Radisson Archives - TravelSkills

New hotels: Chicago, New York, Baltimore, Washington D.C.

May 28, 2016

The new LondonHouse in Chicago is at N. Michigan Ave. and Wacker. (Image: LondonHouse)

In news of hotel openings, a new Chicago property has a prime downtown location and an affiliation with Hilton; a big Spanish lodging group makes its U.S. debut in New York City; Radisson comes to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor; and there’s a new Homewood Suites at Washington D.C.’s convention center.

Right at the corner of North Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive – overlooking the Chicago River – is the newly opened LondonHouse Chicago, a 452-room “luxury lifestyle” property that incorporates the 93-year-old London Guarantee Building. The new independent hotel is a member of Hilton’s Curio Collection, and Hilton HHonors is offering members a 5,000-poont bonus when they stay at the hotel for three days or more. The hotel has a 24-hour fitness center, lobby bar, free Wi-Fi, a full-service spa, and a tri-level rooftop dining venue and cocktail lounge called LH. Guest rooms have 55-inch TVs with media streaming technology from Google Chromecast; they also feature mini-fridges, linen bedding and marble bathrooms. Rates start at $207.

Iberostar’s first U.S. location is at 70 Park Ave. in New York. (Image: Iberostar)

Spain’s Iberostar Hotels & Resorts has set a June 15 opening for a 205-room, four-star boutique Iberostar hotel in New York City, its first venture in the U.S. Located at 70 Park Avenue (at 38^th Street), it’s a short walk from Grand Central Station. The property was formerly a Kimpton hotel called 70 Park Avenue. We tried to check rates for the new property, but at this writing it wasn’t yet available in Iberostar’s reservations system. Iberostar said it also plans to open a hotel in Miami’s South Beach district at the end of this year.

A room at the Radisson Baltimore Downtown-Inner Harbor. (Image: Radisson)

Radisson has cut the ribbon on the 323-room Radisson Hotel Baltimore Downtown-Inner Harbor, at 101 West Fayette Street, half a mile from the Inner Harbor. It offers downtown Baltimore’s only outdoor rooftop pool, free Wi-Fi, a business center and 24-hour fitness center. Accommodations include Carlson Business Class rooms that come with upgraded amenities and free breakfast. Food and drink is available at the hotel’s Balto Tavern & Tap, which also offers a grab-and-go menu. Rates range from $95 to $249.

Hilton;’s new Homewood Suites in Washington D.C. is near the convention center. (Image: Hilton)

Hilton has opened a 160-unit, all-suite Homewood Suites property near the Washington D.C. Convention Center, at 465 New York Avenue NW. It has studio and one-bedroom guest accommodations that have separate living and sleeping areas as well as fully equipped kitchens. Guests get free hot breakfasts and free Wi-Fi along with use of the hotel’s fitness center. The property hosts an “evening social:” for guests on weeknights. Advance purchase rates start as low as $140.

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Another giant hotel chain sold to Chinese investors

April 28, 2016

A Chinese company is buying the Carlson Rezidor hotel group, which includes the Radisson Blu in Chicago. (Image: Radisson Hotels)

Although China’s Anbang Insurance and its partners ultimately lost to Marriott in a see-saw bidding battle for control of Starwood Hotels & Resorts, a different Chinese company has succeeded in buying another U.S. lodging giant.

Carlson Worldwide, the Minneapolis-based, privately-held firm that owns both the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group and Carlson Wagonlit Travel – a leading corporate travel agency group – said it has agreed to sell its hotel operations to China’s HNA Tourism Group, a division of HNA Group Co. – a giant conglomerate with holdings in hospitality, aviation, tourism, finance and online businesses.

The seller’s Carlson Hotels, Inc. unit has a number of brands including Radisson Hotels, Radisson Blu, the new Radisson RED, Park Plaza, Park Inn by Radisson, Country Inns & Suites by Carlson, and the Quorvus Collection, along with the Club Carlson rewards program.

The gorgeous view from my bathroom at the fab mid century modern Radisson Blu Royal hotel (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

The gorgeous view from a bathroom at the mid century modern Radisson Blu Royal hotel in Copenhagen (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

The acquisition also includes Carlson Hotels’ 51.3 percent controlling stake in Brussels-based Rezidor Hotels Group, which licenses properties for Carlson Hotels in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

In all, the Carlson group has 1,400 hotels in operation or under development in 115 countries. Since Carlson is privately held, the purchase price was not disclosed.

Carlson said that because the deal will mean a change in control of Rezidor, Swedish takeover rules require that HNA Tourism Group must decide within four weeks of closing either to initiate a public tender offer for the remaining 48.7 percent of Rezidor, or reduce its stake in that company to no more than 30 percent.

A Chinese firm that bought the Waldorf-Astoria is leading a new bid to acquire Starwood. (Image: Waldorf-Astoria)

A Chinese firm bought the Waldorf-Astoria in New York (Image: Waldorf-Astoria)

The company also said that after the closing, Carlson Hospitality Group CEO David Berg will stay on as CEO of the new combined organization, and that HNA Tourism Group has promised to keep the headquarters of the new organization in Minnetonka, Minnesota.

Berg said the combination of Carlson Hospitality with HNA Tourism “provides tremendous opportunities for growth…As part of HNA Tourism Group, Carlson Hotels will have an opportunity to advance our commitment to providing guests with hospitality worldwide.”

When a Chinese investment group purchased the Waldorf Astoria in New York last year, the U.S. President decided to take his business elsewhere. How do you feel about Chinese ownership of Radisson brand? Please leave your comments below.

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New hotels: London + Hamburg + Prague + China + Hyderabad + Jeddah + Lima + B.A.

July 24, 2015

A guest room at London’s newly reopened Lanesborough Hotel. (Image: Lanesborough)

In overseas hotel developments, a London classic reopens; Starwood’s Luxury Collection adds a pair of properties, and so does Hilton’s Curio Collection; Marriott and Hyatt add China locations; Radisson debuts in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; and Wyndham adds a Peruvian hotel.

One of London’s top five-star hotels, The Lanesborough, has reopened after an 18-month overhaul. The renovation of the 93-room hotel in Knightsbridge included all guest rooms and public areas, and gave the property a new restaurant called Celeste, offering French-inspired cuisine with British ingredients. Nightly rates at the Lanesborough begin at $1,100. Elsewhere in London, The former Hilton London Docklands Riverside along the Thames has been refurbished and rebranded as the DoubleTree by Hilton London Docklands. The 378-room DoubleTree is a short ferry ride across the river from Canary Wharf Pier; rates start around $280.

Seven historic buildings in the heart of Prague have been converted into the newly opened Augustine, a member of Starwood’s Luxury Collection. The 100-room property is within walking distance of Charles Bridge and Prague Castle. It’s the first Luxury Collection hotel in the Czech Republic. Rates start at about $350.

A room at the Reichshof Hamburg. (Image: Hilton)

In Germany, the renovated Reichshof Hamburg, an historic 278-room hotel across the street from Hamburg’s Central Railway Station, has opened as a member of Hilton’s Curio Collection — an affiliated group of independent properties that participate in Hilton’s reservations system and in HHonors. Rates begin around $175.

In the Middle East, the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group has cut the ribbon on the Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The 112-room Radisson Blu is on King Abdullah Road close to the Al Andalus and Al Salam shopping malls. It has an outdoor pool, fitness center and all-day restaurant. Rates start around $180 a night.

Exterior view of the Sheraton Hyderabad. (Image: Starwood)

The newest hotel in the Indian city of Hyderabad is Starwood’s Sheraton Hyderabad, a renovation of an earlier property. The 272-room Sheraton is surrounded by the corporate offices of multinationals, and is close to the HITEX Exhibition Centre and the Hyderabad International Convention Centre. Rates start around $100.

Luxury accommodations at The Grand Mansion in Nanjing. (Image: Starwood)

Nanjing, the capital of China’s Jiangsu province, is the site of The Grand Mansion, a newly opened member of Starwood’s Luxury Collection. The 158-room hotel on Chanjiang Road near the Presidential Palace has 15 suites and a 3,000-volume library as well as a tea lounge and a Chinese restaurant. Opening rates start around $175. Elsewhere in China, the 311-room Zhuzhou Marriott has opened in the central business district of Zhuzhou, which is close to Changsha, the provincial capital of Hunan. And Hyatt cut the ribbon on the 330-room Hyatt Regency Wuhan Optics Valley, 45 minutes from Wuhan’s airport in Hubei Province.

A room at the Anselmo in Buenos Aires. (Image: Hilton)

In Argentina, the 50-room Anselmo Buenos Aires — built as a mansion in 1906 along Plaza Dorrego Square in the historic San Telmo neighborhood — has become a member of Hilton’s Curio Collection. Rates begin at $139. And in Peru, the newly-built, 144-room Wyndham Costa del Sol Lima has opened in the capital city. It’s close to a number of embassies, the financial district and the Real Plaza Salaverry shopping district. Rates begin at $127.

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Hotel chains with fastest wi-fi ranked

May 27, 2015

Nordic Choice’s Comfort Hotel in Malmo, Sweden. (Image: Nordic Choice)

A new study from the website hotelwifitest.com finds that the lodging chain with the overall best Wi-Fi quality in guest rooms is not a U.S. company but a Scandinavian group.

The site examined Wi-Fi quality at 50 hotel chains worldwide and rated Nordic Choice in the number one spot. Nordic Choice has scores of hotels in the Scandinavian countries, most of them affiliated with Choice International brands like Comfort, Quality and Clarion. What’s more, it offers free Wi-Fi at all of its locations, the report noted. (The study also estimated what percentage of a chain’s properties offer free in-room Wi-Fi.)

How do they judge Wi-Fi quality? “A hotel judged as having adequate WiFi must provide an expected download speed of at least 3 Mbps (the Netflix recommendation for SD-quality streaming) and an upload speed of 500 kbps (the Skype recommendation for high-quality non-HD video calling),” the company said.

”WiFi Quality is expressed by the percentage of hotels that offer adequate WiFi quality in a given geographical area. This type of ranking is easy to understand, and it makes perfect sense from a practical standpoint. For most travelers, having super-fast and consistently stable WiFi is a great bonus, but their first priority is ensuring that basic quality expectations for Internet access are met.”

The Radisson Blu chain ranked second in Wi-Fi quality, followed by Marriott’s Renaissance brand, France‘s Mercure and Ibis groups, Scandic Hotels, InterContinental, Econo Lodge, Four Points, and Marriott Hotels.

Chains not on the list were excluded because they didn’t have enough tested hotels.

Following is the full list of chains.

	Chain name	WiFi Quality	Free WiFi
1	Nordic Choice	84.7%	100%
2	Radisson Blu	68.8%	95.2%
3	Renaissance	61.0%	30%
4	Mercure	60.7%	83.6%
5	Ibis and ibis styles	60.3%	84.2%
6	Scandic Hotels	57.6%	100%
7	Inter-Continental	56.3%	42.1%
8	Econo Lodge	55.3%	86.2%
9	Four Points	54.2%	79.5%
10	Marriott Hotels & Resorts	52.5%	18.1%
11	Hyatt Hotels	49.0%	100%
12	Sheraton Hotels & Resorts	47.1%	37.0%
13	Radisson	47.1%	93.8%
14	Sleep Inn	46.8%	88.8%
15	Novotel	46.5%	82.2%
16	Best Western	45.6%	91.8%
17	Quality	45.6%	87.9%
18	Hilton Hotels & Resorts	45.6%	26.0%
19	Crowne Plaza	45.1%	68.2%
20	Sofitel	43.9%	73.6%
21	Ramada	43.6%	86.6%
22	Comfort Suites	43.3%	89.1%
23	Westin	43.0%	25%
24	Super 8	42%	90.6%
25	Comfort Inn	40.2%	88.8%
26	Holiday Inn Express	37.3%	90.0%
27	Days Inn	35.8%	91.4%
28	Holiday Inn	35.5%	73.5%
29	Country Inn & Suites	35.3%	93.1%
30	Four Seasons	34.9%	43.5%
31	Courtyard	33.8%	93.1%
32	Residence Inn	33.5%	95.2%
33	La Quinta Inn & Suites	33.1%	95.1%
34	Wyndham Hotels	32.8%	85.3%
35	Travelodge	30%	91.3%
36	Staybridge Suites	29.6%	91.8%
37	TownePlace Suites	29.4%	95.0%
38	Doubletree	29.3%	61.7%
39	SpringHill Suites	27.7%	96.9%
40	Red Roof Inn	26.5%	98.2%
41	Hyatt Place	23.3%	100%
42	Fairfield Inn	19.4%	96.0%
43	Hilton Garden Inn	17.1%	97.1%
44	Candlewood Hotel	17.0%	85.7%
45	Motel 6	15.9%	43.8%
46	NH Hotels	12.0%	97.2%
47	Embassy Suites	10.3%	24.0%
48	Extended Stay America	8.8%	100%
49	Homewood Suites	8.8%	93.9%
50	Hampton Inn	8.6%	92.3%

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Are you still paying for hotel Wi-Fi?

April 6, 2011

Ask any business traveler about his or her biggest travel-related gripes and you’ll undoubtedly find hotel fees for in-room Internet access near the top of the list.

As much as travelers (and travel writers) squawk about how wrong it feels to have to pay for something that has become as basic to a hotel stay as hot water, the hotel industry has resisted – especially at the high-end.

But I think we might have reached a tipping point in the war against these fees.

Last week global hotel giant Carlson launched a new loyalty program which offers its members free Internet access at all Radisson Hotels worldwide, and at all Carlson brands in the US. That’s nearly 1,100 hotels. And the only thing guests have to do is sign up for the program; no elite status required (details below).

Thorsten Kirschke, COO of Carlson Global, said he’d like to eventually see free Internet access for all guests at all Carlson hotels, and this is the first step in that direction. (Radisson hotels in Europe already offer free access to all guests.)

This move shows that the idea of free hotel Internet access is moving up the food chain to higher-tiered hotels and across entire hotel brand families.

Most of the world’s largest hotel families, such as Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, Marriott and Starwood, charge for Internet access at their upscale brands, but do not charge for it at their budget brands. Best Western was the first to offer free Internet access chain-wide in 2004. (The exception is elite level members of some hotel loyalty programs, who now get it free.)

In addition to Radisson’s move, smaller upscale hotel chains such as Fairmont, IHG’s Hotel Indigo, Hyatt’s Andaz, Kimpton (US) and Omni (US) have moved to free access. Two big standouts at the top of the hotel heap are the ultra-luxe Peninsula and Shangri-La brands; both offer free in-room Internet at all properties worldwide.

So we are getting there. Our cries about fees for Internet access seem to have reached hotel company boardrooms and change is in the air.

In the meantime, here’s some advice to consider on the topic of hotel room Internet access:

Free access does not always mean fast access and in too many cases, business travelers get what they pay for. Now that business travelers are using a lot more bandwidth – to watch movies, or send and receive large files – hotels with older systems can get overloaded and slow down fast. If having a fast Internet connection is crucial, call the hotel before you book and ask the front desk if they get a lot of complaints from guests about Internet connections or speed.

Frequent travelers who always need fast Internet access should consider USB sticks or cards for laptops that provide access to new 3G, 4G or other mobile broadband networks.

Some hotels have moved to a two-tier system. Basic, low bandwidth wi-fi (good enough to check email or browse the web) is free. If you want to watch movies or videos, or interact on social networking sites like Facebook, you’ll have to pay a fee for more bandwidth.

What about you? Are you getting it for free more often than not?