Longford Homestays

Affordable price for airport hotel... Easy to check in... Large room... Have bath tub... Walking by comfortable skybridge from hotel to departure

It doesn't take much to send your bar staff on a cocktail course and buy a ice crusher to make a margharita. Please don't advertise it if it can't be made. Very expensive too considering it tasted of soap and had big chunks of ice floating in it and a slice of lemon and not lime. I chose to stay for two nights as a destination hotel rather than 'just a hotel near the airport' so I suppose you could label a 'service' hotel but I have felt after being here for one day and one more night to go, it is not a place where people want to create or make relationships as I have felt it being rather a 'no' environment. I have done my best to be friendly but felt a little bit like more of a nuisance for wanting to create more relationships as a solo traveller especially when at 10 staff started to clear breakfast before I was even finished at 10.30 and then looked at a plate I had taken with me to my room as if to say 'you shouldn't be taking that' when it felt too uncomfortable to finish it in the main room. I may be unusual in my longer stay but I have still paid and a good customer and travel and stay in hotels a lot. The price is a good deal but that should still reflect good service. There should also be instructions on how to work the tv as I couldn't and then I met two ladies who had sat in the lounge for 4 hrs because they also couldn't work it so I helped them out. I train staff in friendliness and not saying they weren't but in my opinion, their needs to be a bit more approachability for a hotel near a major London airport with such incredible facilities such as a roof terrace overlooking the runway. It feels a bit like it has been forgotten and just left to be as it is as a very small part of the large Thistle Hotel Chain.

For those who need to go to Terminal 5, it's a pretty good choice for an overnight layover. Apart from the hotel restaurant, there's also a McDonald's nearby, and within walking distance, you can find delicious Turkish kebab. Just remember to pay attention to the bus schedule and the location of the bus stop for the next day to the airport. (We and other strangers who were also going to the airport originally waited for the bus across the hotel, but it didn't stop and drove away. We had to quickly check the information and walk to the bus shelter at the other end of the hotel.) In any case, I wish all travelers good luck.