Marginally More Comfortable than Sleeping in the Actual Airport (Radisson SAS Hotel London Stansted Airport)

Member Name: Brooke3

Product:	Radisson SAS Hotel London Stansted Airport
Date:	03/04/09 (210 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Clean. Friendly staff.

Disadvantages: Uncomfortable camp bed, slow service

Last year I travelled to Italy with some of my family and we flew from Stansted. Our flight was really early in the morning so we decided to stay in the Radisson SAS hotel the night before. There were nine of us in total in three rooms including two children.

-Arrival-
Being the only one of us living in London I was the first to arrive. Getting to the hotel was really easy for me, I just took the Stansted express and then followed the signposts to the hotel. It is really well signposted and I actually found the walk there to be quite pleasant. There were rabbits all over the grass and I got very excited. They were just so cute!

Checking into the hotel was easy enough and pretty standard. I gave them my credit card to scan and they gave me the keys. However, they did give me the wrong room key so I ended up in the room of my aunt and uncle rather than my own but as we were a party and had booked together I don't think it was that big a deal. It would have been completely different if they'd given me the key to a strangers room.

I found the staff to be friendly enough and there was no queue to check in. It took longer than I would have liked because they had to make sure that the room was clean and ready for me to go to which I thought should have been done before my arrival.

-The Room-
The room was nice enough but not fantastic.

The room contained two single beds that I found very comfortable and an additional camp bed. There were extra pillows which was nice and plenty of blankets. We were able to control the temperature of our room and that increased our comfort.
What really disappointed me was the extra bed. It was a tiny, child sized camp bed. We were having three people sleeping in the room so they had wheeled in an extra bed that was supposed to be able to sleep an adult but my feet hung off of the end and it was very uncomfortable. I've stayed in a lot of hotels and never have I been forced to sleep on a bed that uncomfortable and that small. In the end I shared a single bed with my sister because it was more comfortable than trying to sleep on the camp bed but obviously not ideal because the beds were singles and while she's tiny, I'm not.
The cleanliness of the room was quite impressive and the presentation was good. When I first walked in I was really impressed. It was only when I spotted the extra bed that I began to feel disappointed with the room.
The room included tea and coffee making facilities, a safe, television and of course an ensuite bathroom that was also very clean. It had some freebies like shampoo, conditioner, tea and cofee but not enough of the toiletries for all three of us. I think that if you're going to charge extra for an additional person to be in the room not only should you provide a decent bed you should also give extra toiletries so that everyone staying in the room can use them.
There were enough towels for us all, but only just. I think it's nice to have extra towels in a hotel, particularly if you want to shower in the evening and the morning and don't like to use the same towel twice (OCD? Me? Never!).

-Food and Drink-
I liked the bar. It was right in the centre of the lobby area with bedrooms (including my own) looking over it so it did feel a little bit like you were on display but it was very comfortable and it served a good selection of food. Like with most hotels it was expensive and I paid around £10 for a plate of nacho's and a glass of coke. Although it was a lot to pay, the service was exceptional. The bar staff were friendly and polite, the service was quick and they did table service. The food took quite a long time to arrive but as there was free internet access on my laptop I didn't mind waiting.
The most notable thing about this bar was the wine tower. They have a woman on a rope who climbs up and down it getting wine and doing some acrobatics. It's very entertaining!

Unfortunately I can't speak as highly of the restaurant that we ate in. There are four restaurants and we chose to eat in the Italian one (I can't remember what it was called). There was very little food on the menu that I liked, which is strange because I'm not a fussy eater. The choice was quite limited and what was there seemed to be needlessly fussy. I ordered some side dishes instead of a main because they were the only things on the menu that I liked the look of. When they arrived they weren't anything like how they were described on the menu and honestly didn't taste very good. They certainly didn't taste Italian.
The service was pretty good though and the waitress was very good with the children.

-Leisure Club-
I tried to get an appointment to have my nails done and maybe a facial but was informed that you have to book in advance if you want an appointment so if you are going to this hotel and want to use the beauty salon make sure you book in advance.

The gym was very modern but it didn't look much like a gym. It was like they had taken a lot of fitness machines and put them in a room that hadn't been designed to be a gym. The room was spacious and it didn't take away from my workout in anyway, it just seemed a little out of place.

I found the swimming pool to be a little bit on the small side and very overcrowded. It's a big hotel so I expected a swimming pool that would cater for a lot of people. We still had fun in the pool and it had a really good family feel with lots of parents and their children as well as some teenagers. Of course that's not so good if you want to swim laps of the pool but as we were a family who just wanted to have fun swimming it was a positive thing. The changing room was clean and so was the area around the pool.

I'm really torn about whether or not I liked this hotel. In terms of how it looks I loved it. It just has a really modern, spacious feel to it and the entire hotel is very clean and well maintained. Staff were friendly and went out of their way to help us.
I've stayed at a Radisson SAS before at a different airport and compared to that one the bedroom in this one was a real disappointment.

For information reagrding prices please visit their website: www.radissonsas.com

Summary: It's not like you have much choice when you're staying at an airport