London Heathrow Airport Yotel: Great for a short nap!
Written: Oct 25 '09 (Updated Oct 25 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great idea, and very welcome for weary travellers not at journeys end.
Cons: Very poor showers.
The Bottom Line: The London Heathrow Airport Yotel is perfect to get a break and nap from the stresses of long distance travelling. Well recommended.
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| cr01's Full Review: London Heathrow Yotel, United Kingdom |
At 7:00 am we were in the middle of London's Heathrow Airport and fit only to drop. After waking some 24 hours earlier, we flew out of Madagascar with raging stomach upsets before spending an extended 7 hours waiting for our connection at Nairobi Airport, and now faced a further six hour wait for our final flight connection to Manchester.
An extended cup of coffee at the airport Starbucks was looking distinctly unappealing.
Fortunately on our way out to Madagascar, I had spotted a positive looking concept at Heathrow Airport Terminal 4, the Yotel, a little pod style hotel where weary travellers could hopefully find a comfortable bed for a few hours. Keeping our fingers crossed we made our way to the bar area (the Yotel is situated just opposite the Weatherspoon's pub) and hoped they had a cabin available. We were able to book a twin room for 5 hours for £40 ($65).
At that point in proceedings I think I would have happily paid what they told me... The minimum length of time for booking a room is four hours, and you then book by the hour after that.
Bed Bliss
The Yotel offer single, twins and luxury doubles. Our twin was fine for our needs. Our cabin was probably about 7 foot square, with an extra four feet at the end for the shower and toilet area. The room is all moulded plastic and metal, so obviously easy to clean and hardwearing, considering any room may end up with perhaps five different parties booking it during any 24 hour period. Of course, it has something of the look and feel of an inside ship cabin.
The beds were quite wide bunk beds. As the architect of the grand plan to nab a room I was designated the top bunk, and winced a little as my naked toes cut into the metal ladder to my sleep heaven. The bed has a special hand made mattress, and it was lovely and comfortable.
The room has some different lighting settings, including one with a strange blue light that made me feel we were sleeping in a washroom kitted out with those bulbs intended to stop drug abusers from injecting. Fortunately, my beloved soon found a setting that cast a gentle crimson glow over proceedings. The temperature in the pod is also controllable.
There is a flat screen TV, and after three weeks in the wilderness, we caught up with a little of the world news; the usual dialogue of depression and faux important information. The sound in the room is great, and if you don't want to sleep, there is also apparently a 5,000 song jukebox for visitors to meddle with. Of course you can set up your lap top and go online in your room if you so choose.
Showertime blues
As well as a need for a powernap, we also had an overdue appointment with the shower. This was in a wet room style at the rear of the cabin in the bathroom area. The arrangement was a little cosy, as there was a simple floor to ceiling glass screen between the shower and toilet area and the bedroom, with a little curtain to pull across for (a little) modesty.
The shower promised much with its large shower head and proud boast in the promotional literature, but unfortunately it delivered little. I suspect the problem was poor water pressure at London Heathrow. On my first attempt before my sleep, I received a frustrating dribble of water on my head. I gave up and went to bed smelly. Fortunately, three hours later, I gave it a second chance, and this time received a reasonable although not exceptional flow of water. Most annoyingly I had to keep my hand pressed onto the shower knob to enable the flow to continue through the showerhead. While the free soap dispenser gave a good quality shampoo and body wash, with a pleasing slightly musky scent, it was not overall a relaxing experience.
Other bits and bats
The hotel also provides a menu of snacks and drinks, and a promise that staff at the front desk will deliver your order to you within 15 minutes. Prices looked reasonable, and I found I could pick up a small pizza or wrap for around £5 had I so wanted. We were far too interested in sleep and showers to take them up on the service.
Obviously, as these rooms are simply plastic boxes, there are no views on the outside world, bar a small window in the door and a view of the corridor outside. Of course, there is a blind on the window to ensure privacy. We found our room perfectly quiet, with no noise beyond the gentle hum of the air com.
Yotel currently offer cabins in three airports; London Gatwick and Heathrow and Amsterdam Schiphol. As the name suggests, it is run by those folk that developed the British based restaurant chain, Yo! Sushi. The hotels arm is run in collaboration with IFA Hotels, a Kuwait based hotel chain.
We took pot luck with our booking and simply hoped a room would be available. I understand that you can book a room in advance. With the risk that your flight might arrive late, it seems a cute way for the chain to get extra revenue without necessarily letting the room. This issue seems the only stumbling block to my using the Yotel for future extended stopovers at Heathrow.
The London Heathrow Yotel is through the passport control, so those simply using Heathrow to hop onto other countries might find it a hassle to pass through immigration purely to check into the hotel. However, as a UK national obviously it presented no problems for us.
Summing Up
We found the few hours use of the Yotel really helpful, and arrived back in Manchester much fresher than we had anticipated. We even managed to stay awake until a respectable time that evening to help start to get our sleep patterns back into UK synch. The room is small, but perfectly comfortable and user friendly for a few hours use.
I was disappointed with the flow and user friendliness of the showers; the poorly running flow and struggle to work out how the shower should work was an unwelcome distraction after 24 hours without sleep. Perhaps the other Yotel locations have better water pressure.
While the uncertainty of arrival times for flights mean that I won't be booking the Yotel in advance, I'm sure I'll be wandering by at some point in future just to see whether I can nab a room for a few hours to catch a much needed travel break.
Ten out of ten for the idea, but with the disappointing shower six out of 10 for execution.
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cr01 asserts his right to be associated as the author of this review -2009-
Recommended:
Yes
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cr01
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Member: Chris
Location: Yorkshire, England
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