With a 5am check in, I wanted a hotel in the terminal building. I prebooked and paid for this on line. The Bloc is certainly that with a 200 yard walk to check in at the south terminal and next to M&S Food, Boots and WH Smiths for food. It is almost as close to the railway station too.
It’s not the easist place to find, being tucked away through doors by Smiths. The lift takes you to floor 3 and the reception desk.
Check in was very smooth and the receptionist explained I needed to use the key card to access floors 4 to 8 on the lift.
The title is a good description – the rooms are basically prefabricated units piled next to and on top of each other. The corridors are long and painted in dark colours are a bit depressing. They are also a bit narrow with fire doors to negotiate. Rooms are also basic – no kettle or phone for early morning calls. They do however hire out an alarm clock for £10 deposit. The large widescreen TV only seemed to have a choice of one channel – BBC1. They do provide two small bottles of water; a nice touch. The rooms are also very quiet and there is no noise from adjacent rooms or the corridor.
The bed was 4’6″ and under the window, so if there were two of you, the one nearest the window had to climb over to get to the loo during the night. It was however a very comfrtable bed with equally comfortable pillows.There was a limited amount of hanging area but no where to put a suitcase apart from on the floor.
The bathroom was a bit snug with a wet area shower with no curtain or screen. Water was slow to drain away and the floor did stay wet for quite a time. There is no bath mat provided, so I used a hand towel. Towels were a generous size and thick and fluffy. Soap and shampoo were provided.
It took me a while to work out how to turn off the lights – from a touch control panel by the bed. You can also check out using this and then drop your key in the box by the lift when leaving.
The Bloc worked extrememly well for me – although I was twitchy about lack of an early morning call. I stopped here at both ends of a holiday. It was a late flight into Gatwick at the end of the holiday and about midnight when I checked in. Reeception is manned 24 hours. I’d certainly consider using it again.
I have given the Bloc 5* mainly for its location and the comfortable bed and decent towels. The rooms as explained are a bit basic and my grading for them would probably only be 3*.
