49er

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.

dw

Atacama40

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.

Smythmeister

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

koriobg

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.

:D!

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!)

SanDiego1K

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

unusualtravelblog

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.

koriobg

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:

336

Prices are VAT included.

chad75

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.

jenecho

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

chad75

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

nufnuf77

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?

koriobg

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.