Land-of-Miles

To be fair I always booked a room with inclusive lounge there but other AMBs staying at the same time were charged more than that I am sure as I remember them .....ing about it.

The problem at the IC O2 is that Breakfast for 2 in the restaurant (free with club access) costs more than £57 (I think it is £35 each but again have never paid personally). The IC Westminster did not allow a free breakfast in the Blue Boar.

I would rather retain the choice of breakfast in the restaurant than have cheaper lounge access. Also cheaper lounge access has an impact on the type of clientele attracted.

mitpat474

no i remember clearly now it was 114, and 50% discount for Ambassadors.

davrossuk

IMO the IC o2 have really missed a trick by only offering £20 discount to ambassadors for lounge access. As a hotel it has a lot going for it over the IC PL such as the amazing views, the pool and significantly lower rates for both reward and cash nights. It could certainly be a better option for a relaxing break where location is not too much os an issue.

However, charging almost the same for lounge access as the PL for a product that is clearly poorer feels cheeky and is a real sting in the tail. This is especially the case if you are points-rich so the only real outlay is the cash for lounge access. It's not so much that paying a bit extra hurts my wallet very much, more that it fells bad to get poor value for money.

For me, if either...

a)The o2 lounge was on par with the PL

or

b) the o2 lounge price reflected the lower service/quality compared to the IC PL (as I said before, IMO 50% AMB discount would be about right and in line with some other ICs)

...the 02 would be hands down my hotel of choice in London, unless I really needed the location of the PL for a particular event etc. As it is, I find myself very tempted to stump up the extra for the PL.


Also, at the risk of sounding like a snob, having recently experienced breakfast in the o2 restaurant after a Justin Beiber event next door, the thought of a tranquil breakfast in the IC PL lounge fills me with absolute delight compared to the prospect of being in the o2 restaurant when packed full of loud baseball cap wearing (backwards too - for the love of god) mouth-breathers at the o2. I guess this is very event-specific though. :-D

Land-of-Miles

How do you square that with cannibalising the breakfast revenue though? Breakfast now seems to be down to £25 each but anyone paying for club at £57 would be paying only £7 over the cost of breakfast for 2. That would be nuts.

As someone who always has a choice at the O2 between the lounge and restaurant, I go for the restaurant almost every time because there is a better drink selection (and a virgin bloody mary bar, if you are minded to raid your minbar for vodka to supplement), MUCH better coffee, a wider choice of food and also a full order menu too. The key for me is that service is faster in the restaurant too, not because the lounge staff are not good, I find them uniformly lovely but the food comes from the Market Brasserie anyway so has to be ordered down and then brought up.

davrossuk

Its been a while since I paid for breakfast at the PL so I may be wrong but I think they charge £35 so it's only an £8 extra at the PL for lounge access and they make it work.

Also, they would still get breakfast revenue from many people that don't have Amb membership as they would have to pay full price for lounge access.

mitpat474

i was there that saturday morning!? loads of teens!

davrossuk

I was there on the Sun and was actually surprised that some of the beliebers were in their 20's and 30's. I suppose age doesn't mean taste.

londonred

Thought this might be useful datapoint for any spire non ambassadors. On a reward night to see the tennis at the O2 this weekend we were upgraded from the basic reward room, king superior (superior to what I'm not sure...) to deluxe riverview room a few days before.

Didn't ask about club access price as we were not around much except for breakfast which was cheaper just to buy.

LR

Atacama40

Echo that....I get club nearly every time at pretty much any CP (as an RA) ...even Stockley most of the time but not at Chester....is a poor do. We don't go any more...Manchester much more obliging.

chrism20

Has anyone dined in the restaurant and had the tasting menu?

If yes can you let me know your thoughts on it.

Thanks

Land-of-Miles

We dined in the Peninsula restaurant but had a multiple course a la carte rather than the tasting menu. It was excellent and we had a pretty big bill despite the 50% offer on food. 3 bottles of wine probably didn't help.

We just wanted a bit more variety between us than the tasting menu gave.

Service and food were top notch.

chrism20

Thanks. Just looking for some ideas for the other halfs birthday. The tasting menu had caught her eye when we were here last and thought I'd ask.

davrossuk

I have a reward night booked here this weekend and just noticed that the terms say it is non-refundable. I'm fairly sure the last reward night that I booked here was refundable, as is the case for every other IHG hotel in London hotel I've ever booked. I wonder when/why they changed this.

Hopefully I won't need to cancel this time but it will definitely be a consideration in future when deciding between the o2 and PL etc. To my mind, this makes the o2 much less of a redemption bargain at 45k non-refundable compared to the PL at 60k refundable.

Edit: I just checked the booking confirmation from a previous stay last November and it was indeed refundable so the policy has definitely changed since then. Sneeky.

turner32

If this is a stay on Saturday, then it's due to the boxing next door. Cheapest rooms recently for that night routinely moved from £400-600 over the past few days. Cancellation restrictions are put in place for events such as this, for obvious reasons.

turner32

Just completed a 3 day stay here. Lounge access and minibar complimentary on paid and awards nights for RA. They follow the new upgrade directive very closely, which resulted in a 2 level upgrade to Riverview Deluxe "suite", which was very small with a lot of wasted space, particularly as you walk in. View over Canary Wharf, but the room is poorly appointed, dark and quite claustrophobic.
Lounge had some nice canapés and fairly run-of-the-mill spirits, staff not particularly attentive, or keen on clearing plates or replacing ice. Breakfast was pretty good.
Minibar is still very poor. With lots of snacks stuffed into the door in lieu of alcohol.
I have mixed feelings about this place, so probably IC PL next time I'm in London.