Hotel Reviews · 5 min read · June 25, 2025

Why you should book the Holiday Inn London - Gatwick Airport for your next Gatwick trip.

Here’s the real deal on what the hotel’s really like. Does it take the stress out of your early start? Does it deliver on comfort, breakfast and location, or fall short of the hype? We take a proper look.

Short on time? Let us summarise this guide for you.

The Holiday Inn Gatwick makes pre-flight stays a breeze, with a huge car park (handy back entrance included), a welcoming reception, and a relaxed bar to start your trip right. Just 10 minutes from the terminal, it scores top marks on location, while the food and drink go beyond the basics – think classics like fish and chips alongside honey-drizzled pepperoni pizza that’s hard to forget. Breakfast is a highlight too, with everything from fresh fruit and pastries to a full English, plus the bonus of bubbly for a holiday send-off. Rooms are soft, neutral and seriously comfy, with blackout curtains and plump pillows ensuring a good night’s sleep before your flight. With Starbucks on-site for that all-important coffee-to-go, this hotel ticks every box for a stress-free Gatwick stopover.

The hotel’s a breeze to get to as it’s so close to Gatwick Airport. One handy thing to know is that the main car park is at the back of the hotel, and it’s huge. And I do mean HUGE – we were amazed! But don’t worry about trekking too far in your holiday flip-flops, as they’ve very handily put another entrance at the back of the hotel to save your feet. We just walked in, headed down a short corridor, and found reception on the right.

Once we’d checked in, we turned around to take a lift to our room, and everything we needed was right there behind reception. It’s a great space – open and bright with a relaxed and casual vibe. It’s so welcoming, we decided to head to the bar for a refreshing drink before heading up to our rooms.

Top tip – need to check your flight’s status before you leave the next day? There’s a flight information screen at reception.

Holiday Inn Gatwick Airport | Most booked Gatwick hotel

Most popular Gatwick hotel for a reason. Close to the airport with a relaxed modern vibe.

In Gatwick Airport Hotels September 14, 2023

Get an idea of how your stay at the Holiday Inn Gatwick might look.

Location

The location is one of the top reasons the Holiday Inn is one of our most popular hotels at Gatwick. It may not be exactly walkable to the terminal, but it’s perfectly placed to get to the terminal in around 10 minutes. It’s a nice direct route too – just a roundabout or two and you’re there.

Food and drink

The food is a pretty important factor in any hotel, and let’s face it, sometimes hotel restaurants can be hit or miss. This one may not be à la carte dining, but it does the job pretty well. My recommendation: pepperoni with honey drizzle pizza. Thinking about it still keeps me up at night. It sounds basic, but it was gloriously cheesy, loaded with pepperoni, and that honey drizzle just took the flavour over the edge into ‘close your eyes and imagine me and the pizza holding hands on a beach at sunset’ vibes. We also ordered a nourish bowl, and added halloumi as an extra because, well, it’s halloumi. That was also really scrummy, plus I’m pretty sure that if you’re eating something healthy, it counteracts any pizza calories. That’s a thing, right?

If pizza isn’t your thing (who are you anyway?), you’ll find something to tickle those tastebuds. They have all the classics like fish and chips, burgers and curries, but also menu options not always found on an airport hotel menu like mushroom and Dolcelatte cheese risotto and chicken schnitzel. Yum!

Top tip – if you’re not feeling like sitting down to dinner, then order from the separate dine-in menu and enjoy dinner in the comfort of your room. Hotel picnic just got upgraded.

Breakfast

Everyone loves a hotel breakfast, don’t they? Well, you’ll not be disappointed at the Holiday Inn. With fresh fruit, lush yoghurt, and pastries a’plenty to start us off, we embraced the hobbit lifestyle and got ourselves up there for a second helping and chose from the range of traditional English breakfast items – let them know how you want your eggs and they’ll sort it for you. There’s also a smoothie of the day, unlimited self-serve hot drinks, and just when we think it’s all over, we spotted the bottle of bubbly on the counter. Yes! Do as we did (all in the name of research, of course) and help yourself to a glass of bubbly or whip up a Bucks Fizz – it’s completely acceptable at Christmas and when on holiday!

Rooms

You know when you walk through the door of a hotel room and you’re instantly happy (and let’s be honest, relieved) with it? That. That’s what we found when we walked into the rooms at the Holiday Inn. It feels soft, if that makes sense? There’s nothing ugly about the room, it’s all well, soft! The neutral tones (with a dash of colour here and there) make you feel at home and perfectly comfortable.

More good news – the bed and pillows are super comfy. Let's face it, the restaurant might be nice and having a Starbucks is totally a bonus, but if the bed isn’t comfy and the pillows are flat (I despise a flat pillow), then what’s the point – you won’t get a good night's sleep and will be shattered on your flight. This isn’t an issue here. Tick boxes all ticked in this room.

Everything else

So we’ve tried the bar, the restaurant, had a great night’s sleep and then gorged ourselves, I mean ate, a delicious breakfast – what’s left? Starbucks of course. How can we possibly take a decent Instagram-worthy photo of us pulling along our cabin bag (4-wheeled always) without a Starbucks in our hand? We can’t, so thank goodness Starbucks coffee is there at the end of the bar, ready for us to grab before we check out in the morning. Say coffee and smile, because in our opinion, this is a fantastic choice for your next Gatwick stay.