How to choose an airport layover accommodation guide for families: Heathrow, Dallas Fort Worth and Singapore

An airport layover accommodation guide is only useful if it answers the questions a family has at 11pm with tired children and three bags. Those questions are the same at every airport, but the answers are not. Here is how to compare them, step by step, using Heathrow, Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) and Singapore Changi as the examples.

Step 1: Work out your real hours

The gap on your ticket is not the time you can use. Take off the time to clear immigration and collect bags if you are leaving the airport, the trip back and the security queue, and a margin. We plan on losing about three hours at the two ends together, and more with children. A seven hour gap is nearer four.

Under about five hours, stay inside. Six or more is where a bed starts to earn its price. That is our rule of thumb, not a published figure.

Step 2: Check whether you can sleep in the terminal

This is the question that decides most plans, and the three airports answer it differently.

For children, a reclining chair or a floor is a poor night. If you need real sleep, plan on a room.

Step 3: Find out which side of immigration the bed is on

This matters more with a family than with a solo traveller, because clearing immigration means every passport, every bag and every child.

• Heathrow lists a hotel in Terminal 3 beyond security, with rooms from early morning to late evening. Most others are before security.
• DFW: the Grand Hyatt in Terminal D and the Hyatt Regency are both before security. You clear US entry and then security again.
• Changi: the transit hotels at T1, T2 and T3 are airside with no immigration. Crowne Plaza at T3 and YOTELAIR in Jewel are in the public area, so you must clear immigration to reach them.

If you are staying airside, check that the room takes children before you pay. We have not confirmed occupancy rules for the Changi transit hotels. They allow cabin bags only, so checked bags have to stay with the airline or in storage.

Step 4: Look at the shuttle or walk with bags and a buggy

A free shuttle is not the same as one that runs when you need it. Ask three things: does it run at your hour, which terminals does it serve, and is there a wait?

• Heathrow: some hotels are joined to the terminal by a covered walk. Where a hotel needs a bus, allow about half an hour each way.
• DFW: the Hyatt Regency lists a free 24 hour shuttle. Hyatt Place lists 5am to 11pm. See DFW hotel shuttles for the others. These are listings, not confirmations.
• Changi: T1, T2 and T3 are linked by Skytrain and walkways. T4 has no hotel and is a shuttle ride away, about 12 to 19 minutes.

There is more on what to ask a hotel in airport hotel shuttles: what to check.

Step 5: Decide where the luggage goes

If your bags are checked through, you cannot reach them and you do not need to worry. If you are on separate tickets or have to collect them, you need a plan.

Heathrow has luggage storage run by the Excess Baggage Company. Its price is per item, £10 for up to 3 hours and £15 for 3 to 24 hours. Heathrow's page does not say where the desks are or what size of bag they take, so confirm that before you rely on it. The Heathrow facilities guide has the full table.

We have not found a confirmed storage price for DFW or Changi. Ask the hotel first, because a hotel that holds bags for free is worth more than a cheaper room that does not.

Step 6: Allow for the early flight

An early flight changes the order of everything. Work back from the time you must be at security, then count the shuttle, the walk and the check-in. A family needs more time at every step.

• Pick a hotel that is joined to the terminal, or one with a shuttle that starts before you need it.
• Ask the front desk to book the shuttle the night before.
• Pack the morning bag the night before, so you are not repacking at 4am.

Our early flight short lists do the sums for each terminal.

Step 7: Pick the room, not just the hotel

Families need beds, not rooms. A few that we know of:

• Hilton Garden Inn at Heathrow T2 and T3 lists a family room that sleeps four, from a booking site. Confirm room types and child policy with the hotel.
• Crowne Plaza at Changi T3 has a family room with a bunk bed and a play area, and is worth the money with children or a long wait.
• Hyatt Regency at DFW suits a family that wants a pool and a free shuttle at any hour.

See all family stays for the rest.

The short version

Start with the layover guide for your airport: Heathrow, Dallas Fort Worth and Singapore.