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15 Best Radisson redemptions in UK & Europe
Radisson Rewards doesn’t get much attention nowadays, after they ceased all the ludicrous promotions and made a total mess when having to split the program into two and eventually sold the Americas one.
However, Radisson does have some decent redemption opportunities in the UK and Europe, which we will talk about today. If you have the UK Amex Platinum or Gold card, you can transfer your membership rewards points to Radisson Rewards at an impressive 1:3 ratio.
You could view Radisson’s hotel directory here, although it’s not very easy to navigate.
1. Radisson Collection Royal Mile – 60,000 points
Edinburgh can be very expensive in the summer (especially August due to the Military Tattoo), and 60,000 points is a bargain for a five star hotel. However, I stayed here once when it was still a Quorvus (what a weird name), and frankly I wasn’t impressed at all.
2. Radisson Blue Hotel Cardiff – 30,000 points (Review here)
The Park Inn used be a better option, but both properties cost 30,000 points now under the new pricing system and Radisson Blu is obviously a fancier hotel. Their room is very basic, but the price is great for a busy night in central Cardiff.
Honourable Mention: Radisson Blu Liverpool is also at 30,000 points.
3. Park Inn by Radisson York – 30,000 points
York is a small town but extremely popular with tourists. Its town centre has acquired a few more hotels in recent years such as the Hampton and Hotel Indigo, yet a Saturday-night stay is usually still eyewatering expensive, when 30,000 points is really a steal.
4. Blackpool FC Stadium Hotel – 15,000 points
It’s a Radisson Individuals hotel, a newly adopted concept copied from the likes of Autograph Collection and Curio. The hotel is built within the football stadium which means some of their rooms feature pitch view, a fun experience similar to the Marriott hotel at Twickenham.
5. River Ness Hotel – 45,000 points
There are few choices when you want to stay at Inverness, and this newly-flagged Radisson Individuals gives you an option to spend your points. From online reviews I don’t think it’s a qualified four star as the service is very limited, but at least it’s a clean and cosy hotel.
6. Radisson Blu Waterfront Jersey – 45,000 points
Hotel chains are almost non-existent on the Jersey Island, and 45,000 points for a short weekend away in the summer is pretty decent.
7. Radisson Blu and Spa Sligo – 30,000 points
A good property in Ireland for a spa break it seems.
8. Park Inn by Radisson Dresden – 15,000 points
Radisson’s presence is very strong in Germany, but good redemptions are very rare in general (partly due to lower hotel rates in the country). Dresden’s Park Inn is one that I can find with some value.
9. Radisson Blu Resort Swinoujscie – 30,000 points
Apparently Swinoujscie is beach city near the Poland-Germany border. The hotel’s swimming pool looks very nice and its night rate easily passes the €200 mark in summer.
10. Park Inn by Radisson Budapest – 15,000 points
I stayed here for one night on a late-night arrival. The hotel is fairly remote and very basic, however for a one-night transition it’s acceptable when rates are high.
11. Park Inn Hotel and Spa Zalakaros – 30,000 points
It’s a family spa resort in Hungary which used to cost only 9,000 points at the beginning, but at 30,000 points it still seems to be a great deal.
Honourable Mention: Park Inn Sarvar Resort & Spa is a similar hotel in Hungary.
12. Radisson Blu Hotel Larnaca – 45,000 points
Cyprus almost seems be to a Virgin island when its comes to international hotel chains. 45,000 points is a good deal compared to the cash rate, and breakfast is included.
13. Metropolitan Hotel Sofia – 15,000 points
Both InterContinental Sofia and Hotel Sofia Balkan are very solid luxury hotels in the city. But if you are on a lower budget, the four-star Metropolitan Hotel could be on your list.
14. Royan Hotel Hagia Sophia Istanbul – 15,000 points
When in comes to great hotels, Istanbul offers you countless options but most of them are in the northern part of the city. If you are looking for something in the old town, this Radisson Individuals right by Hagia Sophia might be the right (and cheap) choice.
15. Radisson Blu Hotel, Kayseri – 15,000 points
Kayseri may not sound familiar to you, but tourists going for the hot air balloon experience usually have a stopover here first when in Turkey. This Radisson Blu is a five-star and ranked #1 on TripAdvisor. Breakfast is included for redemptions.
My review of Radisson Blu Cardiff
The voco St David’s hotel in Cardiff has been on my checklist for a while, and I’ve decided to tick the box on this bank holiday. It’s quite far from Cardiff’s centre though, so I was looking for a central hotel to complete my trip.
Saturday night is quite expensive everywhere even when paying points. The Radisson Blu hotel at 30,000 points (or 10,000 Amex points) has turned out to be the best choice. The Park Inn hotel, which is literally one minute away, used to be a better deal at 28,000 points (Radisson Blu was 38,000 points at that time). However they both cost 30,000 points now and it’s a no brainer which one to choose.
Sunday night is cheaper on which I redeemed my Hotels.com free night reward. I’ve made a note for the hotel to link my reservations.
I didn’t realised it’s Pride weekend at Cardiff until I saw all the rainbow flags when getting off the train 🙂 The hotel is only 5 minutes’ walk from Cardiff Central, and from what I can tell is probably one of the tallest building in the city.
The lobby looks fine.
The room on the other hand is, well, very basic…
It feels like all the furniture were from the 1990s and they were never changed. It’s probably one of the saddest room that I’ve every stayed at.
The bathroom floor is very thin for some reason. I’m very careful with my steps 😛
My room on the 10th floor faces a residential block.
This is what you see on the top floor (21st).
At check-in I inquired about the Gold welcome amenity. They couldn’t deliver it on that day so comped my breakfast as an apology. I’m quite happy about the resolution!
Breakfast on the 1st floor is a standard buffet.
The hotel is only 3 minutes from the Ivy, which I recommend if you want to spend the £150 dining credit from the Amex Platinum card.
For this particular occasion, the Radisson Blu was good value for 30,000 points. However it’s not a good property otherwise, and the Hilton wins hands down with its better interior, executive lounge and spa.
New great Radisson hotel redemptions in Blackpool and Inverness
Radisson’s hands have been pretty tied by all the administration stuff. First the program split between the Americas and the rest of the world, then full-on chaos involving both programs, and now the Americas program is being sold to Choice.
Given what’s going on, I thought the program had stopped expanding. Well I’m obviously wrong, as Radisson is now running a promotion for new hotels and there are a few of them.
You can register for the offer here. Stay two nights or more at participating new hotels in the first six months of its opening to earn 2,000 bonus points.
More importantly, I’ve noticed some new UK hotels which could be good to redeem points on.
- Blackpool FC Stadium Hotel 15,000 points
- River Ness Hotel 45,000 points
- Radisson RED London Greenwich The O2 60,000 points
Remember that if you have the Amex Gold or Platinum card, you could transfer Membership Rewards points to Radisson Rewards at the ratio of 1:3.
The Radisson Red O2 hotel isn’t cheap at 60K, although it might make sense if you are attending an evening event in the arena.
The other two properties are more interesting: neither Blackpool or Inverness are sufficiently represented by international hotel chains, and Radisson may be a game changer here. Both reward night prices are very reasonable.
See also:
Radisson hotels 25%-off sale and 2,000 bonus points
Radisson hotels is running a sale in Europe, Middle East and Asia. You can check out the offer page here.
As a Radisson Rewards member, you save up to 25% on stays at participating hotels (non-member saves only 15%). You also earn 1,000 bonus points on 2-night stays, or 2,000 bonus points on 3-night stays or longer.
When booking the sale rate, you’ll also get 25% discount in the Middle East and Africa, or 20% discount in Central / Southern Europe on food and drinks spend.
You need to book my March 30 for stays between April 1 and May 31, 2022.
Radisson new program live, and 1000 points per night promotion
In case you haven’t noticed, Radisson’s split of Americas and Rest of the World has already taken place, and their new system including the award night pricing has been live.
It appears that many hotel’s award availability has suddenly gone, and I have no idea what’s going on – is it a bug from the migration, or is Radisson now stealthily blocking award nights? Anyway, just a reminder of the category movement of UK hotels:
There are more hotels moving up than moving down, but in a nutshell there’s nothing too drastic here.
And if you have planned a Radisson hotel stay this summer (including the Park Inn and Park Plaza brands), don’t forget to register for their new promotion here. Between July 1st and September 30th, you can earn 1,000 bonus points for every night stayed at any hotels worldwide.
It’s not explicitly mentioned on the offer page, but from what I understand point bookings should also be eligible. However, it does seem that only bookings made after offer registration count, so you may want to cancel and rebook to participate.
Full List of Radisson UK Hotel Category Changes
I was too early to post about the Radisson program restructuring yesterday – it appears that the change is actually global rather than just for the Americas, and they were just a bit late in posting the update on the main site.
You can see the announcement here. As a reminder:
- There will be five hotel categories in the new program, staircasing by 15,000 points
- The minimum points required for a free night increases from 9,000 points to 15,000 points
- The maximum points required for a free night increases from 70,000 points to 75,000 points
- Family Room and Premium Room redemption are kept
- A new scheme called RewardSaver will be introduced where a 1/3 discount is applied when redeeming certain hotels at off-peak season, similar to Marriott’s PointSaver
You can see the new category and point requirement for all hotels (excluding Americas) in the pdf here. It’s a bit tricky as there’s no filter for country / city and you don’t see the current award category in the file.
To save your time, here are the 49 hotels in the UK, with the old and new award night pricing.
29 hotels are moving up and 22 are moving down. It may not be a devaluation as you’d think though, because:
- London is the worst hit city on the list; however there’s no London hotel worth spending your points on already from my point of view, so it really doesn’t matter if they hike up the price further
- There will be two hotels at 15,000 points, which is an improvement
- Radisson Blu Cardiff and Park Inn York are both reducing the point requirement, which is great news as both cities can be very expensive during peak seasons
- The same is true for the two hotels in Edinburgh, including the Radisson Collection Royal Mile, although my stay there was very underwhelming
And here are some hotels worldwide that I find may be worth checking out:
It’s a very short list as it was very difficult going through their lengthy list. The biggest winner appears to be Bangkok, as all three 28,000-point hotels are joining the 15,000-point league which is almost 50%-off reduction. Although I didn’t dig too much, I believe it’s bad news for India travellers as the majority of the 9000-point hotels are in that country.
If the hotels you intend to redeem will go up in price, remember to lock in your award nights now. I’m expecting another 100%-bonus point sale anytime between now and June, so watch this space!
Major Devaluation Coming to Radisson Rewards Americas
Radisson Rewards is in the process of splitting into two different programs, mainly because the hotel group is owned by China’s Jin Jiang Group, and the US Government doesn’t want them to have access to any data of the States anymore.
They have been communicating the update to members recently, and the main change so far appears to be you can only earn night credits for hotels in the respective program in the future. If your travel pattern spreads across the two regions, it will be more difficult for you to earn or maintain status.
You can have both accounts and status match to have reciprocal benefits. Points can be transferred between the two programs too.
What just got revealed though, is that a major devaluation is coming to the Americas program at the same time.
- There will be five hotel categories in the new program, reduced from seven
- The minimum points required for a free night increases from 9,000 points to 15,000 points
- The maximum points required for a free night increases from 70,000 points to 75,000 points
- Out of the existing 612 hotels, 392 (64.1%) will move up in price, 180 (29.4%) will move down, and 40 (6.5%) will remain unchanged
With almost 1/3 of its hotel requiring more points to redeem, it’s hard not to see it as a devaluation.
There are a couple of good news too:
- A new scheme called RewardSaver will be introduced where a 1/3 discount is applied when redeeming certain hotels at off-peak season, similar to Marriott’s PointSaver program
- Family Room redemption is kept and the price appears to have dropped
If you do not reside in the Americas (United States, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean), there isn’t any change to the main Radisson Rewards program yet. Just double check your address in the account to make sure your account is migrated to the correct program in June.
Radisson Double Points Promotion
Radisson Rewards has just launched their new quarterly global promotion. You can sign up here.
You earn double points for all paid stays completed between 1 February and 30 April. Unfortunately reward stays won’t benefit from this promotion.
Double points means an additional 20 points for each dollar spent on your room. Radisson Rewards awards double points compare to the other programmes including Marriott, IHG and Hilton (10 per $), but its value is relatively low too.