I just had a four night stay at the IC Rio and just spending my last night at the IC in Sao Paulo. I would not return to either of these two properties because better options do exist.

Rio

The Rio IC is not conveniently located. I had spent five weeks in Rio earlier this year but this was my first stay at the IC. I was aware of the location but did not realized that it would be "difficult" to get around.

I had a nice room on the Club Floor and received very nice service from the Ambassador Desk. The room was nice and I loved the fact that I didn't get charged for the Internet.

My main complaint about this hotel is really the location. I did feel trapped because I had been get used to just hop in to the beach in Copacabana/Ipanema without thinking about taxis and how much time I would spend on the beach.

The location could be fine as long as you plan spending most of the time on the hotel pool or on the local beach.

Sao Paulo

I had planned to spend two weeks in Rio but the weather was not that nice. The nightlife is far superior in Sao Paulo so I decided to return to the city for the weekend. I had stayed at the Renaissance Sao Paulo the previous week.

In the early morning hours of Thursday I made four reservations; Thursday and Sunday nights using points, Friday night using $$$'s and the Saturday night using the Free weekend certificate.

Around 4AM I sent a fax that I addressed to Guest Relations/Ambassador Desk for them to merge these reservations and preblock a room for me for this four night stay.

When I arrived at the hotel 11:30AM it was obvious that my fax had not been processed when the front desk welcomed me for a one night stay. After explaining three to four times that I had four reservations for four nights I thought that I had got my message through. How wrong I was.

Later in the evening there was a message on the voice mail to call to the front desk. When I was retrieving the voice mail I also got a written message from the front desk that they are not able to merge my reservations and that I would need to make award reservations for Thursday and Sunday nights.

This really didn't make any sense because I had made those reservations already earlier. We'll see what will wait me when I am checking out later today.

The IC Club is the biggest joke I have ever seen. The Club is the open space next to the elevators on the 17th floor. The evening spread is lame and it is NOT replenished during the "happy hour". One night when I went there around 6PM I was able to have some toast with the cheese but the following evening after 7PM the toast was gone.

Also it seems that the "Club" is not open during the weekends, although IC seems to be more than happy to sell it on their website. After checking the Tripadvisor reviews it seems that the Club floor guests are allowed to do the breakfast buffet at the main restaurant. Nobody told me this.

The weather seemed to be sunny on Friday so I decided to check the hotel pool. I took the elevator to the 3rd floor pool entrance but the door was closed. I called to the hotel operator who first transferred me to the Instant Service. After waiting for several minutes for the Instant Service to pick up the call I called to the operator again who promised to send somebody from the room service to open the entrance for me. After waiting for somebody to come to open the door for me I asked from a guest who was coming from an elevator how the pool was. I was told that the pool is under renovation and cannot be used. I wonder why the hotel employee was not able to convey the message for me.

Overall the hotel does not compare well to the Renaissance that is quite close to the IC but in a better location. The lounge at the Renaissance is a REAL lounge with several rooms and really good morning and evening spread compared to the IC. Also the employees at the Renaissance where friendlier.