The Radisson Harrisburg, Camp Hill and the Mystery of the Handprint

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When Keri suggested going to Hershey, PA, we searched for hotels in the area.  Even though we would have loved to stay at the Hotel Hershey (and I would have loved to spend all day drinking those peanut butter cup martinis), we decided to be cost effective and use some of my copious Club Carlson points at the Radisson Harrisburg, Camp Hill.

The pictures of the building looked really cute and colonial online, and the exterior pretty much met that description:

The inside of the rooms could have been colonial too—in a less cute way.  The A/C was old and rattled, and the room walls looked worn.  The bathroom and bedding, however, looked very new.

Don’t worry!  I’m sitting on a washable duvet cover, even though the color makes it look like the old-fashioned style.  I’m actually impressed that they found duvet covers that matched the color scheme I’m used to from Radisson—those old, heavy sketchy red coverlets.

Asira bath products—the usual for Radisson.  No loofah though!  I love it when hotels provide a loofah (I’m not a washcloth person) and Radissons usually do along with their bath products.  No actual complaints though, I didn’t expect it.

The whole bathroom looked recently redone.

Now to the important part of a hotel review:

A club sandwich was only $8.00, registering it very low on the “Club Sandwich Scale†(click for more info on that).  The entire room service menu was very reasonable, which I’ve found to be pretty  regular at US Radissons.

But the scary part of our stay was suddenly noticing this giant handprint on the wall:

 

Ghost?!  (More likely, messy maintenance worker.)  I already stayed at a haunted Radisson before, so it isn’t beyond the realm of possibility!  (Get it, ghosts?  Realms… eh, it wasn’t that funny).

There was one strange(r) part of our visit.  I mentioned to Keri that despite being a Gold with Radisson for two years, I’ve only received a check-in amenity at one European property, and never in the United States.

(Note, while writing this, I realized that once we got a Check-In Amenity of free drink coupons at the Radisson Crystal City, but we didn’t remember it at the time we discussed this).

We started wondering back and forth if I misunderstood the Gold benefits, so we called the front desk.  I asked politely saying I was a Gold and I just didn’t know—is there a check-in amenity?

The front desk person took it as us complaining, and sighed back, “Yes, and yours is already on its way.  It’s on its way there.â€Â  I thanked her profusely and tried to emphasize I was just asking because I literally didn’t know if I was supposed to get one or not.

And we waited.

And waited.

We realized that we were spending our Hershey time waiting for an unknown amenity, so we headed out.  When we got back, there was no amenity.

I called down to inquire and tried to do it as sweetly as possible, given the way I came off to the front desk person before.  I was perhaps too nice because the person down there felt really awful.  She explained that we were supposed to get a plate of fresh cookies, and the kitchen isn’t open, and her boss just left and she doesn’t know what to give me instead and her boss isn’t there to ask.  I told her it was totally fine!  My goal was to find out if we were supposed to get amenities, and what kind they were.  I learned the answers were “yes†and “cookiesâ€, but you may have to call down to get it.  Just make sure the kitchen is still open when you do!

There was a wedding going on and the guests were staying on our floor, but we were very impressed that we did not get woken up at all by them.  So the walls must be old-fashioned, in the good way!

Would I stay again?  Yes, in weather where I probably wouldn’t need to use the AC unit.  We had to take our light luggage up some stairs for our room, but if you are less mobile, that may be an issue.

Also, the Radisson Harrisburg, Camp Hill is in the middle of renovations.  We got a pre-renovated room and I think once the rooms are done, most of our concerns will be resolved (aside from the ghost-print in our room!)

Here’s a picture of the future renovations.