Jet2K

I thought it might be useful to have a thread similar to the excellent Royal Ambassador experiences thread, but focusing on the Priority Club Elite experiences:

- What is your Priority Club status?
- Were you (or for multi-stayers are you generally) happy with the hotel/stay?
- Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
- How are the rooms?
- How is the exec. lounge?
- What was good and what was bad?
- Value for $ or Priority Club Points? Would you return?

If you are an Gold or Platinum Ambassador, there is a dedicated thread for Ambassador Experiences.

Moderators Notice:
Newer Posts could be found in this thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/inter...periences.html

FLYGVA
co-moderator IHG Forum

skchin

What is your Priority Club status?
Platinum

Were you (or for multi-stayers are you generally) happy with the hotel/stay?
Yes

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
Booked a king leisure, got a King Executive Suite next to the Exit stairs with the view of the Canadian tunnel customs.

How are the rooms?
Lots of room for 2 adults and 1 baby on the bed.
I was not happy with the firm pillow.
The bathroom door was broken and it was hard to open and close.
We had a old 27' tv with a bad cable connection. Lower half of all channels were fuzzy. Because we were next to the exit stairs, we were sometimes suprised by large bangs.


How is the exec. lounge?
N/A

What was good and what was bad?
Good: Location
Bad: Pay parking

Value for $ or Priority Club Points? Would you return?
Average value - I will return if nothing else is available.

KIXman

What is your Priority Club status?
Platinum Ambassador

Were you (or for multi-stayers are you generally) happy with the hotel/stay?
Stayed twice over the past week, the first time around was not satisfied due to poor service / recognition, but the second time was not too bad.

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
For both stays, booked a King Deluxe Room, and in both cases got upgraded to an Executive room on the Club Intercontinental Floor

How are the rooms?
Decor is mainly in brown colors, providing a soothing atmosphere.
Room faclities are OK, but the bathrooms are small.

How is the exec. lounge?
Not too bad a view. Roomy. Food needs improvement, there not being much variety in food. Also, canapes were stale.

Location?
Excellent location for access to the nearby shopping malls.

What was good and what was bad?
Good:
- Upgrade to Club room was great.
- Perhaps it was the Club priviledges, but internet was free, unusual for an IC.
- Welcome gift was a leather pen holder

Bad:
- "Instant Check-in" definitely it was not. It took a long time to do so during the first stay.
- Beds were a bit hard
- My choice of newspaper was not delivered.
- Pay movies were not activated until I mentioned it
- Old CRT TV

Value for $ or Priority Club Points?
At only about $25 more expensive than the Holiday Inn at the time, definitely worth it, considering location, service and amenities

Would you return?
yes

vsevolod4

- What is your Priority Club status?
Platinum, Royal Ambassador

- Were you (or for multi-stayers are you generally) happy with the hotel/stay?
Yes

- Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
Booked standard room. Was upgraded to the Executive Floor.

- How are the rooms?
Reminded me of a Crowne Plaza room.

- How is the exec. lounge?
N/A

- What was good and what was bad?
Very nice and friendly service at the front desk and concierge.
There was a welcome gift in the room; a nice selection of fruits. Almost like an Ambassador gift (but no free minibar)
Good location if you're there to visit the European Parliament, although a bit of a hike (1 mile or so) to get to the (beautiful) old town area (but an easy walk or you can take the tram). You can also walk about 1km to the Beurehiesel restaurant (formerly a 3-star, but lost the stars because the chef left and handed it over to his son).
The tram is a modern one and not very noisy, but when it starts up at 5 am or so, it wakes you up even on the 12th floor. I guess the windows are fairly thin and not soundproof.

- Value for $ or Priority Club Points? Would you return?
105 Euro is a bit much for a HI hotel, but there's not a lot else on the market there.
Would love to return.

MasaTokyo

What is your Priority Club status?
Platinum

Were you (or for multi-stayers are you generally) happy with the hotel/stay?
Yes.

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
Booked a superior room with BF, got a Suite room.

How are the rooms?
Huge. Two TVs and two bathrooms. A little bit old but still nice interior.

How is the exec. lounge?
N/A

What was good and what was bad?
Good: BF restaurant with reverside view. Friendly staffs.
Bad: The location is a little too far from the center of city.

Value for $ or Priority Club Points? Would you return?
Yes, very good value and I'll return if I have another chance to go to Chiang Mai.

Swiss Tony

What is your Priority Club status?
Platinum

Were you (or for multi-stayers are you generally) happy with the hotel/stay?
Yes.

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
Booked a standard room, think I got a standard room with runway view and a few hand-made chocolates on a tray.

How are the rooms?
Big, had that new feel to them but nothing really special

How is the exec. lounge?
Wasn't given access

What was good and what was bad?
Good: Location for overnight transit, comfy bed
Bad: Disappointed not to get a better upgrade, especially given the hotel was quiet

Value for $ or Priority Club Points? Would you return?
Very good $ rate for such a new hotel in Singapore. Would return if it was a short stopover, but otherwise would stay in town

IMH

Holiday Inn Nürnberg (Nuremberg), Germany January 2009

What is your Priority Club status?
Platinum

Were you (or for multi-stayers are you generally) happy with the hotel/stay?
Yes.

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
Booked a "king bed superior" room and got one. Fifth floor, two large windows. I'm 99% sure that this hotel doesn't have anything better/pricier. Looking at the floor plan, our room and the one next to it appeared significantly larger than all the others on our floor.

How are the rooms?
Ours was great. Obviously quite recently furnished and decorated. Very clean. Decent TV. Functional bathroom with underfloor heating.


How is the exec. lounge?
n/a

What was good and what was bad?
Good: As well as the room, the in-house restaurant and bar impressed us. Great food, including typical regional fare, and well-kept beers at very fair prices. Far better than any hotel eatery we've been to in the past year or two. Location is great: very close to city centre shops and the taxi from the railway station came to €8 including tip. We could have walked if we'd not had luggage and there hadn't been 4" of snow.
Bad: No free internet access.

Value for $ or Priority Club Points? Would you return?
We paid €86, which was around $115 that day, and were very happy with the price. We're often in that part of Germany and will definitely be back.

IMH

Holiday Inn San Juan, Puerto Rico December 2008

(To improve the chances of this being found by searchers: the hotel is located on Calle Tartak, Isla Verde, and uses "Isla Verde" on its own printed materials, but it can be found on various websites, including IHG websites, as both Holiday Inn San Juan and Holiday Inn Carolina.)

What is your Priority Club status?
Platinum

Were you happy with the hotel/stay?
No. We were very disappointed.

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
Booked a "king bed deluxe ocean view". Got a cramped corner room which did indeed have a king bed and an ocean view but did not in any way deserve the adjective "deluxe".

Check-in staff (late evening) didn't recognize Plat status, despite being shown the card, and insisted we were only Gold. Followed up on second day, got Plat into system but was told there was no upgrade available. As this was a holiday, we paid for an upgrade to a suite.

How are the rooms?
The original "king bed deluxe" room was small. The suite was much better, but the bedroom TV was old and the furniture and paintwork looked tired. Bathroom was functional but extremely small. Only one washbasin, which was outside the bathroom.

How is the exec. lounge?
Initially it was closed "for Christmas" and due to reopen on December 29. It didn't. No one explained or apologized.

What was good and what was bad?
Good: fairly good location.
Bad: This could easily become a longer list than anyone would want to read, so I'll limit it to highlights. There were no truly horrific problems, but an apparent lack of interest in resolving anything allowed relatively minor annoyances to mount up. Result: overall dissatisfaction. Wired internet access involved moving a large piece of furniture, moving the (large and heavy) TV and crawling around on the floor (no wireless internet available). Initially no bonus for Platinum status, after two visits to front desk we were told we could have complimentary continental breakfast -- "but if you have an egg that makes it full American" which would mean $6 per person extra. We breakfasted elsewhere for the rest of our week. No one seemed to feel responsible for cleaning floor/tables in reception and cookie/coffee shop area. With one or two exceptions the prevailing attitude seemed to be that everything is too much trouble and someone else is responsible.

Value for $ or Priority Club Points? Would you return?
Poor value. A typical Hampton Inn provides a better experience for less than half the price. We won't be going back.

EdV

I hate when this happens; telling you there is no upgrade available for free but there is one when you suddenly want to pay. Now I know that they don't have to offer suites, especially for PLATS (you could argue they need to for RAs) but still irks me. The only thing worse is when they say there are "no suites available at all" but then one opens up when you want to pay to upgrade to ti.

IMH

Absolutely. It's also bad business -- definitely not the way to make your customers hurry back or rush to recommend you. A free upgrade to a suite would have been very generous, given the vast difference in quality, but there was a lot of spare capacity throughout our stay and it's the kind of gesture that wins friends.

It did seem typical of the attitude at this particular property, though, that no one was willing (or authorised?) to do anything to resolve issues or make up for mistakes and inconvenience. Silly, really, considering how little it usually takes to get a slightly unhappy customer back on your side -- much of the time, an inexpensive gesture (complimentary breakfast, some fruit, free parking, a drink at the bar) will do the trick.

MXM135

It appears that the management of this hotel is not familiar with IHG's new corporate motto: "Great Hotels Guests Love". According to IHG's 2007 Annual Report (from IHG website):

"Our core purpose is to create Great Hotels Guests Love. We do this by placing guest satisfaction at the heart of everything we do and, as a result, developing our financial strength for the benefit of all our stakeholders."

mxm135

golsquare

What is your Priority Club status?
Platinum

Were you (or for multi-stayers are you generally) happy with the hotel/stay?
Yes.

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
Booked a King Bed Guest Room, Upgraded to a Suite

How are the rooms?
Suite was pretty large, bathroom off hallway, office area, living room with plasma, seperate tea/coffee area, bedroom, walk in dressing area, bathroom with tub, two sinks with seperate loo and shower. all rooms can be seperated by sliding solid doors.

How is the exec. lounge?
not included in the upgrade.

What was good and what was bad?
Good:location, basement 2 of T3 is just 5 mins walk away as is MRT entrance with shopping centre and food courts nearby. Pool was great.

excellent upgrade but only after asking (see below)

Bad: No immediate recognition of PC status. Made a point to introduce myself and ask for the upgrade. Thereafter was met by the duty manager, upgrade was given and got a personal welcome with drinks and some french pastries delivered to the room in the evening.
They still charge for wireless access! if you walk 5 secs outside the door of the hotel into T3 you can get free wireless on wireless@sg in the airport.

Value for $ or Priority Club Points? Would you return?
Very good value as a stopover, for longer stays I tend to go with the Intercontinental which has a terrific new club lounge (review to come soon)

andyjbray

Why would you argue they need to for RA's? I didn't think the RA program has anything to do with Holiday Inns?

canalgal

Hi,

I consider the upgraded room to be the main benefit of my platinum membership. Relative to that, I see a lot about getting upgrades and I'm wondering if you all get these at check-in (upon request) or can you request them ahead of time (like at reservation time?)

I ask because I often get turned down for upgrade at check-in because they say it's too late for them to make this change. (Luckily, I do also often get upgrades or I wouldn't bother to stay in the program.)

Also, I can't quite figure out if we should get an upgrade on award nights or not. It seems like I sometimes do and sometimes don't. I was thinking it wasn't part of the program but I usually ask anyway.

I'd appreciate any suggestions in this regard as I'm going to stay at a HI resort in Sanya, China on award basis in a few days and would really like to get an upgrade room.
Thanks

htb

You get the upgrade at the time of check-in, "based on availability". A room away from the elevator or on the second floor may be considered an upgrade to the room next to the elevator or on the ground floor. Other than complimenting for the nice upgrade and staying away from a particular hotel that refuses to give upgrades there is nothing you can do...

HTB.