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How to avoid the Heathrow Hotel Hoppa fee by using local buses instead

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This article shows you how to reach the hotels around Heathrow Airport using the local bus network, rather than paying for the expensive Hotel Hoppa shuttle bus.

As I have mentioned a few times on Head for Points, my preferred ‘near Heathrow’ hotel – if you don’t want to pay a premium for the hotels attached to the terminals – is the Hilton Garden Inn at Hatton Cross (Hilton Garden Inn Hatton Cross reviewed here).  My main selling point in recommending this hotel, apart from price, is that it sits next to Hatton Cross tube station so you can avoid the Heathrow Hoppa shuttle buses used by other off-airport hotels.

getting to Heathrow Airport hotels by bus

Most people hate the Hotel Hoppa buses.  Unlike virtually all other major airports, at Heathrow hotel shuttle buses are banned.  Instead, Rotala, which bought the business from National Express a few years ago, has a monopoly contract to operate the ‘Hotel Hoppa’ shuttle service to 26 different hotels around the airport.

To be honest, I have always been happy with the idea of not letting the Heathrow Airport hotels run their own shuttle buses.  We all know from experience at other airports how chaotic arrival terminals can be with hotel and car hire shuttle buses all jostling for space.

However, like any monopoly, Rotala has not been shy in exploiting it.  It currently costs a ludicrous £6.80 per person one-way (£12 return).  There are no longer any savings for buying in advance although there is a family discount.

To add insult to financial injury, most Hoppa routes involve a circuitous drive around the area.  Most will visit 3-4 other properties before depositing you at yours.  If you are lucky and are the first to be dropped off, all that means is that you will face a longer trip in the morning.

Even worse is the fact that services are as thin as one bus per hour on some routes. No Hoppa route seems to have more than two buses per hour. Up to 10 local bus services going in the same direction could pass whilst you are waiting for your over-priced Hoppa.

The ONLY redeeming feature of the Hotel Hoppa is that you are dropped on the hotel forecourt. Taking the local buses means that you may have a short walk to your hotel, and may have to cross a busy road.

The Hotel Hoppa website is here if you want to check prices and timings.

Heathrow Hotel Hoppa hotel bus

How can you avoid the £12 return Hotel Hoppa fee?

There are ways of avoiding this fee, which adds up to £24 to your overnight costs for a couple.

Plan A, the obvious answer, is to stay at a hotel in the airport

That means the Sofitel in Terminal 5 (Sofitel Terminal 5 review here), the Crowne Plaza in Terminal 4 (Crowne Plaza Terminal 4 review here), the Holiday Inn Express in Terminal 4 (Holiday Inn Express Terminal 4 review here), the Premier Inn at Terminal 4, the Hilton in Terminal 4 (Hilton Terminal 4 review here), the Aerotel inside Terminal 3’s arrivals hall (Aerotel Terminal 3 review here), the Hilton Garden Inn in Terminal 2/3 (Hilton Garden Inn T2/3 review here) or the Hilton Garden Inn at Hatton Cross (Hilton Garden Inn Hatton Cross review here).

We recently published this article about the best hotels which are walkable to Heathrow’s terminals.

Plan B is NOT “take a taxi”

Whilst technically there is a way they can arrange to ‘push in’ to the queue on their return, you can imagine the response you will get when you ask a driver to give up a £75+ trip to Central London in return for a quick run to your hotel.

Instead, Plan B is to take a standard London bus

We have run a number of Heathrow hotel reviews in the last 18 months, which has made me familiar with the local bus services.

It is surprisingly simple. Leaving the Central Bus Station between Terminals 2 and 3, most buses head through the tunnel and onto Bath Road where the majority of the hotels sit. Some buses turn left, others turn right. The only thing you need to know is which buses head towards your hotel. The downside is that you won’t be dropped in the forecourt of your hotel, which the Hoppa would do.

Bus trips within the airport perimeter are no longer free. Heathrow withdrew financial support for bus services last year, making a mockery of its environmental credentials. The services are hardly expensive, however, at £1.75 per trip. You can take multiple buses within one hour for this price.

Remember that cash is not accepted on the London bus network so you will need an Oyster card or contactless credit or debit card.

This map (PDF) is a schematic of the bus routes around the airport.

PS. If you approaching Heathrow by tube and are staying at the Moxy, DoubleTree, Best Western Ariel, Courtyard or any of the other hotels on Bath Road to the east of the airport, it will be quicker to get off at Hounslow West tube station and get a bus. Hounslow West is not step free.

Comments (56)

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

  • PJJ says:

    Another option if travelling in by car.
    Use the Premier Inn on Bath Road, book and park at the Purple Parking next door and use their shuttle bus to the airport and back free of charge

    • Julia says:

      Good idea but that only works if you don’t want to take the car out whilst you’re there i.e. people going on holiday rather than on business trips. Personally I prefer the Renaissance if I’m in the area for work as you can park on site and take the car out of the car park and keep your keys.

      The hotel hoppa, to add insult to injury, doesn’t take Amex.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        Surely only people going on holiday need to worry about getting to the airport ?

        • TGLoyalty says:

          *people with a car worried about getting to the airport. If you were renting a car they have their own shuttles?

          • Julia says:

            Sure if you are traveling to an airport to go on holiday then a hire car or perhaps train or even coach travel straight to the terminal would seem a better option. Then again if you have to travel whilst you’re at an airport to meet people or perhaps a quick hop in and out the country then it could be better taking your own car.

            My other half has a logistical role in search and rescue and sometimes he has to make a mad dash to Heathrow in his own car to make sure a spare part will be on a flight for delivery to an overseas operation; driving around the Heathrow getting signatures and official stamps to get it goods through customs.

            This thread just shows how people see and use airports differently. Cool eh! 🙂

          • TGLoyalty says:

            It is but it’s a massively specific use case.

            Hence why companies cover the 80% of use cases.

    • Gordon says:

      @PJJ- Always use this option, it works for me.

  • Keith Purdom says:

    Hilton Garden Inn is close by tube station as long as no luggage and no rain easily the best way to terminals

  • C says:

    What happens to the hotels that are affected by the proposed Heathrow expansion? If demolished are there any plans for pre hotels connected to the airport?

    • C says:

      More^

    • Rob says:

      Pretty much all of the Bath Road hotels have to go, so Heathrow will have virtually no hotel capacity left unless a huge number of new ones are built!

      BA also needs a new head office as Waterside gets demolished too.

  • roger says:

    How easy or difficult it is to get a UBER in the morning say around 5:30 / 6:00 AM from Bath Road to go to Terminal 4 (approx 4 miles journey time)?

    • Joe says:

      I’ll know on Saturday once I’ve tried !

    • Tariq says:

      My experience was several years ago, but the answer was “impossible”. Rides accepted then cancelled by the drivers twice. Never taken the risk since.

      Always use the hotel e-shuttle service from weknowlondon now. Pricier but excellent and comfortable service.

  • Sam says:

    Actually taking a taxi is a very good option. Heathrow have a system where if a taxi is dropping off to a local destination, they can rank back into any terminal of their choice without having to wait hours in the feeder park so it works out quite well for them to take short jobs

  • ChasP says:

    The biggest problem with Hoppa is frequency/ bus size. Have twice caught the Hoppa from hotels halfway along the route and on both occasions they left people at the last Hotel before the airport. Once they only had room for 4 people when 6 were waiting and once they filled up at the stop before and drove straight past the crowd waiting at the last Hotel

  • Paul says:

    “Remember that cash is not accepted on the London bus network so you will need an Oyster card or contactless credit or debit card.”

    REMEMBER – each passenger needs their own card you cannot pay for multiple tickets on one card.

  • Henry Young says:

    Quite bizarre how expensive this is. Compare with taking the RA2 bus service from T2 Arrivals to Guildford for the princely sum of £10.50. I’m not sure why anyone would consider taking a car to LHR except for extreme convenience & expensed to a business. I comment as a retired, formerly extremely profligate business traveler !

    • John says:

      Children, elderly, lots of luggage, 5 people on your bus costs £52.50, not everyone loves within reach of a bus

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