Stay Report: Radisson Blu Alna Oslo, Norway Junior Suite

Other Radisson Reviews:

Radisson Blu Alna is located at the east side of the city Oslo, which is known as an immigration heavy part of Oslo, although it has been changed a lot in terms of how people in Oslo choose to reside nowadays, the prenotion still exist.

The hotel is right next to a busy highway, it is said that this Radisson property is the fifth biggest hotel in Oslo. There is a bus stop behind the building as well as the subway station with around ten minute walking distance.

Seeing from the picture above, you'll notice that the building used to feature two different Radisson brands which today it has been merged into just one - Radisson Blu Alna. However, the hotel hasn't done anything in terms of renovation to the Park Inn part which means you can still see the old decor and signs in rooms on the right side of the building. I personally believe that they haven't done anything to try to merge two brands together other than just take off the sign outside the building.

Check In:

The staff was quiet robotic when comes to customer handling and it take her around ten minutes to find my reservation in the system, I believe that is a problem on her end as I booked directly with the app.

I was initially given a room of the Park Inn side, which is a very basic room features all the basic express inn amenities, I was not going to complain, however as I was quiet sick during the time of my stay, I've informed them of my gold status with Radisson Rewards and thus hoping to be changed to a room with a mini-fridge as I have medicine that needs to be cooled.

The receptionist lady on the phone hesitated for quiet a while, but I insisted on the importance of having a mini bar, she gave in eventually and told me that somehow she indeed found a junior suite is available, thus I happily grabbed my bags and went to the west side of the building.

First of all, I was quiet grateful for the suite upgrade, as it rarely happens with Radisson properties, the room itself is big, however I do see somehow they managed to leave out a large amount of space with no furnishing. This room is definitely not a typical junior suite compared with pictures from their websites, also, I've noticed there is just too much dust on all the surface of the furnitures in the room, so I believe this might be one of those weird cornered rooms they hardly put out to use if occupancy is not too high.

The Room:

Anyhow, a suite is a suite, although it does not has a bathtub, the mini bar is completely empty and the bathrobes and slippers are missing in the closet.(which I had to ask for it.)

The bed itself is nice but not large, also with only half of the nightstand available, the left side looked as if they've been just cut off, instead, they used this layer of yarn curtains which I believe might be of quiet poor taste, and do they even clean that thing?

The bed itself is comfortable however the yellow backrest's cover doesn't felt like something of good quality here either.

The TV is just mounted onto the wall which I am not going to complain too much, but it does looked insubstantial to other furnishings in the room.

Not too mention the crazy amount of floor space is just left there, it might not look too big on the picture, but I felt like I could just put another bed in the corner.

A view with the yarn curtains on, this genuinely doesn't put in the mood for anything, though I do agree some might find it mood-setting.

The pair of armchairs is placed in front of the closet and next to the desk, which means you have move them around (quiet heavy) when you need to use the closet or the desk to do work.

The mini bar is empty and I didn't really mind since I didn't had too high expectation for this property anyway, besides, this would be perfect for me to store drinks bought at grocery stores.

The desk is quiet decently set as you do feel this might be the only practical placement of furnitures in the room. The window on the right doesn't necessarily bring mesmerising views, but you do get to see some green which can be quiet nice.

Amenities:

Maybe I've been too hard on them here, as when comes to the amenities in the room, they do offer quiet many things even though I haded to ask for slippers and bathrobes, the staff wasn't quiet pleased when I asked for it, but he did delivered.

In the closet comes with the ironing board and laundry bags etc.

You have a normal sized safe as well as some glassware which is definitely not clean, but that's okay, I will just clean it again myself.

Some dust or sign of usage on the cupholder. (Are they just trying to recycle here?)

I have to say the Espresso machine is quiet a nice touch here.

The Bathroom:

As I've noticed, there is no bathtub in the junior suite, but everything else looked fine, although the tissue dispenser made of plastic looked extremely cheap.

The standard Radisson Blu amenities, although I am starting to get tired of it.

Decent stock of towels.

The Breakfast:

I was quiet interested in the breakfast buffet offerings so I woke up quiet early in the morning, but only finding out that although they have many varieties, everything is of extremely low quality there, the watermelon pieces was already smashed which tasted like it has been sitting there for many days, the beverages were poorly done as well, I even regret getting up to get something like that.

Bottom Line:

With all this critics, I would like to say that the price of the nightly rate is quiet cheap in a city like Oslo, so if you know what you are getting, and would like to save some money in a pricy city like Oslo, and wouldn't mind take the bus or subway for around one hour from the city centre, can bear with some passive aggressive staff treatment, go ahead and stay here, other than that, I am never coming back to this Radisson property.

P.S Normally I would call and ask about the in room welcome gift, but this time, since the staff was already getting moody towards my requests from what should've already be in the room, I decided not to insist on it, what you guys think about this? I am actually in every right to ask them about it, but due to their poor treatment towards "demanding" guests, I was scared off in this case.

Ratings:

Check In Experience: 5.4/10

Staff Experience: 5.2/10

Breakfast Experience: 4.7/10

Radisson Rewards Experience: 5.6/10

Room Comfort: 6.5/10

Overall Experience: 5.48/10