Intercontinental Vienna
I was starting my trip to Johannesburg from Vienna, and so I flew in the night before on the last BA flight of the day from Heathrow. Austrian Airlines operates a cab service from the airport to most parts of the City for a fixed fee. At EUR29 I thought it was good value. After clearing Customs I looked for my driver, but could not locate him. The service seems very popular and there were several other drivers about. Just I was about to call the reservations number he appeared and I happened to notice my name. The driver was grumpy as we stomped off to the bowels of a car park to pick up his vehicle.
Another passenger from the same row on the plane was there and both drivers left at the same time.
I arrived after the other passenger for some odd reason. The trip took 20-25 minutes even at 11pm!
The hotel has 8 floors and is on a nice wide roadway.
Front of Intercontinental
After a couple of minutes I was checked in and they confirmed that they had upgraded me a Intercontinental Ambassador member. I went off to my room on the 5th floor and discovered that they had upgraded me to a suite. Coupled with check-in confirming that I could the Club Intercontinental this really was a super upgrade.
Hallway in to Suite:
Bedroom
Seating Area
Closet:
Bathroom:
Shower:
The Ambassador Programme gives water and fruit as a welcome amenity and mine was in my room waiting for me:
The next morning I woke after a good nights sleep to some spectacular views over the roofs of Vienna from the windows. The suite faced in two different directions giving a panorama over the city:
There is a large skating rink next to the hotel where a whole range of skaters and Ice Hockey players were using the ice:
For breakfast I went up to the Club Intercontinental which is on the 8th floor. A nice range of breads, juices, and standard items were available as well as scrambled eggs, two types of sausage and some bacon:
The hotel were happy to extend me a late check-out until 4pm as an elite member, and so when I was ready to go to the airport, I checked-out and popped across the road to the subway station for one stop to the CAT train to the airport. More on that tomorrow.
So a great stay, and certainly a property I will be back to in the future.
Thank you for the great review! I’m headed to Vienna next month and still deciding on what hotel to stay at for one of my nights. The IC is definitely tempting if they’re upgrading Ambassadors to suites! Were you there on a weekend or week night?
@Keri – It was a Friday on a EUR155 rate
I was in Vienna 2 weeks ago and it is a beautiful city. I stayed at the Hilton Vienna (40k a night) and had great lounge breakfast/snacks/appetizers/desserts. I recommend taking the train from VIE to the city since it is only €5 per person.
Many of IC’s European properties are getting dated. This and FRA definitely fall into that category.
I don’t recall the last time I really enjoyed an IC.
We stayed there last year at Easter. Nice hotel and convenient to the subway. We were offered the Executive Floor at a charge of sevenTEEN dollars a night, so we went for it. When we checked out, it was sevenTY dollars a night extra! I think the mamager took off one night’s charge, but we were not happy. Get any promises in writing, especially when the desk clerks think they know perfect English, but do not!
@candace – Ouch! I was lucky then that they didn’t ask me to pay.
@NYBanker – Try Berlin, it’s refurbished and pretty spiffy now.
Nice views FROM your suite and the room looks wonderful. That said, the outside of the hotel is an eyesore for an otherwise beautiful city like Vienna. Enter with a blindfold?
Correction – the hotel has 12 (twelve) floor NOT five.