Bits: win a stay in a castle for you and 20 guests, cheap Sofitel Terminal 5 hotel deals

News in brief:

Win a stay for 20 people at Duns Castle in Scotland

HomeAway is a website where you can book private homes and apartments for your holidays with friends and family.

One of the unique places you can book on HomeAway is Duns Castle – a 14th century Scottish Castle with 12 bedrooms on a 12,000 acre estate. You can find more pictures and information on the castle’s HomeAway listing.

HomeAway sent us some information on a new competition they are running in conjunction with the new Disney live action version of Beauty and the Beast.  Given the size of the prize, and the fact that I doubt that many people will enter, I thought it was worth a mention.

The winner will get a 5 night stay at Duns Castle for themselves and up to 20 guests (worth £11,500) plus economy travel for everyone up to the cost of £1,000 per person.  Even given UK train ticket prices, you should be able to get there for that.

All you need to do is visit this page of the HomeAway website, fill out the form with your details and answer the challenge question correctly.  You are signing up for their email newsletter but you can unsubcribe from that at any time. The full terms and conditions are on this page.  You need to live in the UK, US, France or Germany to enter.

The competition closes at midnight on 31st March.

Sofitel Terminal 5 back on lastminute.com as a ‘secret hotel’

I noticed the other day that the Sofitel Heathrow Terminal 5 (directly linked to Heathrow Terminal 5) is still available as a lastminute.com ‘top secret’ hotel.   Availability is best at weekends.

The ‘Top Secret’ page is here.  You are looking for a Heathrow hotel described as ‘Luxury hotel offering unforgettable stays at Heathrow’.

For Saturday 25th March, as an example, the price was £107.  On the official hotel website, the price is £161 if you sign up as a Le Club AccorHotels member.  You won’t get any points or status benefits by booking direct but, to save, £54, I doubt you’ll mind.

Remember that the club lounge at the Sofitel is part of Priority Pass, so if you have a Priority Pass card you can get de facto lounge access for free too.  You would need to sign in every time you used it so it won’t be that simple, of course.

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Accor Live Limitless update – April 2025:

Earn bonus Accor points: Accor is not currently running a global promotion

New to Accor Live Limitless?  Read our review of Accor Live Limitless here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our analysis of what Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Accor and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.