Review: Radisson Blu Hotel, Lyon, France – Disappointing and Very Small Room
This is one of the first times we have stayed at a hotel outside of the Marriott umbrella. We had a credit from AMEX Platinum that we wanted to use and the Marriott hotels in Lyon were slim pickings and not that close to the city center. The Radisson Blu wasn’t quite close to the city center either, but on Google Maps, it appeared to be close to the train station that we were coming in from Geneva and leaving two days later to Paris.
We got off our train and the train station was pretty chaotic. Tons of people, not much in the way of signage and when we kind of saw an exit in the direction of our hotel, it was all under construction so we weren’t even sure if we could walk through and with luggage. So we exited out the opposite side and waited for a taxi which took about 15 minutes in the queue.
The taxi driver was very nice but kind of laughed that we were taking one to our hotel because it was so close. We basically did a circle around the mall and then got to the hotel going through more construction along the way. The lobby of the hotel is up on the 32nd floor so up we went.
The building from the 32nd floor and up is a very open concept, kind of like the Burj Al Arab in Dubai, the world’s only 7 star hotel. However, this hotel, as you can probably see from our title, wasn’t 7 star, more like 2 star. The open-concept architecture may look cool but it has major drawbacks in terms of accommodations.
Before we get to the room, the main 32nd floor is fully used and houses the front desk in the middle, open sitting areas with a couple of snacks and coffee for the guests. It also has a two level breakfast area, restaurant for dinner and a small gym.
Our room was up on the 38th floor so we took the elevator up and once we got off we took our luggage through the soft carpet. I mention this because this carpet makes it tough to wheel your luggage through, it’s like dragging it through quick sand. We were in room 3821 and upon entering, the bathroom was on the left with a short hallway to the main room which was pretty darn small.
On the plus size (and I don’t mean large), the room was clean and had all the amenities required. It was just so tight. The chair, side table and desk ended up being the spot where we opened and left our suitcase so that it would be out of the way.
With the fridge being so close to the bed and near your head, I was worried that it was going to be a restless night but we were so tired at the end of the days that it didn’t matter too much. I wish they would have switched the positioning of the iron board and fridge as that would have made more sense. The most spacious area was probably the bathroom.
As one of the tallest towers in the area, we were awarded decent views from our room. Walking to the city center was a good 1.8km (just over 1 mile). You can also hop on the bus or take the metro which would require changing trains. The view from our room was pretty decent being up on the 38th floor.
We did have a major hiccup on the second day. We left the hotel in the morning to go get breakfast at Westfield Mall which is right across the street from the hotel. We came back to the hotel and took the Do Not Disturb sign off and left for the day at about noon. When we got back at 10pm, we found that our room was not cleaned at all. We went down to speak to the front desk as this was really unacceptable. We can deal with the bed not being made and toiletries not being replenished but we had no towels as we had to use them to soak up all the water from the open shower concept. The front desk had to speak to the manager and upon waiting for about 10 minutes, the manager said that we requested not to clean the room. Umm, no. We didn’t even see a single cleaning staff the whole morning or when we left for the day. It seemed that the cleaning staff were contracted by the hotel and didn’t work for the hotel directly. In the end, the manager brought us towels himself and offered us breakfast the next day.
The breakfast was OK, nothing extravagant and not much in the way of hot food. Mostly pastries, cold cuts, cereals and hashbrowns.
The gym was also on the main 32nd floor of the building. It was a pretty tiny room with just a few machines and a water cooler. Really not much there but you can get a cardio workout in at least.
Being one of the taller buildings in all of Lyon, you can look for it from higher vantage points and always find your way back.
PROS:
- Close to Westfield Mall
- Close to Gare Part-Dieu Train Station
- Room was clean
- Bed was comfortable
CONS:
- Rooms were very small, not much room to move, relax or store luggage
- Cleaning staff did not clean our room and then stated that we requested not to clean the room
- Over 1 mile to get to the downtown core
- Breakfast was underwhelming as it didn’t feature much in the way of hot foods
In conclusion, was the Radisson Blue Hotel, Lyon worth it? In our opinion, if you need a hotel closer to the train station then it is a good choice, there were other hotels also directly across the train station but we can’t attest to how good they are. If you are mainly spending your time in the downtown core, it is a good 15-20 minute walk to get in and if it gets hot, bring water. Would we stay here again? Unless we had a credit or points to spare, probably not. With the open concept in the middle of the entire building, the depth of the room is so short, which means all rooms are only this deep with only the width that can be increased. With a pie shaped room and the widest part being at the end, it barely fit the bed with about 2 feet of walk space, which could barely store our luggage.
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