Rate (starting from 85 EUR) are loaded from April 06 onwards, but not prior. I have adjusted the thread title

FLYGVA
moderator IHG Forum

On Facebook they posted that they had their first guest on March 22.

But sill not bookable via homepage ...

I posted it so that others now if they still have a valid reservation for before April 6 it should be honored.

There mid April but just wandering if anyone had any advance scout (soft opening) data?

Also anyone got any strong dining out suggestions? Saw somewhere called the Crystal Steakhouse that looked interesting but struggled some after that....

Thanks

I was looking online, didn’t find genuine pictures of guests during the soft opening period. I am there on April 6 maybe I can post some pictures from my mobile phone. Club Intercontinental Agent already contacted me and confirmed my Ambassador upgrade from 2 Bed Club Intercontinental to the Suite.

Sounds good bigweasel. Would be really helpful if you could please. Look forward to that

Yes staff are helpful and upgrades seem forthcoming. Lounge drinks opening hours are strangely even more restrictive than other areas.....cannot remember if was an hour or 90 mins but not exactly a goldmine of generosity.

Super stuff Bigweasel .... likes like they changed the club lounge opening hours.....originally it was slated to be just one hour! A good call indeed. Yes they have been very accommodating on email and hope that carries on .... ok looking forward to going now.

If you get chance write a review or summary would be good. And just to ask, you A or RA?

Thanks for the photos ..... P.S whats in the Bulgaria bag? :-)

Hi Bigweasel,

May I ask, what was the quality / your opinion of the breakfast in the club lounge, please?
Do you have any idea whether if you book a club room, you can have breakfast in the main restaurant as well?

Thank you in advance.

I moved the older post to its own thread, which could be found here (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/inte...l), so that we can focus in this thread about the opened hotel.

I also added a wiki with some basic information about this hotel. Feel free to add more information, if you have stayed there

FLYGVA
co-moderator IHG Forum

I am back from my vacation. So some further information. I stayed for a 2nd time 3 weeks after my first stay. What has changed? Not much :) despite the welcome fruit chocolate plate got smaller (if you look at my previous picture it is now only the size of the bigger plate). That means there are less fruits and chocolates but it's still enough for 2 people. The first time it was simply overkill and I don't know how could have eaten all the bananas apples etc.

Oh one thing I remember. On my first stay I was in club lounge for afternoon sweet buffet / light dinner snacks / breakfast and every time we were the only guests. :) On the second stay there were 2 other guest but the were leaving before we entered the lounge.

Sorry for the uncertainty but I think there was tea inside the bulgaria bag.

I only ate breakfast at the club. Sorry that I don't have a picture but I try to recall it from memory. You have hot beans, sausages, tomatoes, different breads, salmon, cold cuts, marmelade, fruits + fruit salad, 1-2 juices and last but not least you have an order on demand menu with the usual suspects eggs benedict/florentine, waffles, eggs to your liking.

I know it sounds like an advertisement but the eggs benedict have been the best eggs benedict I had in my life (including restaurants)!

At the time of my stays I was a Gold Ambassador.

Thanks a lot for the info, looking for first-hand experience this week :)

Hi all,

Another data point from my side. As Spire AMB I was 1 CAT upgraded to the same (as per the SD manager lady) 1 King Bed Junior Suite as the hotel is still being renovated. [MENTION=208067]bigweasel[/MENTION] I decided to follow your advertisement and try the Eggs Benedict, they were really delicious

I had a funny moment entering my room and seeing this:
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After using bigweasel's picture for comparison it turned out my suite was moved to an upper floor earlier in the day but my plate and hand written note were not, however the SD manager lady saved the day explaining everything in details and took care to have everything fixed.
[MENTION=454145]Atacama40[/MENTION]: I received a similar Bulgaria bag (mine was written in Cyrillic alphabet) - I was betting on something with rose oil and was right. There were bath salts with rose oil essentials inside.

I had a nice touch from the staff. As my stay was during my birthday on my birthday's breakfast three ladies were singing Happy birthday in the club lounge and I received this:
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The only low light of my stay was that the safe inside the room was not able to accommodate my 14" laptop. I was able to put it inside horizontally but not able to close the door. Hopefully the hotel will take my consideration into account.

Yeah agree both posts from Bigweasel and Koriobg. Staff and management working hard make IC Sofia a decent stay. Nothing but good news from me.

The terrace rooms on the top deck are excellent. Layout (not style) similar externally to IC Athens but many more of them across the full roof length. Well thought out layouts, lighting a little weak by bag stand, cupboards and doorway but no big deal. Who needs clean socks anyway.

Yes was Rose Bath Crystals in the Bag...Mrs Atacama using the bag to store her assorted mobile phone cable and clutter in :-)

L'Occitane bathroom amenities in room. Nice enough. Didn't see any suit bags which was a shame as my Beichen Beijing one decided to bust it's zip while there.

Club lounge good, nice layout, not so big but comfortable enough layout with decent seating... similar colour scheme as IC Lisbon. Food choices nice quality, not huge but enough and staff wait on was quietly subtle but attentive.

Floret is nice, the side deck on the street side a nice seating area and a nice cross over menu with the predictable and safe and the local and interesting.

The amenity plate was huge as Bigweasel mentions ... I've never ate so much fruit! :-) .... and a decent bottle of red and two full size waters.

Mini bar pretty much stock but fine.

And the location itself is spot on. Never experienced any of the noise issues mentioned elsewhere from the adjoining night-club but we were at the top so guess shouldn't do.

Very responsive crew they have there. If they carry on this way it will an IC to be measured against in it's sector. Overall ambiance and decor very pleasing and just a bit different with interesting local tie in's of design. A well thought out and executed refurb overall. Think it will appeal to A's and RA's and they treat them well. Good value as a location as well.

Don't know any of the local competition but this will be a 'go-to' location for me.

And yes the hot prep breakfast items were good. Didn't have the eggs but wife did and rated them. Omelettes well prepared to taste as well. And staff moved quick and with purpose.

Trying to reserve for a family stay
 

Has anyone stayed here as a family (i.e. with one or more kids)? I'm Spire Elite and trying to reserve IC Sofia for two nights over a weekend as part of a family vacation. The hotel (or at least the reservations team) is not allowing us (2 adults and 2 kids, both under 12) to stay together in a room, even though I'll pay for a rollaway or use existing beds or book a suite. I've booked dozens of hotels for us to stay as a family before -- always in one room -- and usually there is some balance exercised in accommodating guests, especially high loyalty tiers. IC Sofia seems to be very much on the "revenue maximizing" end of the continuum.

Same in a few other IC's .... IC Sandton same and indeed is to do (in that instance) with local regs, but the uplift is modest in that instance. Rates seemed rather good when I booked but was a vanilla configuration.

Does anyone know how much club lounge access is per room per night for ambassadors?

I'm looking to book three reward nights and wondering whether the uplift to club would be worth it?

Cheers

Ben

Fairly recent information the discounted rate for Ambassadors is 40EUR.
I was advised there is going to be a summer (general) promotion of 35EUR, I don't remember the dates, sorry.

Please note: I am not sure if the information above is per person or per room (suspect it is per room), suggest to contact the hotel to check.

I booked the cheapest club room. A week before my stay, I received an email from the lounge staff asking for my arrival time, and they sent a confirmation after my reply. However, this didn't seem to make any difference when I actually arrived. I still checked in standing at the front desk and it took a bit of time for my paperwork to be located/printed.

As Spire I was given 600 welcome points and as Amb I was upgraded to an "apartment". I was then shown to the lounge, which is on the ground floor to the left and back behind reception. There was a "secret" lift by the lounge entrance which brought me closer to my room than the regular lifts. At this time, the lounge was empty with one staff member at the computer. For some reason both her and the person who checked me in seemed a bit confused when I wanted to go the room (with my luggage) straight away rather than sitting in the lounge.

The room was bright and modern as expected for a new property. Photos at the end. The air con / heating worked perfectly (was a bit chilly that night and I can't sleep when it's cold). There were ample plug sockets everywhere. There was a lovely panorama of Vitosha mountain from the window.

There were some sweet items in addition to the Ambassador fruits. One of the apricots was about to rot on one side.

Sadly, the wifi quality was horrible from this room and would barely even connect. However, I discovered an open network in a nearby building (which I used with a VPN so it should have been safe). This suddenly cut off shortly before my departure - perhaps I exceeded their data limit! I could not be bothered to move room so did not complain (though mentioned it in the email survey so hopefully if they read it they will investigate and install some boosters). Surprisingly, my 3G mobile signal was excellent throughout Sofia, and costs the same across most of Europe so I also used that. The wifi worked properly in the lounge.

I stayed in the lounge from 5-8pm. It was completely deserted until about 7pm when a couple came in, then another pair entered as I left. However when I got back to the hotel at 10.30pm it was quite crowded.

The "afternoon tea" was practically untouched, which might explain why there wasn't much of it. It was the same sweet items found in my room. The evening items were mostly small savoury tarts and small bits of toast with toppings; there were also cut vegetables with dips and a cheese board. There were crisps and nuts arranged in an "IHG" pattern because the lounge host felt that the regular layout was boring. Drinks included wines, spirits and some local beers, bottled iced teas and juices. The hosts were friendly and chatty.

The breakfast buffet in the lounge was extensive, and would have been an acceptable offering even in the restaurant. Additionally I was given a menu which had some items that could be a full breakfast in themselves. I ordered two poached eggs that came on the biggest plate I have ever eaten from, had to move all my other plates and cups to the opposite side, even though the eggs only occupied a tiny space in the middle!

Again I was the only person in the lounge (7.30am-8am, weekday) and the food had been untouched until I arrived.

The metro stop Sofia University is less than 5 minutes from the hotel but I was disappointed that the metro, despite being overground, runs in opaque tunnels. Using the excellent https://www.sofiatraffic.bg/en/transport/schedules (provided you read Cyrillic, it is far better than e.g. the TfL website which tries too hard to be fancy but barely gets the basics right), I discovered that bus 84 to the airport runs from the bus stop Orlov Most (Eagle Bridge) just a little bit further than the metro station. During my journey ticket inspectors boarded the bus, ejecting and fining about 10 passengers, all locals, although for some reason they barely looked at my ticket.

The first time exiting from the metro station is a bit disorienting as there are several exits. The main thing I remember is that I had to go past the Billa supermarket (good for cheap snacks) towards the hotel.

A club room was about €30 more than a regular room. I guess this is a good price, lower than in many other ICs, and I was happy to pay it to try it out, but probably wasn't really worth it for me. I did get a personal service and a "private" breakfast but wouldn't normally spend anywhere near that much on food and drinks (bearing in mind cheap Bulgaria prices).

Finally, despite advertising prices in euros only, the hotel does not take payments in euros. Fortunately as the lev is pegged to the euro, they convert the bill to BGN at the exact rate rather than making one up.

However, if you wish to pay in euro cash, they want a 5% commission to exchange the cash. This is unlike the Hilton Sofia where I stayed the night before, which accepts euro banknotes at the exact pegged exchange rate. (This only came up because I bought 500 leva from a friend at a favourable rate intending to use it to settle the bill, but ended up spending all of it before checking out!)


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We were treated exceptionally well by staff at this hotel. We had two nights booked. The first night was a free night from my husband's Chase credit card. The second night I booked from my account, a paid stay with club access. I received a note a week ahead from guest services. I responded and explained the two bookings. I asked if we could stay in the same room and asked the charge for club access for the free night. The agent did all the following for us:

• booked us into the same room
• gave us lounge access for the first night at no additional charge
• upgraded us to a suite. It had the back view shown in the prior post.

We are both platinums. We did not receive the lavish in room amenity as shown by some but did receive a small selection of four sweets and a bottle of water.

The living room for the suite was massive and luxuriously furnished. It had 1 1/1 baths. The bedroom was small with no additional furniture.

I was happy to have access to the lounge but would not recommend paying a great deal of money for it. It had a small breakfast buffet and a list of egg dishes that could be ordered. Afternoon tea was the time that sweets were served. The small dinner would indeed suffice for dinner if you had a large lunch or are a light eater. There were only one or two bite size items that I found interesting.

Has anyone mentioned that the hotel used to be the Radisson Blu? It was closed for 6 months and extensively refurbished. Its location is ideal, facing three iconic churches, Alexander Nevski cathedral, St Sofia Church and St Nicholai Russian Orthodox Church

I stayed there for 3 nights and it was lovely.
i had booked king club IC and received an Executive suite. This is not as the pictures above but with a living room and a bedroom seperately. Very spacious and view over the mountains, not the cathedral unfortunately.

The lounge is quiet and nice.

However, I still have some comments:
Everyone is very nice and helpful but service seems different in the weekend: especially lounge experience is different. A guest complained about not having red wine in the lounge and the lounge attendant replied "only yesterday". After pushing he called the manager and they brought a bottle wine. Afterwards we saw some funny stuff: the attendant put the red wine on ice and he also used the ice which cooled the bottles to put in drinks. This is just untrained personel, not the attendant's fault I think.

During breakfast, sometimes we were asked if we wanted coffee, some days we had to ask for it.

Just stayed for 1 night. Some info which may be useful:
Club uplift (per room): 50EUR (non-AMB), 40EUR (AMB), forgot to ask whether VAT is included or not, sorry.
Fruit plate is going to stay for the time being for Ambassadors
Upon check in I was advised 15EUR credit can be used towards minibar or the restaurant (but not room service) - as expected
The latest club information:

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...542322fde9.png

Prices are VAT included.

Dumb question. If I book a suite does it come with access to the club/lounge? No mention is made on the website so assume no.

Hi, I emailed them and asked exactly this question and they said no, the only rooms with lounge access are the king/twin club intercontinental

Great, well not great, but thanks for me letting me know.

Hmm, I am tempted by the new IC lUX BENEFITS to stay here 1 night for the 100usd dining credit, and then move to the hyatt or the marriott Balkan. Any recent post-covid stays? is the lounge opened?

Datapoint from mid of August:

Club Lounge was closed, benefits (i.e. I used breakfast and happy hour) can be used at Floret restaurant
The Ambassador fruit plate was follied but still present
The decorative pillows were removed
There were restrictions of how many people can use the elevators simultaneusly
As expected masks were required in the public areas
There was a sanitizer at every floor
Rooms were IHG Clean sealed (didnt travel during the pandemic I guess this is normal)

Other than that everything was the same, service great as always.

I had a one night stay so cannot comment on the house keeping part.

My 3-night stay at the beginning of October. Booked Club room. As Ambassador got upgraded to a huge Executive Suite (four categories up), complimentary minibar, usual $15 credit.

Lounge is closed, but all benefits are provided in Floret restaurant apart from breakfast which is in their main restaurant.

If you book club room you can order as much as you want from hot dish menu (eggs bendict, royale, pancakes, etc.) plus buffet for breakfast. It’s all plated for you.

In Floret there is afternoon tea which includes 2-3 finger sandwiches, few small cakes and macarons plus any choice of tea. There are also alcoholic drinks available.

In the evening, club benefits include drinks from selected menu plus you can order one normal dish from the main food menu.

Housekeeping - you can request it every day or however you like.

Masks are required, but not all guest wore them properly or when walking around. Hotel didn’t seem to enforce. Staff wore them. Sanitisers everywhere and social distancing maintained in lifts and public spaces as well as in restaurants.

I booked one night on points and I was quoted $50 for upgrade to club benefits before arrival and agreed. In the end they waived it.

Overall, I was quite happy and would stay again.

Recent Data Point. Just returned from a BA TP run, short week end with the wife in Sofia. Managed to secure a fairly good tariff and booked a deluxe room with Cathedral view. I am a Reward Club member but do not hold any status so no particular perks (free internet). Generally I have found the location very good and quite satisfied with the overall experience.
With regards to COVID Restrictions, masks had to be work in all the public area and we were asked for proof of vaccination when visiting for the first time the Floret restaurant for lunch and the Breakfast restaurant. The minibars are empty because of COVID Regulation but no other noticeable difference.
Would I stay again? Probably yes unless I could find a special offer / great tariff at Sofia Hotel Balkan, but just because the location would suit me even better in revisiting the city

InterContinental Sofia is a very solid business hotel, with central location, nice suites and pleasant club lounge.
Sofia hotel Balkan is somewhat dated, but certainly one of the cheapest Luxury Collection propertes in Europe.

I hope the Club lounge will return at some point (it was closed on my stays earlier this year), meanwhile I was able to use it's benefits at restaurant Floret on club rates.
I agree with nicolas75 about the IC suites, especially like the King Terrace City View ones :)

Full review of my stay in June 2022

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This is an excellent hotel. Stayed twice in 2019 within a month of each other as a lowly Spire Amb. Got the same room, I think exactly the same room - 301 - although only booked a club room. Club lounge was open then and excellent.

One of the best treatments in any IC I've stayed at. And a bargain price too!

I'm just going to link my post from the Ambassador master thread (written earlier this year) here, because IC Sofia is really that good to the point I'm missing it (despite only staying for one night!). Got room 201 for those who need to know, and genuinely I think this is one of those hotels I'll specifically go back to if I just need a bit of time away from everything.

I would like to re-emphasise what the posters above me have noted - for me personally, of all ICs I have stayed in, this one has offered the best experience (and I am a simple Platinum Ambassador). Unless I am miscounting, I have 4 stays in the last two years (unfortunately lounge closed at all occasions), always booked the lowest category king room and upgraded to high floor with view of the Parliament / the Cathedral. Extremely good prices for IC (consistently sub-100€), easily reachable from the Airport (2 minutes walk from the nearest metro station or 6€ taxi ride), perfectly located, etc. I can only recommend it - and Sofia is worth a (long) weekend trip.

You are making me feel like returning to Sofia, believe this IC was the old SAS Radisson where I had a fantastic stay way back when in the early 00s. Loved Sofia as well, I think I will be planning a little detour on a trip to spend a couple of days here again!

[MENTION=10086]Admiral Ackbar[/MENTION]: You are absolutely correct, that is the former Radisson (I stayed there under this brand as well, once, and it was unremarkable - but I can say that for all my Radisson stays).