Introduction I had a very late arrival in MCT airport and decided to book a single night at Crowne Plaza OCEC due to proximity to the airport before going to a hotel farther away the next day. I found CP to be nice, modern, and clean; the main negative being the weak IHG loyalty elite benefits compared to other hotel chains. Room I booked the entry level room with points so technically the terms of the IHG program dictate that the hotel did not need to upgrade me at all. The good news is that they did nonetheless; they break down their rooms by view: city, pond, pool. I am not sure such distinctions are worthy of paying extra but for what it’s worth I was upgraded to a room with pool view. This upgrade as Spire pales in comparison with the upgrade Khabah received as Platinum last year in his own hotel review, and is also not competitive with the generous suite upgrades provided by other major chains such as Marriott, Hyatt, and Hilton, whether the reservations are booked with points or cash. I guess this is what contributes to why I do not stay with IHG as often as I could and this CP property does not buck the trend. The room itself was nice enough with a decent working desk and chair, the bathroom was not huge but it had the convenience of having a stand-alone shower separate from the bathtub. There were some tech features which made it apparent the hotel was a new construction such as the do not disturb and housekeeping control panel buttons along with air conditioning controls which worked well and kept the room cool. One oddity about tech going a bit in the wrong direction was that to access wifi, we had to connect to a server marked for our room only and it was not immediately apparent what the password was. After a call at reception I found out that the password was found on the TV under a section mislabeled as “screen mirroring” which was showing our password. This was not exactly self-explanatory, but anyway wifi worked well with speed of 15-20 Mbps. Otherwise, the only issue I noticed was that the sink was not firmly attached to the counter and was loose so it was an accident waiting to happen. Dining Since our arrival at the hotel was in the early hours of the night, we planned on sleeping in and not go to breakfast as it ended too early for us (10:30am). Nonetheless out of interest I asked what are the benefits of Spire Ambassador guests at this hotel, and unfortunately there are none, unlike some CPs which take the liberty to give some benefits on top of those required by the rules. CP Muscat OCEC does not have a lounge, and even if I had paid for my room with cash, I still would not get free breakfast. This is another feature which makes CP uncompetitive against other hotel chains, for example if I was booking a longer stay with intent to have breakfast some mornings. In normal times I would have booked at JW Marriott nearby but it happens to be closed at the moment so CP temporarily has less competition which works in their favor. Overall Overall for the price paid I found CP to be very good, in fact both cash rates and points redemptions were quite low. That makes the hotel a good fit for people who do not have loyalty status with any chain, or if they have only status with IHG. If this hotel was part of other hotel chain it would be a more attractive choice for my own purposes, but they are solid nonetheless for what they are now.