I had a roughly 24 hour layover at Heathrow, as I was arriving from Munich in the evening, and was flying to Tokyo the following evening.
In a post shortly before the trip I talked about my thought process when it came to booking a hotel for this layover:
- I could have just booked a Heathrow Airport hotel, which would have been convenient, though is kind of boring when you have 24 hours
- I could have gone into London, which was a decent idea, but it would take over an hour in each direction to get to & from
- I started looking into some of the beautiful countryside hotels not far from Heathrow
While I had noticed several nice-looking Small Luxury Hotels of the World properties, reader Matt pointed out The Langley, a Marriott Luxury Collection property that’s not far from Heathrow. So I decided to book that.
Booking The Langley, A Luxury Collection Hotel
The Langley is definitely priced like a luxury hotel, and a standard room for my one night weekday stay in January would have cost 365GBP, or about 475USD.
Rather amazingly, this is “only” a Category 5 Marriott Bonvoy property, so a free night costs just 30,000 points.
I value Marriott points at ~0.7 cents each, so that’s an amazing deal when you consider that’s the equivalent of ~210USD for the night, by my valuation.
But I didn’t even redeem points for the stay. Rather I redeemed a Marriott free night certificate offered by one of their credit cards. There are three Marriott credit cards offering anniversary free night certificates:
- The $95 annual fee Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card (review) offers an anniversary free night certificate valid at a property costing up to 35,000 points per night
- The $125 annual fee (Rates & Fees) Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card (review) offers an anniversary free night certificate valid at a property costing up to 35,000 points per night
- The $650 annual fee (Rates & Fees) Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card offers an anniversary free night certificate valid at a property costing up to 85,000 points per night
Personally, I used the certificate from my business card. Yep, a card with a $125 annual fee got me a free night here… awesome!
The Langley Hotel Review
The 41-room Langley opened in June 2019, so the hotel is only about half a year old. It’s the first Luxury Collection hotel in the English countryside, as it’s located in Buckinghamshire.
The hotel consists of two buildings:
- The main building of the hotel is the former hunting lodge of the third Duke of Marlborough
- Nearby is the 18th century Brew House, which has the remaining rooms
The property went through a six-year renovation before opening as a hotel for the first time, so that’s kind of cool.
Let’s get into the actual hotel stay, starting with the arrival and check-in experience, and then we’ll look at the pool, gym, and spa, as well as all the food & beverage outlets.
The Langley Arrival & Check-In
I took an Uber from Heathrow to The Langley, which was about a 25 minute drive. It was a very different drive than you’d usually experience going into London, as we first drove through a couple of small towns, and then through the countryside, where I felt like we were in the middle of nowhere.
To be honest, having just binge watched both seasons of Netflix’s “The Investigator: A British Crime Story” a couple of days prior, I was almost a little bit freaked out being in this area, because it was all so remote and sparsely populated, and reminded me of some of the areas where the show took place.
That changed a bit when we pulled up to The Langley… WOW! Dorothy, we’re not at Heathrow anymore!
The Langley Luxury Collection exterior
The exterior was equally beautiful during the day (though in the UK in January it can almost be tough to tell the difference between night and day).
The Langley Luxury Collection exterior
The Langley Luxury Collection exterior
For the record, below is the second building of the hotel, the former Brew House.
The Langley Luxury Collection exterior
Up the grand staircase was the intimate lobby, which had beauty that matched the outside, given that it felt history while also feeling fresh and well maintained.
The Langley lobby
The Langley lobby
At reception I was welcomed by Jasmine, who couldn’t have been nicer. She immediately addressed me by name, not because I was getting special treatment (at least I don’t think), but rather because I suspect I was the only check-in that evening.
This whole property gave me such Dubai vibes, in the sense that it was deserted. I felt like I had the entire hotel to myself for the entire time I was there — there was no one else at breakfast, and no one else at the gym, pool, spa, etc.
The Langley reception
Jasmine told me I had the option of two suites on account of my Ambassador status — I could either choose a junior suite inside the main house (one floor above the lobby), or I could choose a bigger suite immediately next to the main house. I asked which she recommended, and she said the latter, so I went with that. Jasmine at that point escorted me to my room.
The Langley Suite
I was given room #31, which was technically a named suite — the Bateson Harvey Suite. The suite was kind of in the same building, but my room had an exterior door at the very side of the building. Talk about a grand room entrance!
The Langley entrance to my room
As you can see, you go up a few steps to enter the room, and then immediately inside the entrance to the room you go down a few steps to access the rest of the room.
The Langley suite entryway
I’d say the room was more of a junior suite than a full suite, based on the fact that it was just one room. The room was beautifully appointed.
The Langley suite
The Langley suite
The room had a comfortable king size bed, with a soft mattress and great bedding.
The Langley suite bed
It was also a cute touch that they had an aromatherapy balm with turndown service, which I’ve never seen before.
The Langley suite aromatherapy balm
The seating was back towards the entrance, as there was a loveseat and two chairs.
The Langley suite sitting area
The Langley suite couch
Behind the loveseat was a proper desk.
The Langley suite desk
Also in this area was an Illy coffee setup as well as a minibar.
The Langley suite table
The Langley suite minibar
There was a welcome amenity consisting of fresh fruit and a couple of macarons.
The Langley welcome amenity
Behind the bed was a large closet and vanity.
The Langley suite vanity
Past that was the gorgeous bathroom, which had a tub, walk-in shower, a sink, and a toilet.
The Langley suite bathroom
The Langley suite bathroom
The shower had excellent water pressure and temperature control.
The Langley suite shower
Toiletries were from Hermes, which is nice, but personally I didn’t care for the orange scent much.
The Langley Hermes toiletries
Now, this was a generous upgrade and all things considered I loved the room, though there was one major downside to the room — the complete lack of views.
The room is kind of partly underground (or at least low enough so that you can’t have windows at a reasonable height), so the room lacks windows and natural light.
There’s a frosted window in the back of the room, and realistically you’ll only be able to see part of the building from there by looking up.
The Langley suite window
That’s because this window overlooks the parking lot and dumpster, which is another reason not to get this room. I heard every time they dropped something in the dumpster there, or every time someone left (which fortunately wasn’t too often, since the hotel was quiet).
While I was grateful for the upgrade, I’d highly recommend going for a smaller room or junior suite that’s one level up, both for the views and (hopefully) less noise.
One other note — because of the countryside location there are many areas of the hotel where there’s no phone data. Not only that, but Wi-Fi also doesn’t work from some parts of the hotel, including parts of the gym, the bathroom, etc. It’s not a huge deal, but it seems like something they could get worked out.
The Langley Pool, Gym, And Spa
The Langley has an incredible spa complex, including a gym and pool. This is in the main building, so just past reception you turn right, and then there’s a long hallway leading to the spa.
The Langley walking to the spa
You then have to go down a set of stairs, because the entire spa complex is underground.
The Langley spa
The Langley spa hallways
For one, there’s a beautiful 24/7 gym, with excellent equipment. It would be nice if it had some natural light, but otherwise it’s top notch.
The Langley gym
The Langley gym
The Langley gym
The Langley gym
The Langley gym
The Langley then has locker rooms, as well as an indoor pool with a hot tub, steam room, sauna, etc.
The Langley locker room
The Langley pool
The Langley pool
The Langley hot tub
The Langley pool area
There’s even an outdoor pool, which I imagine would be more enjoyable in summer.
The Langley outdoor pool
The spa also has the Spa Lounge, offering juices, smoothies, light snacks, etc.
The Langley Spa Lounge
I didn’t get any spa treatments, but you can see the available treatments and pricing here.
The Langley Cedar Restaurant (Breakfast)
The Langley’s signature restaurant is Cedar, which is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This is also located past reception. Since my room wasn’t in this area, here’s a picture of the staircase, leading up to many of the guest rooms.
The Langley lobby
The Langley lobby
Breakfast here is served from 7AM until 10:30AM on weekdays, and from 7:30AM until 11AM on weekends.
The restaurant is lovely, and even at breakfast they have white tablecloths. I was the only guest at breakfast, so it was almost awkward since there were two servers.
The Langley Cedar Restaurant
The Langley Cedar Restaurant
The breakfast menu read as follows:
The Marriott breakfast benefit here for elite members is that you get the continental breakfast, which retails for 28GBP (~37USD). You can pay an extra 8GBP to upgrade to the Full English breakfast, though personally I despise English breakfast (I don’t mind the two eggs, but sausage, bacon, black pudding, and baked beans, holds zero appeal to me in the mornings).
So I just had the continental breakfast buffet. The buffet was quite small, but was high quality. The selection included fresh fruit, cold cuts, salmon, cheese, pastries, cheesecake, cereal, yogurt, and some other types of bread.
The Langley breakfast buffet
The Langley breakfast buffet
The Langley breakfast buffet
The Langley breakfast buffet
Coffee or tea (though not specialty drinks) were included as well.
The Langley coffee
The Langley Drawing Room
The Drawing Room is also right off the lobby, and is open for light breakfast, lunch, and afternoon tea. This is a fairly small space, though also has a nice outdoor area, though again, that’s not ideal for winter.
The Langley Drawing Room
The Langley Drawing Room
The Langley Drawing Room outdoor seating
In the afternoon before heading back to the airport I decided to have a snack here. The menu read as follows:
I first had a cappuccino.
The Langley Drawing Room cappuccino
I was trying to eat healthy, since I was flying nonstop for a week, so ordered the garden salad. While it was nicely presented, it was tasteless (then again, it was a garden salad, so…).
The Langley Drawing Room salad
As I said above, I more or less felt like I had the hotel to myself the entire time. The exception was in the Drawing Room, when a mother and daughter showed up.
However, I guess they started reading online reviews of the restaurant after sitting down, and then decided to leave. At least that’s what I overhead.
The Langley Churchill Bar
Behind the Drawing Room is the Churchill Bar, open daily from 8AM until 1AM. I didn’t eat or drink here, but damn it was pretty!
The Langley Churchill Bar
The Langley Churchill Bar
The Langley Bottom Line
This is easily one of the most beautiful and unique Marriott properties I’ve been to. What a treat to have a hotel like this belonging to a major global hotel group, so you can receive the benefits associated with Marriott Bonvoy, all while enjoying a unique experience.
The points value at this hotel is incredible, at least in comparison to the cash rates. This is a Category 5, so just for context, the Sheraton Skyline Heathrow is also a Category 5.
I’m so happy I stayed here, because it provided some nice downtime between all that flying. Given that it’s only 25 minutes from Heathrow, I’d stay here again in a heartbeat in a similar situation.
In summer I could even imagine myself vacationing here. The whole “countryside” hotel concept is something we don’t have much of in the US, but it’s a concept I love.
I didn’t do too much outside, but there are all kinds of countryside activities, from falconry to horseback riding.
I highly recommend staying at The Langley if you have Marriott points to redeem, given what a great value this place is.
Has anyone else stayed at The Langley, or considering staying here?
The following links will direct you to the rates and fees for mentioned American Express Cards. These include: Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card (Rates & Fees), and Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card (Rates & Fees).
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