Radisson Blu is a Finalist for Best Upscale Hotel Brand at the
2026 Travelling for Business Awards, and its bloodline explains the confidence: the brand descends from the SAS Royal in Copenhagen, the Arne Jacobsen-designed landmark widely regarded as the world's first designer hotel. Every element of that Copenhagen original was Jacobsen's work, down to the cutlery — an origin story the brand still designs by. That Scandinavian conviction — that good design is a service, not a decoration — still runs through every Blu lobby, and it has powered the brand to a position few rivals match: the upscale workhorse of European business travel, with a footprint stretching across the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
The brand's strength is where business actually happens. Blu flags anchor capital-city commercial districts and airport hubs from Scandinavia to the Gulf, and the newest generation doubles down on that logic — the
airport terminal hotel at Paris Charles de Gaulle placing premium rooms, meetings and dining directly inside Europe's great aviation crossroads, a location strategy aimed squarely at the schedule-compressed traveller. Meeting and events capability is a house speciality, from Nordic board retreats to convention-centre scale in Africa's fastest-growing markets, where the parent group's expansion keeps adding Blu flagships.
The brand also keeps investing in how travellers feel, not just where they sleep. Detours, a
campaign built to redefine the city break, repositions its urban hotels as bases for exploration rather than mere crash pads — a recognition that the modern business trip bleeds into the weekend, and that the hotel which serves both halves wins the booking. Add consistently strong food-and-beverage, one of the industry's more generous loyalty programmes through Radisson Rewards, and service standards with a distinctly Northern European calm, and the package explains decades of corporate contracts. The UK and Irish network runs deep — city-centre and airport flags across the major gateways — giving British travel programmes particular reach.
The nomination recognises a brand that made design a business tool and Europe its home turf — and that keeps converting that inheritance into new markets, new formats and new reasons to book. Winners will be announced at the 2026 Travelling for Business Awards, and Blu will attend in impeccable Scandinavian tailoring.
