Hilton - London Heathrow Terminal 5

We travel often to London for different reasons, and we’ve had to book a hotel stay for a night. We picked Hilton on Poyle Road - it had advertised a pool, spa centre with sauna, steam room, and other perks in our breakfast included booking- and it did meet our expectations.

The easiest way to get there from Terminal 5 underground area is to get the bus from the bus station in the terminal. There are multiple options, some charge more, but the Thames Valley bus number 5 is going to get you there for a single ticket’s price (£3 at the time of writing). It is a confusing area, so tread lightly. An overpriced Uber is also an option. There’s not a lot going on around the hotel, but there is a Subway nearby.

Check-in is at 3 p.m. We were greeted by reception and handed the keys after paying a £50 deposit - we then went to our room on the 1st floor - everything was clean, neat, and the room was well furnished with several chairs, a desk, a king-size bed, and all the other hotel minimums (hair dryer, body wash, conditioner, shampoo, etc.). Free WiFi was good enough for me (over 100mbps on a random speed test).

I feel like hotels should, just like restaurants, offer water for guests for free. Instead, what we see is 0.5l water bottles that come for something like £2.5 - you can have them for free but only if you sign up and meet a Honors (loyalty scheme) minimum requirement. I think this is a bit predatory. Drinking water should be free, especially since this is not a low-budget enterprise.

We decided to have a look at the spa - so we called room service to bring us hotel dressing gowns - we already had towels in the room. We then went downstairs - the entrance to the pool is through the changing rooms. They could use a sign for that, somewhere - staff needs to constantly remind customers otherwise, which they do in a lovely manner, but nevertheless - a sign would help. There is a gym as well - I haven’t used it, so I don’t have an opinion on it.

The pool was more like an oversized jacuzzi (they call it a hydrotherapy pool) - it was great, but we expected to be able to swim, which is definitely not the purpose. It was very relaxing nevertheless and one of the better things about this hotel. Another highlight was the steam room - I couldn’t handle it for very long, but I used it a few times during our stay. The sauna was out of order, which was disappointing. There are 6 chairs around the oversized jacuzzi, so there’s not a lot of room for people.

We went for a couple of overpriced drinks at the bar on the ground floor. It was comfy enough, although the price for a Stella and a small portion of chips is equivalent to a takeaway dinner for two (in London) - and other than nice décor and chairs, there’s not a lot of value you are getting here.

The bed was comfortable - no complaints there.

The next day, we went for breakfast at the mezzanine floor - this is where it got a bit disappointing. You’d expect a Hilton to provide quality stuff - this was unfortunately not the case. It is a buffet breakfast, so you can have as many things as you’d like - although none, except for the fruits, were particularly good. The selection is varied - from Cumberland sausages, scrambled eggs, some cold meats, hash browns, to pastries and sweet rolls, apple, cranberry juice, and other treats. The taste was bland, and most of it was Tesco’s/Iceland’s finest frozen treats. I guess this is by design, but whilst comparable to Marriott’s breakfast, I’d say this is lower quality (taste-wise, I doubt Marriott makes their own hash browns or anything).

Coffee machines give you the hot drinks you need to power through this otherwise mediocre breakfast - the staff are nice enough. They were having a bit of an argument at the time we had our breakfast. I’m sure this is the exception rather than the rule, as everyone looked a bit embarrassed about the situation and was trying to make them aware that guests are hearing their shenanigans. Nothing that would ruin our stay.

Check out is at 2 p.m., and I believe if you’re with Hilton Honors, you can probably have a late checkout (3 p.m.) for free.

Overall, it is an 8 out of 10. It was a good experience, and the staff have been very warm and nice. The hotel looks very good overall, and the drawbacks here are the non-functioning sauna, the mediocre breakfast, and the typical pricing for in-house food and drinks. They would likely have a huge increase in in-house orders if they’d normalise the prices to what is outside of the hotel - otherwise, people will just order off Uber Eats and eat in their room, which I’m sure is fine, but why not use the facilities provided and ensure the guests are spending their money with Hilton rather than Uber?

We paid about £109 for one night, with breakfast included. Pretty good value for money here. I’d recommend it.