In the second of my series on Heathrow Marriott hotels, I bring you the Courtyard by Marriott. Regular readers will know that I'm currently reviewing all of the Marriott properties in and around Heathrow as both a regular Heathrow visitor and currently chasing the sweet spot of Marriott's 'Bonvoy' loyalty scheme, Platinum. In the first of my Marriott reviews, we looked at the ultra-trendy and ultra-bizarre Moxy Hotel on Bath Road. Today, we take a step up in the Marriott chain to their Courtyard brand, which sits in their 'Select' range. Marriott has over 30 brands and each brand falls into a category 'Luxury, Select, Longer Stays or Collections'. Think of Select as the brand that hoover's up any budget to lower mid-scale establishment.
The Courtyard brand value is: 'inviting, flexible spaces with a classic style, Courtyard has a commitment to support our guests and keep them always moving forward'.
The public areas of the hotel
Opened in 2021, making it one of the newest hotels at Heathrow, one of the first things that hits you about this 244 room property is that the design is modern without any of the fuss and modern fittings that we saw at the Moxy just down the road. The public areas feel very contemporary, which I always approve of!
This particular Courtyard is owned and operated by Legacy Hotels under a franchise agreement with Marriott - Legacy operate a number of hotels across the rest of the UK and Europe and for other main brands such as IHG, Accor and Hilton. What I can tell you from experience is that Legacy is one of the better hotel franchisees..unlike others I could mention (coughs Arora where I always have a problem and that I have a very dim view of).
But, if this blows your excitement fuse, the best bit is still to come..
Food and Drink..
This is the hotels USP..the aptly named 'Sky Bar & Asian Kitchen' where on a nice night you can sip your creme de menthe on an open air balcony whilst watching the planes land..sadly of course the week I stayed it was blowing a hurricane with the associated rain. What I can share with you however is that eating in the Asian Kitchen is an absolute pleasure.
The menu isn't exactly cheap, but the quality of the food and service is nothing short of excellent.
My three course dinner, including wine, came to £77.
From left to right, my dinner choices with menu..washed down with a fine Spanish red (click to enlarge)
The room..
A Courtyard room is a Courtyard room, at the end of the day. They're almost identical to other Courtyard's including the one at Gatwick. The only difference with this room was that because I didn't get an upgrade I didn't have the coffee machine like I did when I stayed at the Gatwick Courtyard the night before.
The basic rooms are fine and the work area felt modern with everything working as it should. I slept well in the large bed and even though my room was facing on to Bath Road, the noise was virtually zero even when the early morning US flights arrived from around 0530.
Conclusion
As a Marriott Bonvoy Gold, did I feel valued here? Well, not really. But, given that Bonvoy Gold is largely useless, with Bonvoy Platinum being the sweet spot (in the same way that Gold is Hilton's sweet spot), the hotel is very limited in what it can do. There are some larger rooms but I wasn't offered one. Although Bonvoy Gold is supposed to offer space available upgrades, my upgrade success rate with Bonvoy is poor compared to Hilton Gold. I'll be writing a full comparison of the two loyalty programmes shortly.
The hotel itself is well run and I enjoyed my four night stay here whilst in the area with work. The staff seemed nice enough and were certainly very attentive in the Sky Bar / Asian Restaurant - along with an excellent meal, particularly the main course curry.
The room was spacious and the bed was certainly comfortable. During my stay there was a large banquet going on but you'd barely know - always the sign of a well run establishment.
Would I stay here again? Yes, absolutely. I loved this hotel's modern feel and remember, the oldest hotel still operating at Heathrow was built in 1960. Many other operational hotels at Heathrow were built in the 70's and despite having more facelifts than Simon Cowell, you can see their age - my next review in the Marriott Heathrow series will be at the Sheraton and that was built in 1971!
I paid £530, including one dinner at £77, for my four night stay here in April 2024
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