On this page (5 sections)
Where it is, and how you reach the terminal
The Premier Inn London Stansted Airport is not at the terminal. It sits about 2 miles away, off the airport approach near Birchanger and Stansted Mountfitchet, which is the first thing to get straight, because it changes how you use it. The two hotels you can actually walk from, the Radisson Blu and the Hampton by Hilton, are a couple of minutes on foot. The Premier Inn is not one of them.
So you reach the terminal one of three ways: the hotel's own shuttle bus, a taxi (roughly £10), or by driving and parking. Walking is not a real option, because the route runs alongside busy roads with stretches of grass verge rather than pavement, and the hotel does not advise it. None of that is a problem in itself, plenty of people use a shuttle hotel happily, but it means the headline room price is not the whole cost. The Stansted hotels hub sets out which hotels are walkable and which, like this one, need a transfer.
The shuttle is the catch
The hotel runs its own shuttle bus to the terminal, roughly every 30 minutes, around the clock, taking under ten minutes. It picks up at a marked bay on the airport forecourt (bay 19 is the one usually quoted, though it has moved before, so follow the signs and check your booking on the day). So far, so convenient. The catch is the fare.
The shuttle costs about £4 per adult each way, with under-16s travelling free. This is the single most common gripe in guest reviews, because the transfer used to be free and now is not. For one person it is trivial: £8 return on top of a cheap room. For two adults it is about £16 return, and for a family more, and that is the number that decides whether this hotel is actually the cheapest option. A walkable hotel charges nothing to reach the terminal, so the Premier Inn's room needs to be cheaper by more than the shuttle fares to come out ahead. Do that sum before you book, not after.
Park, sleep and fly: the bundle
If you are driving to the airport, the Premier Inn makes more sense, because the room and your parking come as one booking. The airport sells it as a park-sleep-fly package from around £76 for one night's room plus eight days' airport parking, which for a week away is often cheaper than booking a hotel and a car park separately.
The way it works is that your car goes in the airport's official car park, not a field behind the hotel, and you ride the free airport shuttle that runs every 15 minutes and takes 10 to 15 minutes to the terminal. That free bus is a different service from the hotel's own paid shuttle, which is worth knowing: park-and-fly guests do not pay the £4 fare, walk-in hotel guests do. If you only want to leave the car at the hotel overnight rather than for the whole trip, that is charged on its own, around £12. The full comparison of room-and-parking deals is on the hotels with parking page, and how the bundle works in detail is on the park, sleep and fly page.
The hotel, breakfast and the early-flight gotchas
The hotel itself is a standard Premier Inn: clean, comfortable, reliable rooms, an on-site restaurant and bar for an evening meal, and the chain's usual cooked breakfast. There is free wifi, though only a short free allowance before it asks you to pay, so it is fine for checking in but not for an evening of streaming. For a pre-flight night where you mostly want a bed and a shower, it does the job.
Two early-flight gotchas are worth flagging, because they catch people out. First, breakfast usually starts at 06:30, and a large share of Stansted flights leave from 06:00, so if you are on an early one you will be through the airport before breakfast opens. Eat at the terminal instead, or ask the hotel about a grab-and-go option. Second, build the shuttle into your timing: at 30-minute intervals you cannot turn up at the bay and assume a bus, so work back from the airport's advice to be at security at least two hours before your flight. The departures page has the early-morning pattern, and if a real bed is not essential, the sleeping at the airport page covers the cheaper, rougher alternative.
Is it worth it?
It depends entirely on how many of you there are. Solo, it is the value pick: a cheaper room than the walkable hotels and one £4 hop each way, so you come out ahead even after the fare. For a couple or a family, run the numbers, because the shuttle is charged per adult each way and that return cost can close the gap to the Radisson Blu or Hampton by Hilton you can walk from, where the transfer is free and the walk is a couple of minutes with a suitcase.
Where the Premier Inn clearly wins is the park-sleep-fly bundle: if you are driving and leaving the car for a week, the combined room-and-parking price is hard to beat, and park-and-fly guests skip the paid shuttle anyway. So the honest rule is simple. Driving and parking for the trip, book the bundle. Travelling light on your own, book the room and pay the shuttle. Two of you arriving without a car, price it against a walkable hotel first. The hotels hub lays the options side by side.