InterContinental Rome Ambasciatori Palace

[zio]

Anyone fancy a small wager?

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

Crafty wrote:

meta wrote:

The other option is to take IHG down the legal route, but you’d need to book yourself elsewhere, Six Senses for example and then claim back from IHG.

Nah. Pretty sure they are open for business. Upgraded room now showing in app. Not worth the hassle of moving to sit in a nicer hotel for one afternoon/evening.

We’ll leave the whole thing and have to claim back the points as refund once back home – I have screenshots of all the above.

So how did this end? Did you try checking in at the IC this afternoon? I walked past at 15.00 and the reception staff were at their post but the restaurant oddly looked less finished than it had on Saturday (the plastic wrapping was back on the street sign

[AP1]

Just checked in. Informed at check in today is their first day open. The whole place looks sparkling. Upgraded to a premium room – absolutely fantastic. Anyone attending over the coming won’t be disappointed…

[Crafty]

Blair Waldorf Salad wrote:

Crafty wrote:

meta wrote:

The other option is to take IHG down the legal route, but you’d need to book yourself elsewhere, Six Senses for example and then claim back from IHG.

Nah. Pretty sure they are open for business. Upgraded room now showing in app. Not worth the hassle of moving to sit in a nicer hotel for one afternoon/evening.

We’ll leave the whole thing and have to claim back the points as refund once back home – I have screenshots of all the above.

So how did this end? Did you try checking in at the IC this afternoon? I walked past at 15.00 and the reception staff were at their post but the restaurant oddly looked less finished than it had on Saturday (the plastic wrapping was back on the street sign

I walked past at around the same time! A couple was exiting with baggage, so I could see that they were open. However, my wife didn’t feel that moving hotel for the final night of our trip made sense, so we left it. After exchanging further emails with people at the hotel, they seem as annoyed with IHG as me. They’ve undertaken to ensure I get a full refund of my points, and to support me with any other service resolution I seek.

I do somewhat regret not moving hotel, I think we’d have probably had a quite opulent final night in Rome. However, one is not typically in Rome to spend time in the hotel, and the additional spend (albeit small – 40k points) this would have entailed didn’t necessarily add up to my wife (for 3-4 hours of use, plus sleeping time).

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

Fair enough Crafty. What a shambles it was overall. It was my first visit to Rome and whilst the weather didn’t help, overall I was not a fan of the city. Nevertheless I have a replacement stay to redeem at the IC in the future so back I’ll go. I’ll try combining it with somewhere else in Italy that might be more to my tastes. Rome was just so busy with every local seemingly in on the tourist take with scams, queue skipping and inflated fees everywhere.

[Michael C]

Blair Waldorf Salad wrote:

Fair enough Crafty. What a shambles it was overall. It was my first visit to Rome and whilst the weather didn’t help, overall I was not a fan of the city. Nevertheless I have a replacement stay to redeem at the IC in the future so back I’ll go. I’ll try combining it with somewhere else in Italy that might be more to my tastes. Rome was just so busy with every local seemingly in on the tourist take with scams, queue skipping and inflated fees everywhere.

@BWS, we’ve had a few fabulous trips based in Bologna (typically lots of availability from LHR), with daytrips to Florence (35 mins.) and Venice (70 mins.).

[AndyUK101]

Another vote for Bologna here, I go once a year for a trade show and often end up tagging a few days onto the end of the trip

You can also get to Verona if you want to see some medieval Italy instead of the big cities

[Crafty]

Yes, Bologna is brilliant. Best food in Italy.

[AndyUK101]

Looks like all the fun and games around opening are just about over, just checked in for a 5 night stay (booked on the 40k offer)

Pretty positive so far, it looks like they are still working through a few final kinks – several fire alarms planned for the time we are here, a few areas of the hotel still need a little snagging work from the look of it but all the facilities are open

Excellent recognition of status, upgraded to a premium city view with balcony which is either 1 category or 4/5 depending on how you look at it and free breakfast, couple of drinks vouchers as the amenity choice

Pretty impressive so far, probably not a hotel I’d pay £500+ to stay in but would happily use up some points here

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

AndyUK101 wrote:

Looks like all the fun and games around opening are just about over, just checked in for a 5 night stay (booked on the 40k offer)

Pretty positive so far, it looks like they are still working through a few final kinks – several fire alarms planned for the time we are here, a few areas of the hotel still need a little snagging work from the look of it but all the facilities are open

Excellent recognition of status, upgraded to a premium city view with balcony which is either 1 category or 4/5 depending on how you look at it and free breakfast, couple of drinks vouchers as the amenity choice

Pretty impressive so far, probably not a hotel I’d pay £500+ to stay in but would happily use up some points here[/quot

Please report on the breakfast at some stage tomorrow

[phantomchickenz]

Some not very happy campers posting reviews on the IHG site. Not surprised if they’re getting a fire drill at 1230am!

[meta]

Yep, showers not fixed properly so flooding the bathroom. This is a problem at the lot of hotels meaning builders didn’t do their job and it’s not any easy fix unless you re-do the shower!). Some reported water temperature issues, AC not working, etc. Some reported rooms being small even for junior suites.

Looks like they rushed the builders…

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

“The shower has an infinity finish to the floor without a curb. Everyday the water leaked into the Bathroom and we had to put one towel inside the shower door and one on the outside. Again, kinks from a 5 day old property, but an inconvenience as someone had to put a towel once you were in the shower.”

Right ok, best never stay there solo so. Or do you ask a member of staff to put the towel down for you once inside whilst shrieking “Absolutely NO peeking; I mean it!”

[meta]

I mean I would ask to change rooms, but if the hotel is full and all rooms are not ready yet, it would have to be extra towels. I did say that they will probably have to re-do the shower floor.

I really hoped that this would be another great IC property, but I guess it’s not meant to be.

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

I need to make a vist there by 30 Nov 2024 so I may leave it as long as possible to give time for the shower matter to be rectified. I hate a flooded floor. The AF Lounge at CDG Hall L (the new one!) has shower rooms where the glass around the shower doesn’t reach the floor and there isn’t a sufficient slope – thus wet floor and of course insufficient ventilation too. It’s a real bugbear.

[AndyUK101]

Back home now

Breakfast was pretty good, not the widest selection but the quality was excellent

A’la carte options for around 15 euros, largely egg based but a few vegan options and pastry options. Otherwise, it was the buffet, served in the Scarpetta restaurant and split into 3 areas, hot food with the usual choices plus some local rice dishes, tempura style vegetables and a daily special like a frittata, cold section with a wide choice of cereals, fresh juices, and cold plates then a separate room for pastries which were probably the highlight, great quality and an excellent selection

No idea how much breakfast would be if it wasn’t complimentary but looking at the menu prices id guess at around 40euro per person

In terms of the reported issues, definitely a feeling the snagging was rushed, little things you would expect to have been picked up are still there, mainly to do with the finish rather than the quality but once spotted you can’t help but notice more. I might have lucked out but no issues with the shower really, a bit of water spread out under the shower door but nothing a small towel couldn’t mop up

Water pressure and temp were great, in fact so good it probably contributed to the issue some people had with water leaking from the shower. 2 fire alarms we were pre-warned of, thankfully both mid afternoon

Service was a mixed bag, some really good and experienced staff but outnumbered by the new recruits. For example, we had a regular server at breakfast who remembered our tea choice, our itinerary for the previous day and names, then we overheard 2 newer staff members arguing over who should clean a recently vacated table that fell in between their 2 sections, a great barman for 2 nights who mixed up some great off the menu options, then another who wouldn’t do anything off the menu or engage at all

Checkout summed it up, I couldn’t redeem any food and beverage rewards there, the receptionist wasn’t aware of what they were and we spent a while going through the app explaining what they were and what should happen etc, in the end, they took 30euro off the bill and i’ve kept the 2 rewards i intended to use

Cant really argue with 40k points per night but not somewhere I’ll be paying 500+ to stay

[meta]

Are you Ambassador? If so you should have received an extra 15 euros credit.

[AndyUK101]

Yep, that was deducted automatically, just the food and beverage credits that the receptionist couldn’t process

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

Thanks for the write-up Andy. I do like breakfast details.