ibis & ibis styles - London Heathrow Airport (LHR)
 

There are 2 ibis hotels near London Heathrow airport (LHR).
A normal standard ibis which has been there a while, and a "new" ibis styles hotel which opened not too long ago.
At the time of writing this, the ibis styles on average seems to cost more.

Both are located on Bath road, which is a short bus ride to terminals 2 and 3.
There are also buses to terminal 5, but this will take longer.
I have been to both and will write my notes on both in the next post below.

IBIS STYLES HEATHROW

-The ibis STYLES Heathrow is fairly "new". However, it is a refurbished building rather than a newly purpose built hotel. I don't know if it was a hotel or not before, but something tells me it may have been an office building before. The corridors are narrow and small, while the rooms are larger. 2 people meeting with luggage in the hallway won't have much space to pass eachother. The hotel is made up of 2 seperate buildings linked by a enclosed walkway on the first floor. When I visited a few months ago, the main building was still undergoing rennovations and had scaffolding around it, as I think they were adding another floor on top of the main building.

-If you are staying in the second nearby annex building you have to walk past the "smoker's bench" and enter through what looks like a emergency exit door, and then take a small lift. A sign on the door said after a certain hour at night you would have to use the walkway on the 1st floor of the 1st building.

-The room I had was decent in size (for an ibis) with a huge photo of an astronaut and speech bubble above the bed.

-Windows could NOT be opened.

-Breakfast is included in the rate, but it really was the cheapest and poorest selection for a "budget" hotel that I have come across. Despite it being an ibis, rates at this styles hotel are not that cheap, and you will get better prices at the normal ibis further down Bath road. If you are considering staying at the styles heathrow cause of the free breakfast - think again.

-The hotel does not have room service but you can take food from the bar to the room on a tray.

-Both on my arrival and on my departure, I had bad experience with the staff. On arrival I was kept waiting for several minutes while 2 members of staff were "busy". One on the phone and the other one was doing paperwork. There were no other guests in the lobby. Neither staff member even looked at me. When I finally did get to check in, I got no welcome, no smile, no thank you for your membership, nothing. Also on departure it was more or less the same, except I didn't have to wait.

-During my stay, a staff member called me with a message that was for another guest. When I told he she had the wrong number, she just hung up, rather than apologise.

-Based on the higher prices, poor breakfast, small corridors, and unfriendly staff, I won't be going back to the styles, and when I use accor at heathrow airport, I stay at the other standard ibis.

NORMAL STANDARD IBIS HEATHROW


-The normal ibis at heathrow is a very large hotel with 5 floors and quite a lot of rooms . About 30 or 40 per floor I think.

-The hotel has a strange "modern" style check in where staff members wear casual red t-shirts and check you in on smartphones while you stand next to them. Maybe some people like this method, but I found it somewhat immature. (Maybe I'm just spolit by the ibis hotels in asia where staff wear smart uniforms, and work very professionally behind a desk.)

-This hotel has rooms on the ground floor, which I do NOT reccomend, especially if they are facing the car park where cars come and go all night and shine their headlights through the windows. It's also more noisy. Ask for a room on the 2nd floor or higher.

-The windows CAN be opened...but only very slighty. Better than nothing.

-The rooms are undergoing a refurbishment from now until MARCH 2019. If you are staying longer than 1 night, I reccomend asking for a room away from the drilling and hammering noises.

-The room sizes are average to small...for ibis standrads anyway.

-The bathrooms look newly done, in a dark brown/black color with walk in showers. Shower pressure is not that great, and the water temperature kept adjusting by itself from boiling hot to colder. Not the best shower I've had for sure.

-Whoever designed the position of the new toilets needs to be fired from their job. I have been in 3 different rooms at this hotel and they all had the same problem. The toilet (which is held into the wall) is both way too close to the ground, and way too close to the side of the wall. It's at the height for a 7 to 11 year old child to sit on, not an adult. Also, if you are sitting on it, one of your legs will be right against the side of the wall. (i'm not even a little bit overweight, so that's not the cause in case you're wondering) There's more than enough space in the bathroom to position the toilet a bit higher and further away from the wall (or turn it in another direction). Really uncomfortable :-(

-The hotel has a large bar and restaurant, but there are no restaurants or supermarkets that I could find nearby. If you take a local red bus and go about 2 or 3 stops further down bath road, you can get to a KFC and starbucks. 2 bus stops after that there is a small tesco supermarket (near the moxy hotel). None of this is within walking distance of the ibis though.

-Rates at this hotel can be very cheap compared to the competition on the same road. The holiday day inn ariel is within walking distance. They are building a courtyard by marriott next to the holiday inn. There is a bowling place next door to the ibis.

-Overall, despite some complaints, i found this hotel better than the ibis styles further down the road. Rates are cheaper, staff are more friendly, and the hotel is much larger overall.

If you are staying at either the ibis or ibis styles at heathrow airport, do NOT take the white colored hotel hoppa bus as this is a rip off. The hoppa bus charges 5 british pounds one way and 9 pounds to go and come back. A family of four would spend 36 pounds just on the bus travel which is more expensive than even a taxi.

You can get to either ibis hotel (and back to the airport) FOR FREE using the local red colored buses. These are all free of charge in the roads around heathrow airport. If in doubt about where to get off, ask the driver. They are very used to people using them for the hotels.

One exception is bus number 90 which charges 1.50 per journey. No cash...just payble with an oyster card or contactless debit/creditcard. Still a lot cheaper than the hoppa bus though.

Sorry to bump but there's a new "Heathrow" hotel: ibis Styles London Heathrow East.

It's marked as "close to Hounslow West". The address is 366 Great West Road, TW50BD which puts it on the A4 and nowhere near an underground stop - it's almost a mile from Hounslow West and a mile from Osterley. (The map puts it much more centrally in Hounslow - actually inside the Treaty Centre. But that looks wrong).

Might be an easy bus into Heathrow though.

The only bus stopping there is the H91 to Hounslow West, which is on the Piccadilly line - not the most convenient connection vs the other two ibises mentioned, which are literally a bus stop or two away from LHR. The price also does not seem to be any better, so I'd stick to the hotels closer to LHR, including the quite attractively-priced Novotel.