KLflyerRalph

Seeing the Voco Dubai for 20k points which seems like a solid deal for Reward nights.

FlyerTalker688786

I tried VOCO in Gold Coast, after I have stayed in both Hilton and Crowne Plaza in Gold Coast. My verdict is that this VOCO in Gold Coast is essential a Holiday Inn from 1990s with lipsticks. Nothing luxurious about it and several level down from Hilton and Crowne Plaza in the same town.

bhrubin

Yikes. Perhaps now we know why IHG isn’t advertising or promoting this as a luxury brand. Sounds pretty dreadful.

markis10

The Voco has never been a HI, and is not meant to be luxury per se. I like the new beds, the bar and the toiletries, and yes the building is from the nineties, at least the air con works. It also lacks the noise the GC Hilton has while having the locale advantage compared to the CP.

bhrubin

Thanks.

Definitely not luxury.

Land-of-Miles

I stayed at the Voco St David’s Cardiff last week and would class it as a luxury property. I have definitely stayed in worse IC’s.

FlyerTalker688786

Yes, you are right that VOCO GC was never a Holiday Inn. But you misunderstood me. I was trying to describe this VOCO as a Holiday Inn with lipsticks. I was trying to say that this VOCO can be a Holiday Inn with make ups and that is about it.

The problem IHG is describing VOCO as a new LUXURY brand, and place it higher than CP in brand rankings. Can you imagine a hotel in Gold Coast call itself a luxury brand without balcony? It might be upscale, but far away from luxury as far as my experience indicates.

Also thank you again for your help on Hilton GC earlier this year in Hilton forum. You were very kind and helpful.

markis10

I think there is a bit of brand confusion, but neither Voco or CP are really associated with Luxury, eg Voco GC

“At voco™ Gold Coast, experience a hotel with a twist. Get comfy, get social and get relaxed. Stay in modern, stylish and unstuffy accommodation; perfect for robe-wearing lazy mornings with a good espresso and a paper. Get together in restaurants and bars designed for socialising and celebrating. Head on out and glide down the coast with ease on the light rail and discover the best things to see and do in Surfers Paradise and beyond. Blend me-time with us-time at voco™ Gold Coast; the perfect hotel for family holidays, romantic getaways and business trips.”

While Crowne Plaza is premium accomodation with business services. The CP is a bit unique on the Gold Coast in that it’s really two hotels in one, with very much an upmarket gold tower vs the bigger main tower, having been a travel lodge and a park royal hotel complex before IHG came into the market.

Each Voco is likely to be very different from each other, the Voco Kirkton Park is certainly different from Gold Coast.

jpdx

We had a stay at Voco Gold Coast last week. Oh my!

We arrived and were given an upgrade to a high floor ocean view room. Apparently rooms above the 16th floor are fully remodeled to the new Voco style, while lower floors only received some cosmetic updates. Room is nice, bed comfortable, bathroom well done with a nice shower, but unfortunately not enough countertop storage space. No balconies/lanais, almost unforgivable in a beach location. Everyone receives some delicious shortbread cookies at check-in, and we were also greeted as "one of our wonderful Spire members" and received two drink coupons -- one for the wonderful Spire, allowing a choice of cocktails (turns out not a lot of options, just the HH menu), and a regular one for the 2nd guest, allowing beer/wine only.

On our second day, we left the room at 10.30am, and came back around 5pm, only to find that the room hadn't been serviced. I called the front desk and they said they'd send someone up. We went to the pool to watch the sunset, and came back at 6pm. Someone had placed a stack of fresh towels on the table, but nothing had been cleaned or picked up. I called the front desk again, we left for dinner, and when we came back, nothing had been done. I went to the front desk and found out that housekeepers go home at 2.30pm, and if you have your DND sign on in the morning, you should call to make sure that your room gets serviced. There's supposed to be a card slid under your door by housekeepers advising of this, but we didn't get it. MOD tried to blame us for not requesting housekeeping earlier, and also suggested that the guy who was sent up when I called at 5pm and 6pm wasn't sure what needed to be done, because we had gone out and weren't there to tell him what we wanted cleaned.

Bathroom has dispensers with Aveda shampoo/soap, but I'm 99% sure the soap dispenser contained some random product (didn't smell like Aveda at all).

Really a rather odd experience. Not complaining too much, because rate was 130AUD rate per night, and our 2 night stay earned a free night to be used at various Australian/NZ hotels, but we won't be rushing back.

The last few pages had s fair bit of discussion of whether Voco is a luxury brand. Per my discussions with hotel management and the info posted by markis10 above, it is not. Thus, speaking as a Moderator (for this sentence only), I will edit the thread title from "Voco -- New IHG Lux Brand" to "Voco brand discussion (Gold Coast, Dubai, Cardiff, etc)."

mecabq

For heaven's sake. Pretty petty and chintzy!

TGLoyalty

better than those properties where the front desk agent just says “Nope, only 1” cheap ar*es

jpdx

Lesser coupon for the second guest seems to be somewhat common. Had the exact same experience at CP Christchurch. I agree that it’s really weird, and what makes it worse is that in both cases, it was handed over with some grand “you’re not entitled to this, but I’m giving it to you because I’m so nice” gesture.

TGLoyalty

Staying at the newly branded Voco Oxford Thames (ex principal hotel) this weekend.

heard good things (when there’s no wedding) so hopefully it’s a pleasurable stay. If anyone has any previous experience / tips of what room to have or not have let me know.

btw the St. John’s in Solihull is still going through refurbishment with lots of areas done. It’s a decent standard but I feel like some of the staff could be better trained. Rates are v. cheap so not going to complain about it just yet.

MSPeconomist

WOW. If it's only better than *some* ICs, it's not luxury.

TGLoyalty

Some of my own feedback

Check in was polite and swift but only 1 drinks coupon offered and doesn’t seem to be valid for any cocktails at the bar which is a bit cheap compared to other IHG hotels at a similar price.

Upgraded from base room to a superior room but it was over looking the car park rather than the garden/Thames.

Breakfast (for info £16.95 each on the day, £12 each if you add it at check in) is a decent enough buffet with hot (Eggs bacon sausages mushrooms etc) and cold items ( pastries, cereals, cold cuts) with a few off the menu items offered too. Probably wouldn’t pay £16.95 each but was well worth the £10 for two I paid to add it to my reservation. Avo roast and omelette were both good.

Decent hotel but I think more could and should have been done for the Voco rebrand and the grounds / facilities could do with a bit of TLC / freshening.