I wanted to check out the Radisson to see if it’s a good points option for Puerto Rico. The stay accented both some of the negative and positive aspects of Club Carlson and their hotels. I was fully under the impression that the Radisson Ambasador Plaza in San Juan was a 4 star hotel. After the stay I looked it up on Expedia to find out it was a “3.5 star” hotel… and I’m going to go ahead and contest the extra “.5” given. It took me all of 1 minute to realize this is a 3 star hotel. I mean, I’ve stayed (and enjoyed) $10 a night hotels (well, home stays all over Asia) that were in worse condition… but those hotels don’t claim to be anything but cheap and don’t charge $100 or 38,000 Club Carlson points. However, the terrible check-in was more than made up for by great service. This is what those with Gold Status can expect from lower tier Club Carlson hotels.
First of all, as a Gold I was preallocated a room on the Ambassador Club floor and given access to the lounge and they gave two free drink vouchers. They consistently treat their Gold members well. However, the hotel was run down. I don’t say that to be picky. I read reviews of the InterContinental saying it was dated, and it was great. This was seriously dated. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve stayed at some very nice Radisson hotels. Most of them have “Blu” in their name but the Radisson in Panama was an example of a “normal” Radisson (meaning a Radisson without “Blu” in it’s name) that was in good condition. This hotel showed two things: (1) that some of the hotels in the Radisson brand are not up to par in conditions, (2) but they maintain surprisingly great service/loyalty.
Fail and redemption 1
As soon as I walked into the hotel I had an “oh-no” moment. After walking in the front doors I heard the roar of slot machines, extremely loud salsa music with dozens of senior citizens getting their salsa groove on. Not a joke. But to the side was the front desk. I realized that it was only quieter at the front desk but that the Casino was small and you wouldn’t be able to hear it from the room.
Either way the upgrade to the lounge was worth it.
Fail and redemption 2
The Club Lounge food/drinks were ending (at 7:30 p.m.) so we walked up to the room in a hurry to drop off the bags. But the room key didn’t work. We hurried back down and I told the same guy that checked us in that the room key didn’t work. As he was reprograming them he explained how to swipe the magnetic strip through the door.
*Blinks*
I explained that when I swiped the key the door neither turned green nor red – it just seemed dead. So he escorted us back up to the room, I’m not sure whether to show me how to use it or see if it was really broken. His swiping was equally futile so we waited outside the door for a bit while he went and got a maintenance man. We dropped off the bags and the original front desk agent, who kind of seemed embarrassed, escorted us to the lounge.
There he told us and the lounge manager that all our drinks were free (they charge for drinks at this club lounge bar) and he gave us extra free welcome drink certificates to be used in the bar. Honestly, kudos to that front desk agent. He handled the situation perfectly. I never complained, he preemptively diffused the problem. I really wouldn’t have been upset about a 5 to 10 minute wait in the hall, although a guest should expect a door to open when they swipe the key.
Besides the fact all our drinks were free and we got tons of vouchers for the restaurant/bar, the club lounge was not awesome. It had plenty of those mini-sub sandwiches and fruit filled quiches _?_ and drinks you could pay for (like any bar) and not plenty of seating. For instance the piano doubled as a table. Worth paying for? No way.
In short, the stay was actually good but the condition of the hotel is worn down to say the least. In need of renovation? No, beyond that. They should go head and rebrand this hotel a Park Inn. A Park Inn with a Club Lounge? Better to bring up the Park Inn brand than drag down the Radisson brand name. Right? If they renovated the building it would be a complete tear down, in which case, why not just build a new Radisson there?
I’m not saying don’t stay there, it was a good stay, but I will say it is neither worth $100+ nor 38,000 points.
Thank you for a timely review! I’ve been considering a short trip in San Juan within the next few months and using some of my Club Carlson points for this hotel….
I have to say, your blog is one of my favorite! Keep the awesome articles coming!
Thanks, I’m glad to hear that it’s a fav. :-p
Hopefully they’ll give you lounge access too if you’re a gold. Also, I didn’t mention that hotels have something like a 10% tax on hotels, which is very high and using points will avoid that extra expense.
Had a similar alergic reaction when visiting the Holiday Inn in Ponce, PR…. drove into the parking lot, in mid January, and it was PACKED…. but found out later it was not with hotel guests, but with hundreds and hundreds of senior citizen locals there to play on the wall-to-wall slot machines…. When you walk into the entrance of the Holiday Inn in Ponce, it’s depressing…. and a bit intimidating, with three big “tough guys” there to keep order at the entrance to the casino….. Didn’t like the atmosphere there one bit, not one bit. (and a shame, because the HI Ponce is in a gorgeous location — but the casino is destroying the ambiance) Similar casino driven story at the HI Mayaguez…. avoid that place like the plague. (that hotel has no view and is quite run down)