Land-of-Miles

I actually find it pretty annoying but understand why it is there (albeit anyone can simply climb the stars).

They still don't have it at the IC PL for example. To me it feels like a 3.5 star thing, I expect it in an Aloft (like the one across the water) I don't expect it at an IC. I expect an IC to solve the same problem with a higher level of security personnel being proactive.

Atacama40

Evening all, stayed here early part of last year and have to confess had super service, upgrades and experience.

Just wandering how things stand now in general?

Rooms being well maintained? Pool and spa areas still smart or starting to fade to that horrible old pool silicon grey ... you know what I mean.

Is the lounge still running well? I remember reading quite a lot of comments saying it didn't match IC PL .... have to say as an IC PL regular I found it very good....different but good. Hoping it's still the case .... is the service still decent? What wines and fizz are they offering up? Or has cost saving started to kick in?

Also do you still have to run the building site gauntlet from the station or is the car pick up running better etc?

Would appreciate any comments and feed back on general situation, lounge rooms, good things, bad thing and how they treating RA's and indeed Plats .... have both going and stopping in a few weeks and it's always good to understand the latest beforehand. Many thanks in advance

Land-of-Miles

I had my last ever stay ever earlier this month after reverting to staying only about once a month.

Usual catalogue of stupid petty mistakes that ruined what could have been a great experience yet again.

Didn't get much of an upgrade (smallest room I have ever had there), bed linen not replaced on day 2 despite my hand written note requesting this (they still don't supply a proper card and only replace bed linen ever 3 days unless you ask), mini bar not restocked, usual fast wifi log in issues and odd denial of access for one whole evening, no access to movies etc on night of arrival, no drinks voucher offered in lieu of a few hundred points on top of my 1.3M of the bloody things. The absolute last straw was on day 2 of a 3 night stay going for breakfast, being ticked off the list and left yo my own devices in a chaotic restaurant, not shown to a table, finding no free tables and far too staff to cope. I just walked out.

I am tired of platitudes and excuses thus property has been open almost 2 years and should have its .... together by now. I simply refuse to stay again especially when other corporate contracted properties near Cabary Wharf are up to 50% less than the ICO2 room rate and don't cause me additional issues during stressful work weeks.

To date the property hasn't even contacted me not that it would change my mind in any event.

But I may have veered off at a tangent. The health facilities are still in OK shape but there is evidence throughout of cost cutting (bye bye fridge full of water in the gym, hello big water cooler), bye bye bath salts, hello smaller hand soap, bye hey daily bed linen change and apparently daily mini bar replenishment given the number of issues I have had with that (and as I rarely use the lounge, the minibar is the only thing that lifts this place above cheaper competition that and IC credit towards RA which I am no longer fussed about given some recent experiences).

The lounge itself had shrunk massively on my last visit (huge temporary plaster walls separating everything to the right of the reception desk in the lounge (you know all the nice seating with river views). Otherwise the lounge itself was ok (when I had breakfast in there on day 3 to avoid the abortion downstairs at Market Trader).

Put it this way, I really hate the IC PL these days and my next London weekend is there that's how much I want to avoid the IC O2 moving forward.

Atacama40

Hi Landofmiles .... I wish I'd not asked :-) .... no appreciate you taking the time and have to say it doesn't sound good at all.

Is a shame when hotels do this micro cost saving thing. Think I had similar issue with mini bar refresh on my stay come to think of it?

Do you think they are shrinking the lounge size or just undergoing works? Totally agree would be a big loss loosing the view window. I rather liked the service and offering in there and the end window looking down the length of the hotel is ok but not a patch on the other side. Strange thinking.

Again the linen change withdrawal .... seems be only in the UK this is occurring. Is not happening anywhere else in Europe or Asia....no idea about US .... I miss this have to say.

What's the IC credit towards TA Landofmiles? Not familiar with that.

Thanks for the detailed if disappointing assessment. Does sound like a bad slide into 4 star mundanity.

Breakfast situ sounds like PL a couple of months back. Have to say has been way better recent weeks there.

I had really high hopes for O2. Is the transit options from the station to hotel door improved yet? They doing pick ups or still need walk round the buioding site?

Land-of-Miles

There is a possibility that they had temporarily expanded the private dining area at Peninsula for the huge conference taking place thus shrinking the lounge, it was never explained to me and I only went in the lounge briefly twice. I guess the experience of others (I am not going back there) will be the best pointer.

I thought it was an IC requirement to do a daily linen change unless a guest opted out, that seemed to be the norm at PL but the O2 seem to have slyly removed any option to specify a daily linen change and are defaulting everyone out, that is not acceptable IMHO for the rates in play here or for an IC full stop.

My bad spelling should have been RA, my point being that if being an RA gets you no better treatment what is the point? On my last stay there was no room available when I arrived (at 11:00) nor any offer of a temporary room to use (I wanted a shower) I was just told it would be 30 - 40 mins until a room was ready and I needed to be over in Canary Wharf quickly to go to a meeting.

The pavement has been fixed for a while it is better, you have the thru the O2 route still open but it takes 3 times longer, what is really needed is a shuttle service but I suppose that costs money and thus will not happen.

It is all so avoidable that is the tragedy, perhaps if they had staff paid at more than minimum wage who actually could be creative and spot potential problems brewing.

There are too many of exactly the same type of incidents though, room cleaning, minibar, the ongoing wi-fi shambles. It is sad because I like much of the property still especially for leisure stays and love the bars and the Peninsula restaurant but its all too random and non-dependable as a guest. Rather than spending the time to polish things out they seem to have simply given up. As many earlier posts on this thread will demonstrate I used to be a huge advocate of this property but my patience finally snapped.

This property runs to Ł195 per night at my corporate rate and I really think that the Doubletree Excel and Aloft Excel over the water (I have top status at both those chains too) are similarly located and much, much more dependable at typically half the price (sad but true).

londonred

Stayed on Points stay (45K) this weekend to watch the tennis. I'm a Spire (non ambassador). We were upgraded to what In the app booking was called a "king Deluxe Suite". which was nice. Paid for breakfast at check in (Ł18) and was offered drink or points. Didn't really see much else of the hotel, although it seemed very busy what with the tennis as well as a private event on.

LR

Smiley90

So I'm looking at booking a place in London for the summer, and the rate the O2 is currently going for is insane. 150GBP/night for the cheapest room for my dates. Any reason why this is so cheap? I see the ratings are amazing and I don't mind the location. Are they not doing well?

I'm only Gold but looking at getting Ambassador on top, but honestly for that rate I'd even stay without any status or anything at all. No other hotel in the same ratings-category even remotely compares.

chistery

Rates do go up quite a bit when there's an event on at the O2 though.

It's just a bit of a faff to get there. Apart from a walk round the tent there's not a lot to do round there, so everything requires some travel which probably puts people off.

Retron

I've just come back from my third stay at the O2 InterContinental. Each time I've booked a different type of room and the upgrade has been different accordingly. In the absense of a definitive upgrade list, I can offer the following (as a Spire Ambassador):

Feb 2016: King Club IC > King Deluxe Suite (with club access - 1 level upgrade)
Dec 2017: Canary Wharf Club Intercontinental Suite > 2 Bed Greenwich Suite (2 level upgrade - room 1201)
May 2018: Canary Wharf Club Intercontinental Suite > 1 Bed Suite (1 level upgrade - room 1301)

The May booking started off as a prepaid Riverview Deluxe Suite booking. I was offered a NOR1 upgrade to the "proper" suites, for a price roughly equal to just buying them if I'd booked them at the time of booking.


NOR1 upgrades for Riverview Deluxe Suite

That got me thinking - can you modify a pre-paid booking and just pay the difference, or would it muck things up? Also, could you negotiate a better rate with the hotel directly?

As it turns out, you can indeed negotiate a rate for an upgrade. I was quoted Ł100/night as an upgrade fee to a Canary Wharf Club Intercontintal suite (minus club access), as my original Ambassador upgrade would be from a Riverview Deluxe Suite to a City Intercontinental Suite (also without club access). The standard rate for Ambassadors to upgrade to club access is Ł50/night. I opted for the upgrades, as I suspected the Canary Wharf suites would be a bit nicer than the City view suites. In the end I was given a further free upgrade to the "1 Bed Suite" as they call it - which is the room seen in the post here:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/26676065-post80.html

That gives a one-level upgrade list as follows:

King Club IC > King Deluxe Suite (quite a nice upgrade)
Riverview Deluxe Suite > City Intercontinental Suite (a very nice upgrade, as you gain a seperate living room)
City Intercontinental Suite > Canary Wharf Club Intercontinental Suite
Canary Wharf Club Intercontinental Suite > 1 Bed Suite (CW suite is the highest bookable online, aside from the Penthouse)
1 Bed Suite > 2 Bed Greenwich Suite

The 1 Bed Suite and the 2 Bed Greenwhich Suite aren't bookable online and are roughly 70 sqm (2 normal rooms + a bit of corridor) and 100 sqm (3 normal rooms + a bit of corridor) respectively. I don't know whether you can book these direct with the hotel, or whether they're kept strictly for upgrading Ambassadors/RAs.

I don't know how many of the "hidden" suites there are, but there can't be many. The 2 Bed Greenwich Suite has a restricted view from the windows due to the concrete barrier around the AC/cleaning equipment on the roof outside. I reckon this is a "terrace suite" by any other name! (As an aside, it holds the record for number of toilets I've seen in a hotel room. There are two bathrooms and a seperate toilet by the dining area, for a total of 3 toilets in the room.)

There aren't many pictures online of the 2 Bed Greenwich Suite, so here are a few for posterity:



Bedroom 1 - 2 Bed Greenwich Suite (ensuite out of shot to right)


Dining table - 2 Bed Greenwich Suite


Living room - 2 Bed Greenwich Suite


Bedroom 2 - 2 Bed Greenwich Suite


Corridor linking bedroom 2 and living room - 2 Bed Greenwich Suite

est-gratuite

Current prices at this hotel:

Breakfast - 25 GBP per person
(offered to me at check in for 20 GBP as an IHG member)


Lounge access - 50 PER ROOM
(offered to me on IHG website as upgrade for 40 GBP)

Staff at check-in said if a guest has lounge access they can have breakfast at the main restaurant if they want.


For a 5 star hotel I found the breakfast selection at the main restaurant a little bit disappointing, especially compared to other hotels in this category.

shoven

I have a 3 night paid stay coming up just before xmas and was wondering if anyone has any info on current treatment for RA guests.
I stayed last year as an Amb and was lucky enough to get a 2 cat upgrade but have no experiance as an RA at this property.

tangey

I see chat in TA reviews about a shuttle bus to/from the tube station. Anyone know the timetable ? Is it a constant thing, or only during conferences ?

thunderlounge

Not sure. Didn’t see one last August or the end of October. Not sure you really need one. The station is only a 6-7 minute stroll, either through the O2 or around the outside.

shoven

There was no shuttle last December when I stayed but the walk from the station is fairly easy 5 min at a brisk walk a few min more if you go through the 02. It was well sign posted also upon exiting the station we only had carry on bags so would depend on your luggage how easy a walk it is.

tangey

I've done the walk previously, but it was daytime and dry. If it was raining, you'd get drenched, an umbrella isn't part of my weekend packing kit, also I'm not sure how well the route is lit at night.

I wasn't aware that there was a permanent ability to access the IC from the O2 day and night, even if there is no event on, so that's good to know.