IC Muscat

Was here for one night, as a side-trip from my Abu Dhabi/Dubai trip, to see Muscat whilst I was in the area before coming back for the full deal in the mid-future.

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
Booked on points the 1 King Bed City View Top Floor. Got upgraded (3 small categories I believe?) to 1 King Bed Sea View Club Floor. Which I didn't feel was a 3-category upgrade but at most a one because the top floor is the sixth floor, and the club floor is on the fourth floor. My view got worse, and I don't get access to the Club lounge anyway.

How are the rooms?
Rooms are pretty spacious, but the furniture in the room itself looked... slightly older. Not as old as the IC Istanbul, and there were ample power sockets, so no complaints on those ends. Toilet seemed very recently renovated, with quite a big-ish shower with sliding doors.

There is physical access to the balcony which I appreciated.

Can confirm the typical Byredo Bal d'Afrique is the toiletry of choice here, as is with most ICs, and interesting they do offer the recycled gray toothbrush IHG is trying to get everyone on board here in their dental kits.

How is the club lounge?
Didn't use/didn't have it, but it looks kinda... small from the outside. It literally is in front of the three lifts and it's demarcated from the common courtyard corridor (IC Muscat is a square building with a hollow centre) by just brown-tinted glass if I remember correctly.

What was good and what was bad?

Good:
1) Has this been renovated recently? For a brutalist building, it's been quite well-maintained on the inside although it looks drab from the outside. In fact, the open courtyard really gives it a sense of grandeur. But yeah it really helps that the toilets looked very fresh.

2) Access to the beach and facilities: I think the facilities, if you're there for a pool kinda thing, is relatively complete for Oman. There is access by the baby (?) pool to the public beach if that's your thing.


Bad:
1) Check-in: complete chaos. Utter mess. It was the second day of Eid so I guess people were checking out, but my GOD. I swear that was busier, more dysfunctional, and more hectic than Muttrah Souq. The staff who checked me in couldn't see my status (both Diamond and Amb), and he acknowledged only the Diamond bit when he saw it on my phone. More puzzlingly, when the duty manager came over he could see the status on that same computer the other person couldn't see. Consider me confused.

2) Staff quality is really all over the place. The general rule of thumb is that I find non-locals a lot friendlier than locals, although the check-in desk people were pretty cheerful on such a horribly busy day. I didn't get some of what people were doing - including me going down to reception asking for a dental kit only for them to send me back to my room and to wait for someone to send me it (??? if I wanted that I would have called)

3) Paper... I mean, I don't know what system they are on, but things are antiquated. Ambassador credit? On a voucher. Check-out receipt? On paper (no emails). The team was managing bags and the garderobe had such an insistence of having a room number on the baggage ticket, even if you have not been assigned a room.

3b) Said ambassador voucher that guaranteed 20 USD at restaurants and for the minibar (it's at the T&Cs at the back of the voucher, and I've kept it), doesn't work for the minibar. Staff fibbed me and said it was used for welcome alcoholic drinks (?!?!) but anyway the message wasn't getting across and I was already somewhat pissed at the IC Muscat at this point. Also as a tangent, this is probably the only IC that they didn't take me at my word (I even filled out the paper minibar form on what I took) and sent someone to check the minibar... For god's sake, are you an IC?

4) Service recovery. They asked for feedback via this 1-10 form on three categories, and I gave them a 7 in two categories (I was being polite, it wasn't helpful they were slightly pushy about the paper feedback slip). They asked for a reason for those 7s and said they were sorry and they will offer 3k points for that, and it would be helpful if I could score them a 8+ when the online feedback form came through. 3k points, "because I'm a Diamond Ambassador", and then sent an email stating so later in the day (when I was back in Abu Dhabi)... which honestly I thought was a bit of a poor form and slightly insulting if that's their version of service recovery. Anyway, points hasn't posted, and it's almost been a week. They proactively promised 48 hours.

5) Transport: You have to get around Muscat by car/taxi, that is a fact of life. But the way the IC here has been built doesn't make it easy for you if you're not willing to pay/be kidnapped by a certain operator. I used OTaxi in Muscat, and if you book it directly from the IC you can only take the Luxury option which is daylight robbery (~30 OMR to the airport), but in Oman certain places are off-limits to competitor taxis, hence the situation here and also at the airport. Unfortunately the "exclusivity" of the IC means it takes you 10 minutes to walk to the Royal Opera House down the ramp and then slight left, where you can get a normal OTaxi Taxi (~3.5 OMR to the airport). The W Muscat next door however is linked to the Royal Opera House compound, so it takes somewhat less time to do that.

Value for $ or Priority Club Points? Would you return?
EHHHHH. Unfortunately Muscat doesn't have good options (I mean, compared to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, hotels here are operating about 15-20 years in the past), and I suspect the service issues are systemic in Oman. But given that the W Muscat is next door, which has direct access to the Royal Opera House AND the beach, and I'm trying to balance my IHG and Marriott stays, I might go there next time. Or actually maybe anywhere else since Muscat's impassable without taxis anyway.

Or the Crowne Plaza which sometimes charges more than the IC.