One rule that looks odd until you do the maths
Every published fare on this site applies anywhere across Paddington, Bayswater and the rest of W2 without changing, travel across Zones 1 and 2 is simply included. The one exception is a Heathrow or Gatwick hotel, where the shortest booking on the board is three hours, at £700, rather than the one hour fare that applies everywhere else. It looks like an odd exception until the actual travel time is set against it.
Heathrow sits deep in outer London's Zone 6, and Gatwick further still, in Surrey well beyond any London zone at all. Getting a companion there and back is not a short hop across a couple of Underground stops, it is the better part of an hour each way even outside rush hour, before a single minute of the booking itself has started.
What a one hour booking would actually leave
Set against the travel either side, a one hour fare booked for a Heathrow perimeter hotel would leave almost no time once the journey there and back is accounted for, a visit that spends more of its length in a car than in the room it was booked for. That is not a fair booking for either side of it, which is exactly why this site does not offer one.
Three hours changes that arithmetic properly, enough time that the travel either side is a genuine minority of the booking rather than most of it, covered from the airport side in this site's guide to Terminal 5 to first drink.
Why the fare sits at £700, not less
The three hour Heathrow and Gatwick minimum runs on the same published rates as the standard three hour fare anywhere else on this site, £700, with the travel time counted inside it rather than added on top as a separate charge. Nora finds guests generally understand the logic once it is set out plainly, the fare covers the actual time involved rather than a flat rate that happens to apply everywhere else in W2.
A travel companion booking is built specifically around this arithmetic, timed from a train or flight rather than a fixed clock hour, so the three hours cover exactly the journey and the visit together rather than an estimate.
Zones 1 and 2, and why they are different
The rest of this site's patch sits entirely within Zones 1 and 2, a short and predictable journey wherever the hotel is, which is exactly why no travel charge applies there at all. The airport perimeter simply sits outside that logic geographically, and pricing it the same as a five minute taxi from Paddington would not reflect the actual time anyone involved spends getting there.
Nancy treats the distinction as one of the more straightforward things to explain in a first message, once a guest understands it is about the journey rather than the destination, the three hour minimum tends to make immediate sense.
Gatwick's extra distance, same rule
Gatwick sits roughly thirty miles south of central London, on the Surrey and West Sussex border, reached from Victoria rather than Paddington and further out than Heathrow by any measure. The Gatwick Express covers that route in around half an hour, fast for the distance involved but still leaving a genuine journey either side of any booking made near the airport itself.
The same three hour minimum and the same £700 fare apply there as at Heathrow, rather than a higher figure for the extra distance, since the arithmetic behind the rule cares about having enough time inside the booking rather than pricing the exact mileage of the taxi.
How the rest of the ladder compares
Beyond the three hour airport minimum, the same board runs a four hour dinner date at £900 and a ten hour overnight at £1,800 anywhere on this site's patch, both proportionally cheaper per hour than the shorter fares. An airport booking that runs the full three hours sits closer to the dinner date in value than to the one hour fare it is sometimes compared against, more evening for the money than the minimum length suggests at first glance.
Anyone weighing an airport visit against staying centrally and booking a shorter evening later is usually better off comparing it to the dinner date line on the board rather than the one hour fare, since three hours with travel included covers a genuinely similar amount of actual time together.
Booking a shorter airport visit properly
There is no way to book under three hours at Heathrow or Gatwick, but the three hours themselves can be shaped however suits the visit, a proper dinner, a drink and conversation, or simply company through a long layover, the timing detailed further in this site's guide to booking from the plane and worth arranging before you have even landed.
Booking an airport evening
Send your flight or train details, name the hotel, and a booking at the airport minimum is confirmed the same straightforward way as anywhere else on this site's board, from £700 for the three hours travel included, at either Heathrow or Gatwick.
The companions named in this guide sit on the blondes list, one of the types the lineup is sorted by.
Quick answers
Travel to and from the airport perimeter takes the better part of an hour each way, so a one hour booking would leave almost no actual time once that journey is accounted for.
Three hours, at £700, with the travel time counted inside the fare rather than charged separately.
Just Heathrow and Gatwick hotels. Everywhere else in W2, travel across Zones 1 and 2 is already included in every published fare, starting from £250 for the first hour.
No. The same three hour minimum and the same £700 fare apply at both airports, rather than a higher figure for the extra distance to Gatwick.