At the first of Business Traveller’s editor’s lunches, readers debated what makes a good airport hotel. Tom Otley reports.
For many business travellers, the words “airport” and “hotel” are best kept apart. We know of good airports, and we know of good hotels, but how many airport hotels have left a favourable impression? In part, it’s because we often use them only in an emergency. As Richard Hodges, general manager of Regal Airport Hotel in Hong Kong, says: “We are used to dealing with a guest who’s extremely stressed by the time they get to the check-in desk.”
So what can these hotels do to make things better, and what makes a good airport hotel? At a recent Business Traveller editorial lunch, we asked 15 readers what they thought. A key first point was accessibility – a hotel must not only be in close proximity to the airport but must also be easy to get to, for only then will the guest feel they are in control.
When you are at a hotel either within an airport itself or within walking distance of it, you know for sure that you can be at the check-in desk within five or ten minutes, so you can schedule your arrival there accordingly. But as soon as you start having to take into account a shuttle bus or train ride, no matter how short that journey is, you are relying on that service running on time, which takes away your control and adds an element of stress.
One reader suggested that given the problems of reaching most of Heathrow’s hotels, a better solution was to stay at the Hilton London Paddington property and use the Heathrow Express service to travel to the airport instead. In his opinion, it would be a lot quicker and more reliable.
This brought us on to the subject of what counts as an airport hotel. Strictly, there are three types – those that are airside, those that are landside and directly connected to the airport/terminal, and those that are close to the airport.
Taking these three categories in turn, the main purpose of an airside property is to help you when you have a short stopover and want to freshen up and perhaps get some sleep. If you intend to stay in the hotel on arrival and then exit the airport the following day for a business meeting, bear in mind that this will only work if you have hand luggage. If you have checked luggage, then that will appear on the carousel while you are airside and unable to reach it.
This was the frustrating experience of one guest at the lunch, who had to spend a night in the Dubai International Hotel with only hand baggage, and no change of clothing. The next morning he then had to retrieve his bag from a room seemingly kept aside for those who had made the same mistake.
The advantages of staying in an airport hotel when you are in transit can often mean you avoid the hassle of having to change money into the local currency of a country you are only using as a hub – still, whether airside or landside, some things are essential. One reader listed his three must-haves as a hot shower, a silent room and pitch blackness, whether through black-out blinds or, in some hotels, a clip to secure the curtains. Regal Hotel’s Hodges recommended always asking if your room has double glazing before booking.
Other items on the wish list included flight information on an electric screen in the lobby and on the in-room TV, and knowledgeable staff at the front desk to help with information about the airport, check-in policies and transfer times. One reader pointed out that in some US hotels there was now the ability to check in for flights at stand-alone kiosks in reception, which also printed out boarding passes – Aloft, the new brand from Starwood, offers this (see feature, page 40).
There’s also the issue of resentment over the pricing of airport hotel rooms. The traditional model for a city-centre hotel is a 24-hour stay or, more accurately, a 21-hour stay, since the typical check-in time is 3pm and check-out is 12pm. But at airport hotels, guests will frequently be arriving extremely late and leaving extremely early, so readers asked why they should have to pay for a 24-hour stay.
In some cases a 24-hour charging period may be flexibly employed so that if you arrive late one evening and depart late the following evening, you do not have to pay for two nights. Certain hotels offer flexible pricing models for four, six, eight and ten hours, but not many. Japanese capsule hotel-inspired Yotel is an honourable exception, with its hotels at Heathrow, Gatwick and Amsterdam Schiphol.
Still, let’s see things from the airport hotel’s point of view. One of the challenges facing them is the length of the stay – typically 1.2 nights, much shorter than the 2.2 nights stayed at regular business hotels. What’s more, unlike city-centre hotels, more than 90 per cent of guests are staying for the first time and are unlikely to return.
A cynic might say that’s why so many airport hotels are poor – since the guests are never going to return, what’s the point in going overboard in trying to please them? But marketing to these guests is very expensive because you can’t rely on repeat business, so the hotels do want them to return – and since many of them are well-known brands, it’s important to keep up standards. (A counter-argument is that the brands need to have locations at airports, and so perhaps are more lenient with the owners of those properties.)
Other points made at the lunch were that it helped if a hotel was a member of a good loyalty programme, allowing guests to earn and burn points, and if it sent out a confirmation email asking if there was anything the guest might wish to arrange prior to arrival, such as sightseeing or tickets to a nearby attraction. This is true of all hotels but particularly useful for a short stay, as are good links from the property to the nearest city or to nearby attractions such as out-of-town shopping centres.
So which hotels are good? Recommendations at the lunch were Singapore’s new Crowne Plaza Hotel Changi Airport at Terminal 3, and lunch sponsor Regal Airport Hotel Hong Kong at Terminal 1, which was last year’s winner of the Business Traveller reader-voted award for Best Airport Hotel (previous winners include the Hilton London Heathrow Airport hotel at Terminal 4, and the Radisson Edwardian Heathrow hotel on the Bath Road).
In our next issue we’ll be featuring the top 50 airport hotels in the world. To take part in the discussion or to nominate your favourite, click here.
