Airport hotels, everyone has something to say about them. Whether it's the thought that you can't get a good sleep because of aircraft movements, or feel that the room rates are inflated because hotels know that you don't want to be up any earlier than you have to be for your morning flight, we've all got our own opinions on them. But for myself and many others, airport hotels mean the chance to maximise sleep before an early morning flight where you're throwing yourself straight into work when you arrive at your destination.
London's Heathrow Airport has an array of hotels to suit near enough everyone's needs from budget hotels, to mid-market and premium offerings. However, it only has one five star hotel within the whole perimeter. This hotel is Sofitel at T5 and is the hotel I'm reviewing for you all today. For this stay, I stayed in their one-bedroom Prestige suite. They also offer two-bedroom Opera and Imperial suites, as well as standard, superior, and luxury rooms which feature club lounge access. One stand out point to note about Sofitel that no other hotel for Terminal 5 has, is that it is the only hotel with a direct walkway to Terminal 5 and its connecting short stay car park.
The one-bedroom Prestige Suite has a dedicated entrance hall unlike the ones at Sofitel London Gatwick, which means you can choose whether you want to go into the living/dining area, or the bedroom. There is also a guest bathroom stocked with toiletries by Hermès leading on from the entrance hall, as well as the main bathroom which is accessed via the bedroom. Unfortunately, none of the suites at Sofitel London Heathrow are tagged as accessible. However, the guest bathroom had plenty of space to put things like grab rails around the toilet in so that there could be at least some accessibility within the suite.
On to the living/dining area, where you'll find a small dining table to seat four, sofa and an armchair, as well as one of two TVs, desk area and a well-stocked, complimentary minibar as well kettle, glasses and an ice bucket! This area of the suite also has a Bose speaker in one of the cupboards, as well as another door to the bedroom area which means you don't need to go through the entrance hall to get to the bedroom. However, I couldn't help but feel that the living area in this suite was very cramped, it's a small space with a lot of furniture squeezed in which for me, made it feel cluttered and messy.
The bedroom area within the Prestige Suite was the largest room of the suite if you include the dressing area, which leads onto a four-piece bathroom. The dressing area itself I found very spacious, with a vanity mirror and quartz covered worktop to put a large suitcase down. The bedroom in the Prestige suite comes with a king-sized bed, another desk/TV area, wardrobe area which contains the safe and is where you'll find one of the dressing gowns (the other being in the bathroom). The bed had a USB charging point with 4 USB ports on one of the sides of the bed.
The ensuite bathroom was of a good size with a step-free walk-in shower, bath with another shower connected to the bath taps, and had a grab rail to the right of the bathtub on the wall, and toilet with sink/vanity area around it. The bathroom was well stocked with toiletries from Hermès in both the shower and sink areas. Again, the toilet had no grab rails; however, the sink/vanity area's marble worktop stretches right across the wall, which meant I was able to use that to hold onto when transferring. The fact that neither toilet in the suite had grab rails annoyed me, especially as there is the space around both to do it, and it would open up the suites as an option to disabled guests.
The Prestige Suite comes with club lounge access, which offers complimentary food and drinks at set times of the day. This means that even when you're on a room only rate, you can still have breakfast in the morning if you go to the lounge. The evening canapés included a range of foods from cold meat and vegetable platters, to quiches and more, plus desserts and a range of alcoholic drinks. Breakfast in the lounge consisted of continental options including a variety of fruit, pastries, bread, colds meats and cheese as well as condiments. The club lounge was spacious enough to relax in, but around food times it gets hectic.
Sofitel at London Heathrow also has a spa including a small pool. There is lift access down to the spa, but I didn't use the spa during my stay. The spa is £25 a day for guests staying at the hotel unless you are staying in prestige, opera or imperial suites for whom spa access is included in the cost of the room. Not many staff seem to know this, so if you are staying in these suites, then you may need to get firm should staff attempt to charge for access to the spa.
Overall, Sofitel at London Heathrow is a good choice of hotel if you want to treat yourself a luxury hotel either side of your trip. The club access that comes with the luxury rooms and suites is a godsend; my only wish is that the luxury rooms and the suites had accessible rooms within these categories. The suites, in particular, could easily be adapted.