Impressions: The Hyatt Place West London Hayes (A Mini Review)

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The Hyatt Place West London Hayes is one of two Hyatt properties in the vicinity of London Heathrow and it’s the cheapest Hyatt property in the UK. I visited this property earlier in the year as part of a mattress run on my way to Hyatt Globalist status so what follows are some of the pictures I took during my stay and a few observations from my visit.

I’m not writing a full review of the Hyatt West London Hayes because I booked it for a mattress run rather than as somewhere I genuinely needed to stay, and because the UK went into full lockdown very shortly after my stay started so I never got a chance to spend a night at the property. I did, however, get a chance to see where the hotel is located, to check-in, to see what a room at the property looks like, and to see a few of the amenities on offer. So while this post will be mainly photographs of my brief visit, I’ll also share a few thoughts and opinions on what I saw.

Location

When the Hyatt Place West London/Hayes first opened it was called the Hyatt Place London Heathrow/Hayes but as you’ll see from the map below, it’s not actually very close to Heathrow at all.

The property is approximately 6 miles from Heathrow Terminal 3 (15 minutes by car outside of busy periods) and almost 9 miles from Heathrow Terminal 5 (20 minutes by car outside of busy periods), but there’s no airport shuttle service offered.

The most efficient way to get to the airport is via taxi/Uber as the local bus service that I saw was neither convenient nor efficient so you should take this into consideration when deciding what your most economical Heathrow accommodation option is.

I didn’t get a chance to take a good look at the area around the hotel but it’s safe to say that it isn’t a “destination” property. Hayes is not a picturesque location and the hotel overlooks a strip mall to the front and an industrial complex to the back. Instagrammers will find little to enjoy here.

The Room

As I was only booking this property for a mattress run I booked the cheapest room available (King Bed – no sofa bed), but I ended up getting upgraded to a King Bed room with a sofa bed on a high floor when I checked in. This is what that room category looks like.

The room’s single large window doesn’t have any curtains…

…but it does have full-length blind which does a reasonable job of blocking out light.

The room comes well equipped with power outlets and it was good to see that both sides of the bed have power as well as USB points.

The main power outlet for the room’s desk wasn’t in the most convenient of locations…

…but guests from Europe will be pleased to find a power outlet that they can use without the need for an adapter.

As far as amenities go, the room has a reasonably sized closet complete with iron, ironing board, and built-in safe…

…as well as tea/coffee making facilities and a small drinks fridge.

On the face of things, there’s nothing much wrong with this room (it looks adequate) but if you look a little closer there are a few issues.

Firstly, even though this property is barely 5 years old, the furniture is already looking sub-standard with scratches and marks in multiple areas.

I guess you could argue that you get what you pay for (rates at this property are often under $70/night) but I’ve seen better furniture at similarly priced hotels and this isn’t the sort of standard I expect from a Hyatt brand.

Secondly, the view isn’t going to win any prizes. The front of the property (which looks out over a strip mall) may be a little better, but the view out of the rear-facing rooms is one that looks over the hotel’s smaller car park, an industrial area, and some derelict land with garbage strewn across it.

To be fair to the hotel, there’s not much you can do about how your neighbors look after their part of the local area so the thing that concerned me more than some scratched furniture and a view to forget was that there wasn’t any real sign that that my room had been sanitized before my arrival.

There were two disinfectant wipes provided on the desk…

…but there was no evidence that the TV remote had been cleaned, the mysterious stain on the sofa wasn’t reassuring…

…there was a layer of dust on some surfaces and, considering the age we’re currently living in, I was less than enamored to find that the nightstand had clearly not been cleaned properly (or at all).

This wouldn’t be good in normal times but it’s unforgivable during a pandemic.

Had I been given a chance to actually stay in this room overnight, I would have bought the biggest pack of sanitizing wipes that I could find and I would have wiped down every surface.

The Rest Of The Property

The lobby is home to a check-in area that incorporates a bar/coffee shop alongside chiller cabinets with drinks and snacks and a microwave oven to heat the snacks up.

There’s a small workstation area adjacent to the bar/coffee shop…

…and although the restaurant was closed (due to COVID), I did manage to get some pictures of what it looks like inside.

Other Things To Note

While there’s a pandemic raging the hotel’s restaurant is closed so guests are being offered a takeaway breakfast (consisting of a few continental breakfast items and a choice of a bacon or sausage sandwich) for £5/$7 if preordered, or £8/$11 if it is purchased on the spot.

At the time of my visit, the property was offering an all-day room service menu…

…and a room service menu for items that were available between 18:00 and 06:00.

Lastly, it’s worth noting that there are a reasonable number of parking spaces at the property (mostly at the front but there are also a few spaces at the back) and that the first hour is free while overnight parking costs £13 (approx. $18).

Bottom Line

While I accept that it is probably a little unfair to judge a property on a single daytime visit (readers can make up their own minds) but I don’t think I’ll be hurrying back to the Hyatt Place West London Hayes.

The staff that I interacted with were friendly, but the location is poor, the room furniture is looking worn, the cleaning standards that I saw are questionable, and when you can stay at a good property that’s truly adjacent to Heathrow for no more than $30 – $40 more, why would you choose to stay here?