While not physically attached to the airport, it was still on the premises and a quick but chilly walk across the street from departures. With friendly staff and free treats in the lobby, it’s a serviceable option if transiting the airport but not if visiting the city.

View other posts in this series:

• Trip Introduction: A Birthday at the German Christmas Market
• Review: The Thompson Central Park NYC
• Exploring New York City with Kids
• Review: American Express Centurion Lounge – JFK
• Review: Singapore Airlines A380 Business Class JFK-FRA
• Taking the Train in Germany with Kids
• Review: Park Hyatt Hamburg
• Exploring Hamburg with a Family
• Enjoying the Hamburg Christmas Market
• Review: Radisson Blu Hotel Hamburg Airport (this post)
• Review: British Airways A320 Club Europe Business Class
• Review: British Airways Galleries North
• Review: British Airways 777-300 Club World Business Class
• Bonus: Video Review

I originally didn’t have plans to stay at this hotel and instead had us staying at the Park Hyatt for another night, but our originally booked flight was canceled a couple of months in advance and we were moved up to a 6:40AM departure. That seemed too rushed to make it in from the city center with the kids, so we opted instead to stay closer to the airport for convenience.

Booking

I originally had intentions of using some spare Radisson points on this booking, but quite literally the day I was prepared to make the booking (it took time to transfer points from the Americas program to the non-Americas program), I realized award prices had shot up through the roof during their 2022 devaluation. The cost for the award room shot up roughly double in price to about 120,000 points per night. No thanks. As a result, I ended up booking this stay using cash (264 euro room rate).

Normally this is where I would say you can open a credit card or earn some points to stay here, but Radisson is undergoing some changes (the Americas portion was acquired by Choice while the non-Americas portion seems to hate their customers by killing off any value in using points). Let’s just cut to the chase and say if you want to stay at a Radisson property outside the Americas region, it’s best to just use cash. Using points now feels akin to lighting them on fire, so transfer them to the Americas program while you can if you have any points left here.

Arrival and First Impressions

We arrived to Hamburg airport via the train. It took about half an hour to reach the airport from the city center. The train is located on the lower level near arrivals, so a quick elevator ride up got us to the departure level. There didn’t seem to be any signage within the airport that told us where to go for the hotel, but exiting the airport, it was easily noticeable where the hotel is located. It can be found across the street where airport parking appeared to be located, and is situated directly in between the two terminals.

Arriving in the hotel lobby, we quickly found the front desk along the righthand side. The front desk quickly got us checked us into our room. Another agent checking us in noticed we had small children in our party and offered them each a squishy ball as a check in amenity. It was a nice touch and gave the kids something to play with in the room. We also noticed they had a nice table across from the check-in counter with a few snacks. They even had a light breakfast here in the morning, perfect if you’re in a rush to get to the airport.

The Room

Radisson Blu has a “family room” available that allows for four people in the room. Really that just means it has two beds but it otherwise didn’t feel any larger than a regular room (meaning it felt cramped). And furthermore, they seem to have stuck this room type on the farthest end of the floor. It took a few minutes to reach the room from the elevator.

We arrived at our room (#363) and found the room a tad on the cramped side. The room is listed on their website as only being an extra three square meters over the size of the standard base room, which only houses one bed. On the bright side, there were plenty of power outlets located all over the room in convenient places. And they also have a desk, but it would have been nice if the chair fit underneath the desk when pushed in, especially given the lack of space in the room.

It seemed they understood there was a lack of space in the room by trying to provide storage hidden in other places, but I’d say it wasn’t implemented well. Take for example the luggage rack below. They installed it into the wall below the TV. But if you put your bag here, good luck actually watching the TV. Even while closed, there is an issue watching TV from the beds.

There is a small coffee maker provided in room and also a mini-fridge hidden underneath. Opening the fridge revealed two complimentary bottles of water (one sparkling, one still).

The restroom was located just on the left of the entrance but there were a couple of missteps here compared to other hotels.

• The shower glass doesn’t cover the tub, making it hard to stay warm while getting a shower.
• If the entire glass panel were fixed, you would have to get wet with cold water when turning on the faucet. So they attempted to solve for the problem by making a portion that swings open, allowing you to get closer to the shower controls. But this is actually a poor design for a family room as the kids would sometimes hold the swinging glass door for stability when getting in and out of the tub and then lose their balance. And then the glass door would hit the vanity, making me worried it would shatter.
• The tub walls are deceptively steep in certain places and slope in other places, making it easy to fall while in the shower. And if you fall, don’t use the shower door to hold you up as it swings in both directions.
• The toilet is located right behind the door, so no one better be using the toilet when someone else comes into the bathroom or you will be hurting.

For a room that bills itself as a “family room”, there are some decidedly non-family-friendly things about the bathroom.

The shower amenities were not labeled other than using the hotel branding. I would say the fragrances here seemed pretty intense, as advertised.

And then tucked behind the bathroom door and above the toilet is this little button and dial. The button didn’t seem to do anything when pressed, other than lighting up and indicating something was on. The dial took a while for me to figure out, but eventually it dawned on me when I was fiddling with the room. It’s actually a speaker linked to the TV so you can hear the TV while you’re in the bathroom. I’m not sure what they were thinking of here with this one. Is there someone out there who wants to listen to the TV while in the bathroom but cannot see what’s happening on TV at all?

In case you were wondering, views from the room were non-existent. Since the hotel curves around itself, you end up just staring at the other rooms with no view of the outside area. I’m sure rooms on the other side of the hallway had nicer views, but there wasn’t anything here for us to look at unfortunately.

Spending Dinner at the Airport

We debated eating dinner early in the city but thought it would have been uncomfortable dealing with our luggage. Instead we chose to eat dinner at the airport and thankfully there are a few restaurants landside, including a McDonald’s. We settled on a quick service restaurant next door. Many of the restaurants here are located on the third floor.

The airport seemed nicely decorated for the holidays with several lighted Christmas-themed decorations. The kids had fun running into and out of the giant ornament on the main floor. Being we were here in the evening, the airport was pretty quiet and peaceful.

The food here seemed of fairly decent value, especially considering this is at an airport. Since it was at the end of the day, they were out of a number of items, including all pastas, but the pizza was good and the pretzel with cheese was good. This was where learning a foreign language really paid off, as I knew what options he was telling me and what would work for the kids, but Jenn had a panicked look in her face on what was going on.

After dinner, we headed across to McDonald’s, which had a very tall play structure. The kids had fun running around, climbing up the towers and going on the two slides. One slide was in the hot air balloon and was a shorter slide designed for younger children. There was also a bigger slide inside the rocket that required a climb up a tower that probably would have scared me as I have a slight fear of heights. Despite it being high up on the third floor, Alex had no issues having fun here.

However, note that if you have a flight to catch, it’s a little inconvenient this play structure is before security as the lines for security can get pretty long, especially the priority line that doubles as the handicap line.

Odds and Ends

When originally booking the hotel, you could book the rate that includes breakfast for a modest upcharge. We didn’t given the early departure of our flight. But if you book the rate without breakfast and end up changing your mind, they do send out an email mentioning you can still pre-purchase breakfast. I believe the rates being quoted were higher than what could be found with the breakfast rate on the website, so it’s best just to choose that rate if you intend on having breakfast here. However, given they have a light assortment of snacks available in the morning, it might be worth skipping purchasing breakfast altogether if you’re a light eater.

I will say that it is convenient they offer the ability to have early check-in starting at 5AM or late check-out until 8PM. Depending on the timing of your flights into or out of the city, I’d say a 18 euro charge is money well-spent.

Recommendation: Only if you need an airport hotel

Most airport hotels tend to cater to those who need to be at the airport, which should be obvious. Some try to also appeal to guests looking to go into the city. I would say if you want to go into the city, you might as well book a hotel in the city. The family room is convenient to have everyone in the same room, but there are issues to be aware of in the bathroom especially if you have younger children. The airport does actually have things to do if you are not flying, so staying and dining the night before flying out actually doesn’t feel like too much of a waste of a night.

Have you been to Hamburg Airport? What are your experiences?