A great blog and newsletter that I subscribe to is Executive Travel’s, which is curated by Steve Glenn. He always has pertinent tips, including today’s, which is his recommendation for staying at airport hotels on the last night of your trip.
Steve writes, “On a recent trip to Denver I decided to stay downtown during the convention so I could walk to the convention from my hotel. Rather than stay at the hotel for both nights I decided to stay at the nice Westin Airport Hotel the night before my 8 am flight. By staying at the airport hotel I saved money on my hotel room as it was much less than the convention hotel rates. If I stayed in downtown Denver I would have to get up at 5:30 am and leave the hotel at 6 am to arrive at the airport at 7 am for my 8 am flight. Staying at the airport hotel allowed me to get up at 6:30 am and walked 50 yards into the airport terminal at 7 am for my flight. Staying at the airport hotel saved me money, plus gave me an extra hour of sleep and a lot less stress.”
Steve’s absolutely right. Especially if you have a morning flight and don’t want to get up super early or deal with rush hour traffic. I would also add that this is another benefit of packing light since it’s a pain to keep packing up and moving. This couldn’t be any more true than when traveling with little ones since moving them around can be a challenge and definitely more time-consuming.
I’ve stayed at dozens of airport hotels and the best ones are the ones connected to the airport like Denver’s Westin. This way, you don’t have to deal with shuttles and traffic because if you do have to deal with either of those factors, you’re really not saving much time. I will do a post soon on my favorite airport hotels but one that I haven’t stayed in but can’t wait to is the semi-new TWA Hotel at New York’s JFK airport.
Which is your favorite airport hotel and why? Drop a comment below.
The Hilton at Chicago O’Hare. It connects to the terminals via a tunnel.
The barroom there is a very comfortable and welcoming place and its good for a meal as well.
Hyatt at MCO and Marriott at TPA
I like the London Heathrow Marriott. Transportation to and from the hotel and airport is a public bus but easy to use and inexpensive. The hotel has a lovely M Club and nice lounge area. It’s a Marriott category 5 hotel if you’re using points. Staying here takes the stress out of making connecting flights on your way home. Just fly from where you vacationed to Heathrow, relax and spend the night and fly out the next morning without the hassle of changing terminals, etc.
The Hilton Garden Inn at Krakow Airport is also connected and quite nice.
Excellent, our Westin DEN Corner Jr. Suite last week was pricey but convenient. Plus Clear at Security was well worth it. Enjoy the Runway view rooms at @TWAHotel. Enjoy :-)
We have stayed at the Tampa airport Marriott. But the TWA hotel at terminal five at JFK is major bucket list for me!!
Hyatt at mco many times, love to wake up in the morning and look my balcony window to people already crowding into the tsa line.
hilton chattonoga
I am retired from Delta Reservations and we took our first non-rev international trip to London Gatwick. On the way home, 4 employees were turned away due to over-booking, so we were directed to the airport hotel that’s just steps away from the terminal. It was a very comfy room with the Delta discount, and a down mattress cover and we slept most of the day…getting up for snacking and dinner. Years later whenever we are exhausted and want to relax we say: “Let’s have another Gatwick Day”…
At Detroit metro they have their own security entrance to the airport. Could not be easier.
Any suggestions for Logan?
I don’t. Downtown is so close so I just stay in the city
We’ve often done this very thing only you’re an hour off. You
should arrive at the airport 2 hours ahead of time. . . . as is
suggested by ALL the airlines! I don’t care if you have TSA
Pre-check or what-not–what if there was something going on
that you were not aware of and TSA was backed up–like an
Honor Flight going out and with all those guys in wheelchairs
they were backing up ALL the check points. . . you never know.