Stay Report: Radisson Blu Scandinavia Hotel Gothenburg Junior Suite
The Radisson Blu Scandinavia Hotel Gothenburg has been under some serious renovation this year, as I described it on my last review that this property is "old,not just like well-maintained Hilton old,but express hotel quality with a four star hotel skin old.Yeah,I know.Sounds brutal,but it's kind of true."
Gothenburg is one of the most visited cities for Norwegians, especially in the summer. This Radisson property just happened to sit right in front of the central palace of the city. I included my request upon booking in the Club Carlson app(Which now called Radisson Rewards) to hoping for a fruit plate as welcome gift and if they have any inventories available, I would like a suite upgrade if possible.
As I wasn't sure of the parking capacity around the hotel, I rang up again and in addition to parking information, inquiry upon whether the potential suite upgrade is a go or no go. To my total surprise, the lady receptionist had a delightful voice and told me right away that they've put me in one of their Junior Suite.
Check in:
I wasn't sure whether the check in lady was the same person on the phone, but she asked me how's my travel here upon handling my booking. The hotel was still partially under renovation during my stay, so here's some practical information about my stay.
Original booked room: Business Class Room
Upgraded room: Junior Suite
Breakfast was the same as before, nothing has really changed. The gym and pool was closed and instead they offer guests coupons for the SATS gym a block away, which probably take around five minutes to walk there, including going through the popular shopping street.
The suite:
The guest room as mentioned is a junior suite which comes with a living room and a surprisingly big balcony. The Scandinavian furnishing style is elegant and trendy, but I can feel the level of cheap material they are using for the renovation here, everything from the sofa to the lamp is of light weight which I have to say it works fine, but surely saved them quite some money on the project.
The living room is relatively a small space but they managed to "cozied" all of those furnitures next to one another.
The door to the balcony which has a great view of the central plaza of Gothenburg. Maybe the balcony floor can use some new touch here? I am sure it would be amazing to sit there in the summer.
The view of the city centre square.
The TV comes with a new entertainment system as well which its features I will elaborate in the end of this post.
They made great use of the space around the bed and having the socket submerged as part of the desk is such a modern touch.
The bed was big and comfortable and you can roll around on it, also, I am also impressed by the amount of space around the bed, it's not normal to see in hotels these days, maybe due to the old building structure?
Amenities:
In addition to robes and flip-flops, they also prepared one extra pair of pillows and bedsheets. This is such a nice change being added to the hotel.
The safe fits my Mac nicely although I wish they could be bigger.
In addition to the same glasses, they've changed coffee cups which really match the style they are going with the whole room. Never have I had such feeling but when I saw those cups, I thought of me drinking coffee from the cup in a summer night and having the room as my background while I circle around dancing Waltz. I swear I don't know how to dance Waltz, but I literally thought of for a second during then. I even got a little weird out by the thought myself actually.
I would say that it's a rather poor selection of beverages they have for any hotel room mini bar, not to mention for a suite.
To my surprise, the welcome gift was indeed in my room this time, but I wouldn't say that one apple and pear looked tasty at all.
The new TV interface is now interactive and connected to the internet, they've also included Netflix and Spotify as you can see, however, you would still have to log in with your own account info here. Also it took quiet a while for the system to load and do the transition. Another cool feature with the TV is that you can use the monitor to point at the keyboard on the screen and type (pointing?) for searching. I didn't manage to do it with the monitor as effective as I can type on a computer.
The bathroom:
The bathroom is also nicely done as they actually put a piece of real fresh flower in the bathroom, the small square towel has also been folded in such delicate manner.
I really liked the new design they are having now, as it's modern and fashionable; however, I came across some hair in the towel placed at the holder behind the toilet. I called them and they sent someone to changed it shortly.
They combined shower and the bathtub together so you get both functions without having to separate them as they don't necessarily have the space to do so.
Bottom Line:
You will be surprised by the positive changes they've added to the hotel guest rooms, it is a huge step up from the former product they are giving out and charging people, I would very much to see what's their plan with the swimming pool as I will definitely coming back more willingly in the future. However, I do feel there are some parts they can do even better, but I can't make a crab walk straight, can I?
Are you planning to give this property a try any time soon?
