Mid-Range Comfort in Suburban Dallas...
Written: Oct 06 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Clean, comfortable room at a competitive rate
Cons: Inconvenient location, unexceptional amenities
The Bottom Line: If you've got a car and you get a good rate at this location, snag it. It's a pretty good hotel---not great, but good.
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| mrkstvns's Full Review: Radisson Hotel and Suites Dallas |
Although it's far from my favorite city in Texas, I've always kind of enjoyed my trips to Dallas. Being a guy who prides himself on his skills in frugality, Dallas has always had a soft spot in my heart because it's so darn easy to find affordable hotels. Unless you're on an expense account and really don't care about prices, there's no reason to ever pay more than $100 a night in Dallas. Frugal travelers can easily find good, clean, comfortable rooms at half that without even breaking a serious sweat. Super cheapskates can do even better.
Affordable digs are key to affordable getaways, and so I like Dallas.
Case in point: I spent this past weekend at the Radisson Hotel and Suites, located to the northwest of the city, almost exactly midway between the city's two major airports (Love Field and DFW International). I had no problem snagging a weekend rate through Radisson's own web site (www.radisson.com) for just $59 -- a price that was low enough to keep me away from the hassle and uncertainty of opaque booking sites (Priceline and Hotwire).
Let's see what you get for those 59 greenbacks...
Around and About the Hotel...
The lobby is bright and comfortable, but it's not impressive, nor particularly spacious. More of an average, functional kind of space. There's a small gift shop, an ATM in case you brought less than 59 greenbacks, and the restaurant. The meeting rooms are off to either side. The bar is off to one side, access to the elevators, exercise room and pool to the other side.
The pool area is fairly nice, but it's a small pool that never gets deeper than 4 feet. There's also a hot tub next to the pool. The deck is open and spacious, but I don't like the constant buzz of highway traffic just beyond the hotel property.
The exercise room is fairly small, but adequate for this sized property. It includes maybe 10 machines tops, including treadmills, stair steppers, and exercise bikes. It's a bit cramped, but at least there's a window looking out into the pool area.
The hotel also offers shuttle service to both Love Field and DFW, making it a good choice for out-of-town travelers, if it weren't for the inconvenience of being stuck out in outer suburbia with no real easy access to downtown or the rest of the DFW Metrosprawl. The dents in the front end of two of their shuttle buses instill confidence in the hotel's drivers.
There is a bus stop right in front of the hotel. There is no car rental on site.
Eating and Drinking, Radisson Style...
There's only one restaurant on site, and it's a small, fairly casual one at that -- it's called The Windsor Restaurant, and it's a pleasant enough room, looking out over the pool, but it's not what I'd consider an especially elegant, nor upscale space. Their buffet breakfast was adequate, if unexceptional. The scrambled eggs were so runny as to be unappetizing, but the cheese blintzes were light and airy and very good. The sausage links were undercooked, but the fruit offerings were fresh and good. I think I paid about $7 a head for the buffet. Not a cheap breakfast, nor a particularly great breakfast, but it was convenient.
Room service is not particularly expensive (entrees around $12-14, sandwiches around $7), and it's available from about 6am to 11pm.
The hotel has one bar too -- called Whitmores, and it's a pretty darn big bar for a fairly modest sized hotel. Unfortunately, it is a phony feeling, loud, uncomfortable sports bar serving Bud, Bud Light, and Bud Extra Dry Ice Light (motto: "if you mistake it for cold dishwater, we understand"). Naturally all the TVs were extra big and extra loud. Fortunately, I'd brought a cooler of refreshingly cool Bohemia beer to enjoy in the tranquil calm of my room, watching something other than sports...
Step Into My Suburban Dallas Lair...
The room is nice, in a typical 3-star, corporate hotel kind of way. The furniture is a neutral colonial style in dark woods (like faux mahogony). The desk is small for a room of this size, and barely adequate for stretching out a laptop and some notes. There is a nice arm chair, but no real easy chair with an ottoman for kicking back in. It's an adequate room, but the furnishings don't speak of extra attention to detail or the homey touches that you find in first-class hotels -- but I'm not paying first-class prices here either, so it's okay.
There's a big 27" color TV, that gets the usual cable channels. They've also got a nifty little wireless keyboard for email access, but I didn't try it since it's not worth paying for in my opinion. There's also a data port on the small desk (but no second phone).
The bathroom is about average in size -- like the non-master bathrooms of a typical suburban house. The only thing that struck me as better than usual was the oatmeal bath soap -- which was as lumpy as the old style slow-quick oatmeal that grandma used to make, but it didn't taste half as good -- too soapy!
On the plus side, it was quiet, even being about 50 yards away from the interstate.
On Location...
The location isn't great, but it's not bad either. For Dallas, I classify "great" location as being the city center, with everything else being merely adequate. On the better side of the adequate spectrum is the location of this hotel, on I-35 at Northwest Highway, near Las Colinas. If you've got a car, it's an easy 10 minute drive to downtown.
If you love chain restaurants, you're in heaven here since the couple mile stretch of Northwest Highway to the other side of I-35 is packed with every chain pit you've ever eaten in, and maybe a couple you've somehow missed. There's your basic average basic as embodied in Chilis or Bennigans, your basic Mexican pit in Don Pablos, your basic ribs place in Tony Roma, etc., etc., and etc. again. Of course, Dallas has better restaurants than anything on this stretch of roadway, but if you're staying at the Radisson, you can't beat it for gastronomic averageness at your fingertips.
Bottom Line...
This Radisson is a pretty decent little hotel, if you don't expect the world out of it and you get a decent rate. It's not what I'd call a first-class hotel though -- more like an average, middle-class hotel. With comfortable rooms, adequate service levels, and easy access to the interstate, it's a pretty good choice for your average, middle-of-the-road family cruising around in the family SUV.
Ho-hum. Nothing at the Radisson has me doing hand-stands, but they didn't do anything to tick me off either (which can sometimes be an accomplishment in itself). Overall, a perfectly average kind of place that I'll recommend to average kind of folks just looking for clean sheets and soft pillows. This will do the trick.
Closely Related...
Looking for a Dallas hotel? Here are a couple others I've stayed in...
Marriott Courtyard DFW
Holiday Inn Market Center
Wyndham Anatole
Recommended:
Yes
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