We stayed at the Radisson Blu Edwardian Bloomsbury Street Hotel in January 2013. I booked the hotel as it seemed to be a good location, the reviews were quite good, the rooms seemed modern  and I was hoping to get some perks from being a Club Carlson gold member.

We got to the hotel at about noon and we were met by a giant red reindeer in the reception and there was also a strange smell in the lobby – a combination of a “hotel signature scent” and a moldy scent. As I checked in there was a bit of confusion regarding my name and the guy behind the counter asked me if I was at the correct hotel. It turned out that we were at the right hotel and we got room 2025. I asked if it was possible with a room upgrade due to the Club Carlson gold card but that didn’t seem to be an option. Our room was not ready either so we left the suitcases at the concierge and got a luggage tag and started the sightseeing in London.

When we got back to the hotel at night to pick up the suitcases later on I showed the concierge the luggage tags but they were not able to find anything so he asked me if I had gotten any other tag. After 5 minutes of lots of confusion between the 3 that was in the reception area, we were told that we should go to the room to check if the bags were there. When we got to the room the suitcases were there together with some parcels that I had gotten delivered to the hotel so that was excellent service of the hotel concierge earlier on – but there should have been a bit of communication between the staff to avoid all the confusion.

The room was actually quite nice on first glance – there was a maroon carpet on the floor and the walls had light wallpaper with a few pictures on the walls. The room was larger than expected – after staying at various hotels around London I’m used to the room being quite tiny in this city. The center piece in the room was the double bed with one large duvet to share. The bed was a bit on the firm side but still quite comfortable. Next to the bed there was a small desk and a chair – it also included an iPhone docking station for charging the phone and amplifying the sound. On the side wall there was a flat screen TV mounted and there was also a large chair and a small table. The placement of the TV was not ideal for viewing it from the bed. The room only has a tiny window and there was also a small window in the bathroom.

There was a wardrobe in front of the bed with a small safe, a small fridge (a Coke was £3 and a beer was £4.25) and there was also an ironing board/iron and hair dryer in addition to the kettle for boiling water and glasses and mugs. So the room actually had quite a lot of amenities. The wardrobe had about 12 hangers but the bar was hanging quite low in the wardrobe so not very practical for e.g. a coat. The bar was low due to a reason – when I came into the bathroom it was easy to see that the room was made to suite a person in a wheel chair. The bathroom had dark tiles on the floor and creamy tiles on the walls. The shower was very modern with a glass door and a rain forest shower head from the ceiling and the toilet was wall mounted and the sink was very modern. The bathroom would have been perfect if there had been some sort of heating in the floor. When we went to London the city was getting a bit of snow and the temperatures was about -2 degrees Celsius. This made the tiled floor in the bathroom absolutely freezing. There was also a small sink next to the main sink and there was something wrong with the tap as it was running all the time. On the first morning I told the reception area this and asked them if they could fix it but when we checked out 2 days later on it was still not fixed.

The bathroom did not have that many amenities but there was an Essential Elements soap by the sink that had a lovely scent together with a moisturizing cream. There was also a shower cap and the towels were hanging on a heated rack which was a great treat as the bathroom was a bit on the cold side. The hotel also offers free internet which is appreciated of course. You do have to log in quite often by putting in your e-mail address but the internet connection was quite good.

Sleeping quality was not bad at all and the temperature was easily controlled with the air-con. There was a gap between the door and the floor and hence there was quite a bit of light streaming in at night.

The night before check out I called the reception and asked if we could get a late checkout.  We got 1 pm instead of 11 am which isn’t much but better than nothing. We did not have breakfast as the hotel breakfast was £21 which is a bit expensive when I only eat a bowl of muesli or oats. Our solution was to walk the few meters down the street where there was a Pret A Manger café.  The location of the hotel is quite good as it is located only a 5 minute walk from British Museum and it only takes a few minutes to walk to Tottenham court Rd underground station. It is also a short walk to the heart of Soho.

Conclusion
This hotel has a pretty good location and the room was larger than expected. There was a bit of communication issues between the staff members that led to a bit of waiting and confusion but all in all we got good service. From my experience you should not expect to get much recognition due to a Club Carlson gold card – it didn’t seem to help when it comes to room upgrading or late checkout. I still think it would have been great if they could offer e.g. free breakfast when you are a frequent guest. But all in all we had a comfortable stay at the hotel and I would not hesitate to recommend friends or family to stay at this hotel.

Regards
Gard
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