There are lots of hotels to choose from in and around London Heathrow, so you may well ask why I elected to stay at the Crowne Plaza, which is off the main drag known as Bath Road, and certainly not the cheapest if my recent visit to the Marriott is anything to go by.
A friend was meant ... Read review
Location. The Crowne Plaza Hotel London Heathrow is located in London, England, eight ... more
miles from Twickenham, 12 miles from Wembley Stadium, and 18 miles from central London. Hotel Features.Crowne Plaza London Heathrow has a 16 metre indoor pool, an...
Information:
Price is per double room per night and may vary depending on date booked...
Location. The Crowne Plaza Hotel London Heathrow is located in London, England, eight ... more
miles from Twickenham, 12 miles from Wembley Stadium, and 18 miles from central London. Hotel Features. Crowne Plaza London Heathrow has a 16 metre indoor pool,...
Information:
Price is per double room per night and may vary depending on date booked...
All bedrooms are fully air conditioned spacious light modern and equipped with High ... more
Speed Internet Access Family and fully accessible bedrooms with hoist facilities are available Crowne Plaza Club Lounge offers complimentary WiFi drinks and hors d'...
Information:
Price is per double room per night and may vary depending on date booked...
Advantages: Excellent facilities, comfortable rooms, convenient for the motorway network, good link with Heathrow Disadvantages: EXPENSIVE, bad planning on the bar for big events
...elected to stay at the Crowne Plaza, which is off the main drag known as Bath Road, and certainly not the cheapest if my recent visit to the Marriott is anything to go by.
A friend was meant to be passing through London on his way back to the States the same night as I was anticipating an early morning flight to Madrid to visit my sister in law, and he was staying here. Plus, I get Priority Club points on my stays, and IC Hotels were ... ...just for staying at the Crowne Plaza (including the 1,000 bonus points) so not particularly painful to hand over your details.
IC hotels do offer substantial discounts for booking in advance, but for heavens sake make sure you read the small print, because in the majority of instance payment is taken up front and non-refundable if you cancel, personally, when I am travelling, there are a myriad of instances when my arrangements can ... more
There are lots of hotels to choose from in and around London Heathrow, so you may well ask why I elected to stay at the Crowne Plaza, which is off the main drag known as Bath Road, and certainly not the cheapest if my recent visit to the Marriott is anything to go by.
A friend was meant to be passing through London on his way back to the States the same night as I was anticipating an early morning flight to Madrid to visit my sister in law, and he was staying here. Plus, I get Priority Club points on my stays, and IC Hotels were offering an additional 1,000 points for stays booked and completed during February, thus the decision was made. ------------------------------------------------------
LOCATION Superbly positioned on Stockley Road, literally a stones throw away from Junction 4 of the M4, the hotel is reminiscent of a 1970’s style building, and stretches for some distance with masses of parking to the front and rear. Heathrow can be accessed via a local service bus that runs every 15 mins from 5.15am, and costs £3 each way. Children under 15 travel for free. The total transfer time in rush hour was around 15 minutes. ------------------------------------------------------
RECEPTION A grand affair synonymous with a quality 4 star hotel, and very busy with guests and airline staff, reception is to the right as you enter the rather attractive, but fierce revolving door, and the bar and restaurant are to the right. There are also plasma screens in reception showing the status of all flights that would be available if you were sat at the airport, very convenient, apart from the fact that airlines dictate that even if your flight is known to be delayed, you still have to check-in, in the normal way and within the indicated airline times. ------------------------------------------------------
BOOKING This was completed through www.ichotelsgroup.com website, where they claim you will not find their rooms sold cheaper anywhere on the internet. If you do, they will refund you the difference, plus if you are a Priority Club holder you will get 10 points, US$ spent (or local currency equivalent).
Anyone can book, but if you do have Priority Club membership, then all your details and preferences for stays will already be stored on file, saving you having to remember you prefer a double bed, high floor, smoking / non-smoking room etc. The IC Hotel chain has a myriad of hotel types to suit almost every budget from the Inter Continental hotels and resorts at the top, to the Holiday Inn Express at the bottom, so if you are a regular visitor to any of these, then signing up I harmless, and it does put you on the top of the list to receive special offers and also the possibility of free stays over time (and I mean time, you need a minimum of 15,000 points for mot stays, I have 11,000 so nearly there, I got 5,000 points just for staying at the Crowne Plaza (including the 1,000 bonus points) so not particularly painful to hand over your details.
IC hotels do offer substantial discounts for booking in advance, but for heavens sake make sure you read the small print, because in the majority of instance payment is taken up front and non-refundable if you cancel, personally, when I am travelling, there are a myriad of instances when my arrangements can change at short notice, and therefore I tend to plump for the flexible rate which entitles me to cancel right up to 4pm on the day of arrival, more expensive yes, but possibly more cost effective in the long run.
CHECK-IN This is where it got slightly complicated. The cost for our room was £109 with Breakfast for two included. There was also an £8 charge for overnight parking. We had already decided that we weren’t going to mess around trying to park at Heathrow and wanted to leave the car at the hotel, at a staggering cost of £15 a day. The receptionist did try to get us to switch to a rate of £149 including 6 days parking, but this didn’t include breakfast which came in at a rather awesome £17.50 per person, so wasn’t having any of this. It was at this point, after a bit of haggling that she agreed a rate of £179 for room, breakfast for three plus all our parking, deed done. What I didn’t mention however, is that it was only around 24 hours before leaving before the hotel that I realised VAT wasn’t included in the rate, so you can add another 17.5% to that charge.
Anyway, credit card swiped and begging for forgiveness, personal details completed we were despatched to our room with 2 swipe cards in hand.
Check in time was 03:00 PM and Check-out Time: 01:00 PM. Priority club holder, particularly Gold and Platinum member can get extended times subject to availability. ------------------------------------------------------
THE ROOM Star prize here. Decked out in a dark oak, there were two spacious soft, bouncy comfortable double beds (well I thought they were comfortable), work bench, colour TV, and mini-bar. Tasha thought she had gone to heaven, having only ever stayed at overseas hotel and travel inn type affairs in the past. However, despite being nearly 16, we did have trouble trying to explain to her that the mini-bar included a movement sensor and that if anything was moved, it would be charged, and at a staggering £1.65 for a standard size Mars bar, and a slightly more reasonable £3 for a Bacardi Breezer, it was a constant fight to keep her hands out. I did finally manage her down to the small shop in reception which stocked a range of souvenirs, sweets, drinks and ciggies where a Mars Bar cost a slightly more reasonable 46p.
Now back to the room, we were supplied with bath robes, complimentary tea and coffee (Gold Blend I might add), biscuits and chocolates. Toiletries were provided in abundance as were towels (midget size) and pillows. The room was, as expected, en-suite, although in common with my visit to the Crowne Plaza Manchester (now under different ownership) the bath was half size, which was fine for me, but would have caused my other half a problem. There was also a very effective, thermostatically controlled power shower.
As is usual there were no overhead lights but lots of wall lights. Internet access was high speed (c 1800 K) at a cost of £14.99 for 24 hours. The system installed in the hotel was Quadriga, the same as in the Milton, Glasgow, and if you needed entertainment for your stay, you could buy a package of on-line CD’s, films and internet access for £29.99 per 24 hour stay.
The room had air conditioning which was simple to use and extremely effective, probably the best I have encountered to date, because of course its proximity to the airport means that opening the window was not recommended.
The double glazing must have been very effective, because as with the Marriott, despite being rather close to Heathrow, the noise of planes was noticeable by its absence. ------------------------------------------------------
LEISURE FACILITIES The Crowne Plaza excelled on this front. Large changing rooms, plenty of showers and lockers (requiring a refundable £1 coin), towels supplied. The pool was free form and spacious if not particularly deep and there was a dedicated children’s pool, albeit a small one.
There was also a sauna, steam room, hot spa and plunge pool (very cold) where we spent a leisurely couple of hours. The hotel also had a fully equipped gymnasium and solarium (for an extra charge).
A little tip here, don’t be fooled. The hotel has signposts indicating that the leisure facilities are on the second floor, this takes you through the trades mans route, Go to reception and carry on beyond, a much more attractive and easier route.
EATING The evening meals for the restaurant and bar service were pricey, around £20 for a steak, so we decided to walk over to the Novotel next door, where a full scale move could be obtained for a much more reasonable price.
Breakfast however was another matter. In common with a lot of hotels, guests were asked to wait to be seated, but we were on a very tight timescale to check in for our flights, and therefore did get a little irate with the waiter when he kept telling us to wait.
Tea, coffee and toast was served to the table, the remainder of food was on a buffet basis, and although expensive, we were not to be disappointed. Fruit, juices, yogurts, cereals, pastries, cheeses, cold meats, the list goes on. In addition there were the usual culprits of eggs, sausage, bacon, beans, mushrooms, hash browns and black pudding, and it really was very scrummy, my only gripe was that I didn’t have sufficient time to enjoy it properly.
MY VERDICT: 5/5 (again you really could not fault it, although I was a little intolerant of the staff making us wait)
DRINKS Always worth a mention separately; drinks as would be expected from a 4 star hotel on the outskirts of London were not cheap, we paid £7 for a J20, pint of bitter, half a lager and a plate of nachos (the latter I believe were complementary), all this, and service without a smile, it was quite disconcerting.
However, when we returned to the bar later in the evening when Tasha was dolled up to the nines, we paid just under £6 for the same round, and got a smile for our troubles. The bar however wasn’t very well stocked and had NO GIN; it took me a few minute to register, that it has been an International weekend and therefore the hotel was probably busy, possibly explaining why we didn’t get the type of monetary deals you normally can obtain on Sunday night stays, even in London.
There is another bar at the hotel unfortunately this is closed on Sunday nights.
MY VERDICT: 2/5 (poor stock, through, I can only assume poor planning, and for the prices, a smile would have been nice) ------------------------------------------------------
RACK RATES Not cheap - £195 for a basic room and £250 for an executive, definitely, on the face of it the most expensive hotel I have stayed in, and my credit card agreed when I checked out, a staggering £222 for bed and breakfast, internet access and one round of drinks, only £60 less than we paid for 4 nights in a 3 star hotel in central Madrid but that is another story.
MY VERDICT: 0/5 (EXPENSIVE)
------------------------------------------------------ SUMMARY I won’t say would I stay there again, because I would love to, however, at that price, I don’t think my bank manager would be too keen, but if you are in the fortunate position of having unlimited subsistence rates, an endless bank balance or a sympathetic bank manager then go for it. If you can get a deal, just do it.
Excellent service, if a little perfunctory, good services and superb food, high speed internet access and a Novetel within walking distance with reasonably priced evening, what more could a girl ask for?
As for my friend, he was safely tucked up in bed in San Francisco having got his travel dates wrong.
MY VERDICT: 5/5 (despite miserable bar-staff and high prices, you couldn’t really fault the place.
Sue.51 signing off from her hotel room in the New Forest.
My opinions and expectations of the Crowne Plaza outlets have improved with each visit, but any future visits will have to go some to exceed our experience at the CP, London Heathrow.
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