Vince Chan

oops..!

A few years ago in 2011, BTN US hotel rank survey put IC along with JW Marriott and Grand Hyatt with other lower tier such as Westin Sheraton Hilton Marriott all into the Upper Upscale segment.


Check the 2016 survey:

http://www.businesstravelnews.com/Re...ps-Luxury-Tier

Ritz-Carlton Tops Luxury Tier. There is JW and Grand Hyatt, where is IC?

It's in the upscale segment, along with Sheraton. How great!

http://www.businesstravelnews.com/Re...a-Lead-Upscale

Any thoughts?


Many people would thought Intercontinental is a very high end hotel brands because some of its very prestigious properties in Hong Kong and Japan etc. Some people who don't know hotel might even put IC with peninsula. ( This is real, I hear that in Osaka, Japan, some travelers from Asia comparing IC with St Regis and Peninsula, they though Marriott Osaka is in a step down tier brand)

Shocking! IC's image is actually more like a Sheraton and Westin or Crown Plaza, in professional traveler's heart?

Ha

craigthemif

IC is definitely not luxury.

A handful of ICs might be considered luxury but not the brand across-the-board.

porphyra

Agreed. I would not put IC in the same bucket as Ritz-Carlton, Fairmont or Four Seasons.

OTOH, I would not put JW Marriott with those three either. I would put JW, IC and Grand Hyatt together.

I am surprised they didn't look at St. Regis in the Luxury category, or the Waldorf-Astoria (or Conrad).

EDIT: It seems like the above brands may have been included - only the top five are listed individually.

Chinatrvl

IC states it's upper upscale. Correct so.

BS...

Indeed and that's a good thing.

Petrus

High End but not luxury, bar what a dozen properties around the world such as perhaps Park Lane, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Danang Peninsula, Carlton Cannes and a few more?

Then some are pretty dingy and not remotely luxury or high end. More like a 4 star 80's outfit.

lost_in_translation

Agree the issue here is not that IC is incorrectly categorised as not being luxury, but that the likes of JWM are categorised as luxury.

In terms of the major chains I think only Park Hyatt and certain RCs and St. Regis are luxury, the tiers are something like this in my head:

Luxury - PH, RC (possibly), St. Regis (possibly), Luxury Collection (possibly)

Premium (but not luxury) - Conrad, GH, IC, JWM, W, Fairmont

Upper Upscale (whatever that means) - Westin, Hyatt Regency, Andaz (with notable exception of e.g. Tokyo which goes in tier above)

Upscale - Hilton, CP, Sheraton, Marriott, Hyatt, etc.

TomMM

Out of curiosity, where would the Mandarin Oriental rank?

SansSerif

I've always viewed ICs as being solid 4.5 star hotels. Definitely not within the same category as true 5-star hotels as others have mentioned, but reliably better than your run of the mill Sheraton.

Putting it on bar with JWM/Conrad seems about right.

Re: comments above, MO is definitely 5-star except for maybe in Malaysia, and I would put the Luxury Collection in the same boat as IC.

stimpy

There are inconsistencies in all brands. Even Four Seasons has a few bad apples. Some IC's are true luxury, especially when you stay as RA. And some are not.

Also you have to compare within a city. For example the IC Bucharest cannot compare with any 4 star in Hong Kong or even some of the 3 star hotels. But it is just about the best hotel in all of Bucharest.

lost_in_translation

MO is definitely a luxury brand to me, may be a couple of relatively bad apples but the chain as a whole is positioned at the top of the market in almost every city they're in.

lost_in_translation

I agree and I think my point is that what counts as 'luxury' in a particular location is at least *partially* relative to where you are. I can't speak as an RA, but my experience is that even in cities with the best ICs in the world, such as Hong Kong, the IC is still positioned in a slightly lower market segment than the true 'luxury' properties.

E.g. in Hong Kong the MO, Upper House, FS, Peninsula, etc. are in the 'luxury' segment, whereas IC, Conrad, GH, JWM are in the next segment down and sell for less per night / attempt to offer slightly less perfect service as a result. The top suites at the IC in HK are top of the market in terms of rates just because they are truly unique, but the rest of the hotel is positioned as decidedly cheaper than the equivalent luxury choices in HK on most nights.

lost_in_translation

I think the Luxury Collection is one of the most variable brands there is, definitely more so than IC due to the independence the hotels have and therefore difficult to place. Some are truly luxury hotels and some are nothing of the sort - e.g. you can't seriously claim the Gritti Palace isn't a luxury hotel, but you can't seriously claim certain others are!

IAN-UK

But we're in a world where Dubai's CP Deira claims 5-star status

Spock Seat

Well, it's luxury if your RA, and you stay at the resorts and HK, rather than HI, HI-Express, Crowne, etc. It's Luxury if you book Club---I've always thought.

Vince Chan

IC is far from being the best of all in Bucharest....

Just check which hotel do Louis Vuitton and Valentino choose to open their only store in Romania?