alancostello

I booked in for this weekend, paying for a Junior Suite, as an ambassador I've been checking every now and again to see if my category upgrade is put in, and I've just checked to find my room type changed from Junior Suite to '1 bed 1st floor', with the info as a 30sqm room, down from the 48sqm Junior Suite, surely this is some mistake? My Stay Preferences are also for a high floor so I'm very confused by this.

ninjalad

That sounds a nice upgrade :-)
You will almost certainly get a senior suite, most likely in West wing . These are on 9th floor and above

alancostello

I actually ended up ringing the hotel, just to check. They said I'm actually in a senior suite but in the east wing, it's a superior room with an additional room? Not sure if one wing is better than the other?

ninjalad

Those suites are a bit larger ,the living room has it's own bathroom (shower no tub) A previous post here said that they were no longer rented out !
I hope you get one with a view some looks down on the rubbish bins ,even numbers are canal/Tiergarten side
Enjoy your stay

scubaccr

My stay as RA was weekend at tail end of April. I ended up asking to see the "duty manager" due to por RA treatment, allocating a room in wrong West tower when guest (RA ) is known before arrival to have Club access.

The DM I chatted with was their Accounting Manager, who readily agreed that lounge privileges are negated by distance if in wrong tower.
I pointed out unlike in the past, when hotel could say RA was not known before checkin to be upselling to club (despite my IC Berlin profile saying I will upsell and need East Club Tower room), since RA's now are known pre-arrival to automatically have Club access on paid stays, RA's need to be allocated rooms in East Club tower, and that to my knowlege non-club Junior Suites and non-club Senior suites rooms existed in East-Club-Tower.
..... As only a 2-nighter the DM moved me to Club-JS in East Club Tower on Club Floor versus Senior Suite in West non-club tower

A follow up from Reception supervisor next day was unsatisfactory to me, as she stated no Senior-Suites exist in East-Club-Tower and that I should book a non-high-floor Deluxe as RA for a Junior-Suite upgrade that may be allocated in Club tower. (again news to me as Senior-suites existed before)
As such I again reiterated that the hotel managers need to have a meeting to discuss RA paid room allocations going forwards due to all RA's now having Club privileges and that expecting RAs to undertake a 25-30minute trip to get a coffee / use lounge during the day is not an option.

It maybe that due to my "protest and request" , that hotel management did discuss RA room allocation shortly after my stay, and are now providing senior-suites in East-Club-Tower again? At least I really hope so
IC Berlin DM was made aware if at checkin on future my stays, if my "Paid Rate" room is allocated in the non-club West Tower, then I will simply cancel res at checkin time (usually I am on a corp flex rate, cancelable upto 6pm on day of arrival) and relocate to another Berlin hotel (Hilton or Marriott chain).

alancostello

I'm a regular Ambassador not RA so not entitled to Club by status, and paid for a non-Club Junior Suite, upgraded to a non-Club Senior Suite. Perhaps they do not have Club Senior Suites in the East Tower? I suppose I'll see tomorrow and post an update, but I doubt heavily that they've given me a Club Senior Suite when I wasn't in a Club room to begin with.

ninjalad

They definitely have senior suites in the East wing ,there are eight on 5th & 6th floors and again on the 7th (lower) club floor. I have stayed in most if not all of them. Though I declined one on the 7th and got the club junior I was expecting.
Maybe they have been selling the living rooms as a deluxe, though the bathroom is a bit small and has no tub. Can't think why else they would not use them

alancostello

In the end I got a Senior Suite on the 6th floor of the East Wing, a Superior Room with Corner Living room with a gorgeous view of Tiergarten.

ninjalad

Alan, glad you got one with a nice view :-)
Next time book a club deluxe if you can , the upgrade should be to a club junior suite. These are really nice rooms (75 sqm ) with guest toilet and even better view. Otherwise the senior suites in Westwing are more modern, only one bathroom . Ask when you book for one ending in 18, so 918,1018,1118 for the best view

JOUY31

The Club Senior Suites are in the East Tower.

Flying Lawyer

Excellent news from Berlin. Due to angry comments from guests and lack of understanding from staff they revisited the RA policy. Currently the fake category Deluxe with view will be ignored for RA upgrades. Back to an upgrade from Superior to Junior Suite. And you do no longer have to treck from the west wing to the lounge to have breakfast. RAs have the choice of breakfast in LA Cafe or the lounge. InterContinental Berlin is back on my list!

Mystery7

Nothing new on the breakfast rule?! Breakfast has always been included with Club Lounge access. (Data point from several Stays in 2017)

scubaccr

I am sure that "ignore fake cat for RAs" is not implemented to satisfy RA complaints BUT is instead an attempt to reduce the new RAs booking practise that means more Full suites are needed... instead of Std room +40euro to get upgrade to J/S Room, extra 10euro ie Std Room+50euro gets me upgrade to Full Suite ie of instead of booking
a)Std --> upg is Junior Suite (as in ore 2017 times)
that RA booking then became for 2017
b)Std + 50euro (old lounge upsell) room is Dlx High View --> Upgrade is Full Suite

However still totally ignores my "complaint chat items" with their finance director regards RAs should be allocated rooms in Lounge Tower as 25mins round trip to/from Room-Lounge-room in other tower means lounge access is worthless other than restaurant breakfast benefit, as makes impossible to grab a quick (in 5mins a lounge) coffee/soda (or evening beer) when one wants.


ie
o Since RAs are now known to have Lounge Access at time of booking, the hotel needs to be proactive in ensuring RAs are given rooms in the Lounge Tower
o Since the addition of fake deluxe/view categories, view, view high floor, and thus RAs booking std room got a poor deluxe room, RAs will often simply spend the Euro50 saved on lounge upsell to instead book Dlx High Floor View which gives rise to Senior (Full Suite) AND reception supervisor is telling me IC Berlin no longer have such Full Suite rooms in Lounge Tower.

Flying Lawyer

You forget one issue. Most corporate rates are for superior room only and some of these are dramatically low. I know dozens of RAs in TLM using my specific rate which belongs to one of the most important customer of this IC. This was no longer eligible for JS and we had to book the higher category for a normal rate.

For me and several others this was +120 Euro and this was not reimbursable

And the "normal RA" is not their main target. If however the "corporate RAs" belonging to the management of a corporation using this hotel for close to 200000 annual nights and several big events are unhappy and complain than this is a totally different issue.

Flying Lawyer

At least in February 2017 it was different. My rate normally includes breakfast but in 02/17 i had to pay extra. Yesterday it was confirmed that this is no longer required.