Hotel By Bus

Maybe this company’s ok if you’re going from airport to hotel but NEVER use it to go to airport. We nearly missed our flight although we were outside waiting for the bus 5 hours before flight was scheduled. The brand new inexperienced nonEnglish speaking driver got lost coming to pick us up — although the bus was equipped with a GPS, he didn’t seem to know how to use it. He did not plan his route to pick up the other passengers so picked them up first although we were farthest away from the airport. I’m pretty sure the other passengers missed their international flights and we only made ours because Delta was kind enough to hold the plane.

I’ve become a lazy old bag of bones.
London has fantastic public transport and I usually take the Tube to Central London for a fraction of the price of a cab and arriving a couple of blocks to the hotel. This time, our ride to the hotel was included via Hotel By Bus. If it weren’t for the free offer, we’d never even know about this company.
Hotel By Bus is similar to the Super Shuttle stateside. Inside each terminal at Heathrow is a tiny kiosk where you can book or claim your ride. The agent would then call up a Euro-​style shuttle bus (the kind that you can stand up in and seats about 10 – 12) and have it make runs around the terminals at Heathrow.
The wait for the shuttle is about half hour, but at least you’re still inside the terminal and can go to Mark & Spencer’s or the restroom to kill time. Once the shuttle is approaching, you are escorted to the curb for pickup.
We being at Terminal 5 meant that we were the last pick-​up stop. Sorry, people from Terminal 1.
We were staying in Kensington so we were the first drop-​off, which made the ride awesome.
At £22.50 per person, this can seem steep for Americans, but if your party is 3 or smaller, then it’s cheaper than a taxi for sure.
Service is OK as expected. The guy’s job is to lift your luggage into the shuttle, drive to destination and drop off your luggage. No song and dance needed to make me happy.
The Tube is for young vibrant ones with easy luggage. Lazy old people like me with a big rollie will prefer door-​to-​door service without having to fight the ticket machine, turnstiles, escalators, service line changes, and rush hour mobs. Next time I’m flying into LHR, I’d either pack light or pay for a ride with Hotel By Bus.