RI Providence Downtown Radisson Providence Harbor

[TravelGuy]

Radisson Hotel Providence Harbor

220 India St.

Providence, RI

After seeing the chorus of negative reviews on tripadvisor.com, I was prepared for the worst. I ended up being pleasantly surprised.

The hotel is an attractive all-brick structure sandwiched between I-195 (very, very close) and a substantially less traveled State road that I believe leads up into the Interstate. Unless you're fond of watching fast moving traffic from an unusually close distance, and the sound of trucks careening past at all hours of the day and night, you don't want to be facing I-195!

The other side, which I requested at check-in and fortunately got, faces India Point Park and Providence Harbor. The Park isn't all that much to speak of, and there's not a lot romance to the Harbor given that it's largely an industrial riverfront. But it's at least fairly pleasant and surprisingly quiet. (The tripadvisor reviewer who said that there's no quiet side to the hotel simply got it wrong.) So check in early, call or e-mail in advance with a request, waive your Radisson Gold Rewards card, or all of the above and anything else you can think of, to get the water view. For here, that is the key to happiness.

Described on Radisson.com as a "boutique" hotel, in reality it doesn't achieve that. But the compact lobby lounge and restaurant do have a boutique-like feel to them, done up in a trendy, modern theme, with marble floors, stylish furniture and drapery, along with original artwork on the walls. Beyond these unique, attractive areas, however, the hotel pretty much resumes its true, more generic identity as the mid to upper mid-level business class chain hotel that it is for the most part.

The room was attractively designed and comfortable, although somewhat worn and tired. The wallpaper was beige and off-white stripes, with warm, colorful earth tones for the fabrics. Across from the moderately firm bed was the dresser, armoire, TV cabinet and suitcase stand, all as one unit. (Watch out for the suitcase stand as you're entering the room, it's easy to bang your knee on it.) Further toward the window was a two-piece business desk, with the lower piece rolling out to enlarge the work area (that I pulled out to discover crumbs), and a large office chair. There was also an attractive corduroy lounge chair and small, round accompanying table. The bathroom had marble floors and an interesting marble bathroom sink, with it sharply placed immediately off to the right in the corner in a triangular shape, with a paneled three-piece mirror above. But the pre-fab tub and shower made of cheap materials was an unattractive contrast.

The fitness room had just four pieces of cardio equipment - a treadmill, stair stepper, stationary and reclining bikes, all in good working order - but no weights of any kind. There's also a large Jacuzzi off in the next room separated by a glass wall, but no swimming pool.

Unlike all other thus far reported Priceline hotels in the Downtown Providence zone, the Radisson is not located within the Central Business District, but at least two miles away in the overwhelmingly residential neighborhood of Fox Point. Having never explored this side of town before, I was impressed by its bohemian charm and character. Its main artery is Wickenden St., home to a funky collection of restaurants, caf

[zebazga]

The people at this hotel were very friendly. I had a room with one king bed. The room is wide, but there was little room between the foot of the bed and the wardrobe with the tv. Nice seating area and separate desk area though. The bathroom, while old and showing definite wear, was nice with a separate very large jacuzzi tub.

The ice machine on my floor was broken (I reported) and never fixed while I was there. However, the bar folk were very friendly and filled my bucket each day. Front desk greeted me by name the week I was there, in part because I added a day and had a split reservation that seemed to confuse things. One person was on top of it though and encouraged me not to worry about it or waste time dealing with it, that'd she'd make sure it was handled.

The biggest downside is how loud the water pipes are. I didn't really hear toilet flushing, I think it was just the shower or jacuzzi. The noise in the pipes from these was extremely loud. The first morning I woke up sitting straight up in bed looking for the crisis, just from the noise.