Several luxury hotels make a landing at airport

If you have passed through one of several major U.S. airports recently, you might have noticed something that has actually made you want to miss your connection: a luxury hotel linked right to the terminal, no shuttle ride needed.

There is the sleekly styled Westin Detroit Metropolitan Airport in the new McNamara Terminal and the Grand Hyatt DFW in the international terminal of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Other hotels, such as the Hyatt Regency Orlando International Airport and the Miami International Airport Hotel, either have had or are undergoing major face-lifts. And Denver International Airport has requested proposals to build a hotel with 500 rooms and 38,000 square feet of meeting space. "One of the reasons why we are having a larger mix of luxury construction at airports than in the past is land cost, which tends to be quite expensive," said Bjorn Hanson, who heads the hospitality and leisure practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers. "And so a higher room rate type of development -- with a $450 average rate as opposed to $129 -- helps make the land lease more affordable."

Deep-pocketed leisure travelers, of course, benefit from getting more sleep and less stress before early flights, not to mention cool views of the runway right from their rooms. Hyatt and Westin offer packages that include up to eight nights of parking while you are traveling. Both also offer a program called Beyond the Screening Checkpoint, in conjunction with the Transportation Security Administration, which allows overnight guests to enter the airport to shop, eat and stroll after going through a security check.

Double rooms at each hotel are $200 to $300 a night, depending on the date. -- New York Times