I’ve done more than my fair share of 6am or 7am flights from London’s airports and I’ve gotta say, getting yourself there on time so bloody early in the morning is far from an enjoyable experience. When we found ourselves with a 7am flight to Greece for our holiday recently, we thought “hang on, getting up at 4am for this flight is stupid” and got onto the dudes at YOTEL to sort us a room for the night before at Gatwick. It was a great way of kicking off the holiday a bit earlier and eased the bleary-eyed-ness the next morning.
I’ve actually stayed at a YOTEL before at Amsterdam Schipol and loved it. They’re a great idea for when you just cannot face getting up so early or need somewhere to bunk up for a few hours during a layover.
The YOTEL check-in process is super easy after you’ve descended down the elevator next to the International Arrivals area in Gatwick’s South Terminal. Just punch your reservation code into the machine at the entrance and you’re good to go. If you need any help at anytime during the night there are staff on call at the front desk also.
The solution to your pre-dawn flight woes
The room at the YOTEL London Gatwick Airport come in either standard (single bed) or premium (double bed) layouts and have everything you need – plush bed with big fluffy pillows, a shower with the force of Victoria Falls descending on your face and of course, free wifi.
YOTEL know how to create a super inviting vibe in their hotels. All the rooms are lit up with funky purple mood lighting to give you that “come on in and take a load off” feeling. From a functional perspective, they also feature tons of storage space under the bed, lots of power points and a fold out desk underneath the TV if you need to do some work.
The bathrooms are basic but have everything you need – sink, toilet and that super-dooper shower that I mentioned before. There’s also soap/shampoo dispensers and towels so you’re not left high and dry if you packed light.
When the purple mood lighting gets a bit much for you, you can tone down the setting using the lighting controls next to the bed. There are 5 different settings from “everything on” to just a reading light to completely off – very smart. You can also control the “bed goes up, bed goes down” feature from here also.
I found the bed a little hard, but it’s probably because it’s not a true bed in the sense that it’s always flat. Others might not have any dramas with it – beds are a bit of a personal preference thing.
On the food front, YOTEL offer a selection of snacks and light meals you can order within the hotel and also throw in free tea and coffee. You can order these throughout the night, great for a midnight snack.
If you fancy something different, you can head back up into the terminal and grab something for dinner from Marks and Spencer or Costa for breakfast.
The next morning we woke up only 1.5 hours before our flight, dropped off the room card and took the lift up to Check-in to get our flight to Greece. Much better than trying not to fall asleep on the train down to Gatwick in my opinion.
So next time you find yourself with an stupidly early flight, check out YOTEL if you want to make your life a bit easier and fancy not experiencing sleep deprivation the next day when you’re trying to make the most of the destination you’ve flown to.
Disclosure: My stay at the YOTEL London Gatwick Airport was complimentary, but I was totally honest in the words up there and didn’t gloss anything over just cos I got the digs for free.
