Puppenstein

Marriott and Starwood have clear luxury brands. Hotels that are five star rated, yet IHG claims that Intercontinental is a luxury brand, but none of the hotels within that brand have a Five Star Mobil rating. Is Intercontinental supposed to compete with Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons, and St. Regis? IHG seems to do a good job with the economy level lodgings but part of the reason I am not loyal to IHG is because I find that the Intercontinental hotels I have stayed at to be no different than a Marriott, maybe JW Marriott hotel.

Did IHG lose their focus or are they not interested in luxury?

FOX85

In certain areas there are some great intercontinental hotels. The one in Hong Kong (regular not Grand Stanford) was an over the top property.

Each brand has their own strengths and weaknesses.

Have you ever been to Four Seasons Westlake Village???

SPBanker

Quite obviously not.

Unterwegs

Unfortunately their hotels are quite inconsistent. Some of the ICs are in the same league as the top brands (many of the properties in China for example), some are clearly not but still relatively good and some are nowhere near.

It still shows that in the past IC was a stand alone brand and was combined with the other brands via an acquisition. They just glued the loyalty programs together. That is wht you have the Ambassador program for the ICs and the Gold/Platinum program for the other brands.
Unfortunately they never re-branded the weaker ICs and never completely integrated the loyalty programs.

I believe it would be about time for a more consistent brand experience. Personally I am usually pretty satisfied with what ICs offer, but especially many their Resorts and some of the older properties need either a major overhaul or a rebrand.

GordonGordon

IC hotels are not really luxury hotels but couple of IC properties are probably up to the luxury level you mentioned, for example, IC Hong Kong and IC Dubai Festival City. IC should be grouped together with Westin, JW Mariott, Grand Hyatt and Conrad, not 4 Seasons, St. Regis and RC.

FlyerTalker688786

InterContinental is certainly a luxury brand but in the lower level. It is a luxury brand aimed at mass rather than the luxury brands aimed at the exclusive groups. It is like Lexus VS Porsche. Both can be considered as luxury but Lexus is more accessible to the general public whereas Porsche is for the ultra-level. St. Regis and Four Seasons are what we call Ultra-luxury sector. So it is unfair to compare the mass luxury and ultra-luxury and say InterContinental is not luxury. It is luxury but not that much as St. Regis.

paulmoscow

Have they recently refurbished the IC Hong Kong? I truly hate their "luxury" lifted straight from the '70s. My hotel room is the last place on Earth where I need a setting like some ancient bureaucratic office.

holtju2

Yeah. I could have mistaken the IC HKG (not Grand Stanford) for a good Crowne Plaza.

valdor

To be honest I wouldn't consider most St. Regis, Ritz and ICs to be luxury. I concider them high end hotels. Aman, Taj, Chedi, Mandarin, Peninsula... Those are real luxury brands.

Raffles

I would put IC on a par with Ritz Carlton. Clearly not Four Seasons or MO though.

They should look to Park Hyatt as an example. PH does now sit - alone - inbetween the Four Seasons /MO tier and the IC / Ritz Carlton tier. Achieving this within the confines of a chain / multibrand environment is impressive.

holtju2

Ritz Carlton is step above IC's.

scubaccr

Maybe using top end watch brand analogy Luxury top end but different target markets. You can definitely say Rolex and Patek Philippe are both high luxury brands, but one brand is definitely more rarefied, considerably more desirable, and less obtainable.

My analogy would be that, IC Hotel's are positioned as 'Rolex' , whilst the Four Seasons positioned as Patek Philippe.

Whilst there may be a some overlap between higher end Rolex and lower end Patek Philippe, as a whole, Patek Philippe has the higher level of Luxury within a Luxury level, much as the same overlap exists when comparing our hotel brands.

Land-of-Miles

I think you can call out examples of MO, SR, 4S and Waldorf Astoria properties which are far from luxurious. To me IC seems on a par with Starwoods SR and/or Luxury Collection chains, with WA, 4S and similar to with Starwood for Marriott some sort if hybrid of JW and RC.

I think the individual IC's are far more variable than perhaps their near cousins in other chains which makes direct comparison somewhat variable. Looking at the IC London Park Lane I would happily put it on a par with almost all other Mayfair luxury hotels. The IC Westminster in the same city Is less luxurious and could equally be a JW Marriott or Conrad.

IC does however tend to offer more relevant luxury to my needs with more emphasis on discreet attentive service and less on pointless "butler" services.

Vince Chan

No,from exclusivity point, I would say Conrad > IC. There are handful Conrad in the world, every each one is one of the best in their location. there are also only 75 JW in the world, however 180 IC hotels.

Even the most exclusivity IC properties such as Hong Kong as you mentioned, is still a hustle and bustle big hotel like Grand hyatt, IC never reaches to the Four Seasons/ St regis tier. However there are some JW is very top-notch ranked as 5 star in US,such as Miami, Houston downtown one which competes with MO /FS in those locations.

The whole IHG group like Accord, is aimed at lower price market, so I don't put IHG with SPG, Marriott, Hyatt even Hilton in the same segment.

My rank would be, generally, Conrad>JW Marriott>= IC

MrBeachman

In Thailand starwood is probably a luxury brand.....In Canada it's like sleeping in a ghetto.