Hotel Review: Hilton Garden Inn, London Heathrow Airport
…or more accurately Hatton Cross. Not to be confused with the other Hilton Garden Inn located within minutes of Heathrow Terminals 2 and 3, this property is one stop away on the Piccadilly Line making it extremely easy to get to and from. Despite not being physically located at the airport site, it is within spitting distance - you can walk right up to the airport perimeter. But how is the hotel and should you make it your choice for a visit before a journey? Let’s take a look…
For disclosure, the operator of the Hilton Garden Inn at London Heathrow Airport, Hatton Cross provided a complimentary stay for CallumElsdon.com to review. The hotel has not received copy approval prior to publishing.
Getting there
As noted earlier, the most convenient way to get to the Hilton Garden Inn is using the Piccadilly Line from Central London to Hatton Cross followed by a five minute walk around an industrial estate. Easy connections from the rest of the Tube network can be made at Piccadilly Circus and Hammersmith. Hatton Cross itself is an integrated Tube and Bus station, so you may be able to get a bus here instead. Do not take the Heathrow Express from Paddington as you will need to go to Terminal 2 / 3 Station and then backtrack on the Piccadilly Line to Hatton Cross. Car parking spaces are available at an extra cost.
Initial Impressions
The property from the outside is an unremarkable building and what you expect from any airport hotel. That impression changes completely once you walk through the door where an impressive refurbishment prior to the pandemic is really showing its value. Immediately you are greeted by a reception counter which is easily accessible and was fully staffed during my stay.
I like the design, but it wasn’t what I expected from a Hilton Garden Inn. With feature lighting that is warm and comfortable, gold accents and use of home-style furniture makes this hotel feel accessible and unpretentious - which is what you want when trying to destress prior to travel.
The ground floor is split between a few sections:
Jack’s Restaurant (to the right of the entrance)
Jack’s Bar (to the left of the entrance)
Rentable office space
Laundry washing facility
Gym
Externally operated massages
Temporary private Covid-19 testing facility
Wundermart Self-service Shop
The rooms
As part of the Hilton Garden Inn brand, the property is not allowed to have suites although this is certainly not a problem. We had a refurbished Queen-sized Bedroom on our visit which is surprisingly spacious and flanked by two side tables with plentiful USB and power ports. The bed itself was comfortable and we both got a great sleep at the hotel - this is all the more surprising when you can see planes landing extremely close to your window. As you would anticipate at a hotel so close to an airport, the sound proofing was excellent and I couldn’t hear a thing from the planes when the flights began landing around 6am. Following the aviation theme of the property, a number of photos of aeroplanes feature - which is a nice touch.
Our room looked to the fields behind the property but you can request a room that looks towards the airport if you’re a super avgeek. Don’t worry if your room does look towards the fields as you’ll still see planes land, with many during the morning, if you’re into that kind of thing.
A large (around 42 inches) Samsung television sits opposite the bed on an integrated television stand, storage, empty fridge, kettle and desk. I sat here for around 6 hours from this desk on calls and doing work which shows that this is a pretty good place to work from - way too many hotels do not have suitable seating to work from the in-room desk! There’s no Chromecast or internet capability on the TV but you can easily access HDMI ports, so if you want to watch Netflix or other streaming services you can hook up your laptop from the desk quickly
Lighting in the room was just right and flexible enough with a dedicated desk lamp which is often good when the dark winter nights set in.
Onto the rest of the room and next to the window is a chaise lounge which could be used to watch the television. I moved the table from the corner of the across so we could have two of us working in the room at once.
Wardrobe space is plentiful for a short one night stay as most travellers visiting will need. Proper hangers are available so is an ironing board, iron and electronic safe to store valuables.
While the rest of the room is quite functional, the bathroom actually surprised me by how stylish it was. The marble style tiles along with a large circular mirror creates a bright comfortable space to freshen up in. As with every other Hilton mid-range property, the shower gel, shampoo and conditioner is Crabtree & Evelyn - which is of perfectly serviceable standard. The bathroom is finished off with a shaving mirror and socket for easy access.
Communal areas
Located on the ground floor is almost all the primary facilities. I’ll start with the thing that impressed me the most - the fitness centre. Featuring a plethora of Technogym equipment and weights, the quality of the gym was better than most higher end hotels - and possibly the leisure centre I go to! I didn’t manage to use it myself, but everything was extremely new and of a high quality, while again a very comfortable environment to go to - thanks to great lights and mirrors. Whoever designed or inputted into the plans for this hotel refurbishment were definitely a gym fan and placed emphasis on having a good experience exercising there.
Located on the same corridor is a couple of meeting rooms which can be rented out by anybody for a charge as well as a laundry cleaning area with heavy duty washer dryers. Coins for the machine can be purchased from the reception - this will particularly be useful to those airline staff who may stay here for an extended period of time.
Next to the lifts is a self-service shop operated by Wunderkind which is expensive but very convenient when there are no shops for a fair distance. Fresh microwavable or cold meals can be found in the fridges while there is a microwave in the corner. I assume that you could use this microwave for your own meals if you bought them with you. w
The Ground Floor is finished off with a shuffleboard that’s randomly placed outside the lifts before the restaurant - but it is cool though.
A small rear exit leads onto a garden area, which is due to be refurbished with a firepit later in 2022, before leading onto an external annexe. This annex includes a couple more, larger conference meeting rooms for minimum half-day rental.
Food at Jack’s Restaurant
Back inside the ground floor of the primary building and onto Jack’s Restaurant. We had both dinner and breakfast here. Certainly, this is not a groundbreaking restaurant but is very similar to modern gastropub food offerings. We tried a lot of the food here including:
Paneer Jalfrezi - which I really enjoyed and a good alternative to meat.
Jack’s Sriracha Chicken Burger which was well cooked and not dry, but could’ve done with more Sriracha spice.
Fish & Chips - while many places too often have poor oven cooked battered fish, this was clearly freshly cooked with a delectable batter. The chips matched with the Jalfrezi sauce could’ve almost made this feel like Southend-on-Sea.
Aberdeen Angus Burger that was very juicy and a pretty decent burger.
We were fit to burst afterwards and I was pretty satisfied by the offering. Prices are reasonable and they are not excessive when you consider how isolated the property is from much of the nearest food establishments. You won’t go wrong heading here for a decent meal that is accessible and fulfilling.
The hotel are also trying to improve the experiences for guests at the property including having a DJ in the accompanying, but separate, Jack’s Bar on-site once a month as well as weekly yoga sessions. This is something that destination hotels generally have but it’s nice to see the Hilton Garden Inn going that one step further to improve the guest’s stay.
Onto breakfast and it is a very similar affair to most other properties. Think of a Full English Breakfast that is self-serve from a buffet with all the trimmings - including hash browns that were a little too tasty because I went up for thirds. Even the sausages, which I usually do not enjoy, were clearly decent quality. The best thing about breakfast, though, was the waffle makers! Nothing beats a freshly made waffle that you can cover in the ingredients you want and this is a great addition to what most hotels of this standard would offer. The hotel has advised that later in the year they will be bringing back the egg station for omelettes which will make for another nice addition to the experience.
Whether at Jack’s Restaurant for breakfast or dinner, the environment is comfortable and relaxed with attentive, helpful staff - with it being well worth a visit during your stay.
Concluding thoughts
While you are unlikely to travel specifically to stay at this hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn London Heathrow at Hatton Cross is about the best you will get. While this may not be at the physical doorstep of the airport, it is conveniently located near to the airport without the need to get on the expensive and slow Hotel Hoppa bus service. Hotel airports are designed to take the stress out of travelling but a poorly located hotel, as many can be on the roads around the Heathrow perimeter are going to still require a longer-than-desirable journey before your flight. This does not describe this hotel. Equally, the design and standard of the property is excellent and far surpassed my expectations or what it looked like from the exterior. Personally, this feels higher quality than what you expect from the Garden Inn brand and something it should be upgraded to a higher brand in the Hilton portfolio. Regardless, a stay here at the Hilton Garden Inn whether for one night or several will be a great time with all the facilities you need within easy reach inside the property. I would have no problem in recommending anybody to stay at this hotel and advise them to even arrive a bit earlier to get the most out of their refurbishments like the gym and restaurants. I’ll definitely be staying here again in the future when in need of a place to stay near Heathrow Airport.