Radisson Blu Hotel Addis Ababa

General Overview

Radisson Blu Addis Ababa is a five-star business hotel with 212 bedrooms and 10 meeting rooms located across one meeting floor. Meetings and events are described as moderately significant to the hotel's business offering. The property provides accommodation, meeting and conference facilities, a restaurant, business lounge, lobby bar and lobby terrace, together with fitness and spa services.

The hotel provides a video which can be accessed HERE

Location

Radisson Blu Addis Ababa is located in the Kazanchis business district, surrounded by a mixture of commercial and business organisations, residential properties and embassies. The venue specifically identifies organisations such as UNECA and GIZ in the surrounding area. Various tourist attractions like the National palace, Ethiopian Science Museum, Unity Park are listed as ‘nearby’ but are not overlooked by the hotel.

Delegates can access the hotel through group transfers, shuttle services, taxis and ride services. The hotel provides approximately 30–40 parking spaces in the basement. Coach pick-up and drop-off is available near the main parking entrance. The hotel provides airport shuttle services for guest pick-up and drop-off at an additional charge. The journey takes approximately 18 minutes and covers 6 km.

Design

The hotel is described as modern contemporary featuring a concrete structure, clean geometric lines, large windows, glazed sections and contrasting exterior finishes. Inside the design style can be desctibed as modern contemporary, with neutral colours, modern furnishings, polished flooring, decorative artwork.

Meeting Spaces

There are 10 meeting rooms located on one dedicated meeting floor. The hotel does not have a separate or private entrance for meeting delegates but does provide two main access points: one through the main lobby entrance and another directly from the basement parking area with lift access to the floors. 

The largest meeting room has a stated theatre-style capacity of 350 delegates with front projection or 200 people in cabaret style, while all meeting rooms are located on the same floor and some spaces can be partitioned. The facilities are suitable for conferences, corporate meetings, workshops and training sessions.

The lobby terrace can be made exclusive and is available for private functions, receptions and special gatherings.

Bedrooms

There are 212 bedrooms across eight accommodation floors, from floors 2 to 9. The categories are Standard Rooms, Executive Rooms and One Bedroom Suites. Standard rooms contain business-oriented facilities including a work desk, laptop safe, tea/coffee-making facilities, complimentary Wi-Fi, iron and ironing board and two bottles of water per day. Standard rooms also have a mini-fridge and bathrobes, both of which can be removed upon request.

Restaurant and Public Spaces

Verres en vers is the primary restaurant, located in the lobby and serving international and local dishes. It has capacity for 144 guests. The restaurant cannot be fully privatised so for events requiring full privacy, the venue recommends using one of its meeting rooms instead.

The lobby terrace can be used exclusively for private events and accommodates approximately 60–80 guests in a cocktail configuration or up to 60 guests for a seated dinner. The hotel also has a signature bar located in the lobby and a business lounge for Executive and Suite guests, with capacity for 32 guests and snacks available for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The questionnaire confirms that the hotel advertises an award-winning facility but does not identify the specific award.

Experience

The hotel reports experience in hosting a range of healthcare and life-science events, including medical conferences, healthcare seminars, workshops, medical association meetings and pharmaceutical meetings. It confirms that signed MSA agreements are in place with key healthcare agencies and that it works with healthcare and life-science companies.

Fitness

The hotel provides guests with a fitness gym and there is no pool. The hotel does provide spa services, including different massage treatments but these are chargeable and not included in any meeting package.

Radisson Blu Addis Ababa is stated by the venue to be a five-star hotel but its positioning is that of a business hotel, with meetings and events described as moderately significant to the business. It has 10 meeting rooms, healthcare and life-science event experience, signed MSA agreements with key healthcare agencies and links with healthcare and life-science companies. 

There are, however, several factors requiring consideration from a compliance perspective. The hotel promotes itself in relation to tourist areas or attractions. It also confirms that it advertises at least one facility as award-winning, although the specific award is not identified. 

The hotel also provides spa services, including massage treatments. 

The combination of five-star positioning, tourist-attraction promotion, award-winning messaging and spa services should therefore be retained as hotspot considerations when assessing the venue's overall compliance positioning.