Several Boarding Area bloggers have written about the Club Carlson bonus points – Mummy Points, for example.
With the time difference in London I did not have to wait up until midnight to register as some members living in the US did. I managed to register for all these bonuses but am only likely to be able to collect on two at the moment.
I also did a status match from my Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond membership to Gold with Club Carlson. However, rather than upgrade my account they created a new one which meant that I received none of the Gold Benefits during the two stays I report below. I am will now have to call and have the accounts merged – sigh!
Luckily for me the Radissson at Heathrow and the ParkInn at Heathrow are very close to each other – no more than 5 minutes walk. Also, both hotels tend to be very quiet at weekends and so I managed to snag a good rate at both hotels.
Radisson Blu Edwardian at Heathrow
The hotel itself is located on the Bath Road and is within the Heathrow Free Transport area, meaning that buses to and from the airport are free. It is a large, convention focused hotel which has recently undergone a significant refurbishment.
Check-in was friendly, but slow. You have to read and sign a whole series of policies on a screen on the check-in desk – smoking, early departure etc all have to be approved. I was allocated a room on the 4th Floor which was refurbished, quite large and with nice decor. There was free WiFi but you had to call the front desk for the code.
Bed
Desk and TV
The missing item was an easy chair as the ones shown above were a bit hard to watch TV from. The web site of the hotel shows this type of room as having an easy chair, but somehow it has escaped from my room.
The bathroom was functional:
Basin
Bath
My personal loathing, bottles of soap etc screwed to the all are in evidence from the pictures above. They explain this as being more environmentally friendly. However, when showering the bath you have to lean backwards if you want more shower gel. Not a good idea!
I did treat myself to Room Service:
Pasta and Trifle
The tray came quickly, the food was hot and fresh and I was quite pleased with the presentation and choice.
The bed was comfortable and I slept well. Inevitably there was some noise from the corridor but I did fall back to sleep quickly. There was no noise from the airport to wake me.
The only strange thing was the view from the room. I appeared to be facing some form of internal courtyard:
View From Room
Check-out was efficent and correct. The hotel agreed to extend check-out to 12 noon, 1pm would have been a cost. Gold members are supposed to get late check-out but because of the problem with my account they did not know about the account upgrade.
Close up of curtains:
Do dayuse rates qualify for the promo? I saw some rates at Radisson Heathrow from 50 GBP that would be a great deal by European standards if they count.
@Matt – not sure but i only paid £68 for my Friday night stay
Wow that Radisson looks pretty nice especially for an airport location. Seems the brand is a stronger one over the pond there than it is here in the USA where they seem to all be a bit dated (the new Radisson Blu in Chicago excepted)
@Phil – I think once they add the Blu bit it is generally nicer.
This was the Radisson I used for my bonus points. It was my first stay there and I was pleasantly surprised. It looks a little dated from the outside, but my room was very nice (albeit overlooking the McDonalds car park) and the food at The Brasserie was excellent.
@Chair_A – the Brasserie was closed when I was there as they had just opened their new Atlantic Restaurant
This hotel has a row of cameras affixed to the check-in desk, pointing at clients checking in. When I asked the clerk what these were for, I was told they were used to shoot photos of their repeat guests, after obtaining permission.
This explanation sounded most dubious and implausible to me. Does anyone else have a better explanation for this gross invasion of privacy?
BTW, I needed to stay one night on 10 July – this hotel wanted £187+20% VAT, or close to $300. Obviously I stayed somewhere else!