, and the deli, which serves lighter, more Mediterranean-style food.
One thing that is very different about this hotel is that the public areas (conference areas, deli etc) are on the ground floor whereas any private areas are on the floors above. So when it comes to checking into your room, yes you have to take the stairs (or lift) to the first floor to reception! The wow factor for me in this hotel was standing at the bottom of this main staircase and looking up... and being able
to see people on every floor above leaning over the
bright white balconies! A very nice touch I thought!
So onto the rooms...
The Aviator has rooms and suites. Both are decorated to the same standard with dark wood used and rich looking wallpapers. I found the whole look of the hotel quite masculine in the fact that there are no curtains, a lot of
wooden venetian blinds used. A bit of a luxury bachelor pad really. Although there isn't a lot of bright colour and soft textures used everywhere, it still has an amazing feeling of being homely, even using quite dark or plain colours and lots of wood in the décor. The rooms have a bog sumptuous
double bed plus all the things you would expect: big
writing desk, comfy seats,
coffee table, big
flat screentelevision, plus the usual
hair dryer etc.
The pictures hanging on the walls are things like black and white photographs of classic planes so as the carry on the aviation theme. The en-suite bathroom was immaculate, fully tiles and several mirrors should the guests want to see themselves from every angle. The complimentary toiletries are by REN, and included soap, facial cleansing wash,
shampoo,
body wash and my absolute favourite grapeseed jojoba and
shea butterbody cream. Another surprising thing was that a lot of these came in 50ml bottles so double the amount you’d get from most hotel bathrooms.
The suites however, are just something out of this world. They have a walk in wardrobe that even one of the girls from Sex and the City would be proud of. Personally this was the size of our box room at home so you can imagine how my eyes popped out of their sockets! The suites are very similar to the rooms; the same attention to detail has been given. The suites however have a huge comfy sofa and not one but three televisions!!! (one by the foot of the bed, mounted to a wooden unit dividing the bedroom area from the lounge area, one on the wall in front of the sofa and one in the bathroom so you can lay in a nice bubbly bath and watch one of the 100 top movies they provide for you.) No expense has been spared and it really shows from the minute you walk into any room in this hotel. Another of my favourite little things was the quiet inside. The entire hotel has been made using special sound proofed glass so you can't hear even the whisper of a plane taking off, something that would be absolutely ideal for the conference rooms, let alone when you want to take a little nap in your room.
So the scary bit...
Rooms start from £100 per night on the cheapest nights, and a suite can cost you from £200 per night. Of course add to this some drinks and your food bill, and you're looking at the same cost as a week in Spain. But for those who can afford it, I would definitely recommend a stay here. The only thing that I was marginally disappointed with was that there wasn't a swimming pool or gym facilities which you get in most luxury hotels these days.
I would just like to point out the I am not a millionaire and I haven't stayed overnight here, however I have visited several times as a local patron and I also had the pleasure of a guided tour of the entire hotel just before it was opened (a perk of my job!) and a free sample of all their toiletry products etc!!! I would definitely stay here though if I had the money.
Thanks for reading :-)
Come fly with me... 
