Last week in London I stayed at three Radisson Blu Edwardian Hotels with Radisson Blu Mercer Street, The May Fair and Radisson Blu Bloomsbury Street. The location of Radisson Blu Bloomsbury Street and Radisson Blu Kenilworth, directly across the street from the Bloomsbury hotel, gives easy access for tourists flying in and out of LHR with the hotels’ proximity to the London Underground Holborn Station on the Piccadilly Line with direct access to London Heathrow Airport, about six to eight minutes walk. Sainsbury food market is across the street from Holborn Underground. The British Museum is less than five minutes walk from these two hotels.
The Radisson Blu Bloomsbury Street hotel was sold out on the day of our arrival. My reservation was made using 50,000 points for two nights as a Club Carlson Visa member with the benefit of one free night. The only room type available when I booked the reward stay six weeks before arrival was a two single beds room. The lowest published room rate at the time of reservation was £335 per night = $522 USD per night.
Room rate variability in London has an extremely wide range. On November 22, I checked rates at London Radisson Blu hotels for the week of my stay to see how they had changed since booking my hotel reservations six weeks earlier.
Radisson Blu Bloomsbury Street had dropped in price to £271 = $422 USD per night for Thursday and Friday two night stay. The hotel was available for 50,000 points on Tuesday and Wednesday nights when rates were £463 = $721 USD per night. These kinds of rate fluctuations make Club Carlson points extremely good value when 50,000 points can buy a hotel room for two nights (as a Club Carlson Visa card member) with a published low room rate of $1,442. That is a redemption value of $28.84 per 1,000 Club Carlson points. That is why I jumped on the opportunity to buy 40,000 Club Carlson points last week for $140. Kelley wants to go back to London within the next year since we had a lovely trip and there is still so much we did not get to see in one week.
Radisson Blu Bloomsbury Street 50,000 points per night.
The Radisson Blu Bloomsbury Street hotel has 174 rooms on seven floors.
- 86 Standard and Superior rooms.
- 75 King Deluxe rooms.
- 6 Business Class rooms.
- 7 suites.
Standard and Superior room with Queen or two singles is described as “A superior room with a queen bed or two single twin beds. Maximum occupancy is two people.” This is the room type we had. The first room on the second floor was about 140 sq. ft. and one room window faced the interior roof infrastructure and besides the two twin beds, only one chair. For the first time in several years, after seeing the room, I asked to be moved to a better room. The second room was on the 4th floor with two twin beds and about 190 sq. ft. The room featured two chairs, two exterior facing room windows, and a bathroom window.
View across Great Russell Street to Radisson Blu Kenilworth from room 4009 of Radisson Blu Bloomsbury Street.
Deluxe Room – Average 23 square metres or 248 square feet.
A more spacious option with a king bed. (Rate is about £30 more than Superior room).
Business Class Room – Average 23 square metres or 248 square feet. Full English breakfast (£12 value) and £15 drink voucher included in rate). (Rate is about £65 more than Superior room).
Business Class Studio Suite – Average 35 square metres or 377 square feet. (Rate is about £115 more than Superior room).
One Bedroom Suite – Average 47 square metres or 506 square feet
With sweeping views across the Bloomsbury skyline to the columns of the British Museum, the luxury suites are generously spacious and supremely comfortable.
Radisson Blu Kenilworth at 44,000 points per night has 3 suites, 10 Business Class rooms, 47 Deluxe Double with King Beds, 73 Standard and Double Twin rooms and 53 Deluxe Single and Single rooms. The website virtual tour shows a Standard Single room, which looks to be under 120 square feet of room space. There is no room size listed for the category in the rate details page. Single is described simply as “A room for sole occupancy with a small double bed.” A Deluxe Room is listed as 23 sq. m. or 248 sq. ft. Business class room listed as same size. Junior suite listed at 33 sq. m. or 355 square feet.
Check-in
Radisson Blu Bloomsbury Street has seven floors. The top floor is Business Class and the height of this floor offers some rooms with views of the British Museum.
British Museum (building with columns upper left) is around the corner from the hotel and offers hours of free entertainment with world heritage items like the actual Rosetta Stone, Elgin Marbles of the Acropolis, and extensive collection of clocks, Egyptian mummies and old coins and currency.
Radisson Blu Bloomsbury Street hotel offered a discount card for breakfast at £12 per person for buffet, about ($18.75 USD) compared to the regular £22 ($34.25).
The original hotel room we received at Radisson Blu Bloomsbury Street was so small, I was inspired to write the article My Square Foot London Edition to describe the room I estimated to be under 150 square feet of living space.
This is the second room with two twin beds and enough space at about 190 square feet to actually move around the furniture without bumping into it to go to the bathroom.
The windows opened a few inches to allow fresh cool air flow in the room.
The bathroom offered a walk in shower.
The window provided some glass distortion, yet Kelley commented from the first hotel room that while laying on the bed she could see the guy across the hotel through the frosted glass standing in the bathroom urinating and waggling his piece at the finish.
Radisson Blu Bloomsbury Street room windows had pull sown shades.
We went to the breakfast buffet one morning and the waiter was cracking jokes the entire time. We showed up at 10:15am for a service that ended at 10:30am. There was a decent spread of food and guests can order special omelets and items. Reduced price was £12 per person. They let us stay to about 11am before breaking down the buffet and vacuuming.
Radisson Blu Edwardian UK Free Breakfast Jan 1-Feb 28, 2015
There is a Radisson Edwardian special for UK hotels with free breakfast for stays Jan 1 to Feb 28, 2015. No special code is needed. Look for the free breakfast offer in the Best Available Rate details. (Please note for period 01 January 2015 – 28 February 2015 only, Rate does include complimentary Breakfast) is in the rate details for a January date I checked using the Best Available Rate.
Overall the hotel is fine. The bar and restaurant seemed to be popular meeting places during our stay. Some of the rooms at Radisson Blu Bloomsbury Street are truly tiny bijou rooms and that can be a crimp in London vacation style if there are two of you hanging out in the room. The website 360 virtual tour rooms make Kenilworth rooms look possibly smaller. Since about 1 in 3 rooms between Radisson Blu Bloomsbury Street and Radisson Blu Kenilworth are standard rooms, there is a good chance you will have a room under 200 square feet, if you don’t get an upgrade to a Deluxe Room.
Space is tight in a tiny room under 200 square feet.
Location, Location, Location
As a tourist walking London, one of the best features in the city are maps showing your location and a circle around a 15 minute walking distance from your location. I stopped to read these maps frequently around London.
The point to see is Radisson Blu Bloomsbury Street is in the center of the circle. Covent Garden within this circle includes the West End Theatre District, Covent Garden shops and restaurants, Chinatown, Trafalgar Square for the National Gallery art museum, Piccadilly Circus shopping and Leicester Square entertainment where there are another two Radisson Blu Edwardian Hotels. Radisson Blu Mercer Street is about a five minute walk at Seven Dials, south of Bloomsbury Street in the shaded Covent Garden section. The map reads correctly when facing it and I was facing south. on the map, the upper part is walking south to the Thames River.
Buckingham Palace and Big Ben are in the upper right section of the map and probably a 25 minute walk. Several other Radisson Blu Edwardian hotels are just outside the 15 minute walk zone from Radisson Bloomsbury Street. Kelley and I spent a six hour day walking to St. Paul’s, Globe Theater, Tower Bridge, Tower of London and back to the Bloomsbury Street hotel. London is easily walkable.
Related Loyalty Traveler posts
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Radisson Blu Edwardian Mercer Street London convenient for LHR arrival and departure
