Premier Inn Heathrow: which airport hotel to book for which terminal

Premier Inn runs four hotels that carry the Heathrow Airport name, plus two more branded for Hayes a little further out. The names read as though each sits at its terminal; only one does. Distances below are the operator's own; the transfer column is what the journey actually takes. Read it before you book by the terminal in the title, because the Terminal 5 hotel is not at Terminal 5, and the Hotel Hoppa that most of them rely on does not call at Terminal 4 at all.

Operator distances and guest parking rates. Parking prices move; treat them as the going rate, not a promise. The two Hayes hotels sit further out again, near Hayes and Harlington station for the rail hop into the terminals.

The naming trap is the word Terminal. Only the Terminal 4 hotel stands at the terminal it is named for. The Terminal 5 hotel is a short bus ride from T5, and the Bath Road hotel, the one closest to the busy Terminal 2 and Terminal 3 pair, does not put a terminal in its name at all. So the honest first question is not which hotel is cheapest but which terminal you fly from, because that decides whether you walk, ride a shuttle, or drive.

The Terminal 4 hotel is the reason the brand ranks at Heathrow at all, and it works like the walk-to-terminal Premier Inns at other airports: on airport ground, joined to Terminal 4 by covered walkway, about a ten-minute walk from check-in with a roof over the whole route. It opened in 2017, carries a Thyme Bar and Grill and Premier Plus rooms, and has 70 on-site parking spaces at a guest rate of around £29 a night, first come first served, with a 2.1 metre height limit.

The catch is which terminal it serves. Terminal 4 is the SkyTeam and Gulf-carrier terminal (Air France, KLM, Korean Air, Qatar Airways, Etihad and others), so the walk only pays off if you fly from T4. For a Terminal 2, 3 or 5 departure you first ride the free inter-terminal transfer, the Elizabeth line or the free airport coach, from T4 to the central area, which turns the headline ten-minute walk into a thirty-to-forty-minute journey with the change. Booked for the right terminal it is the best-placed Premier Inn at the airport; booked for the wrong one it is no closer than the Bath Road hotel and rather more awkward.

The Bath Road hotel is the one most people actually want. It sits on the A4 hotel strip immediately north of the central terminals, a five-minute drive from Terminals 2 and 3 and their long-stay car parks, with its own car park at around £24 a night and a Thyme Bar and Grill. It is the closest Premier Inn to the airport's two busiest terminals, and it is the natural park-and-fly base: leave the car and ride in, or book the room through the operator's Holiday Extras parking partner for a longer stay. Reach the terminals on the Hotel Hoppa, or save most of the fare on the local buses covered below.

The Terminal 5 hotel sits less than two miles from T5 with easy bus links, its own parking at around £25 a night, and the same Thyme Bar and Grill and Premier Plus rooms. It is the closest Premier Inn to Terminal 5 and British Airways, but it is a bus ride, not a walk; the hotel you can walk to at T5 is the Sofitel, at a higher price. The M4 / J4 hotel, out at Sipson by the motorway junction, is the outlier: a ten-minute drive to the central terminals, fifteen to T5 and twenty to T4, with its own car park and the lowest rates of the four. It suits a driver who wants a cheap bed the night before and does not mind the transfer.

Three ways cover the gap between a Premier Inn and your terminal, and the right one depends on the hotel and your budget. The Hotel Hoppa is the branded airport shuttle, £7.00 single and £13.00 return per adult, running roughly 04:00 to midnight and calling at Terminals 2, 3 and 5. It is the simplest option from the Bath Road, Terminal 5 and M4 hotels. The one thing to know: the Hotel Hoppa does not serve Terminal 4, so a T4 traveller uses the walk from the T4 hotel or the free inter-terminal transfer, not the Hoppa.

For the Bath Road hotels, the Transport for London buses 105 and 111 run the same strip into the central bus station for £1.75 a journey, a Hopper fare that beats the Hoppa by roughly a quarter of the price; the trade is more stops and a slower ride with your bags. And between terminals, the free inter-terminal transfer, the Elizabeth line and the free airport coach network, links all four terminals at no charge, which is how a Terminal 4 hotel guest reaches a Terminal 2 or 3 flight. None of this is worth over-thinking for a single traveller with light bags; it matters most for a family weighing four Hoppa fares against a short taxi.

Match the hotel to the terminal first. For a Terminal 4 flight, the Terminal 4 hotel is the whole point: wake, walk ten minutes under cover, and be at bag drop before the car parks fill. For a Terminal 2 or 3 flight, the Bath Road hotel is the pick, five minutes out by Hoppa or the cheap 105 and 111 buses, and the closest Premier Inn to the busiest terminals. For a Terminal 5 flight, the Terminal 5 hotel is the nearest by name, but it is a short bus ride; if you would rather walk to the door, price the Sofitel at T5 and decide whether the walk is worth the difference. Confirm which terminal your airline uses before booking by name, since the terminal is what makes or breaks each choice.

Drivers going away for a week should ignore the nightly parking rates at all four hotels and price the trip as a whole. A bed the night before plus pre-booked long stay parking, or one of the hotel-and-parking bundles, both beat paying £24 to £29 a night to leave the car at the hotel for a fortnight. And for a midday flight without a car, the honest answer is that none of the four may be needed: the trains reach the terminals early from most of the region, and the money saved on the room buys a lot of coffee.

Rooms follow the national Premier Inn formula: the standard double, family rooms sleeping up to two adults and two children, accessible rooms, and at the airport hotels the Premier Plus tier with more space, a coffee machine, a mini-fridge and a better workspace on a quieter floor. Each airport hotel has a Thyme Bar and Grill for breakfast and an evening meal. Breakfast is not in the standard room rate: add it at booking or pay at the hotel, and up to two children eat breakfast free with each paying adult.

On parking, the nightly guest rates (around £24 at Bath Road, £25 at Terminal 5, £29 at Terminal 4) are priced for the nights you sleep there, not for a car left while you fly. Treat the hotel car park as overnight storage and the airport car parks or a park-and-stay bundle as the tool for a longer trip; the business and short-stay options cover the in-and-out cases. Prices are dynamic and the airport hotels move hardest on school-holiday weekends, so book early, and for a flight booked far ahead the flexible rate usually earns its small extra, since flights move and a room you can shift for nothing beats a cheap one you cannot. Book directly with the operator rather than a reseller; the rooms are the same and changes are simpler.