I needed an overnight stay at LHR terminal 2 and due to the reduced frequently of hotel shuttles during covid, I did not mind paying a premium price for the convenience of HGI’s location.  Nevertheless I was not overly impressed by the stay and in other circumstances post-covid I would probably prefer more often than not a higher level hotel (for example Hilton brand) at a similar or even lower price even if it meant having to take a shuttle bus.

Location

The location of HGI is obviously the strong point especially for Star Alliance flyers, as it’s the only hotel that can be accessed from the terminal without a shuttle bus.  The hotel is not directly connected to the terminal; we had to step outside and walk across the parking lot but even in cold weather it was not an issue because the walk was fairly short.

Check In

We arrived at the hotel at 9:45am and we were told we would have to pay a surcharge for early check-in before noon.  I responded that this was ridiculous as the hotel was most likely low occupancy and they responded that actually they were full the night before.  Given the UK lockdown and the small number of operating flights I called BS and made it known that I didn’t believe it for a second, and after I expressed my displeasure the receptionist told me to wait a minute and by magic a room made itself available on the spot. 

Room

The room was fine and on par with other newly built Hilton Garden Inns, including decent hardware in good condition since the hotel opened only 1.5 year ago.  The bathroom was small but had a walk-in shower which I appreciated.  The bedroom was also small but adequate for an overnight by the airport.  For such a new hotel in a major airport hub, I was surprised that the power plugs by the bedside and the working desk were not international style but rather UK only. 

In my opinion they might have gone a bit too far with covid cutbacks in the room because there were no tissues and only two pillows in the bed instead of four.  There were no extra amenities either such as mouthwash, bathrobes, etc. although for an HGI I did not necessarily expect all of this.

The soundproofing with the airport facing side was excellent because there were two thick windows separated by at least 50 cm – we could barely hear any of the traffic outside.  However as great as the external soundproofing was, they completely messed up the internal soundproofing: we could clearly hear doors banging in the hallway.

I am not sure if the room I had was technically an upgrade from the entry level room to the room type called “high floor with run way view”; the view was more about the airport terminal than anything else. 

Dining

For breakfast we had the choice of breakfast in the restaurant or ordering a take-away bag to bring to the room.  The options were a bit better than some other hotels where we have stayed recently because at least they had hot choices rather than being entirely continental.

Wifi

Wifi worked well during our stay with speeds of 30 Mbps.

Overall

Overall the stay was ok and if in the future I only had a few hours and wanted to maximize sleep time I would return despite the higher price tag compared to higher level (full service) hotels around LHR airport.  However since nothing other than location was particularly good, for any stay where I have at least 12 hours to spare this would probably not be my choice.