Gatwick has six hotels on the airport itself, four of them a covered walk of five minutes or less from a check-in desk, and two of those are inside a terminal building. Everything else described as a Gatwick hotel is in Crawley, Horley, Redhill or along the A23, and needs a bus or a taxi. If your flight leaves before 07:00, that difference decides the night, because the first train from London Victoria does not reach the airport until 05:12.
Gatwick is 45 kilometres south of London, and unlike Heathrow it is not on the Underground. That makes an airport hotel a more common answer here than in the west, and it makes the walk from the room to the departure gate the single fact worth checking before you pay.
Our guide to staying overnight at a London airport lists what each airport says about its own hotels. This page goes further into Gatwick: which side of the airport to be on, what the off-airport hotels cost you in time and money, and the early-morning timetable that the whole decision rests on.
Gatwick hotels at a glance
- On-airport hotels
- Six, per the airport: four at the South Terminal, two at the North
- Inside a terminal
- Two, both in the South Terminal; one has its reception opposite the security entrance
- Shortest walk quoted
- 1 minute to security
- Railway station
- South Terminal only, about five minutes' walk from departures and arrivals
- Between terminals
- Free shuttle, two minutes
- First train from Victoria, weekday
- 04:30, arriving 05:12
- Local bus to Crawley and Horley
- Metrobus, single fares capped at £3
- Drop-off by car
- £10 for 10 minutes, then £1 a minute; maximum stay 30 minutes
The two you can walk to without going outside
Gatwick's own list of on-airport hotels, with the walking times the airport publishes, is unusually specific, and the range within it is wide:
| Terminal | Rooms | Walk, per the airport |
|---|---|---|
| South, inside the terminal | 245 | 1 minute, covered, to security |
| South, inside the terminal (cabins, four-hour minimum) | 46 cabins | 5 minutes, covered |
| South, on the airport | 701 | 5 minutes, covered, to check-in |
| South, on the airport | 826 | 10 minutes, covered, to check-in |
| South, nearby | 218 | 15 minutes on foot |
| North, on the airport | 194 | 2 minutes, covered, to check-in |
| North, on the airport | 518 | 5 minutes, covered, to check-in |
Two things follow from that table. The first is that Gatwick is the easiest airport in Britain to do this at: a one-minute covered walk to the security queue is a different proposition from a bus at 04:30. The second is that the rooms are numbered in the hundreds, which is why Gatwick hotel prices collapse on quiet nights and spike when half-term begins.
The cabin hotel in the South Terminal is worth knowing about separately. Its rooms are sold with a four-hour minimum rather than by the night, which suits a gap between flights or a 03:00 arrival far better than paying for a whole night you will use a third of. The equivalent product in the city is covered in our guide to pod and capsule hotels.
Photo: David Wheatley · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · resized
North or South: get this right or lose twenty minutes
The railway station is at the South Terminal. The free shuttle between the terminals takes two minutes, so this is not a disaster, but it is two minutes of shuttle plus the walk at each end, with a suitcase, at an hour when you have no spare attention.
The station itself is straightforward for anyone with a suitcase or a wheelchair: National Rail rates Gatwick Airport as step-free category A, meaning step-free access to all platforms, and there are lifts. Several of the on-airport hotels advertise easy-access rooms, and what that phrase does and does not promise is set out in accessible hotels in London.
The rule is simple: book on the side you fly from, not the side you arrive at. easyJet, Emirates and Qatar Airways use the North Terminal; British Airways, Ryanair, Wizz Air and Vueling use the South; TUI uses both. Airlines move between terminals, so check the airport's own "which terminal" page before you book the room, not after. Our guide to Gatwick's North and South terminals goes through the differences inside the buildings.
Arriving late and flying out early from opposite terminals is the one case for a North Terminal room. If you land at the South Terminal at 23:00 and fly from the North at 06:30, take the shuttle that night rather than in the morning. The walk is the same distance either way, and doing it once while awake is better than doing it once while not.
The train that starts before dawn, and why it is still too late
The reason people book Gatwick hotels is not the walk. It is the first train. Putting a weekday journey into TfL's Journey Planner for late September 2026, the first Southern service from London Victoria leaves at 04:30 and reaches Gatwick Airport at 05:12, with the next at 04:35. There is no earlier direct train; before that the route is a chain of night buses to East Croydon and a Thameslink from there, arriving around 04:30 after nearly ninety minutes.
A 06:00 departure needs you at bag drop by about 05:00 and through security before that. A 05:12 arrival does not achieve it. A 07:00 departure is workable on the 04:30 train if you travel light and nothing goes wrong, and comfortable on the 05:17.
Sunday morning is the exception in Gatwick's favour, and almost nobody knows it. On the Sunday we checked there was a Southern departure from Victoria at 03:08 arriving at Gatwick at 04:06, an overnight service that does not exist on weekday nights. If your early flight is on a Sunday, price the train before you price a room. Which ticket to hold is a separate question, answered in Gatwick Express, Thameslink or Southern.
Do not plan an early Gatwick flight around the last train the night before. Engineering work on the Brighton main line is common at weekends and is normally advertised only a few weeks ahead, and a rail replacement bus from Three Bridges or East Croydon can add an hour without warning. Check the operator's journey planner about a week before you travel, and again the night before.
Crawley, Horley and the dozen you cannot walk to
Most hotels sold as Gatwick hotels are not on the airport. They stand in Crawley, a town of its own immediately south, in Horley to the north, or along the A23 between the two. They are usually cheaper, sometimes considerably, and they add a journey at each end.
The good news is that the journey is not expensive if you are willing to use a public bus. Metrobus runs local services around the airport serving Crawley, Horley, Redhill, Reigate and Horsham, and Gatwick's own page gives single fares as capped at £3. Tickets can be bought on board, online or in the operator's app. That is a genuine alternative to a hotel shuttle, and unlike a shuttle it runs to a published timetable you can check yourself.
The bad news is everything else about it:
- Buses thin out overnight. Check the first departure of the morning for your specific stop, not the daytime frequency.
- A hotel shuttle may be paid, and may not exist. Get the cost per person and the first departure time in writing before you book.
- A taxi to the terminal pays the drop-off charge. Gatwick charges a minimum of £10 for up to 10 minutes in a drop-off zone, then £1 for each extra minute up to 20, with a maximum stay of 30 minutes and a daily cap of £30.
- Contactless does not work south of the airport. Oyster and contactless are valid between Gatwick and London, but not to Crawley, Horsham or Brighton, where you need a ticket.
Our guide to Gatwick Airport and getting to London has the fares and the terminal detail, and Gatwick to Brighton is the page to read if you are thinking of putting the coast rather than Crawley at the end of that bus ride.
Arriving or leaving by car
Gatwick is easier for drivers than any central London hotel, which is the one clear advantage of staying here. Several of the on-airport hotels sell park-and-stay packages through the airport, combining a room with a stay in the airport's own car parks.
Two details are worth knowing. The drop-off zones are charged as described above, with Blue Badge holders exempt once their vehicle is registered. And the Long Stay car parks allow two hours free with a free shuttle to the terminals, which is the answer if someone is seeing you off rather than dropping and going. Where all this sits alongside the charges you meet driving into London itself is covered in hotels with parking in London.
What each price band buys at Gatwick
Gatwick rates swing harder than Heathrow's, because the airport is dominated by leisure flights and the school holidays move the whole market at once. The bands below are our own estimate for September 2026, based on watching the market rather than on a published tariff.
| Band (our estimate, September 2026) | What it usually gets you |
|---|---|
| Under £55 | A room in Crawley or Horley, paid or non-existent shuttle, breakfast extra, early breakfast unlikely |
| £55 to £110 | A budget or mid-range chain on the airport or just outside, covered walk or a short bus |
| £110 to £190 | A full-service on-airport hotel with a covered walk under ten minutes and early breakfast |
| Over £190 | The terminal hotels on a busy night, or a four-hour cabin booked at an awkward hour |
One last piece of advice that applies to Gatwick more than anywhere: book a rate you can cancel. Gatwick's flight schedule shifts, and a cheap non-refundable room is a poor trade against a retimed departure. Our guide to booking a London hotel you can cancel explains what the rate names mean, and staying near Heathrow is the comparable page for the western airport, where the walk is longer and the shuttle costs more.
Frequently asked questions
Which Gatwick hotels are inside the terminal?
Gatwick lists two in the South Terminal. One is a 245-room hotel whose reception the airport says is directly opposite the entrance to security, quoted as a one-minute covered walk. The other sells 46 cabins with a four-hour minimum booking, quoted as a five-minute covered walk. Both are landside, so you still go through security in the morning.
What time is the first train from London to Gatwick?
On a weekday, the first direct Southern train from London Victoria leaves at 04:30 and arrives at Gatwick Airport at 05:12, with a second at 04:35. On the Sunday we checked there was an earlier overnight departure at 03:08, arriving 04:06. Check your own date, because weekend engineering work on the Brighton main line is common.
Is a hotel in Crawley cheaper overall than one at the airport?
Sometimes, but count the transfer both ways for everyone travelling. A Metrobus single is capped at £3 and the local network serves Crawley, Horley, Redhill, Reigate and Horsham, so a bus can make the saving real. A paid hotel shuttle, or a taxi paying the airport's £10 minimum drop-off charge, usually cancels it.
How long does it take to get between the North and South terminals?
The free inter-terminal shuttle takes about two minutes, plus the walk at each end. It is not a reason to panic if you have booked the wrong side, but for an early flight it is a reason to move to the right terminal the night before rather than in the morning.
Do I need a UK visa or ETA to stay in a Gatwick hotel between flights?
All the hotels are landside, so staying in one means passing through UK border control rather than transiting airside. Most visa-free visitors need an Electronic Travel Authorisation, which costs £20 and lasts two years or until the passport expires. Check your own nationality on GOV.UK, and see our page on UK entry requirements.
Sources
- London Gatwick - Airport hotels, with room counts and walking times (checked September 2026)
- London Gatwick - Drop-off charges (checked September 2026)
- London Gatwick - Train services, ticketing and local buses (checked September 2026)
- London Gatwick - Which terminal (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - Journey Planner, first services from Victoria to Gatwick Airport (checked September 2026)
- National Rail - Gatwick Airport station (checked September 2026)
- GOV.UK - Get an electronic travel authorisation (ETA) (checked September 2026)