After taking a daytime transatlantic flight to the UK to kick off my Million Mile Madness trip, I needed a hotel for the night. Despite writing a post a couple of years ago highlighting how great the Premier Inn chain can be in the UK, I’d initially completely forgotten to check their website for accommodation options for my stay.
It wasn’t until looking at Heathrow airport hotels on Google Maps that I spotted this particular Premier Inn property and was pleased to see it priced at ~$70 for the night.
Premier Inn London Heathrow Terminal 4 Bottom Line Review
In addition to the low price compared to other Heathrow hotels, one of the key selling points of the Premier Inn at Terminal 4 is that you can walk to the hotel from the terminal via a covered walkway. If you’re arriving or departing from a different terminal at Heathrow, you can take a free train ride from/to the other terminals.
It’s excellent value too. The rooms are a decent enough size as airport hotels go, with very good blackout curtains that ensure the room remains nice and dark. There’s a plentiful breakfast buffet available in the morning, although that comes at an extra charge.
Meals are available 24/7 which is particularly useful if you’re getting in late at night and haven’t had a chance to eat. If you want items waiting for you upon arrival in the UK, there’s an Amazon locker in the hotel where you can pick up your order. Self check-in is easy, although there is a staff member there to assist if needed. Each floor has doors closing off the elevator area from guest rooms to help ensure there’s less noise in the hallways.
Overall it was an excellent and convenient stay, so if I ever need an overnight stay at Heathrow in the future, this will likely be my first choice.
- Points Price: Not applicable – Premier Inn doesn’t have a points program, nor is it bookable on OTAs (Online Travel Agencies like Hotels.com), so you have to book direct.
- Cash Price: The cost for my night was £54 which is ~$70.
- Points Value: Not applicable.
- Resort or Destination Fee: None.
- Parking: Yes, although it’s not cheap at £25 (~$31) for 24 hours.
- Standard Room: I booked a Standard Room on their website, with the email confirmation stating that it’s a Quad Room. I suspect that’s because there was a king bed (or perhaps two twins pushed together) with a sofa bed that looked like it might be convertible into a double bed.
The size of the room was fine and featured a desk and chair you can work at. There was air conditioning in the room which worked well and the blackout curtains had a useful feature where they overlap each other to reduce the chance of sunlight making its way through.
The shower’s water pressure was good and the hotel was nice and quiet which helped ensure I got a good night’s sleep.
A couple of minor things to be aware of. The bathroom has a shampoo/body wash combo and no conditioner, so you might want to bring your own toiletries if that’s important to you. Also, as with many hotel rooms in the UK, there’s no mini fridge. - 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: Meh. You do get complimentary internet access, but it was painfully slow. I’ve noticed this at other Premier Inn properties I’ve stayed at, so I ended up paying £5 (~$6.50) for premium internet. That wasn’t bad just for one night, but that’ll quickly add up if you’re booking a longer stay at a Premier Inn property and need to get some work done.
- Dining: You can purchase a meal deal ahead of your stay. That includes a two course meal in the evening (an entrée and your choice of either an appetizer or dessert plus a drink), as well as breakfast in the morning. Pre-purchasing this package saves you 20%, so I paid for that at the time of making my reservation. That came to £29.99 (~$37.50) which wasn’t cheap, but wasn’t exorbitantly expensive either, especially for the convenience of being able to eat there rather than having to walk back to the airport to grab something to eat.
There are several dining options:- Thyme Restaurant – Available for breakfast from 5:30am-10:30am on weekdays and 6am-11am at the weekend and holidays. Dinner is available from 5pm-10:30pm.
- Sports Bar – Food available from 12pm-10:30pm.
- Late Night Menu – Available 10:30pm-5:30am
- Costa Coffee – Open 24/7. In addition to coffee, tea, etc., there are sandwiches and other food items available.
- Club Lounge: None
- Spa: None
- Fitness Room: None
- Pool: None
- Welcome Amenity: None
- Service: Service was friendly. Although I used self check-in, there was a front desk agent who welcomed me. The staff in Thyme restaurant were friendly and attentive too; restaurant service in the UK can sometimes be mediocre compared to the US, but that wasn’t the case here.
- Pet Policy: Pets sadly aren’t allowed at any Premier Inn properties.
- Location: The hotel is only a 6-7 minute walk from Terminal 4 via a covered walkway, so it’s very convenient. It can also save you a good chunk of change if traveling as a family versus having to get a Hotel Hoppa bus to and from a different hotel.
- Elite Benefits: Not applicable as Premier Inn doesn’t have a loyalty program.
- Other amenities: There are vending machines with drinks and snacks, as well as a cabinet containing books which appeared to function as a lending library. There are also Amazon lockers where you can pick up packages.
- Would I stay again? Absolutely. Being able to book a clean and comfortable hotel for less than $75 that’s walkable from Heathrow Terminal 4 is a great option.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Location – Just a short walk from the airport via a covered walkway
- Low Room Rate – Room rates aren’t always quite as low as $70, but they’re usually priced very competitively versus the other three hotels you can walk to from Terminal 4.
- Quiet – I don’t think I heard any other guests walking up and down the hallway outside my room. I also didn’t hear any guests on the floor above me.
- Darkness – The room stayed very dark thanks to the blackout curtains.
- Cart Corral – Right outside the entrance there’s a cart corral where you can leave luggage carts from the airport which makes the walk to the hotel more convenient as you can load your suitcases on those carts. Carts are presumably first come, first served in the morning though, so there’s no guarantee there’ll be some there when walking back to Terminal 4.
Cons
- No free breakfast – Their unlimited full cooked breakfast costs £13.99 (~$17.50). Paying for that isn’t bad considering the cheap room rate versus other properties, plus kids eat free if their parents are having breakfast.
Walkthrough Video
Here’s a quick video I took of my room at the Premier Inn London Heathrow Terminal 4.
Image Gallery
How to get to the Premier Inn London Heathrow Terminal 4
Check-In
Bedroom & Bathroom
Dining
Amenities
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My scroll hand got a cramp pulling down the length of this post. Do they pay you by the foot when you write a post?
Greg’s very cosmopolitan, so he pays the European writers by the centimeter.
Good choice but Holiday Inn Crown Plaza is in the same terminal, with the same covered walkway access. Loved an overnight stay there earlier this year. Check it out as well.
That’s one I’d considered, especially because it has a club lounge. It was about $60 more expensive than the Premier Inn though, so for affordability on the challenge I went with the Premier Inn. If the pricing was closer between the two though, I’d be interested in checking out the Crowne Plaza in the future.
Stayed here for a quick overnight about a month before you did. The rate was about $105 (78 gbp). Perfectly fine stay if you don’t have the time to actually go out of the airport. As a OW emerald I took my breakfast the next bring in the Cathay Pacific lounge which, I’m guessing, was better than the hotel breakfast.
One note: the elevated tunnel connection from T4 is completely enclosed but not climate controlled — so very cold during the winter.
Air con question: Was 21ºc the temp it was set when you arrived or the lowest it would go?
Very helpful because some PIs in the UK get low ratings for AC and it’s needed sometimes, obviously.
That’s what it was set at when I arrived. I turned it down a little and the room was perfectly comfortable (I prefer rooms on the cooler side).
Thank you! That is fantastic to know. This is now on my list! I sometimes take the day flight for a better deal or SWU option, so it’s easy to just go right to a hotel, but I need cold (and Diet Coke!) to sleep. Thanks so much for this review!
The Wi-Fi is slow at the premier inn I stayed at. We can only get signal by the door. Other than that, the room provides good value.
Not enough pictures although I especially enjoyed the toilet bowl pics.
I guess you are all moved in back home in the UK.
I’ll try to remember to lift up the toilet seat cover next time before taking a photo 😉
As for moving back to the UK, that’s not until the new year – still in the US right now.
I read your last post 2 years ago when you first wrote about Premiere inn. I had a trip planned to London during Wimbledon and could.not find any availability at Premiere Inn anywhere near central London, nor near paddington station.. I ended up using some free night certs at the Trafalgar St.James (which I loved) I was walking through covent garden and stumbled upon a “Hub by Premiere Inn”.Curiously, I walked through the tiny lobby which was unmanned. Everything seemed to be digital including check in, but it seemed to cater to a lot of single occupants. I would definitely keep them on my radar for me next London visit.
My hotel of choice at Heathrow, However the top floor is now a “Premier Plus” room which costs more, but still good value
Staff stick rigidly to a check in time of 3PM but if you pay extra, you can check in earlier