Our Hotel Touted A Turbo Chill Fridge. WTH Is A Turbo Chill Fridge???

by joeheg

People often make strange requests from hotels. Heck, we have a whole article full of them. The one request Sharon and I have most often isn’t that unusual, but we’ve been known to pick one hotel over another just because of access to this single amenity.

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That’s right, a refrigerator.

When we’re traveling to Texas, we prefer to have a full-size fridge/freezer combo to bring home all that wonderful barbecue. This trip was different. I was headed to New Jersey for one night for my grade school reunion and Sharon had two requests. Bring home pizza and bring home pierogi.

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The day before my stay, I sent a message to the hotel via the Marriott app. If you can’t chat with the hotel, you might be able to send them a text message or email.  In my message, I asked if there was a fridge in the room because I needed to keep some food cold for the plane ride home.

The hotel rep replied that all the rooms at the Renaissance Newark Airport Hotel have in-room refrigerators. She also added that if I was bringing food back to the room and needed to keep it cold right away, to make sure and press the turbo chill button as soon as I got to the room.

Turbo Chill???

Color me intrigued. I’d never heard of that feature before. I found it so interesting that I even called Sharon to tell her. If I called instead of texting, you know it had to be important.

After stopping for the pizza and checking to make sure I had the right kind of pierogi, I headed to the hotel.

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Since my room wasn’t ready, I left the food with the front desk to put into their fridge. When I returned later that evening, I brought everything to the room. The first thing I did was check the fridge to find the special button. Lo and behold, there it was, in all its Turbo Chill chilliness. Well, almost.

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Now, I think Turbo Chill sounds “cooler” than quick chill, but the theory is the same. If you’ve ever felt a hotel fridge when you open it, you’d swear the thing is never going to keep anything cold.

I pressed the button, loaded the fridge with the food (and my complimentary water bottle), and hoped for the best.

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I checked before heading to bed and yes, the fridge was really cool inside. I was confident my food would make it home. I still pressed the button again for another two-hour turbo chill, just to make sure.

The next morning I packed the food using our standard “flying home with food” procedures. The hotel was so close to Newark Airport that when I got to the TSA checkpoint the ice hadn’t melted so I didn’t even need to dump it out as a liquid before heading to the gate.

I’m glad to say, the pizza (and pierogi) made it home safely. We’re saving the pierogi to last us until our next trip but the pizza didn’t last more than a few days.

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I’m not sure if this is a standard feature on hotel refrigerators as I’d never looked. Have you ever seen this in your room fridge?

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6 comments

Is 5/24 expanding? How can you bring pizza or BBQ home from your trip? Those answers and more. November 17, 2018 - 6:18 pm

[…] Our Hotel Touted A Turbo Chill Fridge. WTH Is A Turbo Chill Fridge??? […]

Reply
uiucderp2011 November 17, 2018 - 7:10 pm

I saw this option on the hotel at the Hale Koa hotel in Waikiki! Thanks for the explanation!

Reply
Margo November 17, 2021 - 8:24 am

Only problem is, who eats frozen food? Sandwich meats and cheese’s were frozen solid. Worst hotel frig ever.

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Marguerite Rizzo November 18, 2021 - 11:17 pm

Marriott Courtyard, Denton Texas has theTurbo Chill frig. It will freeze everything solid. But you cannot put food in that you don’t want frozen. We had a carton of milk, it is a block of ice, mustard froze solid, as did cheese and deli ham we bought to have a sandwich in the room. The clerks were no help, one told me. “ Oh the frig is only for drinks.” Who wants frozen drinks? Milk is a drink.

Reply
Billy Bob August 30, 2022 - 9:18 pm

I am currently on a trip and am staying at a few Courtyards. I hate the two-hour fridges. I need to keep stuff cold, not frozen. What the heck was wrong with the little room-sized (real) fridges???

Reply
derek November 18, 2022 - 9:19 pm

The turbo is simply a timer with a lower set temperature. At home, one can put drinks in the freezer for an hour or so.

Reply

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