Radisson Medan, Indonesia Review
The Radisson Medan is one of the cheapest Radisson's on the planet. With some luck you can find rates under $40 right on their website and even less when you book through an OTA. Medan isn't exactly tourist hotspot and clearly a backwater. The JW Marriott Medan even sells rooms for under $60 most of the time.
I arrived late at night and was greeted with a friendly smile and after the usual passport back and forth my room key was ready in seconds. Check-in in Indonesia can easily take 30 minutes for a plain vanilla stay. However after just a few minutes I was all set. Surprisingly no credit card swipe was required for this post-paid stay. I found that very trusting!
The room seemed recently renovated and had a large rain shower and well designed bathroom - however it wasn't really separated form the rest of the room. I liked the interior design and found it in good shape at first glance - better than I expected.
Right away I noticed how cold it was in the room and wanted to turn down the AC. There was no way to set a lower fan or switch it off and I had to recruit help from the maintenance crew. Indeed there were just two settings - freezing cold and high fan (that made noise like an airplane taking off) and off (which would make the room quite hot after some time). That was disappointing as a well working AC is one of my favorite hotel perks.
I found the mattress to be quite hard (which I love). The room was rather small though and the Internet was on the slow side at 4 MBit. What was annoying was the frequent power cuts that would kill the Internet and it would take while until the generator would boot up and then it would switch over after a few minutes taking the Internet down with it.
Most service areas of the hotel seemed under construction (i.e. the lobby coffee shop was still closed). There is a rather appealing but small pool area and a gym.
The hotel is a in a good location and you can walk to a mall - at least theoretically. Most Indonesians would rather loose a limb than cross the street without a motorcycle or car. Without sidewalks and road rules walking is treacherous and simply a strange occurrence.
There is a reason this hotel is so cheap - they employees are friendly and already trying but there are problems that the management should get under control that would could make it a great hotel with a bit of effort and understanding of the spirit of Radisson guidelines. Until than this is a good property for a lucrative promotion but not a place you really want to stay for long.
