Meet and greet treat

With a 5.30am check-in at Gatwick North, Bev Fearis decided it was time to call airport parking and hotel specialist Holiday Extras.

"We take the hassle, you take the holiday", says the Holiday Extras website. Well, first impressions were good. The online booking process was remarkably simple. I entered the airport, terminal and scrolled down the various room types (triple – two adults, one child), date for the hotel, date for car pick-up, and my flight number to find the best deals.

The options were initially listed by recommendation, but I switched to "price", as I reckon most customers would, and worked my way through the various combinations of hotel and parking options.

After a bit of deliberation, I decided the Sofitel with Maple Manor Meet and Greet would be the perfect solution. The Sofitel is connected to North Terminal via a covered walkway, and I figured we could cope with the two-minute walk to check-in, even at that unearthly hour. I completed the booking, got an email confirmation, printed it out and read the instructions carefully.

Fast forward to the night before our holiday and we were making our way through the last of the rush hour traffic. As per the instructions, I called the Maple Manor number when the satnav said we were 20 minutes away from the hotel. A friendly gentleman answered and asked me for the customer number. He told me to make our way to North Terminal and pull up outside the Sofitel, and assured me it was well signposted. It was. When we arrived at the hotel a smartly-dressed man was waiting for us. He welcomed us, helped us unload our luggage and asked me to sign on a handheld screen. He pointed to where we should wait on our return, took the keys, wished us a good trip, and whisked the car off to the car park.

Meanwhile, a porter from the Sofitel had taken our bags and was leading us to the reception. It was now around 9pm and the atrium-style lobby-cum-bar-cum-restaurant was busy with pilots, cabin crew, business people and holidaymakers. With a grumpy, tired four-year-old (he’d done the usual trick of falling asleep just 15 minutes before arriving), we decided it was best to head to the room.

No complaints about the room – clean, comfortable, everything you’d expect, but no water. It’s a small thing, but it’s one of my pet hates with hotels. On this occasion, it wasn’t a big deal as North Terminal has plenty of shops selling bottled water and it also gave me the excuse to test out our route to the check-in desk the following morning, so off I went. Leaving the Sofitel is like leaving an airport lounge – one minute you’re in a dimly lit haven of polished wood and hushed voices, and then you’re through the swing doors and into the bright lights and buzz of the airport. However, this time of night, the airport was relatively quiet. I made my way to the M&S food store, grabbed a couple of bottles of water and some other treats (I couldn’t resist) and made my way back to do bathtime.

Sofitel prides itself on its Sofitel So Bed "so comfy some people buy them to have at home". The rooms are also triple-glazed and properly soundproofed, so I should have had a good night’s sleep. However, as is often the case when you have an early start, I tossed and turned and woke several times to check the time, convinced that I hadn’t set the alarm correctly.

Far too quickly, 5am arrived and there was time for a quick shower, a cuppa and a re-pack before checking out. The reception desk wasn’t so busy this time and we were soon through those swings doors again, making our way to the easyJet check-in area.

Our return flight three days later arrived on time and, as instructed, we called Maple Manor parking as soon as our bags appeared on the luggage belt. It takes around 15 minutes for the car to be brought back and, in fact, we beat them to it this time, but only by a few minutes. The pick-up point is just outside the Premier Inn, which is just across the road from the terminal building and also well signposted. The car arrived, we loaded up, signed the screen again and were on our way.

According to the Holiday Extras website, 98.1% of customers who had also stayed at the Sofitel and left their car with Maple Manor would book the same again, and I would definitely join that majority. Just as promised, the process was hassle-free and well worth the money.

The Sofitel with up to eight day’s Meet and Greet parking costs £154. The room-only rate is £119.