IHG Hotels that recognise status

[straitman]

HI on Flinders
Date: Mon 26 May
Rate Type Booked: Best Flexible Rate
Room Type Booked: King Bed Superior
Room Type Received: Upgraded to King Bed Deluxe and discount B'fast vouchers. Note from GM and another from concierge (Amanda) 2 boxes of chocolates a bottle of bubbly thanks to Lindsay Wilson telling the world about our wedding anniversary.
This was a very much on again off again booking. The hotel reinstated the booking at about midday Monday after I had previously cancelled it. A bit lucky as they were quite busy.
It was an upgrade with free Internet access.

 

[QF WP]

Why hide such an achievement straitman - and Amanda did that all by herself (I didn't know until she saw me later and told me what she's done for you and Sue Oz). That's why she's the second best Concierge I've ever had (behind a girl at the Sheraton Singapore where I used to stay regularly). I think Amanda was a great Concierge fro the Hotel to get (straight from the Crowne Plaza across the road) and another good reason to remind myself why HI on Flinders is my MEL hotel of choice (it might not have the most up to date looking Suites, but that doesn't worry me - give me free intenet access and I'm upgraded happily).

 

[Evan]

IC Pudong (Shanghai)

Booked a normal room, got a POS offer to upgrade to a club room for 200rmb approx, and was given a club suite. Free internet, breakfast, but i think thats just normal club room. Offered the free gift.

When staying in IC ambassador privs seem to work well.

E

 

[NM]

Crowne Plaza Kuala Lumpur:

Booked King Deluxe room. Given King Grand Deluxe room (almost double the size).

 

[Mal]

Crowne Plaza Ashmore (Royal Pines).

Booked standard room. Upgraded to a higher floor when they saw my card, but same type of room. No other amenities provided. Was part of a group booking and the hotel was full, so not really worried about any perks.

 

[oz_mark]

thanks to Lindsay Wilson telling the world about our wedding anniversary.

I must have been in the part of the world he missed - otherwise I would have gatecrashed the party

 

[straitman]

I must have been in the part of the world he missed - otherwise I would have gatecrashed the party

oz_mark,

Sorry you missed out.

It was fun. Dinner with serfty and Mrs serfty and monitor and Franny from FT as the final wash up of Oz Fest #5. Then back to the HI for (more) drinks with LW. They didn't ask us to leave but they did start vacuuming around us it got so late :!:

 

[sparoy]

CP LONDON-THE CITY
Date: Thu 8 May - Sun 11 May (3 nights)
Rate Type Booked: 1st night on award, 2nd and 3rd on advance purchase rate
Room Type Booked: 1 Double bed standard
Room Type Received: Upgraded to King Bed on Exec Floor with Club access, free full buffet breakfast in the restaurant on the weekend

 

[Flashback]

Not bad at all.. have to be happy with that.

 

[sparoy]

HI Helsinki
Date: Tue 13 May - Thu 15 May (2 nights)
Rate Type Booked: 5000 Point Break
Room Type Booked: 1 Double bed standard and sofa
Room Type Received: Upgraded to 1 Double bed and sofa on Exec Floor, free water and juice from the mini bar, free in house movie and free internet

IC De La Ville Roma
Date: Thu 15 May - Sun 18 May (3 nights)
Rate Type Booked: Luxury Weekend inc breakfast, 1 night using Amb certificate
Room Type Booked: 1 Single bed classic - max 1 person
Room Type Received: Upgraded to 1 King bed Deluxe corner room.
At first they were reluctant to give free breakfast for the last day (the one using the certificate as it's room only), but Mauro the restaurant manager was kind enough for us to have the excellent buffet breakfast regardless.

 

[sparoy]

Not bad at all.. have to be happy with that.

Yes absolutely very happy. As mentioned elsewhere in FT, the rate is very expensive during the week (thereby using the award), but drops considerably on the weekend

 

[mbeder]

Gotta love the (in)consistency within the US:

HI LAX:
Bottle of water
5% discount on food/drink within the hotel
High floor

HI Seattle:
10% discount on food/drink within the hotel

HI Express Sacramento:
Bag of freebies (biscotti, smoked almonds, 2 x razors, bottle of water, shampoo sample, 5 x chewing gum)
Free breakfast each day

HI San Francisco Airport:
Nothing! :shock:

All the above also came with free internet (either wireless or plug-in to their LAN) and a daily newspaper.

 

[straitman]

HI MelbourneAirport
Date: Sat 14th June (1 night)
Rate Type Booked: Weekend Special inc breakfast
Room Type Booked: 1 Queen Bed Superior
Room Type Received: Upgraded to 1 King Bed Suite top floor.

Very Good

HI Darwin
Date: Sun 15th June (2 nights)
Rate Type Booked: Points Breaker (5000 X 2 points)
Room Type Booked: 1 Queen Bed standard.
Room Type Received: ‘Upgraded’ to Bay View on top Floor, discount breakfast and free wine with evening meal vouchers. (All rooms have a Bay View if you are high enough)

I don’t recommend the hotel as the bed was very hard, the rooms tired and the air conditioning was totally inadequate. Minimum room temp reached was 25.5 deg C and often up to 28 deg C. The staff was very helpful but unable to fix the air conditioning. The external morning temperature was less than 25.5 deg C however opening a window was not an option due to construction work next door.

Crowne Plaza Darwin
Date: Tue 17th June (1 night)
Rate Type Booked: Reward Night 25000 points
Room Type Booked: 1 King Bed Superior
Room Type Received: 1 King Bed Superior top floor.

Night CP night was only booked AM 17th June and we were on the top floor and extremely well looked after.

 

[millesm]

Intercontinental Singapore

July 7 - 18th.
Booked very cheap room via wotif.com (saved $150 per night). PriorityClub guarantee not offered as website did not have same room type available!
Arrive at 3am and get upgraded to Club room when I flashed my Plat Ambassador card.
No free gift.
1 Free bottle Evian to last 2 weeks

July 27th - Aug 1st
Booked Terrace room via priorityclub.com
No upgrade on arrival.
1 free bottle Evian for the week.
Free Cashmere Pashmina on arrival (will make the missus happy)
Bathroom old, worn and moldy cracked tiles in shower.
Upgrade to Delux room after complaint but not able to get Club access.
Got another bottle of Evian with room change.


I would never again book a Terrace room at Intercontinental Singapore.... Room is nice enough, with wooden floors but a very old bathroom. I also had to walk miles along level 2 from lift to my room in the building next door!

 

[markis10]

CP Royal Pines
Room Booked - Spa Suite Coastal view
Room Received - Spa Suite with Balcony - coastal view from loo
(I think I got downgraded )

This hotel continues to ignore status of its guests, no welcome gift or upgrade and no newspaper in the morning, little wonder it got sold this week to new owners, hopefully it might start paying attention to how the Brisbane and Melbourne CBD Holiday Inns treat their elite guests.

If you spend enough time in hotels to earn elite status then you can smell the lies pretty quickly, its not good enough that you need to take a hard copy of your reservation to the front desk just to justify you getting the room you have booked.

 

[JohnK]

Holiday Inn Brisbane

02/07/08-04/07/08
Booked - Standard room on 5,000 point break
Allocated - King bed room on executive floor

Notes - bottle of water, apple and welcome letter and drink. Enjoyed the free drinks, with Mal, between 6:00-7:00pm on the Thursday.

06/07/08-08/07/08
Booked - Queen room with 2 double beds on $99 and $120 stay
Allocated - King bed room on executive floor

10/07/08-11/07/08
Booked - Queen room with 2 double beds on $99 stay
Allocated - King bed room on executive floor but I asked to retain original room

Enjoyed the free drinks between 6:00-7:00pm on the Thursday.

 

[Evan]

Intercontinental Singapore

I would never again book a Terrace room at Intercontinental Singapore.... Room is nice enough, with wooden floors but a very old bathroom. I also had to walk miles along level 2 from lift to my room in the building next door!

I have been in those rooms and find the bathroom fine, but mine was a suite. Agree about the walk ! usually i am upgraded from the cheapest room to the suites in the main building.
Club access is hit and miss for me, but not worried most of the time.

I love this hotel and find it very comfortable but i also have been always treated exceptionally well (Plat RA).

As Plat RA i receive...
Double upgrade - cheapest delux room to a suite
Gift - So far usually Cashmere Pashmina, just give them away or say i don't want it
Breakfast - when booked at non breakfast prices

E

 

[Therma]

Intercon Manila: (PC Plat)

No upgrade
Twin Beds instead of King
Rubbish not emptied, no turndown for 2 days
Toiletries not refilled
Room on the wrong side of hotel ( I requested the one facing the mall, not the all night petrol station and bus stop where I could not sleep!)

Complaint letter to GM, immediate meeting with Guest Room Manager, offered upgrade and a bottle of wine for my "inconvenience". A personal letter from GM, inviting me to book through his office to look after me properly next time. You would think as PC Plat who stays there 8-9 weeks a year I need to grovel to GM to have what I am entitled to ( and no, I am not talking about upgrade!)

Thanks to the AFF I got the Ambassador challenge code and with that miserable stay I achieved it. Next day got bumped up to Royal Ambassador. Wonder if it had something to do with me also putting in a complaint on IC feedback site.

Now in JKT Intercontinental. What a difference RA (or hotel management makes).
Cheap room upgraded to suite
Free minibar
Free breakfast
Some useless local doodad (batik bookmark, so not quite a pashmina!)

Back in Manila in 2 weeks. Want to give them one last chance. Not sure if I should take up GM's offer to book through his office!

 

[Evan]

Back in Manila in 2 weeks. Want to give them one last chance. Not sure if I should take up GM's offer to book through his office!

I would why not ?
I had that sort of service one in a HI and i spoke to the manager because it was no good for them even though all i desperatly wanted to do was sleep and they looked after me, never had an issue since.
E

 

[ANDREW]

Going back to N0.214 comment IC in Singapore - struck exactly same dirty bathroom and a room that looked onto a mall restaurant 12 feet away. Meant to be there a week - checked out after two days and went to Swissotel for balance of trip. Millesm had the idea, we were assured the mall we looked onto would shut at 10pm each night, except the cleaners of the mall come through after that, were given a china set of chopsticks, needless to say wrote letter and left the chopsticks - never heard anything.
What is the AFF ambassador challenge code ? (am ambassador i.c.)