InterContinental New York Barclay now accepting IHG Rewards Club redemption bookings

There are two InterContinental hotels in New York. The InterContinental Times Square property tends to get all of the coverage on HFP because it is new and, more importantly, the other hotel has been closed for 18 months! Even before it closed, InterContinental The Barclay was not the most enticing place to stay.

This may be about to change.

After selling 80% of the hotel to a Qatari-led investment group, IHG and the new owners launched a $175m renovation programme.  This is now drawing to a close and the InterContinental New York Barclay is due to re-open on 1st May.

The Barclay is tucked away just behind the Waldorf-Astoria, a few paces from Grand Central Station.  It is an archetypal 1920’s property, occupying a full city block.  Whilst it had been in need of a full refurbishment for many years, it always had one saving grace – it had too many suites!  Your upgrade potential was always pretty good.

(This may no longer be the case.  The hotel has gained 17 rooms during the refurbishment which I assume came from reducing the number of suites.)

I only stayed there once, but I remember it having a lot of public space – a throwback to the age in which it was built.  This is one advantage it has over the InterContinental Times Square.

What I didn’t realise, until I looked online, is that the standard rooms are small.  They are described as ‘from 250 square feet’.  The photo above is meant to be of a standard room but looks bigger than 250 square feet to me.

The rooms at InterContinental Times Square start at 350 square feet – and they also have full length glass windows to let in the light.  The photo below is a mock-up of a corner room Barclay suite which looks a lot brighter.

As of 48 hours ago, rooms at the Barclay can now be booked for IHG Rewards Club points.

You will need 60,000 points per night.  Unfortunately there is no opening discount as you often see with new IHG properties.

At present, you can book on points:

Superior Rooms (250 square feet)

Deluxe Rooms (275 square feet)

Executive Rooms (300 square feet)

The room descriptions on the website are identical apart from the square footage number.  For points, they are all 60,000 points per night so you might as well take an Executive if it is available.

I have switched an existing booking at Times Square to the Barclay so I will get a chance to check it out in a couple of months.  The Barclay is an ‘old school’ luxury hotel with lots of public space for people watching, and I am quietly hopeful that all the money that has been spent has done a good job.  We will see ….

You can book and find out more via the InterContinental New York Barclay page on ihg.com here.

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Promos’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)