Bloc Hotel London Gatwick Airport: Bottom Line Review

In late July, my wife and I flew to England to see my family and friends before continuing on to the Maldives for our 20th anniversary. Our flight to the Maldives (via Doha) was due to leave from London Gatwick Airport at 9am. We could’ve stayed with my friends the night before our flights as they all within a 45 minute drive – in theory – of Gatwick.

However, we would’ve had to leave pretty early in the morning (for me) to get there on time, especially because we’d have wanted to have a sizable buffer to account for potential traffic on the M25. Rather than doing that, we decided to book a stay at the Bloc Hotel London Gatwick Airport instead.

Bloc Hotel London Gatwick Airport Bottom Line Review

While there’s an abundance of hotels around Gatwick Airport, I think there are only two properties actually at the airport – Bloc Hotel and YotelAIR (the Hilton is connected via a walkway). The best value option for our night was the Bloc Hotel, so we booked that.

The hotel is located in Gatwick’s South Terminal; if your flight departs the next day from the North Terminal like ours did, it doesn’t take long to get between the two. After dropping off our rental car, there was clear signage in the South Terminal to find our way to the hotel.

The check-in process was swift. They offer self check-in with a digital key if you want, or you can stop at the front desk to get a physical key. There wasn’t a line when we arrived, so we just went to the front desk and had our keys in less than a minute.

We booked a base level room that comes with no windows. While that might be claustrophobic for some people, we didn’t mind – especially because it meant it was nice and dark that night.

Our room was cozy, but it didn’t feel cramped. We had a couple of large suitcases and a carry-on each and we could move around easily enough. There was storage under the bed that was large enough for my wife’s camera bag, but not large enough to fit suitcases under. The end of the bed also had a couple of storage compartments. If there’s two of you with two checked bags each, a carry-on each and a personal item each, it would probably feel much more cramped in there if you also needed to open up any of the suitcases. If not, you should be able to line up the bags along the wall to keep them out of the way.

The bathroom was on the much smaller end of things and was a wet room. In case you’re not familiar with wet rooms, the toilet and the shower are in the same section. That has the potential to be annoying if you want to use the toilet after someone’s just showered as the floor will be wet, so you might want to coordinate things if you’re not traveling by yourself.

Overall, while it’s not a cheap place to stay overnight, it was quiet, clean, comfortable and – most importantly – convenient.

• Points Price: Not applicable – Bloc Hotels doesn’t have a points program. They do have a rewards program though which offers discounts, free on-the-day room upgrades and more, as well as free fast-track Premium Security at this specific property when booking directly.
  Having said that, you might find the hotel bookable through the travel portal of one or more of your credit cards. For example, Bloc Hotel London Gatwick Airport does show up on the Chase Travel Portal, so depending on which cards you have you could redeem Ultimate Rewards points for up to 1.5cpp (cents per point).
• Cash Price: I booked our stay via Hotels.com because I had a gift card I wanted to redeem. The cost was $168.73 for the night.
• Points Value: Not applicable.
• Resort or Destination Fee: None.

• Parking: None, although parking is obviously available at Gatwick Airport
• Classic Double Room, No Windows: When entering our room the bathroom/wet room was on the left, the bedroom straight ahead and an open closet/storage area on the right.
  The bed was nice and comfortable and there was a wall-mounted TV if you want to watch a show. The bedroom and bathroom lights were controlled by a touch panel next to one side of the bed, as was the air conditioning.
  Although it was small, the bathroom didn’t feel particularly tight other than the fact that you shower while standing right next to the toilet.
  There aren’t any tea or coffee making facilities in the room itself, but on the 5th and 7th floors there are rooms with hot drinks machines.
• Housekeeping: I suspect that the vast majority of guests only stay for one night, so I’ve no idea how frequently housekeeping comes if staying 2+ nights.
• Turndown service: None.
• Internet: Good. It’s complimentary for all guests. There’s no desk to work at though and I had to work that night, so I just headed out into the terminal.
• Dining: There’s no restaurant or bar, but there are hot drinks machines on the 5th and 7th floors where you can make tea, coffee or hot chocolate for free.
  There was also a card in the room with a QR code you can scan to obtain discounts at restaurants, bars and cafes in the airport (see the photos at the end of this post).
• Club Lounge: None
• Spa: None
• Fitness Room: None
• Pool: None
• Welcome Amenity: There were a couple of small bottles of water in the bedroom awaiting us.
• Service: Service was as good as could be expected for a one minute interaction when picking up our keys.
• Pet Policy: Pets not allowed
• Location: Perfect for when you’re flying out of Gatwick as it’s in the South Terminal. If that’s where your flight is out of, you can take the elevator down from your floor straight to Departures on level 3. If your flight is out of the North Terminal, take the elevator down to level 2 and follow the signs to North Terminal – there’s a free shuttle that runs every few minutes and only takes a couple of minutes to get between the two terminals.
• Elite Benefits: Not applicable as I didn’t book directly with Bloc Hotels. If you do book directly, it’d be worth signing up for their free VIP+ program.
• Other amenities: None
• Would I stay again? If I had another early morning flight out of Gatwick, I’d definitely be willing to stay here again.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Location – Incredibly convenient location in Gatwick’s South Terminal
• Quiet – I’m not sure if the hotel wasn’t booked up much when we stayed there, but we didn’t hear any other guests out in the hallway.
• Size – The room was larger than I was anticipating despite it being cozy.

Cons

• Bed Accessibility – In the room we booked, you could only access the bed from one side. That was the side my wife sleeps on, so I had to climb over her to get into bed. Certainly not a deal breaker, but might be worth considering if two of you go to bed at different times like we do.
• Wet Room – Some won’t like that the bathroom is a wet room.
• Bathroom Frosted Glass Door – Turning on the light in the bathroom lit up the bedroom.

Image Gallery

How to get to the Bloc Hotel

Check-in/Check-out

Getting to your room

Bedroom

Bathroom/Wet room

Amenities

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