When is staying at the airport hotel a good idea? What benefit have you found?

[Anonymous]

I’ve always been curious about this. I’ve heard a few people mention when they fly into Heathrow, they stay at a hotel near the airport and use public transport into London.

Is it cheaper? More cost effective in some way?

I feel like it’s a strange choice given distance, but what am I missing?

[Anonymous]

It is cheaper, good for late arrival and early departure times. Also better if renting car to drive into countryside.

[Anonymous]

For a whole trip? No. For reasons above one night is fine

[Anonymous]

I only use and like if the hotel is actually in the airport terminal. I often arrive late at night into a foreign city. I'm may not be familiar with the city. I may be traveling solo. I greatly prefer the terminal hotel when I arrive. Then also, the night before an early flight out.

Never choosing for the other days of my stay

[Anonymous]

I've stayed at an airport hotel the night before an early flight. It's easier than parking/returning a rental car/getting an Uber or however I might otherwise arrive at the airport.

[Anonymous]

they also sometimes have nice spas so you can unwind a bit before getting back on the road

[Anonymous]

Good for early departure

[Anonymous]

I travel a lot. I do it a fair amount. A few cases:

1. Arriving late in the evening and need to drive with rental car the next morning to another city.
2. Departing early in the morning -- arrive the night before, drop off rental car, and quick journey from hotel to airport check-in the next morning.
3. Overnight layover (happens on trips in Europe in particular)
4. Visiting a city where I have multiple different meetings over a few days, all that I have to drive to, but with different clients. The airport hotel is my "home base" as parking is usually free and it's near a highway.

[Anonymous]

Early departure from Paris and Amsterdam.

Also early AM departures from US cities when dropping off rental cars before flying home. It's no fun driving in the AM dark or morning commute rush in an unfamiliar city.

We prefer to reach destination hotels immediately at the beginning of a trip. We will take public transport right after arriving. This can be tiring. But usually we've slept on the plane.

[Anonymous]

Only when we have an early morning flight at Narita. We leave our Tokyo hotel and take a room in Narita, spend a few hours walking about, eating grilled eel and such, and leave the next morning.

[Anonymous]

We stayed in the Vancouver airport after returning from an Alaskan cruise. We had already spent a few days in downtown Vancouver before the cruise, and we were off the ship too late to catch the flight home on disembarkation day, so we just relaxed at the airport hotel and walked downstairs to catch our flight the next day.

[Anonymous]

I love the airport hotel at the Minneapolis St Paul airport - can walk there from the terminal- has its own tsa area for when you leave again (although the tsa in the main terminal is very fast anyways), ok gym and restaurant and only 10-20 min from where I need to go but that’s a very specific example.

Also use other ones - for night before early flight or Denver if I’m stuck overnight - missed my flight because the airport is so far away from the city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've stayed at an airport hotel the night before an early flight. It's easier than parking/returning a rental car/getting an Uber or however I might otherwise arrive at the airport.

+1

[Anonymous]

The Hyatt inside SFO Airport is crazy expensive, but a good layover hotel if arriving SFO evening from overseas, and departing early morning.

Ditto for the Hilton at ORD.

JFK and IAD ought to have something like that, but don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve always been curious about this. I’ve heard a few people mention when they fly into Heathrow, they stay at a hotel near the airport and use public transport into London.

Is it cheaper? More cost effective in some way?

I feel like it’s a strange choice given distance, but what am I missing?

Most of the time, we stay near the airport is the night when we leave on an early morning flight. It’s nice the return the car the night before and most of the time we get up, get dressed and walk over. Once, we came in late and stayed at the airport- then rented the car the next morning - at a leisurely pace. I don’t think it saves money, but it does save time when we need it and it shaves off one day of car rental.