Some years ago I stayed fairly regularly at the Radisson JFK and found the service excellent, the property well maintained and the staff helpful.

No more.

I suppose that when I saw the state of the luggage rack on the bus I should have run a mile, but I was tired:

The bus takes 10-15 minutes to get the hotel in normal traffic, leaving from the Federal Circle stop on the AirLink train service at JFK. Not as frequent as most hotels, it does operate and I suspect a call to the hotel gives the driver a bit of a nudge to come.

CHECK-IN
There were three members of staff on the check-in desk and I was served pretty quickly. The agent acknowledged my Club Carlson Gold status and gave me a room on the 8th floor. No mention of any benefits, and of course that is exactly what I received. (Later, when I posted my disappointment on tripadvisor, the Manager explained they were full. Of course, like any seasoned traveller I check the hotels web site before I arrive and of course there were rooms for sale.)

No matter, it was only a one night stay

ROOM
The room was clean, but had the very old fashioned and noisy air conditioning unit through the wall.

There was a desk and the free WiFi worked fine.

The bed was comfortable although the pillows were lumpy and it took some time to get them settled in to a layout that I could accommodate. I am going back to travelling with my pillow again I think.

Under the glass on the desk was this card:

ironic as there was no bathrobe in the room!

The view from the room was of the Crowne Plaza next door.

BATHROOM

The bathroom was clean and functional. A typical bathroom for an airport hotel.

ROOM SERVICE
Very oddly room service only starts at 7pm. I no idea why they wouldn’t start earlier and my pizza took an hour to get to my room. Very disappointing for an airport hotel where guests are working on a wide range of timezones.

CHECK OUT
The room rate was about $220. At check-out the bill was correct and I went out where the shuttle was waiting. The hotel ran two buses that morning, one for Terminal 7 (United and BA), and one for all other airlines. Luckily I was off to LA on United’s ps service so we got there pretty quickly. The rate included 10,000 Club Carlson bonus points which posted properly when the stay was credited.

POST STAY
As mentioned I posted about the stay on TripAdvisor and got an email from the GM offering some bonus points to make up for the disappointment. Of course these never arrived.

In summary, a property I would ignore when searching for options at JFK. I know most hotels there are dismal, but this is well worth a miss at the rates they charge.

(I had a great stay at the Radisson Seattle Airport last year. Follow the link to read about it.)