TravelingForMiles.com may receive commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on TravelingForMiles.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. TravelingForMiles.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.
Some links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission that helps contribute to the running of the site. Traveling For Miles has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Traveling For Miles and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. For more details please see the disclosures found at the bottom of every page.
Update: The Sofitel Heathrow T5’s COVID Test Qualifies For England’s “Test To Release” Program (click for details)
Ahead of a recent trip, I had an overnight stay at the Sofitel Heathrow T5 which I had booked specifically because the hotel is currently offering overnight Covid testing to guests booking the “test and rest” rate (I’ll write about the Covid test separately)
At the time of my stay a the Sofitel T5, England was under its second lockdown of 2020 (a lockdown which has ended today) so there isn’t much point in writing a full review of the property as a lot of what the Sofitel usually offers wasn’t available while I was there. Still, the rooms don’t change because there’s a pandemic raging outside, and a lot of the current safety precautions will be with us for some time to come, so I thought I’d share my thoughts on the Sofitel as I found it in the middle of last month.
Arrival & Check-In
The Sofitel’s check-in area was almost completely deserted when I arrived so although there were markings on the floor where guests are asked to stand to help maintain social distancing, I didn’t have to wait in line to be served.
The two members of staff were wearing masks and as I was being checked-in I was directed to a QR code on the front desk that I was asked to scan.
The QR code led to a form that the UK Government says that all hotel guests need to fill in…
…but there isn’t much information requested other than what you may reasonably expect (name, address, flight number(s), the reason for visiting, etc…).
Note: The code still works so if you’re reading this on a laptop or tablet and you want to see what the form looks like, just open up the camera app on your phone, point it at the code on the screen in front of you, and open up the link that you’re offered.
The agent at the front desk explained that as the hotel’s restaurant was closed, breakfast was being offered via room service (I was handed an order form) which is served between 06:00 and 10:30. For anyone staying past breakfast or arriving in the early evening, lunch and dinner are also available via room service between 12:00-15:00 and 17:00-22:30 respectively.
I was also handed a welcome letter which outlined what the hotel’s current policies are and what services are and are not operating.
The back of the letter had a QR code which when scanned, opened up the full room service menu.
Check-in was swift and I was soon heading past the multiple “keep physical distance” signs and up to my room.
Sofitel Heathrow T5 – King Size Room
When booking this stay I had chosen to reserve the cheapest room possible (Queen-size), so I was pleasantly surprised to find that the room I had been given was considerably more spacious than the one I had been expecting. This was a King-size room.
Just through the door and on the left is a shelf with a few facilities to make tea (and possibly coffee)…
…directly ahead is the main living/sleeping area…
…and to the right is the bathroom (which I’ll come to in a moment).
The focal point of the room is the king-size bed, but it is a testament to the room’s size that a bed as big as this one doesn’t feel out of place or feel like it’s taking up all the available space.
All things considered, this is a very big room.
To one side of the bed is an armchair with a footstool and a side table…
….while opposite the bed is a cabinet containing the room’s mini-fridge and safe…
…as well as a good-sized desk.
The desk has ample power outlets (there is even an outlet for US devices)…
…as well as a series of audiovisual inputs that I’m not convinced anyone ever uses.
One noticeable flaw to the room’s design is the lack of power outlets anywhere near the bed. Both sides of the bed have switches to control the room’s lighting…
…but the only power outlet I could find that was near the bed is at floor level, is partly obscured, and is being used by one of the bedside lights.
Considering this isn’t a particularly old property, that’s a design flaw that should never have been allowed to occur.
The room’s bathroom is a good size and offers a single-sink vanity, as well as a separate shower and bath.
At the beginning of the year Accor announced that it would be eliminating all individual plastic toiletries by the end of 2020 but, for the time being, the toiletries are still in place at the Sofitel T5.
Overall, this is a very nice room that offers guests a considerable amount of space as well as a bed that’s as big and comfortable as anyone can wish for. The lack of power outlets near the bed aside, it’s hard to fault what’s on offer (especially if you were expecting a considerably smaller room!).
The COVID Stuff
I’ve stayed at a number of hotels since the pandemic took over our lives and during those stays, I’ve progressed from not knowing what to expect a hotel to offer to now having a pretty good idea of what measures various properties are taking and what they’re offering to make guests feel secure.
If you’re particularly worried about traveling right now but find yourself having to travel, a good number of properties will probably make you feel quite happy about the measures that have been introduced, and you’ll probably feel reasonably reassured that a lot of trouble has been taken to make sure that your environment has been sanitized thoroughly. The Sofitel T5, however, could probably do more.
Where properties like the Hyatt Regency London and the Conrad London have seals on the doors to the rooms to indicate that no one has entered since the room was sanitized, the Sofitel’s rooms don’t look any different to how they would normally look.
Where the Hyatt Regency London and the Conrad London both had signs on their TV remote controls to indicate that they had been sanitized…
…the Sofitel’s TV remote looked no different to normal.
On any of my stays where a hotel has offered disposable cups in the room (usually a budget property), those cups have always come wrapped in a plastic cover to at least give the impression that they’re sanitary. At the Sofitel T5, the disposable cups were not wrapped in anything at all and were just sitting on the side.
I’m not a germaphobe, I’m perfectly happy not using the cups that come in a hotel room, and I’m more than capable of wiping down remote controls and all the surfaces in a room to give myself a little peace of mind that things around me are reasonably clean, but if a hotel wants to make as many guests as possible feel comfortable enough to stay during a pandemic, it’s the little things that are going to make a difference.
Yes, the Sofitel provides guests with a small in-room kit with a mask and hand sanitizer…
…but when you open up your mini-fridge to reveal a previous guest’s chocolate mouse sitting on the top shelf…
….you don’t really get a warm, comfortable feeling that the room has been cleaned thoroughly.
Most people will probably not mind that the Sofitel doesn’t overtly show that a room has been sanitized and sealed, or that it doesn’t overtly show that special attention has been given to cleaning things like the remote control and in-room phone, but anyone finding evidence of a previous guest’s stay in their room is more than entitled to wonder just how thoroughly that room has been cleaned. At the best of times, that’s not a good look, right now it looks pretty bad.
Bottom Line
You’re not going to find a more convenient property for Heathrow Terminal 5 than the Sofitel and if you’re booked into a king-room you’re almost certainly going to like the amount of space that the room offers and the comfort level of the bed and bedding. Where the property falls down (right now) is that it could clearly do more to demonstrate to guests that all stops are being pulled out to ensure that rooms are being cleaned as thoroughly as possible. The rooms may well be super-clean, but a little more evidence of that would go a long way.
