Andrew Sutherland

Review of Sofitel T5

The two things I care about most when I arrive at ...

The two things I care about most when I arrive at a hotel after being stuck on a plane all day are: (1) how quickly can I get to my room and (2) how easily and quickly can I get online. In my most recent trip the Sofitel managed to fail at both in an epic fashion. And this is far from the first time this has happened.

I love the convenience of the Sofitel Heathrow, but the check in process is so horribly inefficient that it negates much of the benefit.
And since they outsourced the management of their internet access a few years ago, the internet has gotten slower and often simply won't let you login at all.

The staff are very friendly and try to make the best of a bad situation, but there is only so much they can do. When I asked the receptionist why the hotel doesn't have online check in I was told that the management considered it but decided it was too expensive to implement. This is ridiculous; you don't need to install a new room key system, just let guests check in online so that a key is waiting for the when they arrive and they don't need to do anything other than give their name and show some form of ID (a ten second process versus the current 5-10 minutes per guest).

When there is a wi-fi issue, as on my most recent trip, the staff are in a total no-win situation -- every guest in the hotel starts calling the front desk to complain (which of course makes check in even slower than it already is), and it quickly becomes impossible to reach anyone on the phone, it just rings forever. What is especially frustrating is that the wi-fi was in fact in perfect working order, the problem is in the authentication system. Internet access is a basic utility that every traveler needs in this day and age; shutting down internet access to the entire hotel is only slightly less inconvenient then turning off the power or water.

There should be a big red button that the staff can press to simply open up the wi-fi to everyone without requiring a login whenever there is a problem with the authentication system.