Originally Posted by
stimpy
Fair enough. I haven't been to AUH in many years.
The Park Tower! That's a horrible choice to compare with either London IC. Talk about cookie cutter, there's no "luxury" hotel as bad as the Park Tower in that respect. No club lounge, no possibility for a suite upgrade or any kind of meaningful upgrade as all the rooms are the same size. I tried it out again last summer to see if there was any improvement over my stay a decade past, but no. There really isn't much they can do to that hotel to improve it. And the service was no better than the IC, at least comparing stays there last summer. I've seen your negative comments about a recent stay at the PL.
And as you note the Ritz London is not fully in the RC program and you don't get Marriott Platinum benefits there. So it's off my list for that reason. If I'm staying for luxury in London my first choice is the Rosewood or maybe the FS if I really need to be near Mayfair. But if I want to keep it around £250 I'll stay at one of the IC's over anything else.
There are suites at the Park Tower, I have had Suite Upgrades at the Park Tower as a Plat. The average room at the Park Tower is both larger and considerably nicer than the average room at the IC PL, the vast majority are considerably quieter and typically afford MUCH nicer views and they almost all have separate bath and shower. You can debate the status benefits but it doesn't take away the fact that IC is not really a luxury hotel chain, it may be good for those of us with Status and at the upper end of the cookie cutter chains but IC is still a pretty bog standard chain at the upper end of the middle market.
I actually had far better treatment recently on a reward night stay at the Hilton PL than I have had in the last year or so paying for rooms at the IC PL. That doesn't make the Hilton a better property (and for avoidance of doubt I don't think it is despite the huge 24th floor suite with sauna I had on my last stay).