Review: the InterContinental Sandton Towers hotel, Johannesburg

This is my review of the InterContinental Sandton Towers hotel in Johannesburg.

In early April I went to Johannesburg for a few days to test South African Airways’ new business product. The review of my South African business class flight is here and it is worth a read if you are planning a trip to Africa.

I booked the InterContinental Sandton Towers with Rob’s IHG Rewards Club points.  At just 30,000 points per night it is good value, and was even available for 15,000 points per night on PointBreaks last week although the room allocation has now gone. 

Due to Rob’s Spire Ambassador status I was guaranteed an early check-in (9am) and a late check-out (4pm) which gave me almost two and a half days at the hotel.

My plan for the few days in Johannesburg was to sit by the pool and get a tan. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t that great which meant on the first day it was too cold, on the second day it was raining with thunderstorms and lightning and on the third day it was still grey and cold.

Instead I had a lot of time to explore the rest of the hotel and the two shopping malls next door.

Check-in

I walked up to the check-in desk, gave them my name and passport and was sent to the 24th floor as I had been upgraded to a Club room (hello Club Lounge with free food and drinks)

My room

The InterContinental Sandton Towers is one of the older InterContinental hotels.  Rob remembers spending time there back in 1998 in his banking days and I’m pretty sure the hotel has not been refurbished since then as the style was a little bit dated. That said, even though the room had a little bit too much brown for my taste, the room was spacious and bright with the large windows letting in a lot of natural light.

The bed was very comfortable but had a second sheet between the sheet and duvet which was made of an odd stiff cotton fabric and I had to throw it out of the bed.

The desk was large and had several drawers. There was a speaker on the desk which you could only use with an old school ipod – and even I don’t have my 80GB classic anymore.

Good news for coffee and tea drinkers. There was a Nespresso machine as well as a kettle in the room. However, there was no fresh milk.

In between the room and the bathroom was a walk in wardrobe with ironing board, safe, robes and a lot of storage.

The bathroom itself had a bathtub as well as a shower and a toilet behind a separate door. Again there was a lot of storage including room around the sink as well as several shelves.

The hotel is a triangular shape and you could look all the way down to the ground floor with the reception, bar and restaurant.

In the top left bit of the picture below you can see one part of the club lounge. The other part with the meeting room is to the right.

The Club Lounge

The InterContinental Sandton club lounge was quite small with only 12 seats and got very busy in the mornings. Kids under the age of 12 were not allowed and older children had to be accompanied by an adult.

The lounge was open from 6:30am-10pm every day.  During the day there were snacks, fruits and soft drinks and you could order complimentary sandwiches and coffee.

From 5:30pm – 7:30pm it was happy hour with hot and cold canapes and wine, beer and mix drinks.

I had breakfast in the lounge the first morning but it was so busy I couldn’t find a seat at first.  Breakfast is served from 6:30am until 11am.

The food selection was good with bread, fish, cheeses, yogurt and a menu with egg dishes to order.

Breakfast in the restaurant downstairs was by far better than in the lounge. With a larger selection of everything they had in the lounge and a Japanese corner.

I ordered an egg benedict which was very good.

Being a bit lazy I ordered room service in the evening. I was surprised how cheap the dishes were.  Don’t judge me but I had a burger and a beer. Including a side salad I paid around £13.

Conclusion

The InterContinental Sandton Towers is a decent hotel in the financial and business district of Johannesburg.  It has a skywalk connecting the hotel to two shopping malls with a large amount of restaurants and also the convention centre.

As the weather wasn’t great and I couldn’t use the pool, the lounge access came in handy to have snacks and coffee during the day and wine and canapes in the evening.  There is no guarantee that you would get a similar upgrade, of course, even as a Spire Ambassador.  As a redemption, it is surprisingly good value at 30,000 IHG Rewards Club points.

The InterContinental Sandton Towers website is here.

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IHG One Rewards update – April 2024:

Get bonus points: IHG One Rewards is offering 2,000 bonus points for every two cash nights you stay (not necessarily consecutive) between 1st April and 31st May 2024. You can read our full article here and you can register here.

New to IHG One Rewards?  Read our overview of IHG One Rewards here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on ‘What are IHG One Rewards points worth?’ is here.

Buy points: If you need additional IHG One Rewards points, you can buy them here.

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