ibis budget Heathrow: the cheapest of the three, and the distance

Heathrow has three ibis hotels, all on the Bath Road, and the names do not help. Settle which one you are booking before anything else: this hotel and the ibis Styles are 1.7 miles apart, which is a different taxi and a different morning.

The word Central in this hotel's name refers to the brand's naming convention rather than to any kind of central position at the airport, and it catches people out. This is the eastern end of the corridor at Cranford, heading towards Hounslow. The ibis Styles at 272 Bath Road is roughly the opposite end. Quote the house number to a taxi driver, not the brand. The full three-way comparison is on the ibis Heathrow page.

Accor's blurb places the hotel five minutes from the M4 and 1.5km from Hounslow West underground station. Its own structured access data on the same page is less flattering and more useful: Hounslow West is 2.25km, a 28-minute walk, and the M4 junction is 5.63km, about a 10-minute drive. Take the second set. Nobody is walking 28 minutes to a tube station with a suitcase the night before a flight, so treat the underground as a route in rather than a route to the airport.

The distance is the trade you are making for the price, and it is worth doing the arithmetic rather than assuming. The Hotel Hoppa costs £7.00 single and £13.00 return per adult, with a group ticket for up to four at £20.00 single, and it stops outside the door. Two people paying returns spend £26 getting to and from a terminal, which is enough to erase the saving against a hotel closer in.

The cheap alternative needs one clarification the hotel's own copy glosses over. There is a bus stop outside, but the routes calling there (81, 222 and H98) all run to Hounslow bus station, not to Heathrow. The buses you want are the 105 and 111, which do reach the central bus station between Terminals 2 and 3 for £1.75 a journey on contactless, and their nearest stop is The Avenue, about 264 metres away. That is a four-minute walk rather than a doorstep, and it is still the move here: £1.75 against £7.00 keeps the saving intact for anyone travelling light.

Two caveats on the bus. It is a local service with luggage space designed for shopping rather than suitcases, so it suits a solo traveller with a cabin bag far better than a family with four hold bags. And on a pre-05:00 departure the frequency thins, so check the first service against your check-in time or plan on a taxi.

Terminal 5 is simpler than it looks: the Hotel Hoppa H5D route runs from here direct to Terminal 5, so there is no inter-terminal leg to add if you take the Hoppa. The bus is the awkward one for T5, because the 105 and 111 stop at the central bus station between Terminals 2 and 3 and you transfer from there. Terminal 4 needs a transfer whichever you choose: the Hoppa's only stop on that side is a hotel, not the terminal.

One thing to settle before you book if you collect Accor points: the hotel has confirmed in its own management replies that ibis budget London Heathrow Central does not currently take part in the Accor ALL loyalty programme. You can book it through Accor and still earn nothing, which is a recurring complaint in its reviews. If the points are why you were choosing an ibis, that is a reason to pick one of the other two.

ibis budget is Accor's economy tier, and the rooms are honest about it: modern, clean, soundproofed, with free Wi-Fi, and not much else. Room types run from a standard double through a double with an additional single bed, a three-single-bed room, and a classic family room, which is a more useful spread than most budget hotels near the airport manage and makes it a reasonable option for groups of three or four sharing.

What stripped back does not mean here is uncomfortable. Soundproofing is standard, and the hotel sits back from the airfield rather than under an approach path, so it is generally quieter than hotels closer to the runways. The Bath Road itself carries traffic all night, so a road-facing room will hear it, and asking for a quieter side at check-in is worth thirty seconds of your time before an early flight.

One correction worth making, because older guides get it wrong and this site did too. The ibis budget at Heathrow has a hot breakfast buffet, a bar and dining, not just the continental counter the ibis budget brand is usually associated with. That is a genuine point in its favour at this price, and it removes one of the standard reasons for paying more elsewhere.

Parking is paid, on site, with video surveillance. Accor does not publish a nightly rate on the hotel's own page, so confirm the figure at booking rather than assuming it matches the £14 charged at the ibis Styles. Treating a fact's absence as information is the right instinct here: the rate is not published, so this page does not print one.

Unlike most of the Bath Road budget hotels, this one does sell a park-and-fly product: Accor lists Park, Sleep and Fly packages for 4, 8 and 15 days, so you can leave the car here while you are away rather than paying a nightly rate for an empty space. Price that bundle against a pre-booked airport car park before booking either, because which wins depends on the length of the trip. The maths is on hotels with parking.

Book it if you want the cheapest reasonable bed near Heathrow, you are travelling light, and you are happy to use the bus outside the door rather than the Hoppa. On those terms it is the best value of the three ibis hotels and among the cheapest options at the airport. The room-type spread also makes it worth a look for three or four people sharing.

Look elsewhere if you are a family with hold bags, where two Hoppa returns plus the extra distance erode the saving and a hotel closer in is worth the few pounds. Look elsewhere too for a Terminal 5 departure, where the extra inter-terminal leg on top of an already longer transfer makes for a poor early morning, and for a very early flight where the bus may not be running yet.

The honest summary: this is a genuinely cheap, genuinely decent budget hotel whose only real weakness is that it is the furthest of the three from where you are flying. If the bus works for you, that weakness costs £1.75 and the saving is real. If it does not, book the ibis Styles or the standard ibis instead and stop worrying about it.