While I typically stay at places like the Hyatt or Courtyard in the Theater District, I chose the Intercontinental to celebrate an anniversary, as this is supposed to be a "step-up" from my normal destinations. I booked the hotel through Hotwire for around $400 for a basic room with king size bed, which seemed a little steep but again, this was for a special occasion so I assumed it would be worth the extra money.
My first experience at the hotel was a good one. I came in around 4pm and I was told my room was not yet ready and to compensate this they would give me 2 free drink coupons for the hotel bar, a nice touch that was much appreciated. This would be about the last good experience I had, however; as it was all downhill from there.
Upon getting into my room about 30 minutes later, I decided to use the bathroom. Now this is embarrassing to even write about and the fact that this was such an issue is ridiculous considering that $400 a night price-tag that I paid. Continuing, I proceeded to flush the toilet (liquid only) and the bowl began to fill up and nearly overflow. I called down to the front desk and explained my problem and was told that someone would be up "right-away".
I sat down in the room and admired the view of a 20 foot gap to another office building (again, $400 room here) and time began to pass. 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, finally after about half an hour had passed by we were still sitting in the room waiting and now late for a dinner reservation in a restaurant across the city. The man came in, assured us that the toilet was fixed and left. The amount of time we had to wait for service at such a high priced hotel is simply unacceptable.
When we arrived back at the room around 11pm, my girlfriend went into the bathroom and 5 minutes later I hear her screaming, as she had flushed the toilet and again it had backed up and this time overflowed and caused a mini flood on the bathroom floor. Needless to say, this was extremely embarrassing for her and I was very upset considering how long we had to wait for service the first time plus the fact that the worker had assured that the toilet was fine.
Again, I call the front desk and we sit and wait. 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, this time I was not going to wait for half an hour again so we decided that we wanted to switch rooms to have a working toilet, an amenity you would expect to have even at a Motel 6 or Super 8. When I arrived at the front desk, I explained my situation and the worker told me to hold on for a minute and disappeared into the back room without telling me why. After about 10 minutes had gone by and I was standing at the desk being ignored, another worker noticed that I had been waiting and went into the back room. When this worker came out, he told me that a manager was on her way and would be there shortly. After waiting another 5/10 minutes, a manager arrived and told me that I could not switch rooms because they were sold out. Alright...I understand that, but why did I have to wait there for 20 minutes to hear it from her? Why could the original employee not have just told me the same thing? The most she would offer me was a "free breakfast" and I declined as at this point it had fully set in that I had wasted a large amount of money on staying here and there was no point in pushing anything further with the staff who simply wanted me to leave the desk and didn't care that the problem I was having was unacceptable.
While this problem alone is enough for me to never stay at another Intercontinental Hotel ever again, the night again took a turn for the worse due to the shoddy construction of the "luxury" hotel. While it is common for hotel rooms to have doors connecting them in case of people in a group staying next door to each other, the doors in this hotel are paper thin, as we could hear every word from the guests in the next room over. Luckily for us, our neighbors were a bunch of drunken idiots who woke us up playing beer pong at 8am, which we could hear as if we were in the same room as then.
So, for $400 a night I got a toilet that didn't work, horrible service from staff whom made me feel as if I were a nuisance, and a poor nights sleep due to the paper thin doors connecting adjacent rooms. From now on, I will be sticking to the Hyatt or other more reasonably priced hotels that offer better service at a lower price, simply without the facade of "luxury" seen at the Intercontinental.
Notice to business travelers: While the Intercontinental may seem like a perfect destination for business travel due to its location in the Financial District, be aware of the internet connectivity options in the room. On Verizon I was unable to get even 1 bar of 3G service in my room and the only other option is to pay $15 dollars a night to use the hotel's wifi service, which is simply a joke in 2012. As a frequent business traveler myself, I understand the importance of Internet connectivity options and this is just another reason why I will never again stay at an Intercontinental hotel.
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