Radisson Suite Hotel Oceanfront — Hotel in Melbourne

I do not usually leave bad reviews for companies, but I felt compelled to warn anyone thinking of staying here. This weekend (July 2025) I decided to celebrate my birthday with a beach weekend at the hotel with my family. We splurged and got a family suite. All rooms are oceanfront, and I was really looking forward to it. I had stayed at the same hotel around 10 years prior and had a very good experience. I called the day before to see about early check in and was told I could arrive at 1 and use the facilities if my room wasn’t ready. When I got there, I was happily surprised to find my room was ready. I had already been warned during my phone call the day before that balconies were closed for “renovations,” but I was still excited about the oceanfront view. Upon check in, the computer was apparently glitchy and I had to run my credit card twice for incidentals (I had prepaid on a third party site). The credit card reader said “accepted” both times, but the clerk stated that the first one never went through. One charge was refunded the next day, so no big deal, but clearly the computer system is flawed. I overheard the front desk person saying that this had happened several times before in similar situations. I went to my room to find the floor still wet in spots from mopping. The bar area in the room was warped from moisture. The mirror in my bathroom was heavily worn, but these items were not a big deal. The balcony sliders were screwed closed as expected. The view of the ocean was magnificent, as long as you didn’t look down at the ground below and see lots of construction equipment, debris, and work materials on the hotel grounds. My sister checked into her room (my whole family was meeting up for the celebration) and found a sign on her sliders indicating the balconies had been “condemned” rather than just undergoing “renovations.” That caused me serious concern for the safety of my entire family while they were there. I had gotten 2 towel cards at check-in for the pool area. When we went to the pool, there was no one there to give us a towel. There is a little balcony area at the pool where you can actually see the ocean, but there were no chairs up there to have a seat. There was a bar out by the pool, but that was not in service. They had at least warned me about that on the phone call the day before because I specifically asked about food service. The air conditioning was nonfunctional in the elevators and the indoor corridors that you had to pass through to get to the rooms. There was a small inside cafe, but I never saw anyone working in there the whole time I was there. The only coffee you can get at the hotel in the morning is from the coffee maker in your room. There is no coffee service whatsoever In the general area or anywhere in the hotel, except for the coffee maker in your room. Worst of all, they mopped the floor during prime morning traffic time when people were coming and going. There was a wet floor sign put near the exit of the hotel, but you would not notice that when you were rounding the corners from the elevators toward the check-in area. I watched the person mopping the floor, all the time thinking that it was not a good idea to do that on the travertine during the day, but then thinking that maybe I was just being overly worried. Not 15 minutes after I saw the guy mopping the floor, my sister and her husband exited the elevator and rounded the corner only for my sister to fall flat on her rear end after she slipped on the still wet travertine. For a room that cost almost $300 a night, this was a disgrace. It was a nice birthday because my family was there with me and we made some good memories, but it was definitely tainted by the hotel experiences. I suspect there will not be a denial of any of this as it is the same experience anyone else would report, but I do have photos...

Update: We stayed here again in 2024. Here is an update to my review to reflect another excellent experience!

August 2024: We really enjoyed our recent stay. The following are some of the reasons why:

The Room: It was an actual suite with a living area and a sliding glass patio door that looks straight out to the Atlantic Ocean. There was also a private balcony where you can sit outside and enjoy the view and the ocean breeze. The room had a separate bedroom that also had a sliding glass patio door with the same view. Both rooms had a flat-panel TV as well. Apparently, all rooms in this hotel are ocean view units which is a big plus!

The Staff: The staff there was outstanding.

Front Desk: We made our reservation over the phone and spoke to Missy several times. She was very helpful, friendly, and professional. She was also the person who checked us in when we arrived and she provided detailed information about the hotel amenities as well as recommendations for nearby restaurants. We also had interactions with Brian and Chris who were also outstanding.

Pool/Beach Bar: Bartender Ben provided excellent service for us. He was also very friendly and a pleasure to talk to. Our bartender on our first day there was Chrystopf (spelling?) who also provided great, friendly service.

Restaurant: Our server was Jo. She was an excellent server and like the other staff members was very friendly and personable. NOTE: the restaurant was only open for breakfast.

We were surprised to discover that most of the staff members mentioned have worked at this hotel for over 20 years which speaks highly of the establishment itself. We love this and in fact, Ben was our bartender when we first stayed at this hotel 10 years ago (this was our second visit).

Every staff member that we dealt with went out of their way to make us feel welcome and appreciated. It felt like a family-run place but with the benefits of being a Radisson!

We enjoyed ourselves so much that we ended up staying an extra day. No cons at all, but it would be great to see later hours for the pool/beach bar as well as offering lunch and dinner in the restaurant if business supports it.

My wife and I live about a 2-hour drive away from this establishment so we will be returning often.

This is the nicest hotel room that we have ever stayed in. It has a beautiful living area with a flat screen HDTV, a couch and chairs, an office table, and a sliding glass door that leads to a very large oceanfront balcony. The bedroom is a separate room with a King sleep number bed, another flat screen HDTV, and another sliding glass door to the balcony! The beach is beautiful. The hotel has a beach side pool and outdoor bar. We spent hours at the outside bar talking with Ben, a great bartender who really helped make our visit very special. Kala at the front desk was very helpful and nice, and we just love Lily the housekeeper, who always took good care of us. We live less than 3 hours away, and will definitely be returning again and again.

Frank and Marilyn Ireland...

I will never come here again. I’ve been coming here for years and years but we are done! We had made a reservation with the hotel and then changed the date to a day after both online and confirmed over the phone. When we showed up the front lady said that they didn’t have a room for us. Moreover we were told we had been charged for a no show the day before. When I told the lady what had happened she asked for proof and when I showed her on my phone she asked for an email to be forwarded so I forwarded her the email. Then she said she was confused and yet while she said “it was obvious that I had proof I did it correctly, it was probably their middle man” but there was nothing she could do about it. She said she couldn’t take down the charge, ridiculous! Moreover after third degreeing us as if it was our fault and they had a third party middle man who didn’t inform them of the change there wasn’t anything they could do. I showed her the email that came straight from them (direct booking), and yet she told me all I could do was wait for the manager who was coming in at 11p. I told her the family would wait to get this resolved. Meanwhile I found out that because we didn’t recognize the charge on the credit card the company cancelled the card and cancelled it so we were now a credit card short. After staying up we didn’t get a call so I called the manager chris at 11:30p and then he just seemed more confused and kept wanting to blame the issue on me, sorry not sure what happened. By this time I was getting infuriated and asked them to take off my first night’s stay as it had been ruined by this mess or something to make it right. The manager Chris said there was nothing he could do because he wasn’t a GENERAL manager. He told me to wait till the next morning to resolve the issue. So I wait till the next morning and I speak to the big boy, general manager, Jon, who goes on to tell me that he’s already taken the first night off and that’s more than fair and that he wasn’t going to do anything else. He wouldn’t apologize and insisted there was nothing else he could do. The quality of this place has gone down and this is the last time I’m staying here. What a dump. Had the first person apologized and not made me wait the whole night and taken the charge off, then cool, but making me wait for the next person and then the next person because they don’t have the authority to do anything and then just to speak with the big boy who is rude, impatient, unapologetic, and to not even be told they’re sorry and admit it was their issue??? I don’t know if it’s micro aggressions because I’m Asian but this previously favorite vacation spot is no more. I’ve been coming to this hotel for years and they’re pretty much saying this is my fault and that they’re not going to do anything about it or even say sorry. I’d give it zero stars if I could - if the big boy Jon is supposed to be the understanding top quality and customer care rep and I can’t escalate the issue to somebody...