Heathrow T5 parking

[Nick G]

So just booked Sofitel T5 for our outbound and return flights in August. Asked for car parking as I’ve done lots of times before when we’ve stayed there only to be told an event is on the time want to park (august 2022) so there isn’t any parking left!

So I guess for the first time ever at T5 I won’t be parking at the hotel but have to park elsewhere. T5 long stay seems a reasonable price (and cheaper) than the Sofitel so not the end of the world. I don’t want to leave my keys with anyone but can anyone offer any other recommendations?

Is the long stay car park ok in terms of access to the Sofitel as I will have to drop the family off and then go and park then get back.

Thanks

[masaccio]

Pod parking is great.

As for Sofitel, they told me at reception a couple of weeks ago they were fully booked to September. We ended up using meet and greet as we cancelled part of our holiday which meant rebooking parking at the last minute. It was OK. I won’t do it again though at least tracking showed they didn’t speed or take the car anywhere dodgy.

[Not Long Now...]

We use JustPark, usually plenty of options within a mile of the A4, and from around £40 a week…
Rounding up our trips to a fortnight from 12 or 13 days also makes it fully cancellable for maybe another £5.

[Matt]

Some of the off airport meet and greet operators are now using the Sofitel, or soon will be. That will help to explain why there’s a shortage of capacity.

[ianwardz]

We are also using justpark. 3 weeks parking plus drop off & pickup at T5 for £135.

[memesweeper]

There’s self parking here, for £ 5/day (pay on an app, details on the signs).
https://goo.gl/maps/7SQr4y1RCihzyWA8A
The next door airport bowl car park is also £5/day, but requires you to know exactly when you are coming back.
… then Uber or bus into T5.

I really like the pods, but it’s pricey for a long stay.

[JD]

Matt wrote:

Some of the off airport meet and greet operators are now using the Sofitel, or soon will be. That will help to explain why there’s a shortage of capacity.

They started doing this at the beginning of March – something to do with avoiding the £5 drop off charge that would otherwise be due on all ‘non-official LHR’ meet and greets…

T5 Long stay (the bus one) is quite good, when I’ve used it the buses have been frequent and largely empty… if not much difference in price though, the POD parking is great – there have always been PODs available / free immediately when I’ve used it (and even when I used it with the replacement buses they were essentially ‘on demand’.

One tip, book whatever you think you might want ASAP… I think there is some sort of dynamic pricing now on the LHR official website – I left it to the last minute and found that it cost me more than my flight to ZRH and back in the POD parking when it had been v reasonably priced only a few days before…

[Grant]

Anyone used the POD parking in the last week? I noticed that the website now says PODs have been replaced by a bus service due to essential maintenance. If this is the case is the transfer signficantly longer / more hassle. I have a booking for tomorrow which I can swap to the short stay if a bus transfer is going to be a ball ache.