I spent a night at the Geneva Airport Crowne Plaza on Saturday and whilst it was my first visit to Geneva I think it will be my last to this hotel.

Arrival at Airport and Check-in

The hotel runs a shuttle bus from Door 4 at the airport every 20 minutes. All the local airport hotels stop there buses there so you need to keep an eye out. After a 40 minute wait I called the hotel and apparently is there is an aircrew staying and needing a pickup they collect them and leave the paying passengers until the next bus.

The Agent at check-in was perfectly polite and very efficent, explaining everything I needed to know. Including the SFR (Swiss Francs) 35 breakfast buffet available in the morning.

Hotel Common Areas

The hotel reminded me of a former East European hotel from the 1980′s. All Gold on the finishes, worn carpets and tiny rooms.

Hotel Room

I booked a Superior Room which ended up on the 5th Floor, at the quiet end away from the corridor. The room was boiling hot when I arrived and I had to open the sliding window by the six inches allowed.

Door Sign

Room

The room had two windows and so was light, if very small. The space at the end of the bed was enough for me to walk around. There was a seat at the desk, and a sort of padded bench thing which you can see on the left at the back. The room had a coffee machine which made vile coffee. There was a small TV.

WiFi

There was free Wifi (I think as a Platinum member of Priority Club) but only at 512k. If I wanted hi-speed internet it was chargeable – SFR36 per night.

Bathroom

Small but adequate Bathroom.

Bathroom

Toileteries

Rooms are aligned on a T shape as shown below:

Room Layout

Local Area

There is a petrol station opposite and next door which allows purchase of soda etc, for much less than at the hotel.

The hotel gave me a transport pass for the local buses and trains at no charge. The Number 10 bus runs outside the hotel in to the city centre and to the airport in the other direction. I am told there is a mall nearby but must have missed it.

Summary

A perfectly clean hotel, but it’s worn and needed to step up its service or drop its price. Probably the worst Crowne Plaza I have stayed at.

I stayed at the Hilton this past weekend (25-26 Feb 2012) and was pleased with my stay. The TripAdvisor reviews had warned me that the only real way to get there was the Heathrow Hoppa bus or to drive. As I cannot drive I chose the Hoppa bus from Heathrow Terminal 5. (Separate Buses also go to Heathrow Terminal 1&3, and the Terminal 5 bus starts and ends at Terminal 4. This gives coverage of the whole airport).

Bus Pickup

I personally loathe the Heathrow Hoppa buses. They are expensive, usually not on time, and there are so many it is easy to get confused. Plus the leg room would put Ryanair to shame.

Look for bus stops 26/27 for Hotel Hoppas

Hoppa Bus

I had to wait about 20 minutes for the bus, and the timetable indicates that the buses run every 22 (!) minutes, so I must have just missed one. I handed over my £8 and requested a return to the Hilton. There is plenty of bag stowage on the bus at the front and during my wait I did witness drivers helping passengers to load bags on occasion. There are seats at the back of the bus, but the leg room is awful unless you get the front row. Tip – Keep your ticket to show the driver if you buy a return.

Arrival at Hotel

The hotel is located about 15 minutes from the airport, near a farm and adjacent to a large industrial park. There are no viable public transport options to the hotel from the airport – except two buses and a 10-15 minute walk. Remembering that the other Hilton offering at Heathrow is a 10 minute walk from Terminal 4, this makes the T5 Hilton a less attractive proposition for non-drivers.

There was no queue at the front desk (which is to the left of the foyer) and the staff member was helpful. Advising that as a Gold HHonors member I had an upgrade to an Executive Room and access to the Exec Lounge on the 4th Floor. She took an swipe of my credit card and directed me to the lifts. The lobby is high (4 floors) and well appointed with plenty of chairs and a coffee bar.

Lobby

Room

The room required insertion of a room key to operate the lights and was pleasant and fairly large. My feeling was that it was larger than the T4 Hilton rooms.

Room

Bathroom and Vanity

Shower

There was a full size, deep bath and a shower in the room. Something that the King Bedded Rooms at the T4 Hilton do now have anymore.

View from Window

There was free wireless internet which worked well in the room, but only one comfortable chair, meaning that with two of you, one would have had to use the desk chair. There was a kettle, tea, coffee etc provided, as well as a small chocolate bar and a bottle of water.

Executive Lounge

At around 6pm I went to the Lounge to see what they offered. They were still setting up, but by 6.15pm they were all ready. Warm spring rolls and shrimp, cold sandwiches and some cakes were offered. Only about a dozen people were in the lounge at the time, and it was serve yourself. There were wine and spirits out, and I did not check whether they were free. All the business travellers seemed to be on their iPads, as the wireless continued in to the lounge. There were two computers you could use if you did not have a device with you.

Executive Lounge

There were plenty of chairs, and even a table for 6, which is great if you have a party with you, or indeed kids.

The morning offering was excellent. I was there at 6am when they opened, but they seem to have opened earlier as at least one table showed signs that a guest had come and gone before me. A  wide range of hot (Bacon, Sausages, Scrambled Eggs, Tomato and Mushrooms) were offered with a choice of cold cuts (cheeses, ham etc.). Pastries and Rolls were in ample supply, and the coffee machine worked just fine. Juices were also offered.

Hot Items

Cold Items

Breads and Pastries

For the 20 minutes I was there I was the only guest. The very nice lady setting up was chatty in a genuinely friendly way. No newspapers had arrived by the time I left.

Check-Out

As easy as check-in, with a friendly member of staff directing me to the time of the next bus. Bill was correct.

Return Shuttle Bus

The return shuttle bus was about 10 minutes late, which for 6.30am on a Saturday seemed a little strange. It takes 20-25 minutes to get back to Terminal 5 as you have to go via a nearby hotel – the Travelodge. Although no one got on there and the turnaround is very tight for the bus, this wasted 10 minutes as you drive back to the airport, past the Hilton.

Whilst I waited for the bus, I took some extra pictures of the outside. I did notice that the hotel was under the path of planes taking off from Heathrow, but had not noticed them the previous evening. This could have been because they were not coming over whilst I slept or that the property has good soundproofing.

Outside

Entrance

Verdict

Whilst the hotel is in the middle of nowhere, if you can get it at a good rate then it can be good value if you have an Exec Room. Personally the T4 property is easier if you have luggage, but in my experience not as friendly. Would I stay again – yes probably if I needed a night at LHR or an extra stay as their weekend rates seem very reasonable.

(HHonors stay posted within 48 hours!)

My Priority Club profile contains my stored UK Priority Club VISA card number, and expiry date. This short cut nearly cost me dearly this morning.

Background – For several weeks I have been planning a trip to Geneva. I have a night at the Hilton Heathrow Terminal 5 tonight, and then looked for a hotel in Geneva near the airport. I selected (despite the TripAdvisor reviews), the Crowne Plaza at the airport and duly booked a 21 day advance purchase rate.

This Morning – coming to print off the reservation I found it cancelled, with a cancellation number showing on the page – PANIC! I immediately called the UK reservations number and spoke to a helpful US based agent who looked at the reservation and suggested I called the hotel. It was too early for any management to be there I was told, so I waited until UK Guest Services opened. In the meantime, the nice reservations agent in the US made me a new reservation, for a less nice room at a higher rate – just in case.

07:01 this morning – and Guest Relations opened their phone lines, straight through and in a minute a lovely agent was on the phone to Geneva. ‘Your card was declined, which is why they cancelled the reservation’, she explained. She called the hotel and I went through the number on the card – correct, and at this point I knew my account had lots of free credit, and then we got to the expiry date!

Expiry Date  – Recently I changed my Priority Club VISA card to the new black UK one – more points etc, but unnoticed by me, whilst the card number was the same they had extended the expiry of the card one month – making it come back as declined.

The Outcome – lovely person in Geneva, reinstated the original booking and rate, and looks forward to seeing me tomorrow.

Great outcome, handled professionally and coutesly by everyone and a win for the customer. I am almost looking forward to being there; despite the TripAdvisor reports! (Review from this web site follows)

Fly Club Europe (business class) to selected historic capitals or cultural cities, with flights from London Gatwick to Tirana, Pristina or Tunis. From London Heathrow the offer is valid on flights to Warsaw, Prague, Sofia, Budapest, Bucharest, Kiev, Athens, Istanbul, Larnaca, Berlin and Paris. You can also fly from London City airport to Copenhagen, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Palma de Mallorca, Ibiza and Madrid.

All you have to do is to log in or register as an Executive Club member and book before midnight 20 February.

It seems to work if you use your BA Shareholder discount and then apply the code – UK-HCCCE12 and I managed to get Berlin down to £316.69 roundtrip. Amsterdam comes down to £197.93, not bad for 80 Tier Points.

The Daily Mail reports that UKBA is quietly killing off IRIS claiming that it too slow.

My experience is that IRIS may not be as fast as a swipe of a passport, it is certainly a hundred times faster to get in the IRIS queue than in the usual UKBA massive queues at Heathrow for EU Nationals.

UKBA reports on its web site:

Registration for IRIS is no longer available. All of our enrolment rooms at Heathrow, Gatwick, Birmingham and Manchester airports are closed until further notice.

IRIS is no longer available at Birmingham and Manchester airports.

IRIS is currently available at the following UK airports:

• Heathrow terminals 1, 3, 4 and 5
• Gatwick North

It does seem to be the death knell for a system I personally will be very sorry to see go!

BA are offering their Exec Club members a discount of 25% off Club Europe flights from

Fly Club Europe (business class) from London Gatwick to Tirana or Pristina. From London Heathrow the offer is valid on flights to Warsaw, Prague, Sofia, Budapest, Bucharest, Kiev and St Petersburg.

Voucher “UK-EASTCE12″

I tried this and it works fine. You can either use the link from this page https://www.britishairways.com/travel/eastern-europe/execclub/_gf/en_gb?source=home&openxzoneid=303&openxcampaign=cfseasterneurope&openxbanner=10795&openxtype=click

or you add the voucher code above when booking:

As some of you may know my seat was moved between check-in and boarding to allow Tracey Emin to have two seats on a busy flight from London to New York. My initial report is here.

After a few email exchanges with BA, when they stuck to the position that ‘we can move your seat whenever we like’ line, they have now finally explained the position. An excerpt of the email:

As you can read BA see’s Ms.Emin’s work as being more important than a fare paying passenger and clearly their “special policy” does not work to the favour of us mere mortals.

Good to know

I have been a periodic stayer at the Hyatt Summerfield Suites near LAX. They do not operate a shuttle bus to LAX, but a short journey on the Green Connections bus, and a three stop journey Green Line, get you to the hotel. It is only a 5 minute walk to the hotel from the Douglas stop.

The hotel is a standard Summerfield Suites/Hyatt House setup. There have been changes to the rooms themselves during the conversion to the new name. A fresh lick of paint, some new furniture and the room felt fresher and cleaner.

However, the basic design of the property – three stories, a central club house, where they serve breakfast and an evening snack thing (Mon-Thu).

Generally the staff at this property are helpful and this visit was no exception.

Verdict: A refreshed property, a little distant from LAX, but a good place to stay if you are a Hyatt person.

After a few hours on BA4 from JFK to London City:

BA Club World / London City Service cabin

As we came over Wales there was snow on the hills:

And we flew in to City Airport very close to my house – top left of image:

Arsenal's Emirates Stadium in distance