Hotel Review: Radisson Blu SkyCity Hotel Arlanda

I was traveling with my husband while he was on business recently and we stayed at the Radisson Blu SkyCity Hotel Arlanda for a night. We arrived at the airport and followed signs for SkyCity in between Terminal 4 and 5 rather than a designated sign for Radisson Blu since SkyCity is comprised of a bunch of restaurants, hotels, shops, pharmacies and even banks.

After stopping off at one of the restaurants to pick up some food to go, we took the escalator up to Radisson Blu for check-in.

He’d found a good rate of 1,655 SEK (about 200 USD) for a Thursday night stay in a Business Class Room. However, he had booked us in a Standard Guest Room since we are both Concierge members and they tend to upgrade at this property.

The lobby had plenty of comfortable seats arranged in small groups so it would have been easy to rearrange to accommodate a group of any size.

Reception was friendly and we were indeed upgraded to a Business Class room which included breakfast. We were quickly given keys for room 446, on the same level as the lobby which made for easy rolling of the suitcase down the hall.

The lobby offers views of the first floor through some glass panes in the floor, so travelers with suitcases can be seen rolling along occasionally.

I liked that the lobby had a selection of newspapers and also books for borrow.

Room 446 was located midway down the hall, not at the beginning or the end.

Weighted minibar.

Just inside the door was the restroom, nicely sized and clean.

The shower had a half glass wall.

There were only two large towels, and two small ones. The sink wasn’t very deep but it was wide and there was an extra shelf to add generous space to the counter.

thisworks amenities were featured.

The entryway had a very nice feature – coffee machine with pods and cups.

The TVs were on as we entered the room, and as I moved from the entryway into the rest of the room I heard them in stereo. One was on the wall on the left side where there was a seating area and the other was on the wall near the desk on the right. The left seating area was pretty cool use of space and the TV swiveled to face the couch.

Leaning back on the couch cushions caused them to slide forward a bit. I lifted one up and found it was because there was a pull out bed tucked underneath, so three people could have occupied this room and provided the third person a separate sleeping nook!

To the right was the desk and bedroom, with an extra chair, a lamp, and some low magazine holders in the middle.

Large windows that ran the full length of the room, and there was also a cushioned bench pushed up against one wall for window gazing.

The view outside was of a lightly snowy day, and the vantage point was of the departures drop off point as well as some of the nearby overpasses.

A welcome amenity of a bottle of sparkling water and some cherry gumdrops along with a letter were arranged on the desk. There were several more outlets near the desk, which is always good to see.

We sat down to eat the food brought from outside, but discovered that there were no tables in the room save for the desk. We ended up dragging over one of the small, low, rounded magazine holders (table?) to the couch which worked nicely.

The bed was designed well, with comforters for each person and two large down pillows. Lighting controls were bedside for both a small lamp and a reading light, as well as a charging outlet on each side. Great!

When it came time to draw the drapes, there wasn’t a single pull or rod to use. Instead, there were actually about five separate sets of curtains that had to be individually arranged. I wasn’t sure that they would all overlap correctly to prevent peeps of light, but after carefully arranging them the entire wall of curtains covered all outside light just right.

The bed was comfortable, but suddenly we heard the sound of the TV next door along with talking. The people in the neighboring room weren’t especially loud, but the walls were thin! As we tried to sleep, we realized that not only were the walls thin but also the windows. We could hear the beeping of the crosswalk and noises from outside.

It was not a very restful sleep. In the morning my husband was first to rise and went to go make some coffee quietly, without waking me up. He got the cup in place, but struggled to find a light near the coffee maker.

In fact, there wasn’t one. There were two light switches for the bathroom just outside the door, and two right by the door for the entire room. Oddly, there were none for lighting just the entryway or closet.

After my husband had left the room, I got in the shower. About 10 minutes later I heard loud knocks at the door, 9 of them. Figuring for sure it was him, I threw on a towel and peered through the peephole. It was not him, but housekeeping with her cart. I said through the door, “Hello? Yes? ” She didn’t say anything, but looked down at a paper. I said, “Hello? Did you need something?” She must have then realized that I was due to check out that day and moved the cart a bit to walk away. It had my error as well, as I hadn’t put the Do Not Disturb sign on. It wasn’t even 9am though, so I had been surprised.

Later on I walked out to go to breakfast, and saw that the cart was just to the side of my door. I hung the Do Not Disturb sign before leaving.

On my way back to the lobby I passed some doors and saw some people on the other side that were taking the elevators. I wasn’t sure if those were a shortcut to breakfast but recalling that I needed to stay on the same level decided to continue straight on to the lobby.

Breakfast was served just outside of the hotel lobby to the right. I rounded the corner and headed towards the breakfast tables. Unfortunately, I had just missed breakfast which ended at 9:30am. Since this was an airport hotel the breakfast opened at 4:30am which would be great for those with early flights.

The area looked bright and airy, and I’d definitely try to make it to breakfast next time as it was included with the rate.

I requested a late check-out when I returned to the room, as I planned to spend the day working. As I worked, I realized how noisy the room was. Every time a door closed down the hallway, my door bounced a bit and made a loud sound as well. I heard the clackety clack of high heels constantly going this way and that overhead, and could only surmise that there was a business area or something up there. I could hear vacuuming going on several rooms away. It also seemed that the primary spot for housekeeping on this floor was right outside my room, and I heard things getting dragged up and down the hallway.

About an hour before it was time to check-out, there were five hard knocks at the door. I answered, and it was housekeeping. I explained that I had a late check-out and she said she would come back later. I took a quick peek at the door and saw that the DND was still on there.

About 20 minutes until check-out time there was another knock. I answered and reassured housekeeping that I would be leaving the room in the next 15-20 minutes.

After I had packed up and started out the door to reception, I saw that the housekeeping cart was still parked in front of my door so my suspicion was confirmed that this area was the “home base”.

I did like the room layout and thought the separate seating area was pretty cool. It could have been that I was just unlucky with the room placement, and that rooms on a higher floor further down the hall would have been quieter. However, a quiet room is important and Airport hotel especially need to provide a silent retreat away from the noise. I think I would give this hotel one more try warily, to see if the experience was better next time.