Once again, fear of roadworks and road closures made us book a hotel for the night before as our flight was 0805. A couple of years ago we’d stayed at the Bath Road Premier Inn and found it to be excellent with its own nice restaurant and bar onsite.
We checked in and asked about the overnight parking charge as last time we'd stayed the receptionist had given it to us free. The person we were dealing with seemed surprised this had happened but luckily between us we remembered the receptionist's name and by chance she was on duty and working a few yards away.
We had to wait sometime whilst she dealt with someone else but then had a chat with her and explained how lovely and helpful she'd been to us before. Obviously we didn't expect her to remember us but we remembered she was Polish and had a good chat about our visit there. Anyway to cut a long story short - we got the parking free again.
We then had a very nice chicken burger and glass of wine in the bar area and an early night.
It really is to be recommended for Heathrow overnight stays and offers a much better experience and sleep than the Thistle Hotel at considerably less cost (although catching the pod is fun!).