Three weeks ago my husband and myself went to Austria on holiday. Now, normally, we would book our flight from Stanstead as it's just down the road, so to speak, but as this holiday was a present from one of our daughters and her husband, we accepted gratefully what she had arranged, which was a flight from Gatwick to Salzburg leaving at 6.05am.
I didn't fancy spending all night travelling from Suffolk to Gatwick in time for the check in at 4.00am, so we decided to book a hotel close to the airport and travel down the night before. Well, I surfed the net and discovered the Gatwick Hilton for £139 for a double room. It sounded a lot but this also included 15 days parking, which would have cost around £70-80 on its own, and we didn't require breakfast that early in the morning. So, £139 for the room and parking seemed like a small price to pay - after all, it was the Hilton and big stars and VIPs stay there don't they? They advertised a playstation in the room too, which sold the idea to my other half.
We got there about 3pm the day before the flight and found the place without too much trouble. While hubby stayed with the car outside(there were threats of wheel clamps and no obvious place to park) I went inside to find out what we were expected to do with the car.
The lobby was huge and deserted with an escalator heading upward to "Reception" so off I went. Reception seemed to be miles away at the top of the escalator and adjoining an open plan bar area. I booked in and was given a voucher for the South terminal long term parking. (We were departing from the North terminal but hadn't known that when I booked)The receptionist assured me that we wouldn't be wheel clamped while we brought in our luggage. I hurried back to our car and my impatient husband who commented "thought you'd got lost."
We transferred the cases to our room via the lift(Very heavy case-mine, smaller light case-his, 2 hand luggage overnight bags and my handbag-a mini suitcase in its own right!)and then drove off to find the long term car park.
After parking the car we proceeded to book our cases in a day early so that we wouldn't have to get up at the crack of dawn. I hadn't realised how far this hotel was from the North terminal. We used a trolley, but we seemed to walk for miles along corridors and walkways then took a transit train and walked for miles again before we finally made it to the check-in. It cost £10 and we were asked to report to customer services by 5am next day.
When we finally made it back to the hotel, we were ready for a drink and sat in the open plan bar next to reception, called Annies bar I think. We had a vodka ice and a glass of milk(mine was the alchohol!) which cost us £8.00. In our room we looked for the playstation in vain. There was a playstation game on the "extras" list for £1.50per half hour, so I think we could have hired one. The room service menu blew our minds so we went to the bistro but even this was in the region of £13.00 for a simple burger so we ate at a relatively inexpensive KFC in the airport.
The mini bar in the room was well stocked but with a minature vodka costing £5.75 and a small tonic £2.50, it stayed that way. The room was nothing special,just a double bed and tv, coffee and tea bags,and an ensuite. The bath tap was situated so that it overflowed onto the floor if you turned it on more than a trickle and there was a horrible mildewed smell in the bathroom. The best feature was the bath towels which were thick and soft, but I was disappointed in the extreme. I had expected a high class hotel, with all the trimmings and what I got was a hotel like any other only with high class prices-which I hasten to add, I wouldn't have hesitated to pay if the place had matched up. Perhaps I was stressed and tired with all the hassle before we actually got settled in the room, but I don't think so.
So where do the stars and VIPs stay when they fly from Gatwick, I wonder?