Storing one bag at Heathrow for a day costs £15. Storing the same bag through an app costs from about £1.50 a day.
Both are real, both are published, and the gap is roughly tenfold. It is not a scam at either end: they are different products sold to different people, and almost nobody explains which one they are looking at.
Here is the difference, what each actually costs, and the question that decides it for you.
The two systems
The official desks. Staffed left luggage counters inside airports and major rail stations, run in most cases by one company: Excess Baggage (Airports) Ltd, which trades as Left Baggage and also operates Heathrow’s service. You walk up, hand over a bag, get a ticket. No app, no account, no host.
The app networks. Radical Storage, LuggageHero and Bounce do not own any storage. They sign up shops, cafes and hotels with spare floor space, and sell you a slot in one. You book on a phone, walk in, and somebody behind a counter takes your bag.
The first is expensive, always open in the places you already are, and requires nothing of you. The second is cheap, everywhere, and requires a working phone and a booking.
What the official desks cost
Heathrow publishes its whole table, and it is the clearest number in this business.
| Duration | Price per item |
|---|---|
| 0 to 3 hours | £10 |
| 3 to 24 hours | £15 |
| 24 to 48 hours | £27.50 |
Read “per item” carefully. That is the part that stings. A couple with two suitcases and a rucksack leaving bags for an afternoon is paying £30, not £10. Three items overnight is £45.
The desks also keep hours. Heathrow’s runs 06:00 to 22:00. Stansted’s runs 24 hours. Rail station desks vary by station and several shut well before the last train, which is the single most common way this goes wrong: you can put a bag in and find you cannot get it out.
What the apps cost
The three networks covering London all advertise a daily rate rather than an hourly one.
LuggageHero now advertises from £1.49 an hour plus a £1.80 service fee per bag, which is a different shape of price from the per day figures it used to be compared with. Stasher advertises from £1.49 a day. Radical Storage and Bounce no longer publish a London figure we could read: Radical’s front page now says from 90 cent a day in euros for its whole network, and Bounce’s shows no price at all. The £1.90 and £1.95 this page used to quote could not be confirmed.
Those are headline rates and the real bill depends on the site, the day and how many bags. But even at three times the advertised minimum, the apps are a fraction of a station desk.
What you give up is certainty. Your bag is behind the counter of a dry cleaner or a coffee shop, not in a bonded room with a barcode. The networks carry insurance and vet their partners, and the model works, but it is a different proposition from a staffed counter inside a terminal, and you should know which one you booked.
The question that actually decides it
How many bags, and for how long?
One bag, a few hours, and you are already inside the terminal or station: use the desk. Ten pounds to not think about it, with no phone required, is a fair trade when you are making a connection.
Two or more bags, or more than a few hours, or you are in town rather than at a terminal: use an app. The multiplier is what does the damage at a desk, and it is exactly where the apps are cheapest.
Anything over 24 hours: use an app, without hesitation. £27.50 per item for a second day at Heathrow is more than most people pay for the flight’s hold baggage.
The hotel question, which nobody answers
Two of the questions Google shows most often on this search are about hotels, and the storage companies have no incentive to answer either.
Your own hotel will almost always store bags before check-in and after check-out, free. It is standard at every level of the market, it is not a favour, and you do not need to ask in advance. If you are flying out in the evening on your last day, this is the answer and it costs nothing. Leave the bags at the desk in the morning and collect them on the way to the airport.
A hotel you are not staying at generally will not. Some will for a fee, particularly the larger ones, but there is no right to it and no standard price. What has changed is that several hotels now take bags through the app networks, so the hotel that turns you away at the desk may accept the identical bag ten minutes later through Bounce.
If you need to change as well as store, the better answer is a room for the afternoon rather than a locker. Day use hotels in London covers that market, where a central room for the day runs from about £60 and solves the shower, the suitcase and the phone call at once.
Practical notes
Check the closing time before the opening time. A desk that shuts at 22:00 is useless for a 23:30 flight, and the bag is behind a shutter.
Count your items honestly. Desk pricing is per item and a laptop bag counts. Apps generally price per bag per day as well, so the same arithmetic applies, just with smaller numbers.
Photograph the bag and the ticket. Standard sense at a desk and more important with an app, where the counter staff may not be the people who took your booking.
Do not assume the station has one. Not every London terminus offers left luggage, and the ones that do put the desk in places that are not obvious. Check the specific station rather than the network.
Everything here was taken from Heathrow’s and the operators’ own published pages, rechecked on 2 October 2026. The Heathrow table is exact. The app rates are the minimums each network advertises and the price you pay will usually be higher. Confirm before you travel.
Where to go next
Day use hotels in London is the better answer when you need somewhere to put the bag and yourself, with rooms sold by the daytime slot from around £60 in central London.
The six London airports and Luton to London cover getting to and from them, including which transfers work at the hours the luggage desks do not.
Eating near the stations is the page for the hours between dropping the bag and the train, sorted by how long you have rather than by how good the food is.
London travel tips has the rest of the practical ground, and what the tube costs covers the fare while you are carrying nothing.
Questions we get asked
How much does luggage storage cost in London?
It depends entirely which of two systems you use, and the gap is about tenfold. An official staffed desk at Heathrow costs 10 pounds per item for up to 3 hours, 15 for 3 to 24 hours and 27.50 for 24 to 48 hours. The app based networks advertise from 1.49 an hour at LuggageHero plus a 1.80 fee per bag, and from 1.49 a day at Stasher, because they use spare space in shops and cafes rather than staffed rooms. Note that desk pricing is per item, so two suitcases double it.
Which London stations have luggage storage?
Most of the major termini do, and the desks are generally run by one company, Excess Baggage (Airports) Ltd, which trades as Left Baggage and also operates the Heathrow service. Hours vary by station and several close well before the last train, which is the common failure: you can deposit a bag and find the desk shut when you come back for it. Check the individual station rather than assuming the network is uniform.
Can you leave luggage at a hotel you are not staying at?
Usually not as a matter of course. Some hotels will for a fee, particularly larger ones, but there is no right to it and no standard price. The thing that has changed is that a good number of hotels now accept bags through the app networks like Bounce and Radical Storage, so a hotel that would turn you away at the front desk may take the same bag through an app booking a few minutes later.
Will my hotel store my luggage after checkout?
Almost certainly, free, and you do not need to arrange it in advance. Storing bags before check-in and after check-out is standard at every level of the London market. If your flight is in the evening on your last day, this is the cheapest and simplest answer available: leave the bags at the desk in the morning, see the city, and collect them on the way to the airport.
Is it cheaper to use a luggage storage app or a station desk?
An app, in almost every case, and overwhelmingly so for more than one bag or more than a few hours. A desk makes sense when you are already inside a terminal, have one bag, need it for a couple of hours and would rather not deal with a phone. Beyond that the desk pricing compounds: 27.50 per item for 24 to 48 hours at Heathrow is more than many people pay to check a bag onto the flight.
What are the luggage storage opening hours in London?
They vary and this catches people out. The Heathrow left luggage desk runs 06:00 to 22:00, while Stansted's runs 24 hours. Rail station desks are set individually and a number shut before the last departures. The app networks inherit the opening hours of whatever shop or cafe is holding the bag, so a late collection needs checking at the time of booking rather than assumed.
Written by Robert J Wills, no. 155 in the guide.
Last checked 2 October 2026 against the venues' own published information. Nobody pays to appear here and we take no bookings.
