THE HOTEL

A two-minute walk from London Victoria train station, which links by train to Gatwick Airport (30 minutes), this 299-room hotel is ideally located for central London business trips, meetings and conferences.

FOR MEETINGS

Dedicated and self-contained conference facilities include 17 customisable meeting rooms. The largest, the Victoria Suite, can accommodate up to 500 guests theatre style. When combined with the Beatrice Suite and Victoria Lobby, it can accommodate up to 32 exhibition stands, making it a popular choice for conferences and exhibitions. For smaller meetings, the Executive Boardroom seats up to 15. The hotel holds the Meetings Industry Association’s AIM Gold accreditation and is a Green Healthcare accredited venue. 

THE ROOM

We arrived an hour before our meeting and were escorted to our room, which turned out to be two adjoining rooms – the Executive Lounge and the Elizabeth Suite, on the first floor. We had initially planned our meeting in the boardroom-style Elizabeth Suite but when we saw the more relaxed lay-out of the lounge area, with windows down one side giving lovely natural light, we decided to rearrange the furniture (a mixture of low-slung arm chairs, bucket chairs, leather footstools, high-backed chairs and coffee tables) and hold our meeting there. The boardroom, which also had natural light from a window, came in handy later when we had a break-out session. It came with bottles of water, paper and pens.

THE SERVICE

While we prepared the room by setting up our presentation (a simple plug and play), hotel staff came in several times to check everything was okay, while others brought in the refreshments – croissants and pain au chocolat – for our 11am start. When the rest of the team arrived, everything was already in place on the long bar area – pastries, teas, coffees, sparkling and still water – and all the attentive staff quietly slipped away. Their job was done and they left us in privacy.

THE VERDICT

We felt in good, capable hands from start to finish, which is crucial when planning a meeting or conference. The rooms were bright, cheery, comfortable and conducive for creativity and team-building. We particularly liked the flexibility of the lay-out and having the use of two adjoining rooms, which meant we could move from a more relaxed environment to something more formal and businesslike.

THE DETAILS

Average rate for the Elizabeth Suite is £700, including use of the Executive Lounge for breaks. radissonhotels.com