Radisson Blu Hotel, Bordeaux — Hotel in Bordeaux

We visited Bordeaux for our honeymoon, and specifically chose this hotel for a package which was offered on their site, the ‘relaxation’ package. The irony of the name, considering we had a far from relaxing experience. Firstly they had no idea about the type of package we had booked, which included a 30 minute massage and use of the spa. We went through at least 6 people back and forth between the spa and reception, none of them with a clue of what this package was, even someone suggesting that I hadn’t booked this type of package, despite showing the reservation. The best part? No management was about to help or rectify this problem. Thinking on it, we didn’t see a manager our entire visit. Eventually this problem FINALLY got sorted, and we got to have the massage on our MORNING of departure, we wanted to do it during one of our full days in Bordeaux, but we lost too much time chasing them for it.

The room was clean and spacious, but we had an issue with the smells coming up from the sewer in our original room, resulting in a room change. We had zero problem with changing our room, we appreciated it. We went down to speak with the morning staff about this, they offered us a room change, which we accepted. However we asked if they wouldn’t mind taking our case from our original room into the new one as we wanted to spend our day sight seeing, they said no problem. We came back from sightseeing and asked the afternoon staff if our baggage had been moved, they had zero idea of what we were on about, which clearly meant our luggage had not been moved. We explained the issue and they put us into a new room, so we asked to pop to our old room along the way to collect our case, they said no issue. We then got to the old room, and our bag wasn’t there! My husband went back down to the reception to speak about it, and went with the lady on reception to look for the case.

A brand such as the Radisson Blu is known around the world for many positive reasons, hence why we booked our stay here. I had a great stay at a Radisson in London in the past. I would not call the experience that we had here 4*, infact it was very subpar. We paid a decent amount of money for this hotel, to enjoy our honeymoon, which was sadly tainted by our experience here. It definitely was not worth the price, and the worst bit, we didn’t even have one APOLOGY for any of these problems, it just seemed they wanted us to pay the overly expensive price (which it wouldn’t have been if we had the experience which reflected the price), and go away.

Absolutely...

We stayed for 2 nights, as I had some points to use up before expiration, so we thought we'd stay in this area to go to Cite du Vin but also go on the tram into town. The location is pretty good, but our room, 222, is right above the gym. The main gym closes around 6, but after that there are private sessions all night long, until about 11 or 12 PM, and there's banging noises constantly, probably from weights being dropped to the floor or similar. And they start again at 6 in the morning. When we complained, it was a known issue... so why do you keep putting guests in that room, Radisson Blu??? Really disappointing in that respect only, apart from that, the hotel seems fairly quiet. We got another room for the second night, 422, which was better but still some banging noises although pretty faint, not like it came from next door. Maybe they keep these 'bad' rooms for reward nights only? If I'd paid for this stay, I'd be pretty upset. We won't come back to this hotel. It did take a lot of complaining to get a new room though, the receptionist acted like she didn't believe me, took me to the gym to show me it was shut. I had to go outside and walk around to see that there were still people in the gym mezzanine, showed the receptionist but all she said was that it was quiet right that moment. Poor service, but she did finally give me another room, although still above the gym but higher. Note that the Aircon wasn't functional because it's classed as winter time, so you cannot change the temperature or fan speed. There's a tiny window that can be opened for some airflow. The details in the toilet and bathroom are pretty poor, marks on the tiling, shower tray doesn't keep the water inside. After the first night, we put the 'please make my room' sign out, when we came back in the afternoon the sign had gone, but the room hadn't been serviced. We had to call the maid to get some fresh towels and coffee pods, so I don't know what sort of system they use to track which rooms...

We're currently at the hotel having booked a 4 night stay, check-in was poor we were given the wrong room number so could not get into the room, I went back to reception and was then given the right number. The room was warm and we struggled with the air conditioning, I called reception and was told they controlled there and that they would turn it on, 10 minutes later nothing, I called reception again and was told to wait another 10 minutes, 20 minutes later still nothing so I went to reception where they proudly showed me the PC screen saying the air conditioning was on and that i should wait another 20 minutes, at the same time i was told it could not be set lower than 20c as it was the local law. Eventually the person on reception agreed to let me see if another room was cooler it turns out it was and when he came to our other room he agreed it was warm, he did put it down to us opening the curtains, well of course we did as we wanted to see the view we were paying extra to see. We then decided to have a drink in the rooftop bar, my wife ordered a burger with no cheese, it came with cheese! Both my wife's burger and mine were supposed to have crispy bacon no sign of it. Twice we asked for water, nothing came, my wife then went to get some only to be told by another waiter that if she had asked he would have got it for her, she did ask, twice! Breakfast was ok, the room is ok, the shower is nice and the bed comfortable, our room has been serviced whilst we have been out but have come back to find the tea and coffee has not been replenished. The room also has a square box that could be a refrigerator yet it cools nothing, maybe its another local law we are not aware of? We now find we have the noise from the local bar playing loud music, we upgraded our room surely we should have been informed and the room should have better sound proofing, I cannot find any reason to recommend this...