First Look at the Newly Renovated Radisson Hotel & Suites Downtown Austin

The Radisson in Austin is one of the best locations in Austin, but they’ve been getting killed on TripAdvisor for being an older hotel in need of renovation. Right now they are in the middle of a renovation of the rooms and they finished floor 12 – the highest floor. Lucky me, on my third reservation I got a newly renovated room.

I’ll talk about the location, the room, the rest of the property, service, and the benefits (or lack of) for Gold members. I personally paid 44,000 points for the hotel, although cash rates have been around $300+ for non-renovated rooms.

The Location

The Radisson’s best feature is the location. The view of the river is phenomenal, but the other side would be a view of the city, which would also be cool. But the hotel itself sits on what would be first street (Cesar Chavez) and the main road through town, Congress.

I can walk to any of the sites from the hotel but what’s really neat for a long stay is that I’m right on the river. There are amazing parks along the river and a “bike & hike” walkway all along on both sides. We’ve made it up and down multiple times in the first day even.

Basically, you’re in the city and at the serene river getaway.

The Newly Renovated Room

They gave us a newly renovated room as an “upgrade for being a gold member” and while it’s a huge step in the right direction… I think they are still going to get slammed on TripAdvisor. As soon as we walked in Carrie said exactly what I was thinking, “I can’t believe they didn’t do anything about the carpet or curtains”.

Really the big renovation is that they added a cool headboard to the bed and a photograph of a guitar. One small vain part looks really modern, and the rest still looks old.

I almost feel like Radisson’s corporate motto is “keeping the design of the 90s alive”. There are a few exceptions, I said that the Radisson Blu Vienna was incredible and the Radisson Blu Budapest was stuck in the 1970s…but when I think about other Radisson hotels we’ve stayed at recently (Bangkok, Narita Tokyo, Panama City, San Juan, Orlando, New York, Muscat, and many many more), I think about the 90s.

I mean look at the logo.

Anyways…

I just feel like the hotel was in huge need of a renovation, so they started hanging artwork. The dated bathroom is the same, the carpet and the rest of the room is the same. Better work desk, better cabinet, better headboard… same room!

The truth is, I like the room. There’s nothing wrong with it and nothing to complain about. I just believe that they are going to get the same complaints.

The only thing I actually can’t stand is the sleep-number-thingy bed. It is a glorified air mattress. The “setting” is completely different when Carrie get’s out of bed, as I suddenly sink in.

The Property Itself

The pool is another amazing feature as you overlook the river. The serenity is completely lost considering that you are swimming next to the busiest bridge in Austin. The sound is of traffic. If they could get a sound barrier, it would be heaven. It’s a salt water pool, but seemingly still has chlorine. Is this a thing?

It’s certainly a tiny pool, but it’s a wonderful area to relax (minus the sound of traffic) and the water was the perfect temperature.

Changing room or a locker room? Nope. You just have to walk through the lobby wet I suppose.

In general I find the hotel to be a good 4 star standard. Everything is clean, maybe slightly older decor. The bar/pool area is more modern, and I hear the food is great, but never tried it.

The internet was painfully slow during SXSW and now seems to be much faster. No idea if it was the amount of people using it, or if our room was further from a router.

Benefits for Gold Members

I mean, what do you really get as a gold member? You aren’t guaranteed breakfast, and they certainly don’t give it. You get the benefit of an “upgrade” but the upgrade is to a river view instead of a city view.

But I did ask because I read on flyertalk that people have been upgraded to a room with club lounge access (as we’d at least get free breakfast). They said they do when they have those rooms available but it’s sold out. I don’t know why hotels say things like this, but the hotel as of the day of writing this seems to have every room type available – including suites – but on no date do I see executive club rooms available.

Therefore no lounge, possibly at all? The room you could be upgraded to is either a riverside room or a suite, and despite having a ton of suites for sale, they didn’t give us one.

So I would assume that as a gold you’ll get a riverside room without breakfast… or anything else. If you’re looking for your top tier benefits like upgrades, breakfast and lounge access, stay at the chains that offer those.

Nothing to complain about really, it’s just how the Club Carlson program is. They guarantee you very little. In Europe I consistently got upgraded to business class rooms (in Brussels, Amsterdam, Krakow, etc…) where the main benefit is breakfast and they didn’t give me breakfast. I’ve never complained about it as it’s the program rules I’m playing by.

Overall

Personally, I assume that we’ll return to austin and we’ll return to the hotel. I care much more about location than I do service.

If you are looking for a 5 star hotel, this is not it. It’s the service of a Holiday Inn, rooms from the 90s, 1 piece of brand new artwork, and a phenomenal location.

I didn’t really touch on service, but there’s nothing to mention. When I need something, they are consistent.

My only service complaint is how they’ve handled our back to back reservations. We’ve moved rooms 3 times in one stay. Any other hotel would see my last name back to back and put me in the same room. But it’s as though they just didn’t think about it. And then upon changing rooms I was informed that I owed $71 for the stay… “But I used my points”, and then she just never brought it up again.

This review might have been a little critical, but that’s mostly the shock in how the same the renovated rooms are. Nothing bad about them, and it would have been the hottest room in town in the early 90s. But the truth is, the hotel is my style. It’s laid back and in a great location. I know a lot of people dig the 5-star service of someone taking your bags to the room and what not, but I don’t. I’m a 3-star service guy, just because it’s less awkward.

So in summary. The best location in Austin, in my opinion. Overlooking the river but downtown. As a gold member, I was referred to as a “VIP” but the benefits for said “VIP” I’ll list in full below: