It seems most flights to London end up arriving fairly early in the morning. If that is the case, and hotel check-in is usually in the afternoon, what do you do with your luggage until then?

For that matter, for those of us who cannot sleep on planes, is there some option - a day room. perhaps, where you can have a base of operations and take a relaxed first day?

Luggage - ask nicely at the hotel and give a large tip, or all the main train stations in London have a left luggage office where you can deposit you luggage for around £6 per bag per day

Dayroom - Try the airport Yotels. It also solves the luggage problem, have a nap, go into town, check into your hotel, tour

almost every hotel will hold your bags until your room is ready.

There are different strategies - but many people find staying awake and semi-active the first day is the best way to acclimate one's body clock. Fresh air, light meals and going to sleep at a regular bed time works for me.

Any hotel will hold the luggage of incoming guests. And they very often let you check in early if they have rooms available - or at least offer you a free breakfast.

To combat jet lag you're better getting out into the sunshine - it helps your body clock reset faster.

So - even if we can get into our rooms when we arrive, we usually just unpack, stretch out for a few minutes to unkink from the flight, shower and head out for a walk and a sight that doesn't require a lot of concentration.

We hae a day room at Novotel London Heathrow for Oct. We get there about 9AM, and leave 6PM. Lets us catch up on sleep before our evening flight to JNB.

A day room makes lots of sense when one has a connection between long haul flights. But when London is your destination - I don't see any reason/benefit w/ a day room.

In general, hotels will store your luggage, but I can think of approximately two London exceptions: Travelodge and Easyhotel. So if you are using either of these, or possibly some other low-budget option, just double-check the policy. In almost all cases, even budget hotels allow you to store luggage.

Keep in mind that if you are supposed to land at Heathrow at 6 AM, you likely will not be at your central London hotel before 7:30 or 8 AM (just my pessimistic experience here).

Many hotels will give you a room early in the day, if not right at 8 AM - but there's no way to predict if you will be lucky.