Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Review: the new Atrium Hotel Heathrow – is this the weirdest Heathrow airport hotel?

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

This is our review of the Atrium Hotel Heathrow, located at Hatton Cross tube station.

At HfP we try to keep abreast of all of the hotel openings that occur in and around Heathrow.  So far this year we have already covered the new Hilton Garden Inn at Terminal 2 (review) and the new Holiday Inn (review here) and Staybridge Suites (review here) on Bath Road.

Last Autumn we covered the new Holiday Inn Express at Terminal 4 (review here) which shares a building with the new Crowne Plaza at Terminal 4 (review here).

The Atrium Hotel Heathrow was one that particularly piqued our interest. Whilst most airport hotels belong to big chains (IHG, Marriott, Hilton etc), this one was curiously unbranded.  At 612 rooms it is also gigantic.  It bills itself, on its website, as “the capital’s latest icon” …. how could we resist?

Given these peculiarities, I gave Atrium Hotel Heathrow a try before my Upper Class Suite flight to New York on Virgin Atlantic’s new A350 (review to follow).

Getting there

Since I was coming straight from the HfP office, I took the tube to Hatton Cross. Once you emerge from the underground the distinctive blue and yellow cladding is immediately visible.

atrium hotel hatton cross

Getting to it from the station is a short walk across a maze of traffic lights to cross the junction:

atrium hotel hatton cross

I walked around the building a little, unsure of where reception was. It turns out there are two: one angled towards the tube station and one around the back. I went to the front one, which is on a lower level to the road and has this surprising tile feature:

atrium hotel hatton cross

Inside the Atrium Hotel Heathrow

Here is reception which, when I arrived at just after 5pm, was deserted except for two members of staff:

atrium hotel hatton cross reception

…. and checked in. It looks like some staff are still being trained because a manager came out to show the staff how to do it.

From the front reception to my room was a bit of a walk. To get to the lifts you walk through a large corridor that passes a cafe area:

atrium hotel hatton cross cafe

…. before passing the second reception (marked air crew, although they seemed to deal with everyone). You then walk through some double doors and are presented with four lifts.

I was on the 4th floor (there are 5 in total).

The room

I got to my room (this hotel is far larger than it looks – there are corridors everywhere) and opened the door:

atrium hotel hatton cross room

The first thing I noticed was the smell of damp. Remember, this hotel is only a few months old!  I’m not sure where the damp was (could it be in the central air system?). I thought about contacting reception but decided against it – I couldn’t be particularly bothered to faff about for such a short stay.

Like most hotel rooms the bathroom is immediately to the left, with the bedroom by the window. Here is the bathroom, which features a very nice shower:

atrium hotel hatton cross bathroom

Toiletries are branded with logos of all the hotels owned by the parent, which include Shendish Manor and Regency Park Hotel:

atrium hotel hatton cross toiletries
…. although they are really oddly scented – not particularly pleasant.

Here is the sleeping area, with a double bed I later found out appeared to be just two singles moved together (!):

atrium hotel hatton cross room

and

atrium hotel hatton cross bed

There is a large wardrobe, desk and coffee/tea facilities:

atrium hotel hatton cross coffee

The strangest thing about the room was the abundance of mirrors. There is a large mirror behind the bed, a medium sized one above the desk, a large mirrored wardrobe door, an equally large wall mirror opposite the wardrobe….and then two of the walls in the bathroom are also completely mirrored!

As you might expect, given its name, this hotel has a large atrium which the internal rooms overlook. This is my view into the buffet / restaurant / bar area:

atrium hotel hatton cross view

The Bridal Suite

The hotel also has a bridal suite on the fourth floor. I didn’t see inside it but my experience with my own room does not bode well.  I’m not sure who would want to spend their honeymoon, or part of their honeymoon, in a soulless hotel with nothing to do at Hatton Cross …. although I accept that the function rooms are probably some of the largest in the area if you are planning a big wedding.

This is the end of Part 1.  You can read Part 2 of our Atrium Hotel Heathrow review here.  It gets weirder ….

You can read our full series of London airport hotel reviews here.


best hotel loyalty promotions

Hotel offers update – December 2024:

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

Want to buy hotel points?

  • Hilton Honors is offering an 80%-100% bonus when you buy points by 31st December 2024. Click here to buy.
  • IHG One Rewards is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 13th December 2024. Your annual purchase limit is increased to 300,000 points plus the bonus. Click here to buy.
  • Marriott Bonvoy is offering a 40%-45% bonus when you buy point by 23rd December 2024. Your annual purchase limit is increased to 150,000 points plus the bonus. Click here to buy.
  • World of Hyatt is offering a 25% bonus when you buy points by 4th January 2025. Your annual purchase limit is increased to 110,000 points plus the bonus. Click here to buy.

Comments (38)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Hand Shandy says:

    Going to be full of EE prostitutes very soon just like all the hotels at LHR.

    • MD says:

      Damn, I just switched to Vodafone…

    • Rob says:

      Unless there is a market for OAP prostitutes there was no-one in the Premier Inn T4 at 11pm last night 🙂

      • mradey says:

        No the Sofitel. Do tell which hotels we can find them.

      • Russ says:

        Rob, if I may ask, when you book a hotel which doesn’t give points, which card and provider do you think’s best? I’m interested in trying the Premier Inn’s at Heathrow as they’ve had good reviews but their lack of adequate parking and no benefits is off putting given the bumper alternatives at Heathrow. Currently put these hotels on Amex Gold via Points hound if available but is there a better way?

        • Rob says:

          Premier Inn does not appear anywhere except their own website. However, let’s put this into perspective: I paid £52 last night, having booked at 10am. HIX T4 was £155, CP T4 was £135 (!) and the Hilton T4 was £215. Oddly the lack of elite benefits or rewards did not concern me given those numbers (and the fact I arrived at 10.30pm and left at 5.30am).

          No card gives extra benefits for hotel spend (except for IHG and Marriott in their own hotels) so bung it on the best you have. Taking Amex is about the biggest attempt Premier Inn makes to appeal to the business market 🙂

          PS. No Vodafone signal in the PI T4, at least in my wing. Wi-fi, unless you pay £5 for premium, was as bad as ever too.

    • Spurs Debs says:

      All I’m going to say is ..,, your username.

    • ankomonkey says:

      They’re only available for Atrium Diamond members booking certain rates…

    • Brian says:

      Those mirrors will come in handy…

  • The Original David says:

    Perhaps the bridal suite is for people with an early flight the following morning to start their honeymoon? You’d hope nobody would decide to kick off married life with 2 weeks in Hatton Cross…

  • C says:

    Fly in fly out Indian weddings at Heathrow are quite a sight to behold!

  • DaveP says:

    Love the abundant growth of the weeds at the traffic lights in your pic – a welcoming sight!!

    • Alex Sm says:

      This hotel has risen from nowhere – there has always been a piece of derelict land there, we were passing by on the way to planespotting sites. And – boom! – a hotel appears. This explains weeds

  • NigelthePensioner says:

    Turn left out of the hotel and head up the road away from Hatton Cross, bearing round the bend to the right and voila! The Green Man. If you’re an AVGeek, then sitting outside (in the Summer), the experience at the end of runway 9R for take offs or 27L for landings, with an A380 feet above your head is quite fun!

    • Oh! Matron! says:

      This…. I love when my bus (the 285 to Kingston) happens to be passing underneath an A380 on approach 🙂 That child in me will never grow up 🙂

    • Yorkieflyer says:

      Green Man definitely gone downhill under current management, see TA reviews, no food for us on a recent visit at 8pm! Great for plane spotting on a summer evening in the beer garden though.
      Trying the Travelodge at Hounslow on the next early ex T5!

  • BP says:

    OT: How to book Sofitel T5 for a reasonable price?

    Thanks

  • Oh! Matron! says:

    So, I have an idea on this…

    Round the back of the hotel is a large space just for coaches… JUST for coaches, and I’ve seen loads there. I suspect this hotel is for foreign tour companies running tours in the UK and need a non branded (and therefore cheaper to negotiate with) hotel near LHR that has a little class, but not too much

    Incidentally, it appeared on Tripadvisor 3 months before it opened with 5 reviews!

  • Rich says:

    I had a (very cheap!) reservation here in March which was cancelled when the hotel opened late. Based on this review, I don’t think I missed anything by staying at the Premier Inn T4 instead!

    Incidentally, spent Sunday night in the Hilton Garden Inn down the road. Very impressed with that too. Good breakfast, and 25 min from room to T5 checkin.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.