Radisson Blu Aqua

An absolutely gorgeous facility with an extremely friendly, accommodating staff. Amenities include a swimming pool, hot tub, fitness center, indoor basketball court, and outdoor track. You’ll undoubtedly enjoy your stay at the Radisson Bu Aqua Hotel in Chicago, IL.

Lovely hotel with friendly personable staff. My only qualms are with the room; paid for a room with a balcony and it did not open, because there was no handle. Additionally, the bathroom has no fan, so showering steams up the entire place, and the door to the bathroom has a 1″ gap when closed which can make thing uncomfortable for people.

Stayed here for work. When I saw my itinerary said Radisson I was mad. Real mad. I was trying to figure out why my job would sent me to a Radisson?! I almost booked my own hotel but this isn’t anything like the typical Best Western type Radisson. It’s more like a W. It’s unique, trendy and stylish.
The lobby is absolutely gorgeous. Gold chain walls, fire place, beautiful living room type setting to chill out in and chat with friends over a glass of wine. Next to it is a nice restaurant/​bar (Filini’s or however you spell it) that has surprisingly good food and trendy lounge décor. It’s usually not that busy so it’s a great place to just chill.
The rooms are nice but a bit funky. Marble glitter floors, blue carpet and funky décor accents. My room had a balcony but it was just a slab of concrete that faced another building. My co-​worker was in another room that was all hardwood floors and had a gorgeous balcony overviewing the park.
Staff was no problem. Elevators took a bit too long.
Only con would be the location. It’s not really close to that much except a Marianos but for work it was fine.

Our stay here was perfect! Just the beds are worth 5 stars (I’m very picky about beds). But it’s so much more than that! Absolutely stunning décor, stellar service (friendly, intelligent, eager to help staff), great location, tons of things to do inside the hotel — two restaurants, coffee shop, bar, fireplace lounge, spa, biz center, indoor pool, outdoor pool, sauna, steam room, plus I think there was a game room and a tennis court but we didn’t have time to check those out. Good size rooms with a smart layout. We just got a standard room w/​double beds and it was very comfy for two ppl. Not too pricey either, but that just might be due to off season. Would def stay here again and recommend it to a friend.

Room was a great size. Housekeeping was onpoint. Free wifi. Great location.
Walking distance to park, river tours, shopping.
Would stay here again.

For a «5» star hotel. I’m rather unimpressed with the service here. I came in at 12:33 trying to check-​in. (Check-​in time is 3:00). I had a conference to be at by 2:30 so was hoping for an early check-​in. Despite my conditions the desk staff showed no sense of urgency to get me checked in and when I inquired if a room may be ready by 2:00, the response I received was «probably not». I was then offered a locker room if I wanted to change. This is a joke — right? For the 560.00 a night I’m paying here, I would have much rather spent it somewhere where my patronage is appreciated.

This place is great! I was planning on staying somewhere else, but stayed for the convenience as the conference I was attending was here. Really glad I did!
My room was clean, bright and had a great view of Navy Pier. Balcony area was a nice place to relax at the end of the day. Had a drink and some food in the restaurant. fast service and good thin crust pizza.
Location convenient to several stores for sundries, etc.
Staff was very responsive to my requests and questions.
This trip was for business, but I want to check out the city of Chicago out again soon and will definitely consider staying here for personal travel.
Great job staff of Radisson Blu Aqua. Looking forward to visiting you again soon.

This will be a very short review.
This hotel is luxury luxury luxury. From the décor which is bright and welcoming to the staff who are extremely helpful everything is geared toward your comfort.
Our room was spacious and designed to make us feel important. Room service was prompt and the breakfast we ordered was just what we needed. Gourmet coffee and tasty croissants added the feeling that we deserved the finer things in life.
The only negative was we only booked one night. We plan on going back in the Spring.

This was a nice hotel and I was here for a convention /​meeting. The staff were friendly and the services were top notch. It was also very secure with card key access to the floors where the rooms were. I liked it but stay here only if your company don’t mind paying the big bucks!

An extremely nice stay. Manager Scott checked us in and was so gracious. He discovered this was a birthday trip and surprises us with birthday treats in the room — so nice! He gave us his business card on check in which also felt specially. Luggage guy Al was also fantastic.
Had a good breakfast and recommend a la carte over the buffet. Food and coffees were very good.
Room was beautiful with a view to die for. I asked to be away from fire engine room (thanks for the tip Unilocalers!) and I had a very quiet room. Comfortable beds and nice décor. The rooftop pool is beautiful and we enjoyed the hot tub among the beautiful city lights.
Just a few quirks in service. During the whole breakfast hour the waiters complained about each other and argued about who would service the next table… All about one foot from our table and clearly in ear shot. You got the sense they hated their work and you were putting them out. Shame — the food was great.
Concierge was less than gracious. We asked for a pool towel to take to the beach and were told to buy one at cvs. We just took our hotel room towels instead. Also no turn down service unless you request it or are on the business level. For the price I paid, I thought there would be such services.

LOVED my stay here!!!
I know if I took advantage of the amenities and eats within this hotel, I could see myself giving them a 5 star or maybe a 4.5 star LOL. Since there were just a few things lacking.
So a lovely flew me in for the weekend. This was my first time in Chicago and I can’t wait to go back!!! My friend actually owns a loft on the resident side so I got to see both sides of this property: D I can’t tell you guys about the check in process since he had it all taken care of when I got there! There are elevators for the hotel and walking down the hall way towards the pool there are the elevators for the Apartment.
My room was awesome! A nice large one bedroom. I had an incredible view. I had a nice little living room with a couch I can kick my feet up and look out the window. The room came with a stocked fridge so I didn’t have room to put the fresh fruit and dranks in, so I wasn’t to happy about that. I think places should have both types of fridges. So that was a strike. The closet space is right when you walk in the door. I prefer a closet in the bedroom and even the drawers were by the closet space. Which is a pain because the night stands had no drawers as well. So you have to leave your bedroom necessities on top o_​O. You don’t realize how much you need drawers by your bed til they’re aren’t any. First world problems! Another strike. Speaking of the bed, it was GLORIOUS! I slept like a baby and never wanted to leave the bed!!!
The bathroom was nice but the sink space was a little tight and as a girl, we have a shit ton of female products!!! So that was a strike as well. I ended up putting all my stuff around the lovely large Jacuzzi tub :) I didn’t get a chance to make use of that WAAAAAAHHHHHHH :(The shower had two options an overhead shower head and a detachable one. Sadly the detachable one didn’t work!!! UGH and when the maid came to clean up she left her shoe prints all over the shower floor! SIGH! What an eye sore. I didn’t have time to call them back to clean it. But what an eye sore until you shower and let the water run awhile.
I went on the loft side and I was surprised by how the hallways were dated compared to the modern hallways for the hotel rooms. His one bedroom was basically a studio, he lives elsewhere in Illinois so this is his every other weekend pad. For a studio it was a nice size! and the view was breath taking!!! I wish I could wake up to a view every day on the 54^th floor, I don’t think I ever been that high in a building before as well.
Overall, I enjoyed my stay. It was a peaceful stay, I didn’t hear anything and that’s what I like! Even with those strikes, I wouldn’t hesitate coming back, well as long as he’s funding it LOL. If it were my dime, I might want to stay elsewhere to compare: D

Best hotel I’ve ever stayed in! The service was exceptional. I loved when they would come to the room to ask if we needed anything. Also received a birthday card and a small bottle of red wine. Our room was fabulous. The bed wasn’t as comfortable as I expected, but the room was great nonetheless. The restaurant in the lobby was fancy. Really modern décor throughout. Really loved this hotel. Close to all major attractions. Will definitely return.

The location is exceptional. Staff is extremely friendly.
But, I have to question housekeeping’s thoroughness which makes me doubt the true cleanliness.
One year ago, after checking-​in, I reached my room and needed to use the bathroom. While seated on the commode, I noticed there was no toilet paper. None, nada. I called housekeeping and asked if they would deliver some TP. When I arrived back in my room, the TP was there, on the desk. There was still none installed on the dispenser in the bathroom (yes, a little diva-​ish of me, but really, this is supposed to be a nice hotel).
This year, I woke up and was making a cup of coffee on the credenza in my room. As the coffee was brewing, I mindlessly opened the middle drawer where I found a bag of potato chips, a chocolate chip cookie, a bag of trail mix and an opened packet of Motrin. Hmm. Then, I opened the drawer on the left side to find a grocery bag containing a full bottle of tequila.
I informed housekeeping who said «Don’t worry, we’ll take care of it.»
Draw your own conclusions as to how this could be a positive or negative situation. I’m sure we’ll all see this in a different light. As for me, I’m a bit grossed out. When I’m in a hotel room, I’d prefer not to have one sign that someone else has stayed in that room even though I know that’s what hotel rooms are for.

As someone who travels internationally frequently, I can confidently say that this hotel is great by American standards. In general, hotels in Europe are old, but they have plenty of history to make you look past the physical conditions of the hotel. Hotels in ME and Asia are mostly brand spanking new because of the new money that has been flowing into those parts of the world. You’ll also get better service at a Holiday Inn in China than you would a Four Seasons in the US. US hotels aren’t old enough for people to appreciate the history behind them, yet aren’t new enough to be modern, so they mainly appear to be dirty, dreary, and uninspiring. This hotel, however, is different.
The Radisson Blu is a relatively new hotel with modern décor, friendly staff who are attentive without intruding, and is in a convenient location. Self parking is $ 49/​day. If you are on the business floors you’ll have access to the small executive lounge which serves an okay spread of breakfast, and has afternoon/​evening happy hour with wine, cheese, and fruits. There is a game room with a poker table and pool table. Big gym. Outdoor pool. Definitely a hotel you want to check out if you don’t want to shell out big bucks at the Peninsula, but would like to avoid the hipsters who only make enough money on Etsy to stay at cheaper boutique hotels (like ACME hotel).

Clean, modern and spacious, but service didn’t WOW me
We were here in late May, 2015 for 5 nights. Having stayed in the W in the Loop years ago for a work trip, I was looking for something with similar chic but a larger size room for 2 adults and 1 toddler. Blu offered exactly that but was lacking in some areas. The hotel itself has a unique wavy exterior, and the lobby is bright and modern. But the room that we were in (16^th floor, city facing) was muted and lacked bold colors (black and white walls and teal carpeting) that adorned the lobby.
I arrived around 11 AM but couldn’t get a room until 3 PM (I was supposed to receive a call when the room was ready but never did). I probably should have asked for early check-​in days ago instead of day of but not sure if I would have gotten a different result. I immediately ordered a fridge (which cost $ 15 for the duration of the stay) but I didn’t get it until I followed up with guest services on the 2^nd day (with 2 calls). On the 3^rd day, housekeeping decide to take a day off and didn’t service our room. Trash pile up quickly with a not-​potty trained toddler so I tried to use the Blu One Touch app on my iPhone to report this. Besides the app being slow (guessing it was built on HTML5 instead of natively for the iPhone), I didn’t get any email confirmation that guest services received my report so I had to call (at least their phone is cordless) and report this (found out housekeeping works til 5PM but didn’t explain why my room wasn’t cleaned the day before).
With so much sightseeing on our schedule, we spent very little time using the hotel facilities until the 5^th day. I wish guest services would have mentioned these facilities (gym with 20+ machines, half-​court basketball court, sauna room, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, business center, art gallery, game room and media room) but no one did. It could have also been listed when you turn on the TV or in the app but is not. I walked around the hotel and found all these by myself but still couldn’t figure out how to get into the media room. We did use both pools and they are both under 5′ deep.
One thing pointed out by many reviewers on Unilocal and other sites is the fire station next to the hotel. Some reviewers mentioned to request for higher floor to avoid the noise when a fire call comes in, I can say for certain that will not help. But it wasn’t all that bad as I heard the fire trucks maybe once every day or so, and it was around 10 PM instead of middle of the night like you would see on Chicago Fire on NBC.

So, I am about halfway through my weeklong stay here and it’s an ok hotel, but not outstanding. The hotel bar area is a nice place to grab a drink and do some work without feeling rushed by the servers to leave the table. The bar menus was good and the fungi pizza with truffle oil was really good!
And again when I went for breakfast the staff kept checking on me and telling me to stay as long as I wanted while I worked on my laptop for about 2 hours at the table. That is very important as I don’t want to be stuck in the hotel room to do work.
The room itself had a nice view and was clean, however the daily room Cleaning could have been better as there were days when the didn’t give us any clean washcloths or they forgot to restock the water bottles, and the water tastes bad so bottled water is a must! The bed is ok but the pillows are awful, Short & lumpy. They only have a tiny dresser and a small area to hang clothes, which is not enough for us being here for a week on a conference. There is also only the minibar fridge, and when we checked in we were told not to use the fridge to put anything in because even if one item is moved we will be charged… So no to go boxes for us.
All in all… Not a bad stay, but for the price per night, I would look somewhere else to stay next visit to Chicago

Modernes Hotel in sehr guter Zentraler Lage. Die Magnificent Mile und auCh das Wasser sind in kürzester Zeit gut zu erreicheen.
Das Personal ist zuvorkommend und hilfsbereit.
Leider läßt die Sauberkeit ein wenig zu wünschen übrig, daher auch nur drei Sterne, sonst wären es sicherlich vier gewesen.

I knew from the minute I stepped foot out the car onto the sidewalk of the radisson, that I was going to leave a review.
Pros
Amazing staff
Great food *filini* with amazing servers
Great room
Awesome gym
Huge plus it was by a cvs since I literally forgot so much… Along with running out of diapers for my baby
The list goes on about how amazing this hotel was. Three instances that really made me appreciate this place was
1. When they decorated the room for my oldest sons 6^th birthday and gave him an awesome cupcake
2. Gave me a complementary fridge in the room to store my pumped breast milk
3. Went above and beyond when one of the valet attendants had a little boo boo with my car when parking.
I will be back… Minus the kids and with my husband :)

I’ve always thought of this hotel as «that cool looking hotel with the wavy exterior» but never really thought to stay here before. I stayed here last week and there are lots of things to love about this hotel.
The staff is extremely helpful and friendly.
The hotel’s interior is beautiful and they have quite a bit of interesting art throughout.
There is an indoor *and* an outdoor pool. Too cold for the outdoor pool last week, but I would like to stay here in the summer and check out the pool scene.
The lobby bar /​seating area is very inviting and comfortable.
Our room was on the 15^th floor and had a small view of Millennium Park.
The location is very convenient to pretty much everywhere you’d want to go in the downtown area.
The only real negative to the stay was when I got ready to shower in the morning, there were several gnat-​like insects flying around the inside of the shower. Once I turned the water on, the steam forced the bugs to flee up to one corner of the shower near the ceiling. I’m not a germaphobe, but having bugs flying around in the shower is not the ideal situation I’m looking for when starting my day.
I let the front desk know about the bug issue when I checked out and they assured me that they’d look in to it.
I’ll probably stay here again this coming summer and hope to have another super cool room, but minus the bugs.

Absolutely marvelous service. Stayed here when on a business trip and services was prompt and personnel are all very nice. Rooms are pricey but in line with downtown Chicago hotels, and you get good quality for what you pay.
I got in late on a Sunday night and order room service around 10:15pm. The food didn’t show up until 11:15, turns out the overnight cook never showed up for work. They brought me the food and told me it’s on the house. I wasnt expecting it and definitely appreciated it.
Room is nice and spacious, and I liked the little hallway that shields the bed from direct view of the door.
The gym facilities are impressive, a full blown gym with more bosu balls, kettle bells and weights than I see at other gym facilities you pay for. They also have an outdoor running track, pool and Jacuzzi on their roof top deck which due to the weather I chose not to utilize but did look cool.
I’ll be making this my hotel of choice next time I’m back in the area.

What more can one desire in a hotel??? It has beautiful rooms, a modern lobby, great views of the city, perfect location, one of the best hotel gyms around, indoor and outdoor pools, and a cheerful and helpful staff! They also offer free wifi.
I was only able to stay here for 2 nights and didn’t spend as much time as I would have liked at this gorgeous hotel but I will definitely be back. It will be my first choice when I go to Chicago. Rates vary a lot… from around $ 130 to $ 400+/night. I was able to book in advance for $ 180/​ngt for my stay.
Can I say I LOVE the Radisson Blu? Because I really do. It is one of the very best hotels I’ve ever stayed in.

Un avis très mitigé sur cet hôtel…
Tout d’abord, tout est très beau: l’immeuble, le hall, le bar, la chambre et la salle de bains. C’est magnifique, très design et très chaleureux
L’accueil qui nous a été réservé a été très bon: prévenant, souriant et agréable. Je né me souviens pas du nom de celui qui nous a accueilli et c’est dommage.
Après, ça se gate. Un des verres disponibles sur le meuble du frigo n’était pas propre, il y avait une traînée d’essuyage. Le traitement des verres en chambre étant un casse tête pour les hôtelier, j’ai bien peur que l’on soit pas très rigoureux sur la méthode; il n vaut mieux né pas trop y penser.
Le sol de la salle de bains (celle-​ci doit être un enfer à nettoyer) avait également des traces. Enfin, le gestion des serviettes n’était pas idéale: le soir des serviettes laissées sur une chaise de la chambre s’y trouvait toujours, humide.
Mon impression que l’housekeeping n’était pas totalement sous contrôle.
Le plus désagréable vient: nous devions prendre le taxi à 7h pour l’aéroport. Je demande la veille au concierge de réserver un taxi avec un grand coffre car nous étions 4, très chargés. Il me fait remarqué qu’il y avait plein de taxis devant l’hôtel (qu’on né peut louper bien sûr), légérement amusé et dédaigneux. J’insiste sur l’heure et sur le fait que nous étions 4 avec beaucoup de bagages. Le me redit qu’il, y a toujours des taxis devant l’hôtel, plutôt condescendant. Ok, je fais confiance et je le laisse reprendre sa conversation avec ses collègues au desk.
Bien sûr le lendemain matin, pas de taxi assez grand pour nous prendre avec les bagages. Le chasseur nous propose quelqu’un pour 60 $ (?!). Je refuse et je demande un taxi. Deux chasseurs partent alors en quête de celui-​ci. Enfin un taxi à grand coffre passé par là et peut nous prendre. Avec des bagages sur les genoux.
Bref, nous n’avons pas apprécié le ton du concierge et son assurance mal placée, ni le stress et l’inconfort du départ pour l’aéroport.
Concernant le prix, en passant par booking ou hotels .com, le rapport qual/​prix est bon. Mais à cause du service, je n’y retournerai pas.
Dommage, cela terni énormément l’image de ce très bel hôtel