Review – Sofitel Heathrow Terminal 5

July 15, 2016

1705

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This review forms part a trip I took with Joanna to Las Vegas and San Francisco (introduction and full details of the trip are here).

Booking The Sofitel At Heathrow T5

For the night that we needed the Sofitel was pricing at over $250 but, thanks to the BA forum on Flyertalk, I didn’t come close to paying that.

Using Lastminute.com (a UK-based booking site) it’s often possible to get the Sofitel at T5 for a lot less than the published rates – the key is to book it as a “Top Secret Hotel”. The top secret hotel option on Lastminute.com is where you book a hotel at a considerably reduced rate without knowing which specific hotel you’re booking…all you have is some basic information about the secret hotels you can book.

The thing is that, because so many flyers (on Flyertalk) have booked these top secret hotels, we know which description relates to the Sofitel at T5….and this is it:

When you see that hotel description on Lastminute.com you know you’re being offered the Sofitel at T5….and you can save quite a bit of cash. I ended up paying a little under £100 (around $145 at the time of booking) so I saved over $100 thanks to this little bit of info from Flyertalk.

Sofitel Heathrow Terminal 5

Check-In & First Impressions

When we arrived at around 8:30pm there was a good-sized line for at check-in but the front desk staff were good at keeping things moving and we were checked-in a lot quicker than I was expecting.

The front desk agent was new and keen to tell us all about the restaurants and bars at the Sofitel which, had we been hungry, would have been useful. As it was we really just wanted to get to our room, drop off our bags and get a drink in the bar.

The Sofitel is larger than I had realised and is divided up into 4 “wings”. We were in “wing 1” which, at ground floor level, has a “conference hotel” feel to it – that’s not necessarily a criticism..it’s just what the place felt like.

Sofitel Heathrow Terminal 5

The Room

The room was laid out like so many other hotel rooms around the world….a small corridor leading into the main sleeping area with a bathroom off the corridor:

Sofitel Heathrow Terminal 5

The main part of the room was a decent enough size but I can’t say I was too impressed with the sleeping arrangements:

Sofitel Heathrow Terminal 5

The room had two single beds which had been pushed together but not linked together and, because the beds were on wheels, it was easy to move them apart if you happened to roll into the middle.

Had we not been staying for a single night I would have called down to the front desk and asked for a room change but, as it was, we made do….but I expect better from a “luxury hotel”.

Sofitel Heathrow Terminal 5

The rest of the room was perfectly ok with a wardrobe, big-screen TV, space to unpack a suitcase and a good-sized desk:

Sofitel Heathrow Terminal 5

The safe and mini-bar fridge were both next to the wardrobe…..

Sofitel Heathrow Terminal 5

…..but the mini-bar was surprisingly empty:

Sofitel Heathrow Terminal 5

The bathroom wasn’t bad at all and had a separate shower and bath-tub:

Sofitel Heathrow Terminal 5

Connectivity

There were all kinds of audio-visual inputs by the desk which would allow guests to plus their devices into the room’s entertainment system….

Sofitel Heathrow Terminal 5

….and, with both UK and US power outlets, the desk is a good charging station:

Sofitel Heathrow Terminal 5

But that’s where the good news on connectivity ended.

Although the room’s lights could be controlled from panels next to the bed…..

Sofitel Heathrow Terminal 5

…..there were no power ports by the beds….except for a particularly useless low-voltage power port at floor level on one side:

Sofitel Heathrow Terminal 5

That’s not acceptable for a hotel that’s not even 10 years old.

What was also not acceptable was the speed of the wifi. Yes, it was complimentary, but it was achingly slow when I tried to update some apps on my iPhone and when, later in the evening, I tried to send an email with a 1.5MB attachment I thought I’d crashed the system!

Bars & Restaurants

The hotel has two bars….

Perrier-Jouet Bar
Sphere lobby bar

…and we decided to try out the Sphere Bar.

Sofitel Heathrow Terminal 5

It was hard to take any photos as the bar area wasn’t very big and all of the tables were occupied s0 you’re just going to have to take my word for the fact that it was a nice-enough hotel lobby bar.

Unfortunately the service was slow and, in one waiter’s case, quite surly. I counted 22 people in the bar (including us) and the staff were either unwilling to or incapable of dealing with that number of people. I suspect the former considering there was no sign of any of them making any effort to speed things up.

As well as the two bars the hotel has two restaurants and once cafe:

La Belle Epoque – French cuisine
Vivre – International cuisine
Tea 5 – Cafe/Tea salon

We didn’t have the time (or need) to try any of these but more information is available on the hotel’s website here.

The Hotel’s Main Selling Point

As I mentioned earlier, the Sofitel at Heathrow is attached to Terminal 5 by a pedestrian walkway which is accessed from the lobby area of the hotel…..

Sofitel Heathrow Terminal 5

…and which leads over to a bank of elevators shared by the T5 parking structure.

Sofitel Heathrow Terminal 5

This is the whole point of the Sofitel and what, to my mind, makes it as popular as it is. Most airport hotels are a shuttle bus ride away and some are even further (that would be you Hyatt Place Heathrow!) but the Sofitel is almost part of T5 itself and that makes it very convenient indeed.

Bottom Line

For what I paid for the Sofitel it was ok and it served its purpose just fine….but I would have been disappointed if I’d paid the $250+ going rate for the property.

The hotel looks nice and modern but it has quite a few failings that a hotel billed as “5-star” and “luxury” shouldn’t have – the wifi was woeful, the lack of bedside power ports an incredible oversight for such a new property and I can’t stand surly staff in customer facing roles. There’s no excuse for that.

If you’re looking for convenience and you’re departing T5 you can’t do better – for that the Sofitel is great – but, based on this visit, this isn’t a 5-star hotel. It’s a solid 4-star but that’s it.

Our Favourite Luggage

a man and woman standing next to luggage

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