Road Warrior Tested: Radisson Blu Hotel Sydney
By: Darren Booth
I've been in Australia for a couple of weeks, traveled across the country and have been spending most of my time staying with a friend. Being a hotel fanatic, however, I did book into a few and bring you a review of the Radisson Blu Sydney for this installment of "Road Warrior Tested."
Date/Duration of Stay: July 26, one night.
Room Type: I booked an Atrium Room for my stay, the lowest-category room type offered. But I was upgraded to a Premier Room at check-in for being a Gold member of the Club Carlson hotel loyalty program. A detailed description of the room is below.
Rate: I used 50,000 points from my Club Carlson hotel loyalty program account for this stay. The regular rate would have been $270 Australian dollars, or about $283 U.S. dollars.
Location: Located in the central business district in the heart of downtown Sydney, the harbor (sorry, Aussies...harbour) was a short walk away, as well as other major city attractions. Wynyard or Circular Quay train stations are also very walkable distances.
Building: The Radisson Blu Sydney — formerly called the Radisson Plaza Hotel — is a historic Renaissance Pallazzo-styled 12-story building built between 1922 and 1929. Originally the home of local newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald, it became the Bank of New South Wales in 1956 until Radisson converted it into a hotel in 1998.
The building is classified by the National Trust of Australia and is protected by a Permanent Conservation Order under the New South Wales Heritage Act.
Room Details: I was booked into room 513 and was immediately impressed with its unique design and layout. The bathroom was a pace or two to the immediate right of the door when entering (description below). Walking around a column-of-sorts into the main part of the room, the extra tall ceilings made its semi-rectangular layout seem even more spacious.
It was definitely larger than your "standard" U.S. hotel room and it offered a huge amount of space on both sides of the king-sized bed. A lounge chair, lamp and small table were at the far end of the room. Across from that area was a flat-screen HD television sitting atop a compartment housing the well-stocked minibar along with other pull-out drawers filled with dishware and a coffee service tray.
The other side of the room featured a large glass-top desk, complete with complimentary wired or wireless Internet access, a telephone, lamp and a side table stocked with hotel letterhead and envelopes.
Of the two bedside tables, one opened up to reveal the in-room safe (large enough to house my 17-inch Apple MacBook Pro). The bed itself was incredibly comfortable.
Three large windows overlooked Pitt Street and had both darkening curtains and translucent, vertical drawstring shades.
