... The Sofitel was certainly not the cheapest option but it is attached to North Terminal via a bridge and I felt it was worth paying a little extra for a little bit of indulgence and for the convenience.
The actual rate quoted was £160.85 for the Classic room and up to fifteen nights parking. ... Read review
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hotel boasts excellent facilities, including 3 restaurants.The Gatwick Express rail link is close to the hotel, and provides a connection to London. Relaxing rooms an...
linked to the North Terminal and minutes by monorail from the South Terminal Sofitel London Gatwick offers 500 rooms and boasts all the facilities you would expect fr...
London Gatwick boasts world-class services and amenities,which include various dining options and extensive meeting and event facilities.The hotel offers eight-day or...
A review by helencbradshaw on Sofitel London Gatwick, Crawley January 1st, 2007
Author's product rating:
Quality of Rooms
Excellent
Standard of Service
Good
Quality of Food & Drink
Good
Quality of Facilities
Excellent
Advantages:
Very Convenient for the Terminal
Disadvantages:
Quite Expensive
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
A flight from Gatwick - the only option for our recent holiday to Bermuda - meant we needed one night's accommodation near to the airport itself, to ensure we had no hold ups on the morning. As we would also need 12 nights parking I scoured the internet for inclusive stay and park deals.
This was not really ever going to be a cheap stay because of the parking element. The Sofitel was certainly not the cheapest option but it is attached to North Terminal via a bridge and I felt it was worth paying a little extra for a little bit of indulgence and for the convenience.
The actual rate quoted was £160.85 for the Classic room and up to fifteen nights parking. This however excluded the VAT, which is quite an unusual way for UK hotels to quote rates. The rate was room only and did not include breakfast, which was quoted as an additional £17.95 per person for a full English, an amount I could simply never justify paying, even if I was on a business and not leisure trip.
The hotel is obviously easily located at the airport and there is a small carpark which can be used while checking in initially. Our rate included leaving the car at the NCP Long stay car park, which was another deciding factor, as this is preferable to leaving it in another off airport style car park.
The lobby of the hotel is extremely impressive. The building is an atrium style, so many rooms over look the lobby itself. There are a couple of bars, which are very contemporary, and the whole place has a modern elegant feel to it. There are several glass lifts to the upper floors, which looked impressive as they lit up at the different floors. Check in itself took a few minutes, as there was a small queue, although it was efficient with several staff on duty.
Up to the room, and this certainly did not disappoint, the beds were very inviting with their pure white very plump duvets. The furnishings felt modern and up to date as did the bathroom. The TV was of the modern style and provided cable channels as well as pay per view films, as you would expect in a hotel of this standard. The bathroom itself had an impressive collection of Roger and Gaullet toiletries, in 50ml tubes. I don't normally bother swiping hotel toiletries and indeed most of the time don't use them, but these felt a little more indulgent than the normal brands. Our standard room also had a mini-bar, although we did not use this. The hotel has 500 rooms in total, 340 of which are non-smoking, and two rooms are available for persons with reduced mobility.
Despite my initial plan to have a nice evening meal, when it actually came to it, I was too shattered as I had only flown in from Geneve the previous night. We therefore elected for room service, the menu being fairly extensive. The prices were reasonable, I felt. We both opted for a burger which was a high quality Aberdeen steak variety with lovely caramelised onions, and this was around £15 each by the time the tray and service charges had been added on. Once in the hotel we also learned that they did offer an a la carte style breakfast options, and it was possible to order just eggs or omelettes for example, for around £9. Room Service was delivered within a reasonable time frame, despite the fact that the hotel was bursting at the seams that night, and the food was hot.
The long stay car park is only a few minutes drive away, but then you need to get the bus back after parking the car, and so it is important to allow enough time for this.
Checking out was perhaps a little too efficient, as I was not given a copy of the bill for inspection, but simply given the total amount verbally. This was more than I expected because of the missing VAT element, and the total came to £222 including the accommodation, meal and parking elements. The parking alone would have cost about £70 booked directly so this meant the total for the room was around £120. Obviously this feels a little steep but even a lodge style room would probably have a rack rate of around £60 near the airport, and I felt the comfort of the sofitel beds, and the close proximity to the actual terminal justified paying a bit more.
The beds themselves are worth a mention. Sofitel has a concept called Mybed, which focuses on softness plus comfort plus support means sleeping like a baby. AS well as the mattress there is a feather bed duvet style layer that you sleep on. I have to say that the bed was lovely with a good temperature, and weight and beautiful softness. Sleeping in as many hotel beds as I have, I felt this was another great selling point and another reason why I was keen to use the hotel
Overall while I did not get to sample the restaurants itself and my stay in the hotel probably amounted to a little over 16 hours, I felt that the Sofitel offers comfort and more than adequate amenities for anyone requiring an airport hotel (although it offers much more including extensive conferencing) and I am glad we picked it. I would certainly stay here next time I fly from Gatwick.
(The BA Arrivals lounge for North Terminal is also situated within the hotel, on the same floor that we were on.)
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Advantages: Connected to terminal, comfortable and quiet rooms, good service Disadvantages: Expensive breakfast, long queue at check in
...main reason I chose the Sofitel was its highly convenient location, we were not planning to get to the airport until the evening, had to return our hire car and the last thing I felt I would want to do would be faff around with airport hotel buses. No need to do this with the Sofitel as it is connected to the North Terminal by a covered walkway.
We arrived at Gatwick at about 8pm, dropped off the hire car and crossed the road to enter the (North) ... ...we knew to take the escalator up one floor and from here it is clearly sign posted. It is a very short walk and a few minutes later we went through the glass doors to the hotel reception. My first impression was of a very large, modern and elegant lobby area. My second feeling was dismay at the number of people waiting to be checked in ahead of us. I recalled that it was exactly the same on my last visit even though we arrived at about 11.30pm that ...
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Advantages: Very comfortable stay, convenient location Disadvantages: none
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You wait months for your summer holiday to come, and while the buildup is exciting - why not start your holiday a day earlier with a stay in the Sofitel. This hotel is connected directly to Gatwick's North Terminal - but it doesn't matter if you're flying from the South, the Gatwick monorail runs between the 2 buildings on average every 4 minutes (Free).
I've stayed at this hotel around 5 times, and each time it gets better. You cannot fault the ... ...I always choose to book their room & parking package. It allows you to park your car in a secure car park (usually NCP) for the duration of your holiday - leaving all your worries behind.
As a guest - you can use the facilities of the hotel's pool and gym. Room Service is available if required, and the hotel bar will normally stay open until the last guest leaves.
Either way - you have many good hotels to choose from at Gatwick, but you won't regret ...
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