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Lowfield Heath: near the runway, far by road
The hotel is on Church Road at RH11 0PQ, in what is left of Lowfield Heath, the village the airport grew over. Its position is unusual. Measured in a straight line it is about a mile from each terminal. Measured by road, Radisson gives 3.9 miles to the North Terminal and five miles to the South, and describes the drive as under ten minutes.
Both numbers are true and the gap between them is the point. Lowfield Heath sits outside the airport's road network with no direct link in, so every vehicle loops around the perimeter to reach a terminal entrance. Walking is not an option despite the distance on the map.
One thing to be clear about, because the hotel's position invites the claim: this is not the nearest bed to the terminals. The Travelodge and the Holiday Inn at Povey Cross are both closer in a straight line, and the walk-to hotels at the terminals themselves are closer again. What Lowfield Heath gives you is proximity to the runway rather than to the doors, which is why the curtains matter more than the mileage.
The HB1: a bus route, not a hotel shuttle
Most Gatwick hotels run a private shuttle whose timetable exists only on the hotel's own page. The Radisson RED is served by something better documented: the HB1, a registered local bus route operated by United Minibuses, running as a public service between the hotels along this corridor and the airport.
The route is a loop. It starts at the Gatwick Manor, calls at County Oak outside the ibis Styles, at Langley Green outside the Crowne Plaza, and at Lowfield Heath outside the Radisson RED, then runs to the South Terminal bus station and the North Terminal at Stop 8 before returning to the Gatwick Manor to start again.
From the stop outside this hotel, the times that matter are these. Airport-bound buses leave at 03:50 first and 23:48 last, the last one reaching the North Terminal at 00:06, seven days a week, at intervals of about 42 minutes. There is one hole worth planning around: the 13:38 departure terminates at the hotel instead of continuing, so airport-bound service runs 12:56 then nothing until 14:14. A late-morning flight is fine; an early-afternoon one can catch you out.
The 03:50 start is the strongest argument for this hotel over the alternatives in the ring, and it is genuinely early. On fares, use Radisson's own figure: its contact page puts the bus from the airport to the hotel at £2 to £3. Several booking sites and parking agents quote £5 per person, which is roughly double what the operator says, so take the hotel's number. The airport transfers page sets it against the trains, coaches and taxis for the same trip.
Rooms and what is in them
There are 185 en suite rooms, fitted out to the RED brand's design-led standard rather than the plain airport-hotel template: a 49-inch smart TV with Chromecast built in, tea and coffee facilities, an iron and ironing board, and blackout curtains. That last item earns its place. This hotel sits close to an active runway, and the curtains are the difference between four hours of sleep and two.
There is a fitness centre on site and a buffet breakfast served in the mornings, though breakfast is priced by rate rather than bundled as standard, so read what your booking covers. For a hotel that trades on being a step up in style from the budget strip, the fittings are the reason to pay the difference; the location is not, since several cheaper beds sit closer to a terminal door.
Parking, and what the operator does not publish
Parking is available on site, and this is where the page has to be careful. Radisson publishes no nightly parking rate and no park-and-fly package on the hotel's own pages. Booking sites and parking agents fill the gap with £12 a day, and the figure is consistent across several of them, but consistency among resellers is not the same as an operator's price list. The same resellers put the bus fare at £5 when the hotel itself says £2 to £3, which is a fair measure of how much weight their numbers carry.
So take £12 as an estimate and confirm at booking. If a fixed, published parking price is what you are shopping for, the hotels that do state one are compared on the hotels with parking page, and the airport's own compounds, which publish rates openly and hold them for the length of a pre-booked stay, are on the long stay parking page. Where an operator stays silent on a number, the honest move is to say so rather than to import a figure from a reseller and print it as fact.
Who it suits
Book it for an early flight without a car. The HB1's 03:50 first departure covers check-in times no other hotel bus in this ring reaches, the fare is a couple of pounds rather than a shuttle premium, and at roughly 42-minute intervals the timetable is tight enough to plan around. Book it too if the room matters to you: at 185 rooms with the RED fit-out it is a more interesting bed than the A23 chains at a similar distance.
Look elsewhere if you are driving and want a published parking rate before you commit, if your flight falls in the early afternoon and the 78-minute gap makes you nervous, or if you want to walk to a terminal, because the road geometry here turns a short distance into a real drive. The full Gatwick hotel map covers the walk-to hotels at both terminals, and the Sandman Signature is the closest comparison on grade in the same ring.