Atacama40

duplicate post

Petrus

FYI Diamons still get the full breakfast including ordering from the a la carte menu. Rates with Breakfast included get the buffet, and can order an egg serving from the waiting staff.

pazza2000

No limit to a la carte items either. I over ordered and they insisted I take some away.

travelman0

is the afternoon tea served in the lounge everyday? also I'm guessing I can use my F&B credit for dinner at their restaurant? I have 5 F&B credits.

travelman0

just finished my stay at the intercontinental. it was a really great experience. when I checked in, they were able to pull up all my info including my lounge access reward without me having to ask. this was a really great benefit considering outright paying for lounge access for two guests costs 185 pounds per day. we did afternoon tea 2 out of the 4 days we stayed. they have a rotating afternoon tea menu so its always different

we tried breakfast both in the lounge and at the main restaurant. at the main restaurant, they said we could only choose one item from the a la carte menu in addition to the buffet.

we also received a drink voucher that says it is good for only house wine, beer, coffee. but when we actually used it, they allowed us to choose anything on the menu including cocktails.

F&B credits, unfortunately, do not apply yet. overall, we loved our stay and would definitely come back. it was definitely better than the waldorf that we switched to for the latter part of our trip

navatwal

Not stayed here in over 10 years, used to always get the Executive room which were a decent size, I see that as a Diamond Amb on award stay have been upgraded to Premium Room, are these the former executive rooms? If not how is the size / layout?

jpdx

Just completed a 4 night stay here. Diamond Ambassador with lounge pass. Booked King Cozy during last year's 40k rewards mistake, which meant 27k a night with Chase 4th night free and 10% points discount. Pretty insane value on paper vs GBP 980 a night revenue rates showing for the last couple weeks. Had been checking rates over the last few months -- IC was never lower than GBP 700/night for our stay, which included Pride and 4th of July. Couple days prior, the nearby Sheraton was at GBP 680, various Indigos and the lesser Hyatts at 300-450, GH over 1000. Insanity!

Received an upgrade to Premium room on the 6th floor. Decent size, around 300sqft, but ancient. I think I last stayed here in 2010 or so as RA, and got one of the tiniest suites I ever had in my frequent traveler career, and our current room was in the same state of repair. Made no attempt to obtain a better room on this stay (apart from calling for suite night upgrade, which wasn't available). Considering what I paid, quite happy with the overall value, but what do the people think who pay GBP 980 a night and end up in a 170 sqft room that would put an airport Sheraton in the US to shame?!

Lounge was quite nice. Of course those of us in the loop know that generally, IC lounges are superior to Hyatt/Marriott, but this one also compares favorably to other ICs, say Paris. Afternoon tea is available with delicious pastries and sandwiches. Three night rotation, as we found out. Same for evening happy hour -- very tasty options which frankly surpassed the stupid Insta-famous Salt Bae steaks we had in Knightsbridge one night. Pommery champagne and a nice selection of premium spirits (Martell cognac and Grey Goose and Belvedere), although not dispensed in the most generous and hospitable ways imaginable -- we were asked for our room number every night by the same staff for 4 nights in a row (up to 4 times in a single visit), and the evening happy hour offerings were taken down at 7:30pm on the dot, a little earlier even when it was evident that another bottle of Pommery might have to be cracked.

Diamond breakfast was also available in the main restaurant, although the maitre d' told us on the first morning that we also could take our breakfast in the club lounge, which was made out to sound like the preferable option. And so it was; the club lounge is a far more pleasant and quiet space, with pretty much the same buffet offerings, plus omelets and the like available on demand.

Overall, very hard to find fault on a 27k/night redemption with Diamond/lounge pass benefits, but one can't help but wonder where we're headed -- despite the strengths of the lounge and overall benefits, I don't think the Premium room is worth anywhere close to GBP 1000 or 120k points a night.

Lounge:
















Ancient room:

NorthernLass

I booked 2 nights for my OH's birthday weekend during the 40k "sale" last year, having no idea it would also be Wimbledon final weekend! I was getting slightly nervous that the rate might not be honoured so I emailed the hotel and mentioned OH's birthday to see which way the wind might be blowing. They immediately replied and said they would put cake and wine in our room and we would get breakfast vouchers on both mornings (I am Diamond/Ambassador), so it seems we will be allowed to stay. I did not mention an upgrade, and neither did they; at this point we may be expected to consider ourselves lucky to be allowed to sleep in a broom cupboard! Most categories of room do seem to be available for cash though. Tbh, I'm not going to enquire about a paid upgrade as we'll be out most of the time. I'm hoping it won't be too disappointing after the double upgrade to a gorgeous junior suite when we stayed at the Kimpton on our last visit to that London.

demue

I'm not sure why you seem to be so worried that your stay may be in trouble due to the points rate you booked. The "special offer" was IHGs doing. The hotel doesn't even know how many points you used and their compensation from IHG doesn't depend on it. If your stay is during Wimbledon period, the hotel will probably even be 95% or more occupied so the hotel would get reimbursed at best flex rate level versus the otherwise lower fixed compensation.

Atacama40

Is about right .... it is true that hotel is outrageous priced this Summer. I've never seen it so high. And as you rightly say, sports and music events are the main drivers together with high occupancy/spending regular.

They have zero problem filling rooms and at crazy margins .... filling restaurants?, strangely they do.

I don't see this changing for some time.

NorthernLass

I read that the Ts and Cs have been updated so that IHG can now cancel your booking if they think the rate was too low. I don't know if they would apply it retrospectively, but would not like to be stuck trying to find alternative accommodation in the capital that weekend!

Spymon

I recently had a one night stay here booked with my penultimate IHG Creation Card free night voucher. We were arriving late evening and my goal was to have somewhere nice to spend the night rather than potentially arriving home tired after midnight or worse if we were on the end of a significant delay. I could and perhaps in hindsight should have booked us a night at Heathrow, I was also tempted to return to the Kimpton but instead thought I'd try IC Park Lane for a change and also as it was less stops on the Piccadilly Line.

We arrived around 10pm tired from travelling for around 10 hours and ultimately wanted to settle in for the night, have a solid 8 hours plus, enjoy a leisurely breakfast in the morning and a lazy day in London before taking the train home to Canterbury.
First impressions were excellent, our bags were taken immediately on arrival, there was no queue to check in and the staff member checking us in was incredibly friendly, made us feel good about the hotel, acknowledged my Diamond Ambassador status and benefits including a 4pm checkout. She also walked us to the lift and set us on our way which was a nice touch knowing we first time visitors to the hotel. Despite being in a Classic room I was happy enough. Although dated it still felt luxurious, we had what looked like a nice view from the 8th floor and whilst not huge there was more than enough space to put our things and move around. I also liked the Nespresso machine with Kiss the Hippo coffee pods which shows good attention to detail and local knowledge partnering with one of London's best coffee shops. After an hour or so in the room there was some unpleasant background noise over and above the aircon and the ever increasing hum from the mini bar fridge. Looking out the window it turned out some workers were repairing a speed hump on the road. It was annoying but it soon died down and as far as I can see was completely outside of the hotel's control. We then went to put our heads down on the pillow only to hear awful humming vibrations that didn't stop but unfortunately sounded the most intense with our heads on the pillow. After half an hour we relented and called reception to have them look into it. To the credit of the hotel we got a quick call back from security to say they could also hear the noise and they would contact management for next steps. We then got another call which although apologetic was quite to the point saying we would be moved to an upgraded room and someone would come with new keys and take our things. We quickly repacked and sure enough the most cheerful man in the world arrived at our door and despite it being around midnight at this point had a massive smile on his face as he picked up our things and said he'd meet us at the room.

Our next room I think was on the 4th floor and one of the newly refurbished Mayfair rooms, it looked beautiful but again there was a mystery noise (which with hindsight seems just to be an odd feature of this hotel). We were just settling in when we noticed a buzzing noise like electrical interference from the bathroom. We again called the front desk who got the manager to call us back and he told us that this was just the ventilation system for the bathroom. The explanation did seem odd as it didn't sound like a fan, more like the speaker for the TV in the bathroom was faulty. Due to our tiredness, the inconvenience of having to move room (and not being told that the noise stops after 15-20 mins) we asked to move again. My request was any room, as long as we can get a good nights sleep. Again, to the hotel's credit we were offered another room, the same ever enthusiastic member of staff retrieved our bags and we hoped for 3rd time lucky. This room also had the same noise in the bathroom, which thankfully the door just about muffled (and at some point in the night stopped), we asked the gentleman who took who was looking after our bags what he thought and he declined to offer an opinion (again, this made us think we were being shafted with a poor quality room for booking with points as opposed to paying cash). Eventually about two hours later than planned we managed to get off to sleep and in the end slept pretty well.

I was happy with everything else in the room, the bathroom though small had enough room, the shower was hot with good pressure,

We both really enjoyed the breakfast, especially being able to have both the buffet and one a la carte item. The Shawarma lamb hash is something I would love to have again, though who knows if I will ever see it on a breakfast menu. Again, service was friendly, we were offered multiple cups of coffee, the people watching was also quite entertaining!

Despite being exhausted we did enjoy our relaxing day in London, though I did nearly fall asleep in the cinema. We had no problems using our room after the standard check out time which was nice. The only thing that was odd was at check out where we were not asked how our stay was. I can't recall the last time this has happened to me and it felt all the more strange due to the problems with the room. The other thing that felt odd was that there was no welcome amenity in our original room. I can't remember the last time I stayed in a five star hotel without there being something in the room, maybe it was because most of our stays were for an occasion of some sort, I don't know. Also I thought there might be at the very least an apology note or similar when we returned to our room or again an apology about the original room at check out but nothing was forthcoming.

Overall this could have been an excellent stay, but the single most important thing was missing, a good night's sleep. I'm also left unsure of how to complain further, if I had paid cash or points I would want to ask for a % of those back to make up for the inconvenience, but I can't have a partial free night refunded to me. I also can't complain individually about any of the staff I dealt with as they were all incredibly polite and friendly. If I had paid cash for this stay I would have been absolutely livid. For context In almost 20 years of travel this would only be the third time I have had cause to complain about my room, once in India where the room noise due to a broken fan was unbearable (however, a night there would in all likelihood cost less than two cocktails from the bar at the IC Park Lane), the second was at the Renaissance LHR where we were given a room so damp we could hardly breathe (service recovery was offered and has been taken up for October this year) and finally this stay. The interesting thing in common with each stay was a late arrival.

Below are a couple of pics from our stay.

HadesNL

Thanks everyone for your input !

And for the photos,
It seems unfortunate to me that the hotel still isn't done with the refurbs which seems very noticable if i read everyone's experience upthread.


NorthernLass : no need to worry though,
your points booking at the "attractive" rate should be fine

i wrapped up a stay at IC AMS where my kids had their own room at the "attractive" points rate and no one even took notice

jpdx

I've redeemed over a million points during the "sale" -- never had any problems, and didn't expect any. As HadesNL says, the hotel doesn't see how many points you paid, just that it's a redemption. That also seems to apply if you use a credit card night; I'm often greeted with something like "I see that you used your points" when in fact it's a free night. When hotels are 95% full (which I believe to be the case for my recent stay based on the insane rates as well as some conversations I overheard in the lounge between staff and disappointed repeat guests, who couldn't get their preferred rooms), hotels are reimbursed for points bookings at the daily rate, which would be very generous (and painful for IHG). In fact, I suspect that my recent "sale" points stays at IC London (close to GBP1000/night), IC Rome (€1088/night) and IC Paris (€850/night) and Indigo Edinburgh (sold out, GBP 420/night) were all reimbursed at the full rate. Hotel programs must be getting clobbered with high occupancy levels and these insane rates!

est-gratuite

Despite all the many years of "full renovations" the bathrooms still have the same tired old bathtubs, and cheap shower curtains.
Do the words "walk-in shower" and "glass panels" mean nothing at this supposed 5 star hotel ?