CMK10

What is your IHG Status?
Platinum Ambassador

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
Two Bed Standard Room Booked. Two Bed Deluxe Room Received.

How are the rooms?
Not very good. They're old and tired with no outlets near the bed, older furniture and the tiniest bathroom I've had in a US hotel.

How is the exec. lounge?
No lounge

What was good and what was bad?
Staff is very friendly and there's an amazing bar on the 19th floor called the Top of the Mark that was a lot of fun to visit. The location is also very good and feels safer and without the homeless population of the Financial District.

The room as mentioned was not very good.

Value for $ or Priority Club Points? Would you return?
I paid $794 for two nights total with cash. I paid way too much for the room I received and doubt I'd return,

unusualtravelblog

IC Sandton Towers Johannesburg

What is your IHG Status?
When I stayed I was Gold Ambassador

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
King Deluxe Room and was upgraded to King Club IC with lounge access!

How are the rooms?
Very nice. Close to the lounge, spacious, especially the bathroom which has both bath tub and big shower. I had a nice city view too.

How is the exec. lounge?
Very small club lounge but it didn't bother as we were with max. 3 persons in the lounge in the evening. There were a few cold snacks and the waiters offered you the drinks or you could take them yourself, just as you want. He refilled your glass on time and were really caring. He also offered hot snacks too like samosa and meatballs. I really enjoyed, especially because I did not expect an upgrade with complementary club lounge access. During the day day there were only fruits, nuts and drinks.

What was good and what was bad?
Not much bad to say. I was treated like a VIP, it was exactly how a IC should be... Everyone who worked there was so nice, attentive and made sure you were having a good time. I've never experienced such class service before with IC's in Europe. Turn-down service was offered too with a lot of detail. Breakfast was great too. Ambassador gifts were amazing too... most valuable I've ever received. It included a good South African red wine and a large nougat-caramel box. I also received the standard amb. amenties: fruits and water.

Value for $ or Priority Club Points? Would you return?
I booked the room for about €130-€150 and it was my best IC stay so far (although I'm not that experienced with IC). Club lounge upgrade is AFAIK not common when staying at IC's, especially as a Gold Ambassador so for me it was a great deal. Not planning to return to JNB but if I will I would definitely stay there again.

(If interested: Pictures I took during my stay)

unusualtravelblog

IC Berlin, Germany

What is your IHG Status?
When I stayed I was Gold Ambassador

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
Booked King Bed Club Superior room, was upgraded to Club Deluxe, just a larger room I think. Was happy with any upgrade as I booked this with the Ambassador weekend certificate.

How are the rooms?
It was good. Spacious with sofa and large TV and large bathroom with both shower and bath tub. Kinda strange that the coffee machine is somewhat in the bathroom.

How is the exec. lounge?
Well this is what I call a club lounge. The club lounge can seat a lot of people. The breakfast buffet had a lot of choices. The canapes in the evening were nice and unique, and a lot of wines, champagne and gin-tonics were available. I spent a lot of time in the lounge.

What was good and what was bad?
I had mixed feelings before going, as I had read some reviews before going about out-dated rooms but the Club Deluxe where I stayed did not seem out-dated at all. The (free) access to swimming pool, jacuzzi and sauna made it really worthwhile. The only thing I might complain about is that a lot of TV channels did not work properly. Instead of complaining, I took another visit to the swimming pool or the club lounge .

Value for $ or Priority Club Points? Would you return?
I paid €240 for the two nights with the ambassador certificate so I felt like I had a great deal. Maybe a bit too pricey IMO if I had to pay €480 for the two nights.

(If interested: Pictures I took during my stay)

Hipplewm

IC Buckhead Atlanta

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
#1 King Club (wife and myself)
#2 Double Club (Kids - one kid is 20 - so no issues if we are split up, no need for adjoining rooms)

Upgrade was rooms on the end of the hall facing downtown Atlanta (room with a view) - rooms were next door to each other

How are the rooms?
Rooms are very nice, bedding was very good
Shower ameneties were very nice according to the family members with long hair

How is the exec. lounge?
Small, was overcrowded for Friday and Sat night cocktails and Sat Breakfast

What was good and what was bad?
Spire Ambassador - my upgrade was to a room on the end and it did have great views
However the people next door have zero status and the room they were assigned has the same views etc, so i could have gotten the same room for the same price depending on when I checked in

Pool ran out of Towels on Fri and Sat, very few were put out then people started takign them from the bathrooms which are shared with the Spa until they were empty. I called housekeeping both days to inform them the towell rack was empty and nothing was done either day.

Valet refused to park my truck - in all fairness it is a F350 crew can dually - long bed, so it can be a handful. It is extremely rare to take my truck on a trip like this so I don't know how prevalent this is amongst valet.

Value for $ or Priority Club Points? Would you return?
This was a mix of points/ca$h and AMB certificate and I doubt i would return here. there is a JW Marriott right down the street and I would venture to say if I return they will see my shadow

cschmae

IC Milwaukee, Wisconsin

What is your IHG Status?
Gold Ambassador

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
Booked King Bed Deluxe room, was upgraded to King Bed Executive Room on the top (10th) floor. That's a one category upgrade as expected, the executive room is basically a junior suite with a sitting area in front with couches and another TV.

How are the rooms?
They are comparable to similarly priced rooms in Milwaukee, frankly almost every room in the city feels dated and worn to me.

How is the exec. lounge?
No lounge.

What was good and what was bad?
Really good benefits for Ambassador. They made a big deal out of it at check-in, I got the upgrade, early check-in, late check-out, 1 free breakfast and 2 free drinks at the bar. While all of that would have been enough, at check-in they noted that my welcome amenity was in the room already. I got there and there were two bottles of water and a tray of snacks that I know from previous stays to normally be the mini-bar here. However, this time there was no price list, so I thought maybe they offer a free mini-bar as the amenity? It is normally very reasonably priced so I didn't bother verifying. Looking at the bill, it seems that two items are free, and then they charge. Fair, but would have been nice to have some explanation or sign up front.

Value for $ or Priority Club Points? Would you return?
I paid about $125 for one night, which is a bit high, but Milwaukee hotel inventory is very sensitive to demand and varies widely in price from day to day.

patmcpsu

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
I booked a basic room for 6 nights using points. Upgraded to a Deluxe Room.

How are the rooms?
The Deluxe rooms are spacious and offer lots of closet space. The bathrooms are still tight. I was assigned a room on the 2nd floor immediately above the hotel bar (and across the street from another hotel's outdoor bar). The noise from the nightlife was audible until about midnight every night, and I believe that is why they use this room for Ambassador upgrades. It was a great setting for drinking wine before dinner.

How is the exec. lounge?
N/A

What was good and what was bad?

• The Ambassador welcome amenity was a luggage tag (the exact one you get in your Ambassador kit every year). It serves a practical purpose, but I'm sure lots of us have more tags than we know what to do with.
• The service was mostly good; the only gripe I have is that we pre-booked seats at Carlton Beach via the concierge, and when we arrived on the first day, the Beach people didn't see it in their system. It was sorted-out for the following days.
• The rooms could use some refresh, but are still Riviera-chic.

Value for $ or Priority Club Points? Would you return?
The hotel gets stupid-expensive in the summer if paying cash, but I think it's a good option if you're looking to do a beach vacation with IHG points. However, even with the free room, Cannes is an expensive town to be in. Average lunch for two was 60EUR, average dinner was 150EUR, the Chaise Lounge rentals are 55EUR per day. All in, a couple should probably budget $400/day if they want a "nice" experience there.

saaveraward

IC Budapest

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
Classic, superior river vew

How are the rooms?
The bathroom is comically small. No power ports at either bed side. No alarm clock. The clock on the television is so bright, bring your eyeshades. You can seriously do shadow puppets on the walls behind you at night

How is the exec. lounge?
did not purchase access, not offered upsell

What was good and what was bad?
- early spire ambassador check in
- location and view, easy walk to Vaci Street, Central Market, Parliament, St. Paul's
- Ambassador gift was fruit (app request for savory ignored) and luggage tag I get every year anyway, drink coupon (beer, house wine, prosecco)
- had to repeatedly request water re-fresh
- Phone kept ringing in the room. I'd pick up someone would say hello or no one would be there. I finally told them to put a DND on the phone.
- I had consecutive, joined reservations which is a common practice. Well, the overnight manager checks you out and back in. This TURNS ON THE TV at 3 am and again at 5 am!
- Front desk staff very nice. Concierge, servers, bar staff cold and impersonal.
- There was a situation I won't get in to but the duty manager offered breakfast for my remaining days as an apology. I said nothing was needed and I don't eat breakfast. He insisted again. I said, fine, how about a drink coupon for the bar like I got at check in. He said "I really do want you to have the breakfast." Why do you keep offering me something I told you I don't want? So the next morning I went to the cafe and had breakfast. Guess what? Charged ion checkout. Didn't even want to deal with it anymore so I paid for it.

When I checked out, the manager said something about giving me some points for my trouble, I think 1,000 (nothing's hit yet) which is embarrassing. I'll wait for that like my comped breakfast.

Value for $ or Priority Club Points? Would you return?
No. Even with a BOGO and paying 200 euro for 2 nights I would not. There's a Four Seasons, Sofitel and Ritz Carlton right there. Even at a higher price point I would stay elsewhere over the IC.

score: 6/10

EDIflyer

IC Berlin

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
Superior room on weekend IC rate which included breakfast. Upgraded to Deluxe with nice park view.

How are the rooms?
Massive bathroom - separate cubicles for shower and toilet, decent bath. Lots of storage space.

How is the exec. lounge?
Did not purchase access, not offered access - assumed wasn't includedf

What was good and what was bad?
- Decent location, not far from Tegel bus
- Welcoming staff
- Good room/view - fruit/chocolates as arrival gift
- Water replenished daily
- Excellent breakfast (although on paid-for rate)
- Welcome drinks covered anything we wanted from the bar, very nice cocktail!

Value for $ or Priority Club Points? Would you return?
Reasonable for €143/night given location and quality of hotel/breakfast, would return although Waldorf nearby is good too.

saaveraward

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
classic (I think), upgraded to corner 35 sq meter room park view

How are the rooms?
worn out but very spacious, nice that the WC was completely separate from the shower area

How is the exec. lounge?
did not purchase, not offered

What was good and what was bad?
- walking distance to everything
- very courteous staff (save concierge who was gruff)
- welcome amenity very nice fruit display, a chocolate, chocolate/hazelnut wafer, still water
- early Spire check in
- not offered drink or points, but points given automatically

Value for $ or Priority Club Points? Would you return?
absolutely, nothing new or flashy about this hotel, but solid rate, treatment and staff

score: 8.5/10

Just a small recommendation for any foodies: Steirereck is a three minute walk and an absolute must. Tian is probably the best Michelin star vegetarian restaurant in the world (and I'm not a veggie), and Salm Brau is a fantastic brewery with very good food just a short 10 minute walk and next to Belvedere.

saaveraward

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
King club IC, executive suite..... more on this below

How are the rooms?
Well the hard product looks great, but then you actually have to use it. Case in point: The shower room floods in to the main bathroom without exception. So 3/4 of your towels end up on the floor. so not being careful you walk in to a wet spot in socks. You take out the hair dryer to dry it. Outlet in the bathroom doesn't work. You take it to another room and there's a short in the hair dryer so you have to hold it just so, like a 1970's TV antenna, to make it work.

The toilet has an automatic flush and no buttons like a public washroom. Except it decides when it wants to work and behave and when it doesn't. Without going in to too much detail, I developed a four-step procedure to make it flush. Do your business. Place the seat cover down. Sit on the toilet for 10 seconds. Get up. Walk away. I'm not even slightly joking.

Every time you turn on the TV, the surround sound in the bathroom kicks on. So if you mute the TV to take a call, better get up and go to the bathroom too or turn the TV off.

How is the exec. lounge?
Lounge is beautifully appointed. Hosts work extremely hard and are very friendly, but there's only one of them to service everyone. Food is HORRIBLE. It's a great menu they can't remotely execute. Things run out frequently and are slow to replace. Omelette with mushrooms and truffle sounds great. They take the poor eggs and cook it to a point where it's so overdone, I can't believe they serve it. Then the put shaved truffle on top and drown the whole thing in synthetic truffle oil. Scrambled eggs turned out the same. Speaking to some guests, eggs benedict were cold and steak & eggs produced some sort of top round hockey puck. In the evening risotto could be turned upside down and not move. Plenty of choices, none of them good.

What was good and what was bad?
- hard working staff, but not trained well... in fact I was giving out training tips, just what you want to do on holiday!
- early Ambassador check in
- Martin, great concierge
- spacious suite, but nothing labeled on power switches and many don't work.
- slowest elevators I've ever seen
- valet uses a car elevator. expect delays
- welcome amenity fruit, charcuterie and chocolate.... very nice, but had to ask for water refresh
- booked a King Club (since verified), they thought I booked a superior and had already upgraded me. An embarrassing conversation for me to try and prove otherwise, but still front desk very nice. At one point I declined the upgrade. Walked in to the King Club and it was 32+ degrees. Anything facing east broils. The poor people at check in and concierge have to stare at direct sunlight in the morning and it's very warm. Owners must have run out of money. They deserve hazard pay for this. So walked out of that and got the executive suite. Must have been 20+ hairs on the the duvet. Not 2.... 20. Asked the front desk manager to accompany me to the room to view for himself. He thinks housekeeping may have folded the duvet on the floor before placing it on the bed. ON THE FLOOR?
- 2 drink coupons on arrival. I went to the bar. I could have had 2 beers at 8.90 each. I asked if I could have 1 cocktail instead that costs 9.50. Impossible! Against the rules! I get it, but hospitality 101. Make the guest happy, and I'm saving you money as well. I mentioned this on checkout and surrendered the coupons. Instead of waving the charge on the bill, I was offered coffee in the lobby. Uh, I just came from a horrible breakfast in the lounge. Again, basic training takes care of this stuff. By the way, the roof bar had 25 customers (I counted) on a Saturday night with 1 bartender and 1 server.

Value for $ or Priority Club Points? Would you return?
ehhhhh.... This hotel has the tools to be best in class. I love the staff, even though they probably weren't told how to operate a hotel. They've been open long enough, they should have gotten their act together by now. I give them an incomplete, which is being rather kind. I'm rooting for them, but they have a long way to go.

zippy the pinhead

Stayed in the IC CoEx Seoul in June 2018. We requested adjoining rooms, and they were able to grant this request. The staff was very kind to us, we were grateful.

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
We booked two standard rooms, one with cash, and the other with cash and points, and received adjoining Temple View Rooms.

How are the rooms?
We were quite comfortable and particularly appreciated the air conditioning, which worked great. Seoul is humid in June if you're accustomed to Southern California coastal weather. No complaints. Slept very well, enjoyed the view, enjoyed the local neighborhood, the mall, Bongeunsa (temple).

How is the exec. lounge?
Never tried it.

What was good and what was bad?
What was good? The staff was helpful and attentive, and took good care of us. We got the adjoining rooms we requested, which meant the kids had their space, and we had ours, and we didn't have to split the team to keep an eye on them. The beds were comfortable, the view was good, the A/C was strong, our super-picky youngest son was able to get the food he wanted in the mall. Our oldest enjoyed the gym and pool (competitive swimmer). We found an abundance of good restaurants in the mall and surrounding environs. The only thing that bothered me was the bidet seat on the toilet (an aftermarket thing, was uncomfortable), and the necessity that the room card be placed in a receptacle by the door in order to keep the lights and everything on.

Value for $ or Priority Club Points? Would you return?
We'd return. We were able to use a Chase free night cert for one night, and I think we paid 35,000 IHG points/night for the other nights. That worked out to about $0.007 per point, so I was OK with that. We booked way in advance and I worked the cash rate down when the opportunity presented itself. I like this hotel very much.




Makkeoli (Korean rice wine)

MrsW

holloway1000

Intercontinental Carlton CannesWhich room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
I booked a basic room for 1 nights using points. Upgraded to a Deluxe Room with a ‘partial sea view’.

How are the rooms?
The room was lovely. A good size, nespresso machine but only 4 pods. The bathrooms are small, but good quality.
You had to lean out of the window to get the ‘sea view’, but still better than nothing.
They could have better sound proofing. Especially with all the supercars around.

How is the exec. lounge?
N/A

What was good and what was bad?

• The Ambassador welcome amenity was a luggage tag and a welcome drink in the bar. (one drink, not one per person, a second drink for my partner was 14 euro)
• The staff on reception were amazing.
• We arrived at 10 am expecting to have to drop off bags and entertain ourselves until the afternoon, but they got a room ready for us within 15 mins.
• They honoured the late checkout until 4pm even though it was a points booking.

Value for $ or Priority Club Points? Would you return?

We booked on point, so it was amazing value. Especially as we got early check in and late check out.
It was fascinating to see all the supercars, such as Bugattis etc, and people in the bar ordering £10,000 worth of drinks in one go.
If I build up a substantial pool of points I would go back, but the private beach is 55 euro per person per day, with a coke costing 10 euro.
The nearest public beach is a 10 min walk, and very busy.

holloway1000

Intercontinental Geneve
Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
I booked a basic room for 1 nights using Cash. Upgraded to a Deluxe Room.

How are the rooms?
The room was Ok. A good size. But didn’t feel like a luxury hotel.
The bathroom was a good size.
It was clean.

What was good and what was bad?
the room was booked on a pre paid rate, and they overcharged my card.

• I phoned, and they apologised for overcharging, but it took 2 weeks for them to refund the money
• On arrival, the receptionist showed us the ambassador welcome letter, and then took it away.
• There were no ambassador welcome gifts, fruit or even bottles of water in the room. - I asked reception about this, and they said they would send some up. 2 hours later and still nothing. When I went down to reception the lady said why are you asking me, I’m not room service. Luckily her manager had overheard, and came over and apologised. (I know it sounds petty, but when they charge £10 for a bottle of water I would rather get the free ones they are meant to provide)
• Breakfast was delicious, and a huge selection.
• The pool was really nice. We had 4pm checkout, but as our flight wasn’t until 10pm they said we stayed by the pool until 7pm then used the changing facilities at the spa.
• All hotels in Geneva provide a free public transport pass.

Value for $ or Priority Club Points? Would you return?
This is expensive for what it is and where it is.
The location is good for the UN, but not much else.
I would not stay again.

MrsW