Radisson Blu Hotel, Glasgow — Hotel in Great Britain

Best thing about the hotel are employees Duncan & Hannah in reception and Alex at the front door! These employees are exceptional and really care about the customer experience. Duncan answered all my questions and helped me over my 4 day stay with a truly helpful customer oriented attitude. He was kind and generous with his time. He should be supervising if he isn’t already. Alex at the front door helped me with directions several times and was always kind and helpful. Hannah helped me when I called and asked what our tour guide had written on the board for those of us on the tour. She set the phone down then told me precisely what the board said and I really appreciated her for the excellent service as I needed those details! Bravo to Duncan, Alex and Hannah. All easily 5 star employees. Restaurant at the hotel: delicious breakfast buffet, a multitude of choices and a very helpful and engaging staff. 5 stars for the restaurant and staff. Room was clean but climate control very annoying, extremely loud fan and ran hot definitely detracted from the room’s comfort. Cleaning staff did a superb job. Room was good EXCEPT absolutely no TV for the entire 4 days of my stay. Their excuse was that they were trying to fix the satellite. That was very disappointing that they couldn’t manage to get it fixed over the course of 4 days. I spoke with others in my group who were equally disappointed. They lose points for that and the next experience that I’m about to share. Now onto an unsatisfactory experience bc we must find balance and unfortunately, there was an employee who was completely Unpleasant & unhelpful: The tall dark long-haired lady (I believe her name starts with an ‘A’ it was a short name at reception was always aloof to me and unhelpful. I went to get my room re-keyed and had a question about charges. She is quite transparent in how she obviously doesn’t care to help the customer. Very unwelcoming and aloof. She really shouldn’t be interfacing with customers as she’s not at all helpful and made me feel like she was doing me a favor doing her job. She assured me that a couple of charges for services that I’d added on and didn’t use would be reversed, they were not and I had to email staff once I received my final bill. Also, she didn’t offer to re-key both room keys - I had one with me she said ‘if you find the other one you can come back.’ She’s completely unhelpful and left me with an unpleasant customer experience. Put her in an office position not interfacing in person with the public. Please note that the ‘5 stars in service’ pertains to Duncan, Alex, Hannah and the restaurant staff. Cleaning staff get 5 stars.

Guests know who’s on their side and want to help. Bravo to hotel superstars that I mentioned who went above and beyond in the name of good customer service.

Hotel would have gleaned a complete 5 star review had the climate control, satellite tv and the unhelpful woman at the front desk not have been a part of my experience. I hope they will take steps for improvement for the benefit of...

Well where do we start?!

We stayed for 1 night on August 18, 2024.

THE GOOD

The hotel location is great and this hotel is one we have stayed at many times when visiting Glasgow. The rooms are lovely, the beds are super comfy and the bathroom is very relaxing.

THE BAD

What let this hotel down on this occasion was the "hotel manager". She called herself Irene. This lady was THE most awful staff member we have ever come across. Let me break this down but before I go into detail, I should say she should absolutely never be customer facing. She requires further customer service training. I'm even doubting she was the manager judging by her behaviour.

We arrived at the hotel early evening. We were being checked in by Irene and she asked for a £50 security deposit. In the past we have refused to leave this as we pay as we go. Irene insisted we paid it and said it was for damages. £50 is not going to go far for damages but that wasn't the actual issue. The issue was, we had paid in full for a premium room upfront and were denied our stay unless we paid the £50 security deposit. It was myself and my husband checking in. Irene became very confrontational and so did her colleague who decided to come over and assist with applying pressure at if he were her bodyguard. Irene ushered him away but continued to say "I cannot check you in unless you pay the £50". This is when it became even more upsetting. We asked Irene where we were supposed to sleep and she said "I don't know, I cannot check you in and I'm just doing my job". When I told her our payment for the premium room was non refundable, she shrugged and continued to say "I cannot check you in without you first paying the £50". In the end we paid the £50 and went to our room. Our argument was, what if we didn't have £50? Why wouldn't we still be able to use our room?!

As we came down to go to the bar for a drink, Irene stopped us in the lobby and said "let me show you on your booking where it says you must pay £50". By this time we were over it just wanted to relax but Irene became heated reiterating her point and I said to her "now you're being confrontational". I also said to her we only paid it because you were willing to throw us out of the hotel despite our paid for booking. Irene said "I did not say that, I said I cannot check you in". Isn't that the same thing?

Due to this woman's behaviour we will never again stay at this hotel. Irene, seemed to think it is acceptable to argue her point. In our opinion, if she was trained properly she would have found a way to diffuse the situation. Instead, she chose being right over calm. Despite Irene being told this review would be written, her response was "you're welcome to right a review". What sort of manager encourages bad publicity?! Never again. Well done Irene, you really should be ashamed...

Check in was a bit slow, one member of staff. The lady that checked us in was polite and helpful. We got an upgrade because of availability and having VIP status. Our room was on the 5th floor, the main bedroom was spotless and spacious with a table and 2 chairs and chaise lounge at the bottom of the bed. The shower room was tastefully decorated with Porcelanosa tiles on all the walls, however I was disappointed to see orange staining on some of the grout inside the shower area. Especially as the decor was of substantial quantity. The toilet and sink where spotless with fresh towels and amenities provided.

We had very friendly service from all the bar staff who made us delicious cocktails. All the bar staff should be applauded for their work. The bar was busy and no tables were available so we sat at the bar, however the service was always speedy without compromising any attention to detail.

Sleep was okay but mainly alcohol induced, had it not been, I may not have slept so well as I found the pillows to be too hard and a little uncomfortable. The bed itself was okay. .

Breakfast was a mixture of self service, cold and warm buffet with table service too, provided for hot drinks, toast and orders from the menu.

I am a vegetarian so I asked a member of staff for vegetarian sausages. One was brought. This was sufficient for me, but maybe asking how many you'd like would be advantageous to the customer, as I would suspect most people would expect the default to be two.

The hot buffet was a bit dismal. There was a lot food that hadn't been replenished. The small ammont of beans that were left were dried out, and stuck to the sides.

I believe they had a member of staff down, however not all tables were occupied. This is the one area that I would say needs better organisation. The kitchen staff were replenishing food but I didn't see any member on the floor maintaining this area regularly. I did occasionally see breakfast staff but the only one who I would say was an asset to the breakfast team was a lady named Kirsty. She was very attentive to all the tables I noticed, getting coffee, tea and toast as well as constantly cleaning tables. On the few occasions I had any interactions with Kirsty, she had a lovely, warm and friendly manner. Without her interjection, I would have only given the service at breakfast two stars.

The hotel was in a great location, in the heart of Glasgow City centre and although some aspects were disappointing I would stay here again but it would not be my first choice due to the uncomfortable...