Who won ‘Best New UK Airport Hotel 2019’ at the Head for Points Awards?

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• Louie says:

  31 Dec31 December 10:17

  OTish: morning all. We’re off to somewhere hot in a few days so don’t want to be taking lots of cold weather clothing. Flying from T5 early morning, have a Hertz car to drop off. Planning a hotel the previous night so could drop the car off the previous evening, but then we’d have to get from Hertz to the hotel, which means somewhere walkable from one of the terminals would be best as the Hertz bus could drop us there. Also would rather not freeze getting to/from the hotel so not too far and don’t want to pay a lot. Any ideas?

  Obviously we could just stay in a driveable distance hotel and drop the car at Hertz in the morning instead…..

  • aston100 says:

    31 Dec31 December 10:43

    Check if they do nearby collections / drop offs.
    I know when I’ve used Hertz elsewhere they’ve done this (and Enterprise seem to have something of a standard arrangement for this scenario).

  • Rich says:

    31 Dec31 December 10:56

    Thistle?

    It’s about 10 minutes’ walk along the perimeter road, perhaps less if someone can advice which car parks it’s practical to cut through.

    Then POD in the morning.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    31 Dec31 December 11:09

    Does the comment mean you are dropping the car at T5 or can it be dropped at any terminal?

    If not either of these hotels or Premier Inn T4 then you can get the HEX to T3 then onto T5 and it’s all covered walkways a thin jacket would probably keep you warm enough while walking.

    • Louie says:

      31 Dec31 December 11:27

      Hertz have an off airport compound so we’d have to drop the car back there and then get their shuttle bus to one of the terminals (or maybe to a hotel as Aston100 suggests, I will check with them).

      • Lady London says:

        31 Dec31 December 12:32

        Their shuttle doesn’t make you hang around and I’d defo drop it off the night before. I’d do any airport hotel at or near a terminal. As you’ve been reading HfP for the past year you will know which works with your flights.

  • Lady London says:

    31 Dec31 December 12:29

    If you don’t want to take heavy jackets try highly compressible modern ski underwear which will go in a pocket.

    Planes can be cold for some people on longhaul routes too even if they are going somewhere hot.

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    31 Dec31 December 15:12

    1) Hilton T5 then drop car in morning, or;
    2) drop pax and bags at hotel at or near terminal (always suggest Sofitel if T5) then return car evening before and get hertz bus back to airport/hotel

    • Louie says:

      1 Jan1 January 14:36

      Thanks all for the replies as usual. Decision made. I do find one of the “joys” of the internet is that I have an irrational need to research to the nth degree even the simplest choice, when once upon a time I’d just pick one which looked good enough rather than ideal and be happy with that. Easier to do with the internet but so much more time consuming, so it’s great when you can use other people’s experiences to light the way.

      Happy 2020 to everyone.

• aston100 says:

  31 Dec31 December 10:34

  So how comes your main HFP readership of London millionaires voted for a HIE of all places?
  Just wondering how this and the mad scramble for £20 Monese card offers and Shop Small fit in with your odd view that the majority of your readership are affluent Londoners earning in excess of £100k pa.

  • Neil Donoghue says:

    31 Dec31 December 10:44

    I have a HSBC Premier account and earn in excess of £100k a year….I have admitted four comments up that I stayed in the Premier Inn for £28. What amazes me is that you clearly think just because I earn a large salary that I must automatically be an idiot and like to blow my money???

    • aston100 says:

      31 Dec31 December 11:55

      That’s an amazing stretch right there.

    • Doug M says:

      31 Dec31 December 13:12

      Depending how far north of 100K in London paying a mortgage that’s not high life money. Mortgage free and the picture changes.
      Realities of decent housing in London.

  • Neil Donoghue says:

    31 Dec31 December 10:46

    Rich people stay rich by living like they’re broke.

    Broke people stay broke by living like they’re rich.

    • Lady London says:

      31 Dec31 December 12:25

      +100.

      Doesn’t mean you’d put up with poor quality at that price but if quality is adequate at least 3/4 of people with similar means and lifestyle would do the same if they trusted Rob and read his reviews.

      Doug M I know this from spending many years working with people who ranged from doing OK to poster to beyond telephone number wealth.

      Some of them are even too parsimonious.

      The smart ones and the ones that have longevity would take the Premier Inn if they knew about it.

  • source chode says:

    31 Dec31 December 10:47

    where is this view ever stated? that the *majority* are as you describe?

    I’ve only ever read statements such as ‘ the majority of the readership are not necessarily the same demographic as the majority of commenters’.

    • Lady London says:

      31 Dec31 December 12:27

      clever wealth is often silent.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    31 Dec31 December 11:04

    The winner is the Crowne Plaza part of the complex?

    Rob says most of his readers are 30-40, Londoners and earn £70k+

    He doesn’t say they are all that demographic or that no one earning more or less than that reads the site.

    Also a northerner or midlander earning £60k+ is going to be better off than his London reader at the end of the week/month/year.

    Either way £100k a year is no where near the sort of money that means you can splash the cash everywhere with no sense of a deal.

  • Rich says:

    31 Dec31 December 11:23

    I think Rob has made the comment, fairly frequently, that the majority of readers do not equal the majority of commenters.

  • Rob says:

    31 Dec31 December 12:06

    There is no mad scramble. Under 200 people have opened Monese accounts as a result of the three articles we have run on these promos. This is out of 45,000 daily readers (email and site) and 400,000 people who visit the site once a month.

    If people already had accounts then £20 for the 2-3 minutes it takes is a decent return on investment!

    95%+ of wealthy people in the UK have earned their money, versus inheriting it. People who have worked for their money do not, in general, treat it like they won it in the lottery. They took 20 years to earn it and they will spend it modestly to ensure it can last at least one generation going forward. This also ignores the fact that even a £70k salary doesn’t get you far in London – my old one-bed flat in East London rents for £2k per month, so it is just about affordable to someone on £70k (£49k after tax) although potentially a squeeze.

    • Lady London says:

      31 Dec31 December 12:38

      And a number of those 200 probably did it for the gaming aspect. Fun and stupid not to.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        31 Dec31 December 13:50

        Better off getting 30 20 10 % off my future amazon, JL or M&S shops than sitting in my bank account. Incidentally these are three shops I could cash all my money out of very quickly for items I actually consume on a daily basis.

  • Lyn says:

    31 Dec31 December 16:06

    Aside from distractions about salaries and Monese etc., that particular HIE happens to be an excellent hotel, so I’m not at all surprised it got lots of votes.

• Benilyn says:

  31 Dec31 December 10:40

  OT: Used the HSBC 25% Avios bonus twice this month, HNY. Now wish I had the paid card actually, wonder how easy it will be to upgrade.

  • LST says:

    31 Dec31 December 15:07

    It’s easy enough. I finally got round to doing it a few weeks ago by calling them up up. They will send you a form to fill out, I dropped it into my local branch and the card was with me in 3 days.
    LST

• TGLoyalty says:

  31 Dec31 December 10:54

  OT but related to Arora Group – the Savils Court Hotel they bought in Windsor and were planning to open as an unbranded luxury hotel will now be the Fairmont Windsor Park, was kind of hoping it would go to Marriott or IHG.

  • Rob says:

    31 Dec31 December 12:04

    As it happens, the GM who opened CP T4 (who I spent quite a lot of time with on my tour there and still keep in touch with) has moved over to open Fairmont Windsor Park, so hopefully we’ll get access to that when it opens.

  • Lady London says:

    31 Dec31 December 14:17

    IIRC Arora are heavily in bed with Accor.
    Maybe IHG was a diversification for them.

    • Chrisasaurus says:

      31 Dec31 December 14:37

      They own both sofitels at the London airports, but have certainly stretched their wings of late

    • TGLoyalty says:

      31 Dec31 December 16:11

      Possibly but they do own a Hilton and a couple IHG. Fairmont is probably a great choice just a shame as Accor is the one programme I don’t use at all, any stays are just booked with hotels.com as I have no status and no way to earn additional points

      • Tariq says:

        31 Dec31 December 18:06

        Intercontinental O2 is Arora, as is Renaissance LHR I think.

• Chrisasaurus says:

  31 Dec31 December 14:40

  Rob

  If you’re planning a review of the Moxy, plead with Rhys to go I’m afraid you would react as I did when confronted with the hotel embodiment of ‘young trendy people’

  It does what it does well, it just doesn’t do it for me. If you wouldn’t put a Mini in your lounge then you ain’t gonna like it

  (An aside and a pro tip: don’t put a Mini in your lounge then look at me like I’m a monster when my young children want to get in it!)

  • Lady London says:

    31 Dec31 December 17:26

    Rob has done a Moxy review or 2 before and survived :-).

    I found boi’s comments about kids not being allowed on the oh-so-very-hipster Mini car in the Moxy LHR Reception quite telling, though.

    The Mini was all about freedom and accessibility when it began in the 1960’s. And now we have some fake hipster hotel brand putting one there but wanting to keep it away from the guests they’ve attracted.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      31 Dec31 December 18:07

      But is that the brand saying keep your hands off or just the staff behind the check in/bar?

      It’s like when supermarket managers start making up their own rules for buying items on offers or bouncers disliking your shoes.

      • Lady London says:

        31 Dec31 December 22:21

        True 🙂

      • Chrisasaurus says:

        1 Jan1 January 00:40

        The management maketh the culture…

        Happy NY!

  • James Woods says:

    1 Jan1 January 02:11

    pro tip, most parents actively discourage their children from trying to get into random cars they come across.

    • DANi says:

      1 Jan1 January 09:36

      The terminal 4 hotel thing… I always stay at the premier inn for less then £35 (always quite a bit in advance) and walk down the covered tube walkway to eat and drink at the CP… A lovely way to start my twice yearly 2-4-1 to the states… Chin chin

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