Review: InterContinental Geneva

That room reminds me of a lot of places in Japan you can have for about JPY10,000 (~USD100) per night booking through Agoda last minute. It's small, cramped, and ultimately basic. Nothing about that room says luxury other than the price. And maybe the overabundance of mirrors in the bathroom. You got a great deal by using your free IHG night, but any person paying even a deeply discounted rack rate should feel swindled by the IC brand.

Well, really kudos for you to arrive at midnight and leave at 9AM and still take pictures of every place inside the hotel. The location of this hotel is really not where you wan to be in Geneva so I would pass it unless you are there just for a shower and a bed like you were.

I think they gave you the $49 free night certificate room. For $500 a night I am not impressed. Look forward to the rest of your reviews.

I agree with Santastico. I wouldn't have been in the mood to photograph the gym had I only had 9 hours at the property. You're a champ as usual.

I’ve seen nicer holiday inns

Yikes that's not a luxury/high end room IMHO. That said I'm loyal to IHG because of the IC brand. I have the Ambassador thing with them, which pays for itself. I live in L.A. so I have 7 IC's within a days drive. I do agree that they can tend towards having a great lobby/staff experience, but their basic rooms really are basic. The Ambassador level helps with that as I always get the upgrade.

Got the same room as you being as a RA except for higher floor in a foggy day...

BTW you got Ritz in downtown... not cheap either though...

Lucky, I am a little surprised you aren't Ambassador. I rarely stay at IC's, but I decided to splurge on it two years ago. I got more than the points cost's worth redeeming the BOGO at IC HK GS (I know the rates are inflated, but still saved around $200, plus a double upgrade). Last year, I again redeemed points for the renewal, and after the 10% points rebate, Accelerate Task Bonus, and Renewal Bonus; I only was out 6,600 points.

Stayed here with our children for a night using free night certificates. Our request for connecting rooms was honored and we were able to check in to our rooms early-just before noon. The International Red Cross Museum is within walking distance and is quite interesting- it also has a nice, inexpensive cafe where we had lunch. We returned to the hotel late afternoon and were able to enjoy the lovely outdoor pool area for a time. Bus stop to lakefront area and airport are located right in front of the hotel- about 10-15 minutes to either of those places. All tourists staying at the hotel receive complimentary bus passes.

With the town full of UN Staff and International bankers, I never really enjoyed any of my countless stays in Geneva (even being one of the former category of people). The entire town has that sterile feel to it, and I found that any and all of the hotels followed suit!

The saving grace getting to and from the airport is that you could do it for free with the public transport visitor pass every hotel hands out, with a quick jump on the train that was a whole 10-12 minutes long if I remember correctly.

Enjoyed the pics!

How'd you and Ford get to Switzerland? Sounded like you flew AA biz to LAX via London on the return, is that what you did on the outbound too? Anything worth reviewing? 🙂

I’d say that “superior” room desk was vintage 1956. And that soiled chair has probably been used by 10,000 people.
They must have put you in that room on purpose or you got cheated.

I agree that Intercontinental has an identity crisis, but then again, so do most IHG Brands. What is a Crowne Plaza sussposed to be? How about a Holiday Inn?

I think IHG’s strategy is honestly to be the worst-in-breed. Ensure each brand is the cheapest in its category and hope that it can be the low-bidder on business/government contracts and Priceline deals. It’s not a bad idea actually.

Of course, they need a few flagship properties to legitimize each brand. The resulting hodgepodge results in the inconsistent quality you speak of, but it’s not limited to Intercontinental.

While strictly speaking the only SPG hotel is the President WIlson as you mentioned, (and not that great a value as a Category 7 at 30,000 points), the Hotel de la Paix, a Ritz Carlton, is only 50,000 Marriott points = 16,667 SPG, which is a great deal given the typical $500 rates and it's in a great central location right on the lake.

Wow, $500 gets you THAT -- even in Geneva?! I would be none-too-pleased to receive that type of room for that price.

That's a very nice Ibis

I am based in Geneva, and get a taxi from the airport often, a 20min drive can easily be over 50CHF. Uber is the way to go in Geneva, plenty of cars, and you can usually score a Mercedes Uber X, plus it's half the cost!

How was the breakfast buffet ?

WOW. Just WOW. They call it a luxury hotel?

I personally stayed in a couple of recently built Holiday Inns and they have 90% identical rooms. The only luxury 'perk' of this IC comparing to H Inns is a bookshelf.

Actually I recall a Holiday Inn Bali (a new resort in Nusa Dua) room was so much better and looked more expensive and well though than this IC.

I think this is a very interesting question. Was there ever a more variable brand?

Should have flown to Turin and driven to Verbier.

From my experience, hotels in Geneva and Bern are lackluster in contrast to Zurich. We generally preferring renting a house just outside the city for that reason.

Agree with you about the brand identity crisis. On one hand you have hotels like the InterContinentals Singapore, Porto, Mauritius, etc. which are Tier 1, fantastic hotels. And then there's the middle, like Times Square, Boston, Lisbon, which are solid **** types, and then there's the IC Frankfurt, IC Wellington, where you wonder what you paid for

The rooms look a bit too Crown Plaza for my taste

In case you're ever back and spending time in Geneve, there is a free train pass from GVA to main train station (Cornavin) available to those holding a valid boarding pass. Machine is just before passing customs.

And don't forget the free TPG pass available to hotel guests.

What you'll use all this free transport to see in a city as mind-numbingly boring as Geneve is a very different (and valid) question.

I've never considered InterContinental to be a luxury brand. To be honest, they're not even exactly comparable to JW. I'd say they're more comparable to a Marriott property, so more midscale, or maybe a Renaissance or Design Hotels property.

I am surprised how "superior room" look like @Geneva Intercontinental. I stayed @Crown Plaza Geneva last May since its less points redeemed but my room was better than yours IMHO.

We used our two IHG annual free nights at IC Geneva, and thought it a great deal...after we got over the shock of the size of the room. We went to Geneva to visit the UN and a couple of related agencies. We were thrilled to find the most convenient hotel happened to be available to us with our IHG certificates.

They did give us a room with a great view of the lake and the mountains one the other side. The concierge was sweet and helpful beyond description. She really knew where to eat well for cheap (relative to most of Geneva), how to use the free transit passes efficiently, what to see, less expensive lake cruises, etc. She was totally comfortable with our cheapskate ways. We are swimmers and loved the pool--one of the the very few hotel pools large enough for really swim some laps.

IC hotels are indeed quirky and inconsistent. I find we need to look closely in advance, each time. I think sometimes one gets a lot for the price, and other times not much. Our favorite was the Amstel in Amsterdam. They treated us like family members.

i dont like any IHG hotels. the Intercontinental name just sounds trashy and far from luxury

Thanks so much for this review! We just got back this week from Geneva. Like you, my husband and I are Starwood loyalists. We originally booked at the President Wilson, but changed plans when we realized it was a bit off the main strip. We switched over to 3 nights at the Mandarin Oriental. Even though it was $700 a night for a standard room, we thoroughly enjoyed it. Although we did walk by some of these other hotels and wondered what they were like. It’s always great to get a peek in, so thanks!

Geneva is the most expensive city in Switzerland, in every respect. What makes it so expensive is the combination of luxury tourism, in particular from the Middle East, and the UN induced government travel. Governments all have special contracts there, but they often don't leave too much capacity to the free market.

On top of that, the IC is the first choice for security sensitive meetings/conferences, for several reasons, including the short distance to both the airport and the UN. Whenever POTUS comes to town, he stays there ...

So I guess there are not too many good reasons to stay there ...

I am also a platinum ambassador member, and I stayed at this hotel in the days before Christmas last year. I agree with most of what everybody is saying about the brand in general; the quality and amenities can be quite variable as well as the service. I understood this to be due to the franchise being locally owned and operated some of whom don’t comply with the brand programs that we buy into. Be that as it may, I’ve had excellent stays at the Venetian and Palazzo in Las Vegas, the IntercoNtinental in Porto and Lisbon, and Rio de Janeiro. Miami’s IC was so so.

It was a mixed bag in Genève. Mostly, I wasnt impressed. For a tourist, you are not near the city center at all and that’s a definite downside if you have very limited time. The United Nations complex is nearby and right next to it is a lovely park you can walk through. They have some interesting sculpture work including a huge chair balancing on one leg in the plaza. The IC building itself is circa 1970s, almost an Eastern European communist era cold, gray concrete slab building, though it feels much warmer on the inside, at least in the lobby area.. They delivered me to my room and the Bellman set everything up. I was just settling in when the manager came to the door and said that I was put on a floor that was going to be be fumigated the next day and I needed to move rooms. This was very late at night, and I was quite tired not at all happy about having to be moved Due to an mistake on receptions part. Moreover, at checkin, i inquired about getting a room on the highest floor; I got 7th floor. The new room was located on the eighth floor. Moreover, The same Bellman who came to set up the new room, lneglected to do half of the things he had done with the old room.
The room itself had reached the point of needing to be refreshed and updated. It reflected the aesthetic of a prior era., but was not not cozy and quaint of a bygone era either. Just in that uncomfortable middle age, neither the new beauty nor the grand dame. I also didn’t like the configuration of the room even though it was a large executive room. The main reason is that you open the door to a very long hallway which was esentiasly dead space (there was no functional use for it ) till you got to the very end of the room and then it opened up to a large suitelike room it had a nice view, a partial view of the lake and had windows on two sides as it was a corner room. even worse is that this modern design installed a divider between that long hallway and the bathroom that was not an intact wall; it was a divider of Asian style slats and the toilet was located right on the other side and close to the front door, such that if Housekeeping came in it was pretty obvious where you were. uncomfortable; not private.

the kicker for me was the debate I got into with the night manager over the turn down service lacked chocolates on the pillow! we had just gotten home from dinner, the room had been turned down, but there were no chocolates on the pillow case! And we were in Switzerland! Known for its chocolate! So I rang downstairs and I reported that we didn’t have any chocolate on our pillowcases. Now I was being lighthearted and humorous here. Sort oF. I was taken aback when the night manager tried to justify that a chocolate was not part of the turndown service. in Switzerland. And it’s Christmas time. And I have platinum ambassador status. And IHG espouses “it’s all about the little things.”
It was actually pretty funny to me, tho I was truly surprised by his slowness to warm up to my suggestion that perhaps they could bring a couple of chocolates up.its pretty much hospitality 101. And in a way it somehow encapsulated the stay.

Hi All,

Reservation staff is so rude !!
They are not helping me to cancel or change my booking.
I am genuine traveller wanted to experience Intercontinental geneva. Saved hard earned money for this trip. Unable to travel to geneva due to illness of my wife. So called Intercontinental geneva big name refused to cancel or change dates. My whole hard earned money they are going to enjoy when my room will be empty. Never will even try this ruthless people anywhere in the world. Will tell all my buddies and all travel group about this incident.

Enjoy all my hard earned money guys.
Wish you bad luck !!!