Radisson Blu Aqua Chicago offers rooms in two styles with ‘Naturally Cool’ light woods and ‘Mansion House’ blue tones and sparkling bathroom tile. The room I stayed in for the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group 2013 Full Service Brands conference was the Mansion House style. The three nights at the Radisson Blu Aqua Chicago were complimentary as a press attendee for the conference.
Mansion House décor in King bed room, 9th floor, Radisson Blu Aqua Chicago.
Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel is located on the lower 18 floors of the 81 floor hotel. Floors 19-81 are residential units.
Turn on the Light?
I had a difficult time figuring out how to turn on the nightstand lamps by feeling all around the lamp for on/off buttons and trying the master room light switches. Eventually, after too much time spent looking for the switches, I realized they are button switches on the lamp cords that had fallen behind the nightstands. On the second or third day I finally pulled on the lamp cords and pulled them up from behind the nightstands to find the power switches.
Desk area.
Room 917 is one of the smaller rooms in the hotel and there is no balcony access from the room. Internet in the room worked fine.
TV, minibar and coffee maker in front of bed.
This room was comfortable for one person. The primary need when traveling with my wife is comfortable seating space for two in the room. There were two chairs with the cushion chair and desk chair, but no space to move around if using these chairs at the small table. I would seek a larger room at this hotel if traveling with my wife.
The balcony rooms are a great upgrade when the weather is nice enough to step outside. There was a winter blizzard happening when I arrived at the hotel and a balcony was an unnecessary room feature.
Bathroom door is sliding door. The bathroom tile sparkled in the light reflecting light patterns around the room for a cool effect that was hard to capture in a photograph.
The sparkly bathroom was the only feature of the Mansion House style I preferred over the Naturally Cool style. My post from 2011 shows photos of a Naturally Cool corner room with balcony in a larger room with different room décor at the Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel Chicago.
Rain shower.
Showering under a waterfall is a feature I enjoy with hotel showers offering a large head for water. In Europe, the Radisson Blu hotels where I stayed did not offer these large water wasters. This shower offered good old American comfort.
Sliding glass door open.
One of the features that some guests may not enjoy is the sliding glass door that encloses either the toilet or the shower; not both. The toilet is adjacent to the shower and the rolling glass door can shut off only one space or the other.
Sliding glass door enclosing the shower leaves the toilet space open.
View of Pritzker Pavilion Millennium Park (upper center) during Winter Storm Rocky – February 26, 2013.
Room floor hallway art consists of Chicago building illustrations.
Room 917 art at Radisson Blu Aqua Chicago.
Blogger Disclosure: This was my second stay at Radisson Blu Aqua Chicago. I attended the media launch for the hotel in November 2011 and wrote several posts with dozens of photos at that time. This stay in February 2013 was for the fourth annual Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group conference I attended and the first CRHG conference I attended that was actually held at one of their own hotel properties. Both of my hotel stays at Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel Chicago were complimentary stays.
Radisson Blu Aqua Chicago is a Club Carlson category 6 hotel at 50,000 points per night.
Sample room rate: Saturday April 20 = $165 prepaid/$175 AAA. This is a hotel with lowest rates typically found on Friday and Saturday nights.
Related posts:
Radisson Blu Aqua Chicago Hotel Public Spaces (March 30, 2013)
Tour of the Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel Chicago(Nov 20, 2011) – this has more photos of the fitness center, pool area and hotel gardens area. The rooftop garden was buried under snow this 2013 trip.
Guest Room 604 at Radisson Blu Aqua Chicago(Nov 19, 2011). This post shows photos of the Naturally Cool room décor.
My Stay at the Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel(Nov 18, 2011).
Bird-friendly Aqua Tower and Radisson Blu Aqua Chicago(Nov 15, 2011)
Chicago River Architecture Tour(Mar 31, 2012)
Art Institute of Chicago (March 30, 2013)
