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Big changes to the Park Inn hotel at London Heathrow Airport from next week

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This was kept very quiet …..

With absolutely zero fanfare or publicity, big changes have been underway at the huge Park Inn hotel at Heathrow Airport over recent months.

If you ever drive to Heathrow Terminal 2 or Terminal 3, you will know the Park Inn.  It faces the roundabout where the huge Emirates A380 replica sits, just before you enter the tunnel.

Whilst I’ve never stayed there, I never felt I wanted to.  It looks so uninspiring – a low level, potentially late 60’s / early 70’s building – that it sucks the life force from you just by looking at it.

Radisson RED Heathrow

This is why I was surprised to find that the Park Inn re-opens next Wednesday as TWO hotels.  

Part of it will become a Radisson RED – see the website here.  The other, larger, part becomes a Radisson (NOT a Radisson Blu, but a Radisson – a brand usually only seen in the US).  The Radisson website is here.

The old Park Inn had 895 rooms.  The new Radisson RED has 258 rooms whilst the Radisson has 637 rooms.  This means that that the changes are fairly cosmetic as there has been no attempt to knock rooms together or otherwise change the configuration.

I have absolutely no idea what Radisson RED is doing here.  Radisson RED is meant to be for the cool kids, a cross between a Moxy and a Hotel Indigo, with funky bedrooms in converted historic buildings.  I don’t think the words ‘hip’ or ‘funky’ could ever be used to describe the current Park Inn building.  That said, the two room photographs in this article are both from the RED and do look smart.

Radisson RED Heathrow

Both hotels appear to be sharing the same gym, indoor pool, steam room and sauna.  This is also a little odd, with the cool kids from the RED hanging out with the ‘short sleeved white shirt’ crowd attending an away day at the Radisson.  The conference centre seems to be on the Radisson side.  The RED has an Executive Lounge whilst the Radisson does not.

We will check it out later in the Summer and bring you a review.  Don’t forget that Radisson is currently offering a generous ‘5000 bonus points per stay’ offer until the end of December, so a cheap night at either the new Radisson RED or Radisson could be very rewarding.

If you have American Express Platinum, you will also have Radisson Rewards Gold status as a cardholder perk.

You can book the Radisson RED Heathrow here and the Radisson Heathrow here.

How to earn Radisson Rewards points and status from UK credit cards

How to earn Radisson Rewards points and status from UK credit cards (April 2024)

Radisson Rewards does not have a dedicated UK credit card. However, you can earn Radisson Rewards points by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.

These cards earn Membership Rewards points:

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:3 into Radisson Rewards points which is a very attractive rate.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 3 Radisson Rewards points.

Even better, holders of The Platinum Card receive free Radisson Rewards Premium status for as long as they hold the card.  It also comes with Hilton Honors Gold, Marriott Bonvoy Gold and MeliaRewards Gold status.  We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here.

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

Category

Radisson Rewards

Comments (28)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Tariq says:
    10 Jul10 July 05:50

    The Radisson RED in Glasgow is a new build as opposed to a converted historic building. Strikes me as more of a W/Aloft imitation.

    Pics of the LHR hotel certainly look better than my last visit there. The biggest issue I found was the long lines to checkin with huge tour groups/accommodated delay passengers, etc. Hopefully the two sides of the hotel will have separate reception desks which will improve this aspect!

    • Chrisasaurus says:
      10 Jul10 July 06:52

      I watched them building it from the Hampton! Fun times…

      With the Moxy at LHR always dirt cheap I’d say the trendy Mini-in-the-breakfast-area crowd are already quite well catered to?

  • pauldb says:
    10 Jul10 July 06:27

    The Conrad site is already a collapsed Park Hyatt project. Located in Dona Julia, so very close to Finca Cortesin.

    • Joe N says:
      10 Jul10 July 08:21

      I’m hoping it does open as a Conrad – Marriott seem to have loads of nice resorts in Europe but it will be nice to have another Hilton option!

      • Crafty says:
        10 Jul10 July 17:36

        +1. I have over a million HH points I’m desperate to spend on a nice summer holiday in Europe.

    • Rob says:
      10 Jul10 July 09:23

      Ah OK. Thanks.

  • Carol says:
    10 Jul10 July 06:49

    Just looked at the Park and Fly rate for Radisson Red, and for 15 nights of parking it Is £99.75 for dates in October – seems a good deal.

  • Linda Phillips says:
    10 Jul10 July 06:49

    We stayed there a number of times several years ago, as it was basically very cheap and for one night just about ok, as I never sleep in hotel beds anyway . We were upgraded once to a supposedly superior room , (you will like this) it was unfortunately the other side of the gents loos and the walls were paper thin. We could not be bothered to ask for a change as it was very late at night and as you can imagine we heard everything.

    The food years ago was not bad either they used to do a Buffett , but the last time we went the food was self serve and it was like slop, at the breakfast with the tour groups it was standing room only and they had run out of everything and the staff were going round like headless chickens.

    We have since been going to the Renaissance which is lovely and the breakfast were fantastic .

    • Lady London says:
      10 Jul10 July 13:08

      i participated in the trials for Terminal 2 LHR before it opened and the Park Inn was used to convene the group before we were all sntbto thr various parts of T2 to test.

      It’s a conference hotel and best avoided.

      It will be interesting to see if carving out some of the rooms and making a Radisson Red will make that part of the hotel more bearable. But I suspect not as they wont have invested in the infrastructure. I think the current building goes back to the 1960’s. Guessing only the Ariel along that stretch of the A4 in front of Heathrow is older.

      So as Rob says – an excellent points-earning promotion if you have to spend a night at Heathrow and wouldn’t sleep anyway.

      • George K says:
        10 Jul10 July 20:48

        I reminisced about exactly the same thing as soon as I saw the story, Lady London!

        The T2 trials were great fun and the best part of the Park Inn were the pastries they laid out for us…

  • Matt says:
    10 Jul10 July 07:46

    Talking of new hotels, is the Intercontinental Venice project dead? It was originally meant to open in 2017.

    • Rob says:
      10 Jul10 July 09:20

      I was told at a meeting with IHG last year that it is still progressing. Converting palazzos isn’t easy.

  • BJ says:
    10 Jul10 July 08:12

    You’ll have @Cat after you Rob, since when did 258 become half of 895?

    • Andrew says:
      10 Jul10 July 09:17

      It never looks inspiring.

      Although, I usually just see the back doors of the place as I slip round the edge to the NCP Flightpath car park

  • Matt says:
    10 Jul10 July 08:43

    O/T any idea why all reward availability at six senses Istanbul seems to have been removed? There was reward availability every day all year as of last week. Kicking myself I didn’t lock it in as wanted a long weekend May 2021.

    • Rob says:
      10 Jul10 July 09:16

      Odd. Perhaps it is leaving (although that would be odd as it is brand new) – the other two ‘city’ hotels in Singapore left recently.

      • New Card says:
        10 Jul10 July 10:53

        Leaving SS seems unlikely to me as the IHG website is still showing cash nights available. Maybe – just maybe – Reward Nights have been removed for this outlier hotel as part of a project to integrate all the SS hotels into IHG Rewards Club properly. One to keep an eye on.

    • Lady London says:
      10 Jul10 July 13:11

      sounds like a reflag.

      • memesweeper says:
        10 Jul10 July 15:42

        wow — there aren’t going to be any Six Senses left by the time IHG finish their integration

    • Helen says:
      10 Jul10 July 16:54

      If it’s the last weekend in May it maybe because of the Champions League final on 29 May

  • Oh! Matron! says:
    10 Jul10 July 10:46

    The Moxy, just down the road, is actually quite lovely, especially if you get a room on the south side, so you can watch the planes landing on 270N.

    However, You’ll need to add on the cost of the spiteful hopper bus to get to T2 / T3, as it’s a hell of a walk to the free buses. You can’t exactly walk to the terminals from there

    Which reminds me: When will they open the small tunnels that are parallel to the main road tunnel to T2/T3? They’ve been shut for what appears to be ages…

    • RussellH says:
      10 Jul10 July 11:18

      That sounds nothing like the Heathrow Moxy I stayed at in March last year. Service bus stop towards LHR literally outside the front door (Hounslow bound stop on the other side of the road around 200m away. Nice Swedish retaurant next door, though it cost us significantly more than the hotel room!
      It was nowhere near the Park Inn.

    • Tariq says:
      10 Jul10 July 16:41

      You could always pay the £1 fare (or whatever it is these days) for the non-free bus right outside!

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