Then perhaps I had an outlier experience. No one at LHR could tell me which bus stop would take me to the Bath Rd hotels. Once I finally sorted that out, I waited 25 mins for a bus to show up before I gave up and took a taxi.
For future reference, see
https://www.heathrow.com/file_source...d_Heathrow.pdf . It has all the hotels served by the buses in the free travel area listed, along with what buses take you there!
I've had some long waits around midnight after late arrivals, but generally one of the buses I've needed has appeared pretty quickly to speed me away to my lodgings on Bath Road. Typically that's the Ibis Styles, as that often comes out cheapest for somewhere decent-ish, but I've ended up trying quite a few...
Hilton Garden Inn at Hatton Cross is nice too, but it's either a paid-for short tube trip, or a longer bus ride. HGI T2 looks good too, but I've yet to sample it.