Radisson Plaza-Warwick Philadelphia turning Radisson Blu Philadelphia

We’re currently at the Radisson Plaza-Warwick Philadelphia and having a pleasant stay. It’s a beautiful building with decently sized rooms. It was actually low on my list of hotels in Philly but the SPG promo sucked, the best IHG hotel was a Holiday Inn, Hyatt wasn’t running any promos at all, and the Hilton and DoubleTree closed their executive lounges for the holidays. So hesitantly I decided to give the Radisson Warwick a shot, but glad I did!

Unfortunately, but not too surprisingly, my Gold membership has done little to increase value – never once given access to the concierge lounge, or breakfast, or anything like that. A room upgrade pretty consistently but of no real value (I guess I mean food). But for this stay I booked some rooms for my wife and I, and 5 other friends and Gold status actually paid off.

First off, I was offered to be upgraded to a concierge level room but turned it down to stay on the same floor as friends purely because their lounge is also temporarily closed. Still, the fact that I was told that elites (including Golds) are typically preallocated to these rooms a day or two before, made me optimistic. Cudos. So instead they gave all 7 of us drink coupons and breakfast coupons. Pretty satisfying seeing how I never get anything out of my Gold status.

On another note, they are doing some renovations over the next few months and will be opening a new lounge. Also, they are rebranding the hotel as a “Radisson Blu”. This is interesting to me because the hotel has so much history and respect. Warwick has been a quality hotel in Philly since the 20s, starting out as a hotel for the elites: it had elevators! This goes to show that Radisson Blu is going to be a name that is more well known for luxury, a name more powerful than any local history. Really, I think Radisson Blu is trying to be as “Park Hyatt” is to  the Hyatt brand (not the same league, but still). Blu is a hotel that has class and is constantly being updated – that’s what the Warwick adds to this brand.

To sum it up, 1) Philly actually treats Gold members well. And 2) Radisson Blu is continually growing it’s value and therefore increasing the value of my Club Carlson points. Keep up Radisson!