whimsey21

Hi all,
I'm planning a trip to Delhi with my family and would like to use some of my gold points. Was thinking of staying at the Country Inn in Gurgaon for a night and at the Radisson Blu Marina in CP for a few nights. A couple of questions:
1) Has anyone stayed at this Country Inn? I wasn't able to find any comments on the board. They're much more generous than the Radisson Blu Plaza for a points stay (they include breakfast, and aren't charging me extra to have a child in the room).
2) Has anyone stayed at the Radisson Blu Marina on points? If so, did they provide breakfast or any other amenities (I know they don't usually give you breakfast on points stays, but every once in a while I get it thrown in). I saw MSPpete's recent report from a points/cash stay, but didn't see any mention of whether he received breakfast or had to pay (having been Hilton Gold for a few years, my wife and kids have gotten used to buffet breakfast at the hotel). I'm a Gold member with CC, though I'm not sure if that counts for much at either of these properties.
Thanks!

MSPpete

I am gold and was upgraded to a business class room at checkin. The breakfast buffet was included in the business class room. Buffet had good variety. Wifi was free. There was free bottled water in the room.

whimsey21

Thanks MSPpete- that sounds much better than the Radisson at the airport. By any chance did you use the hotel to arrange airport transfers? If so, how much did they charge?

MSPpete

There was a charge for the airport transfer - I don't remember how much.
I liked the airport Radisson Blu much, much better. The room was larger and newer & the airport transfer was free. It is also cheaper than the Connaigh Place Blu. The location at the airport is not as good for most tourists.

whimsey21

I was originally planning to stay at the airport radisson blu, but they were adding a lot of charges on top of my "free" points stay. They wanted to charge to have a child in the room, for breakfast, and quite a bit for airport transfers (even though they are so close to the airport). By the time the charges added up, I was nearly paying the current list price for he r anyway, so I decided to look a bit farther away.

Thanks for your information!

sj22

+1 usually my experience too at this property. Easier to just collect points by staying here rather than redeeming points.

GUWonder

This hotel advertised free transport to/from the airport but then wants to charge people on award stays for the very same transport that it advertised as being free on its website and whose charges it does not frequently disclose over the phone.

I've never seen any other hotel make such a big fuss to try to deny something that was advertised on its website and could be shown to hotel management at the time on the live website at the time.

The hotel still advertises that even all its "Superior Rooms" come with complimentary facilities like high-speed Wi-Fi, breakfast and airport transfer. Good luck getting the hotel to deliver all of that on redemption nights booked into "superior rooms".

whimsey21

Hi GUWonder-
you've gotten at the heart of my issue there. I wouldn't usually be concerned about not getting breakfast or transfers at a Calrson propery, but since they advertise them on the website as included with every paid room, it seemed a bit much to me to not just have to pay extra for them on a points stay but significantly more than seemed reasonable. I guess they feel that their location will guarantee sufficient paying customers that they don't want people using points... Seems odd, since I thought Carlson reimbursed them for points stays, but maybe it isn't as much as they'd get from cash stays...

Ilove2fly

In October, I stayed at the airport on point and was upgraded to business class room as a sliver. Breakfast was included as the result of upgrade. The want to charge a lot for airport transfer. I was able to get a taxi from the airport for a very reasonable price. The hotel called a taxi for the return and the price was not bad.

Radisson Connaigh Place location was ideal for us. We took subway every where supplemented with tu-tu rides. Again, we were upgraded as sliver and breakfast was included as a result of the upgrade. Again, this is in October. Hopefully things have not changed for the locations in Delhi.

I am now gold. I was upgraded for my May 2013 point stay in London but I did not get free breakfast with the upgrade.

Edited to add: At Radisson CP, make sure to look for fire exit. The first room assigned to us was a fire trap. It was at the end of enclosed hall way with the only fire exit for the floor very far way. While fire do not happen frequently, sleeping in a fire trap is not a good idea either.

whimsey21

Thanks for the tip on rooms at the Radisson in CP. It does appear that things are different at the airport location (or they are variable based on who you talk with)- as I mentioned earlier, I am gold and they did agree to an upgrade, but without the breakfast. Am now looking forward to staying in CP instead.