Radisson RED Heathrow: the design-led half of a split Bath Road hotel

Radisson runs four hotels around Heathrow and they are easy to confuse, because they carry versions of the same name on versions of the same road. Settle which one you have booked before you order a taxi.

The first two are not neighbours, they are one building. Both were the Park Inn Heathrow until 2020, when a refurbishment split the site into a 258-room Radisson RED and a Radisson Hotel and Conference Centre of more than 600 rooms, around 858 between them. They share the lobby, the restaurant, the bar and the Pace club, which is why the RED's address carries a building letter and why the same Hotel Hoppa routes call at both names. Booking the RED gets you the design-led rooms and an executive lounge; it does not get you a separate hotel.

The Radisson Blu Edwardian is the genuinely separate one, at UB3 5AW further east at the Hayes end of the Bath Road, and it is the hotel most people mean when they type Radisson and Heathrow into a search box. It is a different product at a different price: the Blu Edwardian is the upscale one with the Pegasus Health Spa and two restaurants, and the RED is the four-star with a pool you pay extra to use. Quote the word RED and the UB7 0DU postcode to a driver, because the two postcodes are the only reliable discriminator.

The address is Bath Road, and this is the western stretch of it, out towards Harmondsworth and the M4 junction rather than opposite the central terminals. Do not read that as being close to Terminal 5. Terminal 2 and Terminal 3 are the nearest terminals, roughly a mile away; Terminal 5 is about 4 miles by road, because getting there means going round the airport perimeter rather than across the middle of it. The compensation is that the motorway is close, which makes this an easy hotel to reach by car. It is not a walkway hotel, and nothing on this stretch is: the A4 is a fast dual carriageway with no pedestrian route into a terminal worth attempting with a bag.

The Hotel Hoppa is the branded shuttle for the corridor, and the RED is unusually well served by it in both directions. Routes H2B and H2C run to Terminals 2 and 3, and route H5B runs to Terminal 5. That second one is what rescues the distance: a T5 passenger gets a direct shuttle rather than a ride to the central terminals and an inter-terminal transfer on top, so the 4 miles cost time rather than an extra leg. Fares are £7.00 single and £13.00 return per adult, with a group ticket covering up to four passengers at £20.00 single and £36.00 return. For two adults and two children the group ticket is the one to price first.

The cheaper option is the one the Hoppa would rather you did not know about. The local Transport for London buses run the Bath Road into the central bus station between Terminals 2 and 3 at £1.75 a journey with contactless, which is about a quarter of the Hoppa fare for a solo traveller with one bag. The trade is more stops and a slower ride, and it is the wrong call at 04:00 with a family and hold luggage. Terminal 4 is the exception either way: no Hoppa route from this side reaches T4 directly, so a T4 departure means riding to the central terminals and transferring. Build in the extra half hour.

There are 258 rooms, finished in the RED brand's louder, more graphic style rather than the neutral palette of a standard airport four-star. The brand positioning is design-led and informal, and the public spaces carry it more than the bedrooms do; the rooms themselves are comfortable and modern rather than radical. Air conditioning, laptop-friendly work space and 24-hour room service are standard across the floor.

The specification worth knowing about is the glazing. The rooms are triple glazed for soundproofing, which on this stretch of road is a real feature rather than a brochure line: the hotel sits between a fast dual carriageway and a motorway junction, with the airport on the other side. Guest complaints about noise here tend to name the road rather than the aircraft, so if you sleep lightly, ask for a room away from the A4 side when you check in. It is the cheapest upgrade available and it costs nothing.

Pace Health Club is the fitness and wellness floor, and it is the main reason to pick the RED over a plain budget bed near the same junction. It holds a gym with treadmills, free weights and machines, a heated indoor pool, a sauna and a steam room. Very few Heathrow hotels at this price have a proper swimming pool. Two qualifications, though: the club is shared with the Radisson Hotel and Conference Centre in the same building, so it serves around 858 rooms rather than 258, and it is therefore not a point of difference against that sibling at all. On a full conference night, expect company.

The bigger catch is the pricing, and it is the sort of thing that belongs on the page rather than in the small print at check-in. The dry gym is free to guests. Access to the pool, sauna and steam room is £5.00 per person, which includes one towel, with additional towels at £2.50. The charge applies to every guest including children, so a family of four swimming before a flight is £20 on top of the room, not free use of a hotel facility. That is not outrageous, but it does change the comparison: the Sheraton Skyline and the Marriott both include their pools in the rate, and if a swim is the reason you are choosing this hotel, price the extra in before you decide.

The car park is on site and close, under 30 metres from the entrance, with two entrances and CCTV cover. That is better than it sounds at an airport hotel, where the car park is often a walk across a service road with cases.

On price, the honest answer is that Radisson does not publish a nightly parking rate for this hotel on its own pages, so no figure is quoted here. Third-party park-and-fly resellers do quote rates, but those are bundled package prices from a reseller rather than the hotel's own tariff, and the two are not interchangeable. Confirm the charge when you book direct. If the plan is to leave the car for a week or a fortnight rather than a night, a nightly hotel rate is the wrong shape in any case: price a park-and-fly bundle or a pre-booked airport car park instead, and the package comparison sets those against each other. Park & Ride is usually the cheaper base for a long trip.

For electric cars the provision is better than most of the corridor manages. Radisson lists 22kW Type 2 destination charging, for which you bring your own cable and pay through the Monta app, alongside rapid charging at 150kW with cables supplied at the hotel, described elsewhere as two units carrying four sockets between them. Treat the exact socket count as approximate, and note that the car park is shared with the Conference Centre next door, so the bays serve the whole 858-room site rather than this hotel alone. Arrive expecting to queue at peak. The wider picture on charging at the airport is on driving to Heathrow.

Book it if you are driving in off the M4 and flying from Terminal 2 or Terminal 3. That is the combination it serves best: the motorway is close, the car park is next to the door, and the nearest terminals are about a mile away with two Hoppa routes covering them. It works for Terminal 5 as well, thanks to the direct H5B, as long as you accept that T5 is 4 miles round the perimeter and leave accordingly. It also suits anyone who wants a pool and a gym at a four-star price, and anyone charging an electric car overnight.

Look elsewhere if you want a spa rather than a swim, where the Blu Edwardian has the Pegasus Health Spa, or if a busy shared lobby and a shared pool would bother you, because the Conference Centre in the same building puts several hundred more guests through both. Look elsewhere too if you want the cheapest bed near the junction, where an ibis or a Premier Inn will undercut it without the pool, or if you are flying from Terminal 4, which needs a transfer from here whichever way you go.

The summary is a well-placed four-star with louder rooms than its neighbours and a genuinely useful pair of Hoppa routes, let down slightly by facilities that are shared rather than its own. Add the £5 a head for the pool before you compare it with a hotel that includes one, and it still holds up.