Radisson Hotel Toronto East End – Review

My wife and I just got back from a weekend stay at a Radisson Hotel in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and I would like to take a moment to give people a run-down on our experience at this 3-star accommodation option.

I’ve been living in Toronto for almost 2 years now and it’s great to get out and see what Toronto has to offer, so we decided to give it a try for ourselves. It was just a short getaway to see what it was like to be tourists in our own town. For reference purposes, the date today is Sunday, Oct. 3, 2010.

In the Greater Toronto Area (or GTA), there are three Radisson Hotels. We got a fair deal for a two-night stay from Easy Click Travel for $75/night at this particular one, which is located in North East Toronto, just off the intersection at Victoria Park Ave and Consumer Rd (right beside Universal Studios Toronto, Canada).

On arrival at the hotel at about 3:50 PM, we were welcomed by what seemed to be a novice front desk attendant (at least I’m hoping he was!), who simply told us to take a seat and wait, while he tried to communicate with the head housekeeper to see if our room was ready. After a 15 minute wait, I decided to return to the desk to see if there was any update on our room and after another 5 minutes, we were given our access cards and told to go up to room 401. Having worked in hotels myself, this is not a bad waiting time, but everything should be ready for the day’s arriving guests by 4 in the afternoon at the latest. If guests have to wait for their room after this time, I consider them to have problems getting coordinated with the housekeeping department.

The room itself would have otherwise been excellent (with a nice 4th flr. view of Toronto’s East End, two comfortable queen-sized beds, free internet connection, etc.) had it not been for the smell of mold coming from the bathroom, which is a big disappointment for any hotel. I don’t know if these people realize that smell is the most primitive of the senses and greatly affects people’s opinions about a certain place. Instead of feeling warm and welcome, there was an eerie sensation about the room that made us feel unwelcome. When we mentioned it to the front desk staff, they took note of it (I think), but we were not offered another room. We did not make an issue out of it, but this is not a good point in the hotel’s favor.

The complimentary coffee that we found in the room was a great gesture on behalf of the hotel, but they could have spared themselves the expense, because it was quite a horrible taste experience and we had to end up throwing it out and heading out to get ourselves some ‘real’ coffee.

On a more positive note, apart from the smell, the room was clean and very quiet. The view from our window was superb and the towels were very clean and fluffy. Also, there were NO signs of any parasites (bed bugs, etc), so we were generally happy with our stay.