InterContinental Rome Ambasciatori Palace

[jek]

As may of you, I have booked the InterContinental Rome Ambasciatori Palace at the end of March. It now looks like the opening has been again pushed back to 1st April, although my booking has not yet been cancelled. It is an ongoing saga!

Luckily, I have a booking at the indigo as a backup.

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

I’m booked for 28 April; reminds me I must make a refundable booking nearby to offer up to my travel insurer if the IC still hasn’t opened.

[Hilda M]

Thanks for the heads up, @jek – my booking is just after Easter: not sure I like the look of the Indigo. Might extend to 5 days(from 4) and use up some Marriott points

[Michael C]

I wonder if it’s actually one of those fake places that ends up as nº 1 in TripAdvisor?!!!!

[Crafty]

Did you stumble across this, or have they informed you? I too have bookings at the end of April, for my wife’s birthday… it’s getting pretty worrying now…

[meta]

If any of you bothered to research the forum, this has been mentioned several times already.

This hotel as @MichaelC said will probably never open.

@JDB who knows the owner confirmed that the hotel is struggling with finishing. We’ll see how it plays out. I have a booking in July, but I am not holding my hopes up.

[chelseafifi]

Oh no that’s not good I have 3 nights via the 40k points’offer’ 24th March and cash flights booked with BA, got the diamond status from the special link and joined Ambassador to keep the status for this trip. So very annoying, I’ve booked DT on points as a backup as I’m Hilton Gold but no comparison. I genuinely don’t know whether to go ahead with trip or move to later in year as DTHilton isn’t what I wanted, would I get any compensation for hotel not opening, I have my plat insurance but flights were only £120pp LHR return as booked last summer.

[meta]

You’ll need to really push for compensation and write to IHG CEO.

[George K]

Am I being really stupid, or is it the case that there is no indication online of the fact that the hotel is closed either at the moment or in the immediate future?

I just tried a dummy booking for next month and all looks well…

[chelseafifi]

Yes this is the thing, I’ve just gone on IHG chat to discuss my booking and options and they just basically said the hotel will be opening 14th March 23, I challenged this and said “is this definitely correct and up to date information? Reply was “Yes”. I asked if I could have that in writing via email or email the chat conversation, they said “no it’s not possible! Just screenshot info.

I’ve now emailed the hotel to check – info@ic-rome.com I’ll update any info here.

[jek]

How and where did you make your dummy booking? IHG shows no availability until early April.

George K wrote:

Am I being really stupid, or is it the case that there is no indication online of the fact that the hotel is closed either at the moment or in the immediate future?

I just tried a dummy booking for next month and all looks well…

[George K]

jek wrote:

How and where did you make your dummy booking? IHG shows no availability until early April.

George K wrote:

Am I being really stupid, or is it the case that there is no indication online of the fact that the hotel is closed either at the moment or in the immediate future?

I just tried a dummy booking for next month and all looks well…

Pretty sure they are changing the booking system all the time. I now tried to book the same days as earlier today, and got a prompt that ‘Rooms are not available until Mar 13, 2023’. If I click through it, it now shows April, like you say.

Might need to wait till the dust settles – only for the date to then be pushed back again…

[Rob]

Based on what happened to me with Kimpton Mallorca last year, best you can expect is either a move to another IHG hotel in the same location (clearly leaving you worse off) or cancellation with a voucher for one free night to use at your convenience.

[meta]

Yes, although I got points to the value of one night at IC Rome (at a higher rate than I booked) instead of a voucher last year.

[Crafty]

meta wrote:

If any of you bothered to research the forum, this has been mentioned several times already.

This hotel as @MichaelC said will probably never open.

@JDB who knows the owner confirmed that the hotel is struggling with finishing. We’ll see how it plays out. I have a booking in July, but I am not holding my hopes up.

I have searched the forum for “intercontinental rome” and there are 13 results none of which shed any light on the situation beyond what’s in this thread and some historical cases of cancellations due to previous delays. Why do you believe the hotel may never open?

[JDB]

The hotel does exist and will open! Unfortunately I haven’t had an update in the last few weeks – in mid-Jan they were confident of the mid-March date. The project has been beset with problems since the outset when important archaeological remains were uncovered and Covid. There have been five or six other 5* hotels in the immediate Via Veneto all being built/refurbished at the same time so everyone has suffered with contractors and staff recruitment.

It does sound as though it will be very impressive when it does open with everything having been done to a very high standard, restoring the building to its original glory and they have very high hopes for the restaurant under the aegis of John Meadow who has a good reputation for his restaurants in the US.

There are lots of lawsuits flying around; the owner is actually a small consortium led by a PE firm.

[Spare]

chelseafifi wrote:

Oh no that’s not good I have 3 nights via the 40k points’offer’ 24th March and cash flights booked with BA, got the diamond status from the special link and joined Ambassador to keep the status for this trip. So very annoying, I’ve booked DT on points as a backup as I’m Hilton Gold but no comparison. I genuinely don’t know whether to go ahead with trip or move to later in year as DTHilton isn’t what I wanted, would I get any compensation for hotel not opening, I have my plat insurance but flights were only £120pp LHR return as booked last summer.

Maybe next time visit Rome because it’s bloody Rome and not just because of a new hotel.

[Lady London]

@Spare you on the right website, mate?
🙂

[meta]

@Crafty perhaps you should have also searched IC Rome.

I do admit that we use a lot of abbreviations here which are not always clear to everyone.

[meta]

@JDB I really do want them to open and I understand delays happen, but they should stop taking bookings of any kind until they are 100% certain that they will open.

They are generating a lot of anger before they even opened and it’s not a good way to start no matter how high-spec the hotel will turn out to be.

[jek]

The booking page now says “Rooms are not available until Apr 17, 2023” and there is no availability listed before 3rd of May.

[DZOO]

Would suggest anyone who is impacted follow @meta ‘s advice above.

[Paul B]

Surprised they didn’t decide on having a Club Intercontinental (lounge) here, booked for a few nights in early June, hopefully it’s up and running by then.

[DonLee]

Got a call from IHG today to cancel my early April 4 nights booking. Offered 50k as compensation.

[meta]

I’d tell them to up this as it doesn’t even cover one night at current rates.