pjack

Booked two nights in Oct at this hotel....with Chase free night certificates. Am Ambassador level and have paid for Club access during the stay. I do not intend to upgrade to a harbor room for the money they request (unless my wife gets involved). We have not stayed here or even been in HK. My question is....is there a non-harbor room area that I might request that avoids some of the construction noise that gets a lot of negative comments in this forum. Appreciate comments from you seasoned HK travelers!

CHOPCHOP767

I just returned from a four night stay at this property. It was selected because my friend had never been to HK and the IC was listed as one of the places to see in 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. With that said, we did have Intercontinental Club Access, which affords some nice views of the Harbor at night, but being located on the second level, the view is a bit limited. Still, for unlimited Perrier Jouet (among other adult beverages) from 18:00 to 20:00, I'll take a limited view. By night two, the servers knew to just bring more bubbly and sparkling water. The food offerings were also excellent and pretty substantial. Which is to say, pay up for the Club access if you don't have it already.

I've stayed here in the past and the property is nice, but getting very dated. Also, the beds were not comfortable at all. We stayed in non-Harbor view room (I think standard room non-smoking) which had a view of the entrance to the hotel (Salisbury Road/Peninsula). The view was fine and honestly if you're spending a lot of time in the room, you're doing HK wrong. If you're at the hotel, spend time at the lounge, the pool or the gym/spa if that's your thing. Staff at the hotel was excellent, but the refurb is necessary. For my money, RC in HK is still the best, but I'd give the IC a try again after the refurb.

jaslmdm

Excited to experience this property for the first time next month, for 2 nights. Using Chase Free Night certs and have been proactively offered a Harbour View upgrade for 800 HKD (~$100US) plus tax per night. (I'm Platinum, so this isn't an upgrade I'd otherwise be eligible for.)

Is this asking price roughly normal, for a non-event time period? Has anyone had luck trying to call and negotiate it? I see blogger reports of being offered the upgrade for more like ~$50US per night at check-in, but this has been a couple years ago.

clubman

Wow. Property really is in need of renovation.

Sisyphus1carus

Thanks for sharing your recent experience.
Is the view from the lobby bar area out to the harbour blocked at the moment due to renovations or is it Okay ?

What type of Perrier Jouet do they serve in the lounge ?

What's the breakfast in the lounge like ?

Having lounge access is always nice but trying to weigh up whether it's worth it this time (not been to IC HK before) as we'll be in Hong Kong !!!! Plenty to see & do and interesting places to eat & drink.
​​​​
Cheers.

Unterwegs

The view from the lobby lounge and club was not blocked last time I was there, I believe it is unlikely that it will be. They did some rebuilding to the walkway (bridge) in front of the hotel.

The PJ is the grand brut if my memory is correct. They also serve a perfect Bellini.

Breakfast in the lounge is the best of any IC lounge. A good selection of hot and cold items of very high quality. In addition you can order some hot dishes from a menu. The downstairs selection is more extensive. You are not allowed to have breakfast downstairs unless you book a room with breakfast (or pay for it). High tea and happy hour are also excellent.
If lounge access is worth it depends on how much time you plan to spend in the hotel.

Happy

Here is a caution - we were in HKG for CNY in 2017 Jan/Feb, staying at Conrad. The weather was extremely poor - not rain but very thick low hanging cloud. As a result, the firework was literally not viewable - all one could see was the lighted up clouds in red or gold color because the fireworks exploded way above the thick low-hanging cloud. So our well-planned firework watching soiree did not work as hoped for.
Now, because we were originally from Hong Kong and where we lived (mid level at the East side of the Hong Kong island), we used to have unobstructed view of the "long view" of Victoria Harbour. It beats the view from IC HKG by a mile. The specular views to us have become extremely ordinary, like part of daily life. So while we were a little bit disappointed on the planned trip on 2017 CNY we basically shrugged off.
From talking to families, we found out that the foggy, low cloud weather has become quite common in recent years.
So whether you have specular firework views is largely depending on the unknown weather conditions at the time.

That said, for the past 3 years our Chase FNs were used at IC HKG because we passed thru HKG at least once or more each year. It was just that it so happened to be the good place to use the Chase FN certs. We have never used the swimming pools nor the gym, and have no desire to pay for the lounge access when there are so many choices of good eats around. But I can fully understand why lounge access can be very beneficial especially one tends to drink a lot.

IC HKG always treats even Plat members very nicely. Our last stay the room was not ready for almost 2 hours (we got the lousy garden terrace room no less). They sent us to the lobby bar for 2 drinks and 2 snacks complimentary from the hotel. Large fruit plate every day, plus a nice cheesecake for husband's birthday (but addressed to me!)
We will spend the Fri and Sat there again in Nov. Last time to be able to use Chase uncapped FNs. Might as well finish it at the same place.

Hotel is in desperate need of renovation though. They should tear it down and rebuild a new structure to better utilize the prime location. Though the owner(s) seem to keep changing their decisions on what to do with the property.

vh_bu98

I am doing a point stay at IC HK for CNY 2019, so I may upgrade to a harbor view room if they are available and reasonable price. If not, do you think I would still get a good view from the lounge area or maybe even the pool area or am I better off staying somewhere else?

Happy

I have no clue on the hotel lounge itself but many upmarket hotels in Hong Kong would BLOCK the lounges for special events. i.e. even one has lounge access normally, special events like CNY, the lounge would not be available to you, because it is blocked off for other venues. Conrad does this all the time.

If you are talking about the lobby bar lounge, the view should be the same, except it is at lower level than a room. However they would charge a very high cover charge though. So you would need to keep that in mind. Lobby bar even on ordinary nights have a cover charge from 8pm? and higher on weekends and holidays.

The pool area should have the same view but it is a rather SMALL area with very limited sittings. Not sure what the hotel normally would do during the Firework events (CNY, National Day, just off the top of my head.) Heck, even the small greenery area in front of the hotel entrance as you walk up on the right hand side towards the entrance . , would have the same view but I seriously doubt they let people crowding that area. Though at JWM / Conrad / Shangri-La, people were standing outside the hotels on the plaza area to watch fireworks. But that is a much bigger, and 100% public area, not like the greenery space by IC entrance which should be private property belongs to the IC.

Seriously, locations to watch Fireworks there are aplenty, though a harbour view room gives you the COMFORT when you are watching the display when everywhere else would be very crowded. But I believe the lobby bar is also a good choice though even with the high cover charge. The key remains, it depends on the weather at the time. In CNY 2017 the thick low cloud was so bad my husband decided to watch sports on TV instead. That was how bad it was.

I assume you can use Google Street View as well as pictures posted by reviewers on Trip Advisor to get a good idea of the geographic setting.

augmon

I have two nights booked here, the first a paid booking in a harbor view room, the second an award night which equates to a basic plaza view room. If I email them to combine the bookings into one stay, what are the odds that they comp me the upgrade for the second night? Slim to none? (I'm a mere IHG platinum.)

Unterwegs

Friends of mine were in a similar situation a few month back and they made them change rooms.

TravelLawyer

It's not slim to none - it's none. We've done this multiple times, and they will absolutely require you to pay for the upgrade or change rooms. It was shocking to me the first time because I stayed there as a Platinum or Spire (whatever was top level of IHG at the time) and they would not budge.

TravelLawyer

Yes, this is the rate for non-peak time and has been the rate for years - since at least 2015.

vh_bu98

I was in the same situation and I had to change rooms.

returnoftheyeti

Hello all, Marriott Platinum here and first time poster in your forum. Our Platinum status will end this year. The Mrs. has a work trip to Hong Kong and her company is placing her in the IC Hong Kong. I am going to tag along for the trip. We are planning on staying an extra 3 days after her work is done and she has no interest in switching hotels.

Check in 10-Dec, check out 13-Dec. Looking at ~$400 USD per night.
My questions are
1) is there any tips for searching for a better rate, or should I just book on the hotels web site?
2) Should I try to get a IHG Chase Credit card before we go? Is there any way I can use this stay to kick off a status jump for IHG?
3) Any sort of status matching ?

Or should I just check in, pay my monies, and enjoy the trip?

Thanks guys