Note: This article pertaining to 6 reasons to stay at hotels near airports was originally published on Tuesday, June 23, 2015 at 1:19 in the afternoon and has been updated.
I posted a stay at a hotel property located near the airport in Madrid in 2015; and although it was neither a positive stay nor a favorable review, you might want to consider at least 6 reasons to stay at hotel properties near airports.
1. No Travel Upon Arrival — Or Upon Departure
Sometimes the last thing I want to do is first travel via ground transportation to a hotel room after a long flight. While there is something to be said for getting that travel out of the way so that I am near where I want to be the next morning, there is also something to be said about the convenience of relaxing in a hotel room — and perhaps enjoying a meal while a restaurant or room service is still in operation — shortly after the conclusion of a flight.
Similarly, being at a hotel property near an airport is convenient for a flight that is scheduled to depart very early in the morning.
2. Fewer Obstacles to Arriving On Time for a Flight
I dread having to wake up at approximately 4:00 in the morning — or earlier, as happened to me when I was in Seoul as one of numerous examples — before the sun rises to first travel to the airport while it is still nighttime so that I may catch a flight; and in that case, I finally arrived at Incheon International Airport an hour later — only to find out that my flight to Manila was canceled.
Ugh. I could have stayed in my room and slept longer.
Conversely, it is nice to wake up later in the morning and have breakfast like a human being at an airport hotel property before going to the gate and catching my flight. I do not have to worry about impediments which could potentially derail my plans in getting from the hotel to the airplane — such as traffic, train and bus schedules, and inclement weather.
Better yet, there are even some hotel properties which are located within or physically connected to the airport where you do not have to walk outside or take a shuttle vehicle to the terminal, of which the Hilton BNA Nashville Airport Terminal hotel property that opened in 2024 is an excellent example.
3. Complimentary Shuttle Service
Many hotel properties located near an airport will offer complimentary shuttle service to and from the airport. To save money on a rental car, I may stay the first and last nights of a trip at a hotel property near an airport, which can shave off two days of renting a car — depending on the times my originating flight arrives at the airport and my departing flight leaves the airport.
At the conclusion of the first stay, I simply use the hotel shuttle to take me back to the airport, where I can catch the rental car shuttle to pick up my rental car. When the duration of the rental of the car concludes, I drop it off at the airport facility, catch a shuttle to the hotel where I have a reservation for my second stay, and spend the night there before I depart the next day.
Do not automatically assume that a hotel property located near an airport has complimentary shuttle service. Check the description of the hotel property at its official Internet web site; or contact an employee at the hotel to confirm what shuttle services are available. Some hotel properties which offer complimentary shuttle services are stringent pertaining to their schedules; while others will be flexible in terms of schedule as well as having the shuttle transport passengers anywhere within a certain area — such as a radius of five miles from the hotel property, for example.
Also keep in mind that shuttle services do not always operate 24 hours per day. Read this article about my experience pertaining to an airport shuttle which supposedly operates 24 hours per day but ended daily in the afternoon at one particular hotel property in April of 2023.
4. Considerably Less Expensive
More often than not, the room rates at hotel properties located near an airport can be considerably cheaper than at a comparable hotel property which is closer to the central area of a city — and can potentially be substantially less expensive than a comparable hotel property that is located in the center of a city.
Before your book your reservation, ensure that the lower room rate at the hotel property near the airport does not equate to reduced amenities which matter to you — such as no swimming pool or access to a health club, for example.
5. Not as Inconvenient as You Might Think
If the hotel property is located near a major airport, chances are that public transportation is available nearby, or taxi cabs are waiting outside of the hotel. If one option of public transportation is by rail, the train will typically whisk me to the central part of the city within 30 minutes — depending on the city, of course. Copenhagen, Atlanta, and the District of Columbia come to mind as examples.
For cities such as New York, bank on approximately an hour depending on the airport — and despite that, I stayed at a hotel property across the Grand Central Parkway from LaGuardia Airport in June of 2015 and used public transportation.
6. Soundproofing
Hotel properties that are located near airports may be quieter than those located in the downtown areas of cities.
Attempts to minimize the noise created by airplanes as they take off and land at the airport near the hotel property also usually help to minimize the noise within the hotel property as well — including in the rooms immediately adjacent, above and below the room in which you are staying. Let that couple in the next room do their thing.
Final Boarding Call
Staying at a hotel property located near an airport is not always the best option, as disadvantages exist for doing so: distance from the center of town; location in an industrial area; nothing located nearby; and noise not minimized enough are four of many possible reasons which come to mind.
Do you prefer to stay at hotel properties near airports and have reasons which I have not imparted here? Do you avoid hotel properties near airports at any cost? Please express your thoughts and experiences — as well as your reasons — in the Comments section below.
Thank you.
All photographs ©2008, ©2015, ©2016, ©2022, ©2023, and ©2024 by Brian Cohen.
