| | | |  | airport hotels guide recommended in the Guardian newspaper's 'best of the net' this is a UK airport hotel price comparison website with a 'one click search'. It allows you to quickly compare the cost of airport hotels at all of the websites below. Enter your dates once and check the prices at all 5 websites. | |  | holidayextras airport hotels offer airport hotels with or without parking plus hotel and coach or train packages. They offer hotels at aberdeen, belfast, birmingham, bristol, cardiff, dublin, east midlands, edinburgh, gatwick, glasgow, heathrow, leeds bradford, liverpool, luton, manchester, newcastle, preswick, southampton and stansted airports. | |  | FHR airport hotels offer airport hotels with or without parking at birmingham, bristol, east midlands, gatwick, glasgow, heathrow, luton, manchester, newcastle and stansted airports. At gatwick and stansted they offer low cost guest house / Inn's and at gatwick and heathrow they offer hotels with up to 21 days free parking. | |  | APH airport hotels offer airport hotels with or without parking at birmingham, bristol, east midlands, edinburgh, gatwick glasgow, heathrow, luton, manchester, newcastle and stansted airports. Their prices are particularly keen at gatwick (their base), at manchester and for family rooms. | | |  | superbreak (when you get to their site click on 'airports' at the top of the page) offer airport hotels at aberdeen, birmingham, bristol, edinburgh, gatwick, glasgow, heathrow, leeds bradford, london city, luton, manchester, newcastle, norwich and stansted airports. They are best for budget hotels and luton. | |  | Active hotels (once at their website enter the airport in 'where' or click on one of the airport links) offer the widest choice of hotels and guest houses but only offer airport parking on a few of them (look for a 'stay, park and fly' hotel). They offer hotels at belfast, birmingham, cardiff, east midlands, edinburgh, gatwick, glasgow, heathrow, luton, manchester and stansted airports. | | | | |
Given that two of these websites have a 'best price guarantee', we are confident that you can't book cheaper. These websites will offer you every airport hotel and save you up to 70%. Airport Hotels buying guide checklist When looking for and booking an airport hotel, there are a few things to look out for:
- For detailed information on any UK airport hotel visit airport hotels guide, click on an airport name and then on any of the hotel thumbnails in the margin.
- When comparing prices, the most important thing is to make sure that you are comparing ‘like with like’. Not just the same hotel (and there are 3 Holiday Inn hotels serving Heathrow, for example), make sure the ‘package’ is the same. Parking and breakfast are the usual variants.
- If you want an ‘airport hotel with free parking’ package holidayextras / APH / FHR are likely to offer the best prices. If you don't want parking then make sure you include superbreak and active hotels in your search.
- Most ‘airport hotel and free parking’ packages include parking at the hotel, where there is limited security. If it is important to you that your car is parked in a ‘secure’ car park, make sure you book a hotel with secure parking package (or book a hotel on a room only basis and book parking separately at 1stairportparking.co.uk).
- How many days parking do you need? The choice at airport hotels is not very flexible:
a. Only the Hilton Gatwick airport offers a package with less than 8 days parking.
b. FHR offer a number of hotels with up to 21 days free parking at Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester.
c. Some hotels offer free parking after the 8 or 15 days included in the package during quiet periods. Otherwise you should expect to pay £3 - £10 for each additional day. - If you want a budget hotel or guest house at Gatwick try FHR. For other airports superbreak and active hotels offer the widest choice.
- When you are comparing the prices of hotels also consider how far they are from the airport. This is particularly important at Heathrow, where some ‘airport hotels’ are a junction up the M4. Also, only one Stansted hotel is at the airport.
- Compare facilities offered by the hotel. Not all 3 or 4 star hotels are the same – for example, Express by Holiday Inn airport hotels may be 3 star, but most do not have a restaurant. Make sure the hotel has the facilities you want.
- Check in and check out times are not consistent across hotels. Both can be as early as 11 am or as late as 2 pm. If this is important to you, make sure you know what they are.
- Do you want breakfast at the hotel?
a. If you do, superbreak and active hotels are more likely to include it within the price;
b. but, make sure it is available at the time you want it. It is not unusual for hotels to only offer breakfast from 7 am midweek and 8 am at weekend.
c. Expect having breakfast delivered to your room outside ‘normal’ hours to cost extra. - If you want to stay at an airport hotel the night before and the night after your holiday, with parking in between, check the price of ‘with parking’ and ‘room only’ for both dates. Pick the best pair and (to avoid confusion) phone the airport hotels company to book (airport hotels guide will help you do this quickly and provides all of the phone numbers).
- Not all ‘airport hotels’ provide free transfers to the airport. For example, most Heathrow hotels are served by the ‘hoppa’, which costs £5 one way or £9 return (each). Key questions (answered by the airport hotels guide pages) are:
a. Are transfers to the airport available from the hotel?
b. During what hours?
c. Are they provided ‘on demand’ or at specific times
d. Are they free?
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