Trip Report – Radisson Blu Edwardian – Guildford, Surrey – UK

This is part eleven of a fourteen part trip report from my travels to the UK, Malta, and Mallorca. This picture trip report includes my stay at the Radisson Blu Edwardian in Guilford, which is located about 40 minutes outside of London.

• Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse Newark (EWR)
• Virgin Atlantic Upper Class Newark (EWR)- London Heathrow (LHR) on Delta SkyMiles!
• Star Alliance Business Class Lounge: Terminal 1, London Heathrow
• Lufthansa Economy Class London Heathrow (LHR) – Munich (MUC) – Malta (MLA) – Frankfurt (FRA) – LHR
• Lufthansa Senator Lounge Munich – Terminal 2, level 4, departures G, opposite gate G28
• Lufthansa Business Lounge B Frankfurt – Terminal 1, departure area B (Non-Schengen)
• The Westin Dragonara Resort, Malta
• Monarch Airlines Economy London Luton (LTN) – Palma de Mallorca (PMI) – LTN using Avios!
• Beach House by Meliá, Magaluf Beach in Calviá
• Le Méridien Piccadilly, London, UK
• Radisson Blu Edwardian, Guildford, Surrey, UK
• Hilton London Paddington, London, UK
• SkyTeam Lounge London Heathrow (LHR) Terminal 4
• Delta Airlines BusinessElite London Heathrow (LHR) – JFK

I was working in Guildford and the Radisson Blu was the most convenient hotel to work and the only chain property in the area. The hotel is new to Guildford and the rates are a bit steeper than the non-branded properties. Rates were GBP 121.50 for a non-refundable standard room, GBP 135 for the same standard room at the best available rate, 44,000 points for a standard award, or 66,000 points for a premium award.

I reserved a standard room and was hoping for an upgrade with my Club Carlson Gold status…though I wasn’t expecting one based on my previous Radisson Blu experiences and lack of loyalty recognition. Not surprisingly, upon check-in I was given a standard room and was told that upgrades could only be processed by the hotel manager who was no longer on duty and that I could ask again the next morning.  OK… off to the room through the modern and fun lobby.

There’s a library, an outdoor seating area with bar and food services behind the front-desk, a separate bar and restaurant outside the main door, and several comfy seats throughout the lobby.

The room was nice but TINY…

The bathroom was also nice and seemed clean…except for the toilet. Now, I don’t know if you can see it if you click the picture below, but the toilet looked clean on the surface but had a ton of “guck”. I flushed the toilet a few times but it didn’t go anywhere. I called downstairs and they immediately brought up a key to another room. Five doors down and the same “guck” in that toilet. The employee from the front desk was truly embarrassed and asked me to wait in the room while he talked to his manager (I thought he wasn’t back till the next day…). Back upstairs he came with another key for a deluxe room two floors higher. Up we went…but the “guck was there too”. At this point I was done moving rooms and put my bags down.

Well, at least I got that upgrade. The room was much larger with a King size bed (instead of the queen) and different decor…

Multiple outlets on both sides of the bed and at the desk, including a standard US outlet.

There were excellent shower heads with pretty good water pressure…

there’s the “guck” again…

Now, I think for everyone, but especially those with a blog, internet is a requirement in any hotel. The Radisson Blu has free internet for all and it was HORRIBLE.  The mornings weren’t so bad, but anytime between 6-11pm resulted in an extremely slow connection (we are talking slower than dial-up) or simply a failed connection. Several nights the internet went down completely with no wifi signal even being transmitted. I spoke to the front desk on numerous occasions and they  would tell me that they could see the wifi connection on their iPhones and that it was up. That is until I went downstairs and had them try to access a webpage or email…a complete fail. Each time they were going to “contact the IT support team in London” but nothing ever changed. On several occasions I had to walk to the McDonalds, KFC, Starbucks or Subway down the street to get online. Not acceptable! I’m actually having a similar problem currently at the Hilton Old Town Prague. I can get online but it’s just extremely slow, more on that in a future review.

Guildford is the county town of Surrey, England and is situated 27 miles southwest of London. It’s about a 39-42 minute train ride or about an hour in the car during rush-hour. High Street has some nice restaurants, while the town has a castle and some quaint shops. Not bad for a few nights but you’ll most likely get bored after more than a night or so.

In any case, I liked my room (after being upgraded..the standard was really small), the bathroom (minus the guck) and the convenient location to work and the train station. Walking to the station to get into and out of London really wasn’t bad at all.