boekel

it seems to be confirmed that they remain closed for the summer season. Their website specifies the beginning of winter season Nov 27 for reopening

FLYGVA

It might be, that the IC Davos will from May 31 no longer be an InterContinental Hotel.

According to the Instagram page of the hotel ( ), the hotel will be rebranded as Alpengoldhotel.

harry0233

I see the hotel posted this comment "so ganz fest müssen Sie nicht enttäuscht sein, wir sind weiterhin über die die InterContinental Hotel Group buchbar"
I'm a bit confused about what it means really. I was able to make a reservation for next Feb just now. So they are leaving the Intercontinental brand but still in the IHG group?!

HadesNL

Shoot! Now i've missed my chance to stay at this hotel.

Was willing to forego my usual trip to Säntis to give Davos a try.

demue

Hmm, interesting. I guess we will have to wait and see once 31 May has passed if they do anything about existing IHG reservations. I do hold a mixed set of reservations on points, AMB FWNC and paid so I'll cover the full spectrum.

Maybe they stay affiliated with IHG and allow booking of cash rates and potentially even points redemptions via IHG as some few hotels seem to do. For AMB FWNC I'm not holding my breath of course.

IHG doesn't quite have something like Curio under Hilton or similar independent hotel umbrella under Marriott, but there are a few properties across the world without any IHG brand attached to it. To be seen I guess.

If the hotel remains bookable (earning points) and especially redeemable via IHG as a channel then I couldn't care less what they call it as I know the hardware in place.

FLYGVA

However, in another comment they were asked "Aber leider keine IHG Verbindung mehr, oder? " ("but not affiliation to IHG anymore, or?") which was replied to by Alpengoldhotel with a confirmation ("Ja so ist es").

Reply by schmidticke on

So, I fear it is a loss. But I would be happy to be proven wrong.

demue

Ahh yes, that would indicate that only cash stays they'll be interested in keeping and the rest goes out the window. My AMB FWNC was a decent use over New Years period with them asking for about 600 CHF for the 2nd free night. Oh well, hoping for Japan later in 2022 then I guess.

If the decisions are made and no more affiliation with IHG then it would be good if they remove reward night and AMB certificate night availability beyond 31 May 2021. I understand they will still like to collect cash bookings, but the rest not. We shall see.

Btw, I can read and understand the German bits (as German ), but I don't use Instagram so no access to the comments .

demue

So looks like someone finally had the wisdom to remove inventory on IHG though wondering why they removed cash rates as well instead of just rewards.

I got two reservations, one all on points and one all cash (corporate rate incl. breakfast) so will be interesting what they will do about it / offer.

Of course I'm not expecting the points reservation to be honored in any form, but if I was "Alpengold" I would try to convert those into cash bookings, maybe by offering some special rate etc. For the cash booking, I'd think they should honor it (rate, breakfast, cancellation policy), but to be seen. The average rate is already quite pricey for the stay around 600 CHF per night average so the hotel feeling it being too low would be a bit of a surprise.

harry0233

Looks like the hotel is still affiliated with IHG but not participate in IHG Rewards. Some kind of "brand" under "SPND" or "SPHC". Anyone know what is it?

Luxury Hotel Near Lake Davos: InterContinental Davos (ihg.com)

Boraxo

Damn, this was probably my best chance for a free stay in Davos. Never made it

SebFra

IC Davos is one of the nicest hotels in the whole world. We can only hope that they will keep the standard after leaving IC. The staff and rooms, as well as the service, were superb.

I fear that SPND stands for suspended, although I wish it means something else.... Without a club lounge and Ambassador benefits, the hotels loses a lot of reasons to stay there. And without corporate contracts with IHG it will be difficult to arrange meetings there.

ernestnywang

Not sure what SPND means, either, but the hotel is still bookable on IHG.com as of now (at least you can still go to the room and rate selection page, for Jan. 2022), and even the new name "AlpenGold Hotel" is displayed. It seems to suggest that the hotel remain affiliated with IHG.

Fun_Flyer

I have stayed in this hotel several times in the previous years, first time was 2014 if I remember correctly.
I like this property so much. Upgrades for Ambassador was nice, and the Club lounge was wonderful, especially in summer (when you need lot of water, and you can sit outside). In the evening it was calm and nice to enjoy the quite place.
In winter, it was fantastic for skying.
Without any doubt, this was my favourite hotel all over the world. The view, the food, the nice rooms and amenities, it couldnt have been any better. The local food at Capricorn, the Italian food at Alpino. Sometimes (because often closed) the Studio Grigio with the exceptional view, with several special occasions (on the Swiss national day, during new years eve, and so on).

The only downside was that the hotel was often closed, it was always difficult planing for a stay. Sometimes they closed the season early, then it was closed the whole summer, and so on. That was totally unprofessional from the management. And I imagine it is difficult to attract regular guests, if you close the hotel for many months, change staff all the time, or even stay closed a whole summer. And it is totally not understandable why they open only few days before Christmas, instead of opening the whole December. Snow situation is great, and it is not only families but also rich individuals who could easily stay at the beginning of December. Sure they may have financial issues due to this, because they are not reliable and you can never plan. And they obviously dont want the money, because otherwise they would try to attract guests for the whole December already, instead of taking reservations only from December 17... If you dont want to spend Christmas in the hotel, this is far too late. I can absolutely not understand it.

I am sure there are many more regular guests out here. So what comes next will make all of us regulars very sad:
I had a meeting in Klosters (small village nearby) a few days ago and I drove up to Davos to see what is happending at our beloved Interconti Davos.
You cant imagine it. They have already removed all IC branding, at the hotel as well as on the driveway from the main street (the illuminated logos that made the whole place look like in a spy movie at night).
Once you walk up the hill to the hotel, you will meet many poor looking people, all with cigarettes, looking like junkies. What happend is that they have something like a psychiatric clinic into the hotel. The hotel is now surrounded with their patients. They are all over the place. Once you walk into the lobby (a very special, nice and warm place during hotel times) the patients are in there, they stay in the guest rooms for many months.
I was told that they will stay in there for many weeks or even months to come.
Meanwhile the hotel is preparing for winter season.

Please dont misunderstand me. I am happy for the poor people to stay in there and ot have this chance. But the hotel is taking many bad decisions, we obviously wont recognize the hotel any more. And some days or weeks before the regular guests come back to pay 500 or 1000 CHF per night, the same room and bed was used by a psychiatric clincs patient.

And to make matters even worse, the removal of IC branding allows the hotel to deny all regular guests the benefits, like upgrades. And obviously the club lounge will also be removed, as the hotel doesnt sell Club rooms any more.

Is there anything good at this? I am deeply feeling sad for this development of my beloved IC Davos.

Why the hell do they remove IC branding if they sell it through IC channels anyway? Is it worth this if you p*** your loyal customers off so much?

demue

Using IHG as a distribution channel will differ cost / fee wise from having a management contract and using the brand. Plus they don't need to give benefits and you may not even earn points, who knows, murky at the moment.

In the end they may stay associated with IHG or not. I can't quite see them sticking around permanently though I wouldn't mind the place to be available for points redemptions, assuming standards are being kept at similar levels. For the prices they are asking, there are quite a few solid options out there in Switzerland. YMMV.

demue

An update in case some folks are in a similar situation. I have been holding two reservations, one paid under a corporate rate and one on points.

Was contacted the other day by IHG Support (HI-Americas ...) and told that hotel exited IHG. So far so good. I was then shown two reservation numbers and ensured both would be honored, but no earning of points and no benefits. Ok, not unexpected

Now I was scratching my head how they would honor my points booking (too good to be true), so checked the reservation numbers. First one okay, my paid stay. Second one another paid stay I had cancelled a while back. Nothing about my points stay.

Erm, so the all important points stay is not even on the radar and to really make a customer worry they reference a cancelled reservation as well giving the impression that it's still active (then you got to worry about flow of bookings, changes, cancellation from IHG to the now independent property, yikes)?

Another job well done by IHG, even getting the most basic customer communication done is too much of a challenge. What a gem .

In the end the Ambassador Service Center at least cleared up my questions confirming (obviously) that points stays are not being honored. Verifying my cancellation of the other booking is correctly reflected in IHG systems, informing the property to ensure it is also cancelled on their end (don't want to get charged for a no show in a worst case) and confirming that the corporate rate booking will retain the breakfast benefit (or so they say). YMMV.