Spent 4 nights here as Diamond Amb with Lounge Pass. Had initially booked the Andaz (which treated us well last year -as Hyatt Glob- with an upgrade to a Deluxe Suite), but because the IC was available at 19.8k points/night with Chase 4th night free, decided ro give the IC a try before it gets torn down. I'd never stayed here in my years of RA/Plat/Spire/Diamond, but have memories of acompanying my dad on business trips in the 1990s. The hotel looked like a Socialist eyesore back then, and it does now. As it happens, I like that style (likely due to those childhood travels in Central and Eastern Europe), and I wasn't disappointed.

The night before our arrival, the app showed an upgrade to "Junior Suite, City View" (from base room booked on points). It turned out to be a x49 room (below the dining area of the club lounge), which is just a large room, I assume previously discussed in this thread as "Studio Suite"? We generally prefer "large room" junior suites to those with tiny rooms with dividing walls, so this worked well for us. We enjoyed the view over the ice skating rink, and with unseasonably warm temperatures (16C), we awoke from an afternoon nap with the windows open thinking that we were at a beach location. The room is of course ancient and I wouldn't want to walk around barefoot on the carpet. But the furniture is still acceptable and the mattress was comfortable. The tiny bathroom is perhaps the weakest aspect of the room. Minibar is located in the walk-in closet and wasn't stocked.

I was surprised to see so many comments upthread about excellent service. The staff we encounterd at the club lounge were borderline hostile. Several times, we walked in without being greeted, and conversations were kept to a minumum. On more than one night, we found our table cleared while we were up to get another drink or dessert. The food offerings were middling for afternoon tea -- it often felt like leftovers from breakfast. At dinner, the main courses (salmon, fish cakes, turkey, goulash) were ok, but the appetizers (salmon, dry cured beef, crayfish) nothing to write home about, and desserts were weak. Mid-shelf alcohol, some red and white wine, and local sparkling wine that was generally lukewarm, even though presented on ice.

Breakfast in the restaurant was similarly weak, although here we encountered two very friendly and sociable staff members. The "Asian corner" described above was generally picked over -- in a four day stay, we never saw any of the fried noodles, the tray was always empty when we came, and no effort was made to refill. To a lesser extent, the same applied to Western hot dishes -- on the first day, boiled eggs, sausages, bacon were missing for the entire 45 minute duration of our meal. There was a sign for "veal sausages" every morning, but they never showed up. Salmon, cold cuts, and so forth were available and refilled, but there was no variation, the same stuff every day. Pastries were prehaps the most disappointing aspect of the breakfast -- very sweet and more befittting the selection at Safeway than one of the great pastry capitals of the world. I had some Krapfen and quark pastries that were stale, worse than what I'd buy from my discount bakery in a Munich U-Bahn station at closing time.

Check-in also wasn't particularly friendly or effective. The agent didn't see my Lounge Pass in the system -- this is an enduring mystery, as I've now shown it at 4 ICs who "added it to the system" -- some can see it, others can't. I wasn't given an amenity choice, so I have no idea whether restaurant breakfast is available for all club guests or I "selected" it as Diamond benefit. I was given what turned out upon closer inspection to be a 10% discount voucher for drinks the bar -- I don't know if this is a trick to keep people from claiming their Diamond Welcome Drink? The welcome letter, which is really more of a welcome QR code, didn't clear this up, and there was also no mention of the €15 Ambassador credit either (which I assume one would have to use at the bar or via room service considering that there's no minibar).

Obviously at 19.8k point with Diamond/Lounge benefits, this is a pretty sweet option for Vienna, but I can't say that I get some of the glowing reviews above.