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Review: the Premier Inn Heathrow Terminal 4 hotel – quite a lot of room for not a lot of money

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This is a brief review of the Premier Inn hotel at Heathrow Terminal 4.

On Tuesday morning I caught the 8am Qatar Airways flight to Doha for a meeting with Qatar Airways Privilege Club and to take a look at Qsuite.  That story is coming up next week.

I had planned to get up around 4am and head out to the airport.  However, a broken night on Sunday due to a sick child meant that my wife was keen for a good sleep, so on Monday morning I thought I’d take a look at the Terminal 4 hotel prices for same-day check-in.

Review Premier Inn London Heathrow Terminal 4

To be honest, I was 90% certain that the best deal was going to be 20,000 IHG Rewards Club points for the Holiday Inn Express Terminal 4.  What I actually found was:

If you don’t know Heathrow Terminal 4, all four hotels are attached to the same fully enclosed walkway that runs directly into the departures hall.  The Crowne Plaza / Holiday Inn Express building is around a three minute walk whilst the Premier Inn and Hilton take five minutes.

£52, booked at 11am on the same day as I was checking in, was a no-brainer.  I was planning to arrive around 10pm and leave at 5.30am, so I didn’t need anything except a comfy bed and good soundproofing.

I like Premier Inn.  Whilst I kept it quiet at the time, I spent the weekend at the brand new one on Great Yarmouth seafront recently, for a golfing trip.  You really can’t complain – the quality is surprisingly high and it is almost certainly the best hotel in Great Yarmouth.  It seems the Beefeater restaurant attached is also the best restaurant in Great Yarmouth.

Anika did a full review of Premier Inn Heathrow Terminal 4 a couple of years ago – click here – on one of her more glamorous HfP assignments.  She claims it is a 7-minute walk down the walkway but my legs are longer – I timed it and it took me 5 minutes.

I won’t repeat her coverage so here are a few quick pointers.  The room is perfectly acceptable – I ended up with an accessible room so it was a little bigger than average:

Review Premier Inn London Heathrow Terminal 4

Premier Inn uses Hypnos beds which are great.  You get a tea and coffee tray for free and basic wi-fi is free.  The wardrobe is ‘open’ but this isn’t an issue for an airport hotel aimed at one-night stays.

I should warn you that Vodafone reception on my wing (the building is triangular) varied from one bar of 3G to none at all:

Review Premier Inn London Heathrow Terminal 4

The free wi-fi is also exceptionally slow, although perfectly fine for email and HfP WordPress work.

The pleasant and bustling lobby area has a 24/7 Costa Coffee:

Review Premier Inn London Heathrow Terminal 4

…. a bar (usurprisingly quiet at 5.30am) and a restaurant, not pictured:

Review Premier Inn London Heathrow Terminal 4

Breakfast is £10.50 for the full hot and cold menu, or £8.50 for the ‘continental’ cold menu.  As I was leaving at 5.30am I didn’t try it.  There are plenty of vending machines in the building as well.

It is crazy that this hotel was less than half the price of any of the alternatives.  Even factoring in the free breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express Terminal 4, the Premier Inn is still exceptional value.  If you need a hotel at Terminal 4, you don’t need to have any concerns about taking the ‘bargain’ option.

How to book the Premier Inn Heathrow Terminal 4

I booked on the Premier Inn website here.  I was under the impression that you couldn’t book Premier Inn hotels via any third party site with a loyalty scheme, so that means you cannot benefit from Hotels.com Rewards or anything similar.  Premier Inn itself does not have a loyalty scheme.

However, on Tuesday a HfP reader mentioned in the comments that this hotel can often be found on hotel booking site Rocketmiles – and it is, albeit only at ‘flexible’ rates.  This lets you earn Avios, Virgin Flying Club miles, Heathrow Rewards points or various other rewards with your booking.  It seems I missed a trick.

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

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Airport Hotel Reviews (London)

Comments (77)

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

  • Erico1875 says:
    26 Sep26 September 05:07

    Beefeater chain normally 2 4 1 in Taste Card too.

    • pauldb says:
      26 Sep26 September 08:01

      Or Meerkat Meals which HUKD will show you how to get for free.

    • john says:
      26 Sep26 September 11:09

      Our nearby one sends us 40% meals which seem to be valid for 3months every 3months. I’m sure similar can be found online. The food isn’t too bad – standard pub grub really. Wife sometimes goes for the £5 lunch with the baby group.

  • Rich says:
    26 Sep26 September 05:18

    I use this most times I fly from LHR; usually great value for an overnight stop.
    The amazon locker in the lobby is a bonus too as it lets me pick up shopping ‘en route’

  • HAND SHANDY says:
    26 Sep26 September 05:28

    Full of EE prostitutes.

    • Mark2 says:
      26 Sep26 September 06:46

      Are they cheaper here than at more expensive hotels? You have obviously done the research.

    • Sandgrounder says:
      26 Sep26 September 07:03

      I’m on partner network BT Mobile, so does this mean I can get full service?

    • Rob says:
      26 Sep26 September 07:27

      It really isn’t! It is full of pensioners and other members of the general public (which you rarely see in the more expensive Heathrow hotels which are generally 90% business travellers) – similar crowd to every other Premier Inn I’ve used.

    • Michael C says:
      26 Sep26 September 07:40

      Are they better than Vodafone ones?

    • ankomonkey says:
      26 Sep26 September 09:32

      Any reviews planned? This gets a regular mention, but with little detail or substance.

      • Lumma says:
        26 Sep26 September 10:30

        I don’t get what the issue is with this. Unless the prostitutes are soliciting for business in the lobby

    • 1nfrequent says:
      26 Sep26 September 10:04

      You’re confusing PE with Travelodge.

      1F

  • James says:
    26 Sep26 September 05:51

    Love T4 Premier Inn, booked it for flying out just before Christmas for £39!

    • Sandgrounder says:
      26 Sep26 September 06:03

      I’m going to give it a go next year, I have a night booked in May for 29.50

  • Tracy Regan says:
    26 Sep26 September 06:28

    We stay here a lot and if you book in advance it’s usually £29.50. As Rob said you can walk to the other terminals so you don’t have any additional transport costs either. We usually have dinner too and although at first I had low expectations it is surprisingly good. As Rob said a no brainier really.

  • Nick G says:
    26 Sep26 September 06:47

    Just booked this for 3 weeks time when I fly back from Doha (in a q suite I hope) via FRA on BA. How easy is it to get from T5 to T4?

    • Marcw says:
      26 Sep26 September 06:51

      You just need to take s public bus.

    • David says:
      26 Sep26 September 22:54

      I’ve stayed here once, between arriving from EDI on BA (at T5) and flying out on Jet (from T4).
      Did T5->T4 on the train, which involves a change.
      Then did T4->T5 by bus and suddenly the train seemed a lot better.
      (oh, and the hotel itself is very decent for the money)

  • Simon says:
    26 Sep26 September 06:57

    Is it still a good option if flying from T5?

    • Rob says:
      26 Sep26 September 07:22

      Fiddly – you either pay for a taxi (disproportionately expensive, and it is quite a long way) or you get the tube to T1/2/3 and change for a tube in the other direction to T5 (so 2 trains) or you get two trains. Presumably the Hotel Hoppa would also do it for £5.50 and, of course, there are public buses but I’ve no idea where the bus station is in T4. If you’re not in a rush it’s fine.

      • Philip says:
        26 Sep26 September 07:27

        Rob, what’s the secret sauce for embedding hyperlinks on HfP?

      • Roy says:
        26 Sep26 September 10:42

        There’s a FT post somewhere that I can’t for the life of me find today (I think I was pointed to it by a comment on HfP a while back) that has a map showing the best bus stops to use for the bus to/from T5. (*Not* the T4 bus station, the quickest way is to use the bus stops on the street outside the Permier Inn. apparently).

      • Rich says:
        26 Sep26 September 11:36

        It’s one stop further East than T4, and directly outside the hotel. If you look on Google Maps, you can see the bus stop at the junction of Southern Perimeter Road and Starlight Way. Directly under the walkway, and 30 seconds from the hotel. Click on it for bus times.

        Going back to T5, it’s 100m further East again, at the junction of Southern Perimeter Road and Sheffield Way. Again, 30 seconds walk.

        • Roy says:
          26 Sep26 September 13:18

          Out of curiosity, does this work just as well for the other T4 hotels (HIX/CP, Hilton) or do they not have an entrance as conveniently located for the bus stops?

    • Tracy Regan says:
      26 Sep26 September 07:54

      We just walk to Terminal 4 and catch the Heathrow Express free.

      “Free shuttle trains run between Heathrow Central station (Terminals 2 & 3) and Terminal 4 or Terminal 5. There are four trains an hour. Please note from 20 May 2018, to travel on the shuttle trains, you can get a free Inter-Terminal Transfer ticket from the machines in the station.”

  • IslandDweller says:
    26 Sep26 September 07:29

    Premier Inn at T4 to T5 is not fiddly at all!
    You step outside the hotel (do not go to T4) and get the free tfl bus to T5. It really couldn’t be simpler. Allow 15/20 minutes as the buses zig zag into the cargo area on the way.

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

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