Earlier this year, Chase hinted that the IHG card’s annual free night would be devalued after May 2018 to hotels costing 35,000 points per night. That was enough to make anyone who heard it sad and anyone who saw it shed tears. After plenty of people argued with Chase, this new policy has now been pushed back to take effect after May 2019. After checking the locations and rates of IHG’s top-tier InterContinental properties around the world, the InterContinental hotels in London, Paris, Amsterdam, and elsewhere all made the shortlist, and I ultimately chose this one at Park Lane in London. Since both LD and I each hold a Chase IHG card, we could book 2 nights and ask the front desk agent at check-in to make sure we stayed in the same room, instead of having to check in again the next day. Here’s the review of this stay:

Location

First, here’s a Google Maps view. This InterContinental’s location is truly excellent: Hyde Park is on the left, Buckingham Palace and Green Park are on the right, and Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and the London Eye are all within a 25-35 minute walk. Of course, there is also a subway station within a 3-minute walk of the hotel, so taking the Tube is very convenient. Its prime location and London’s high prices make this InterContinental expensive year-round. When we stayed in August, the rate was about $560 per night, or $1,120 for two nights. Compared with the $49 annual fee, it’s basically like getting $1,000 for free.

If you book with points now, it costs 70,000 IHG points per night. Compared with the $467 room rate, that works out to about 0.6c/p. If you like this hotel, it can still be worth splurging on. If you have enough points and a Chase IHG credit card, using the stay three, get one free benefit with points is still a very good deal.

Exterior

First, here’s a photo from the official website

This picture is quite misleading... The hotel is the building in the distance on the left. The hotel itself is a bit old and not especially eye-catching from the outside, but thanks to the InterContinental name and its location, it is still full of substance.

The main entrance is very close to the street in front of the hotel, so it’s hard to capture the entire building. As a result, I only have a shot of the entrance, which is a pretty typical InterContinental entrance.

Inside the Hotel

The lobby isn’t very deep. It’s nowhere near as grand as the InterContinental in DC, and it doesn’t really differ much from a typical upscale business hotel.

This is the lobby seating area, on the left side of check-in. Because the lobby isn’t very deep, there isn’t room for many tables and chairs, so the seating area is placed on the left side of the lobby.

The room was ordinary. Since I was only at Platinum status, and upgrades at InterContinental require purchasing Ambassador benefits, this time it was a standard base room.

The bed is not far from the opposite wall, and the decor also feels a bit dated.

The bathroom space was average, nothing special.

The only good thing is that the view outside the window was pretty nice.

Because there were no elite benefits, I only paid for breakfast once at the hotel, and even that was pricey for a deal hunter.

Summary

  • The location is excellent, especially for visiting Buckingham Palace; it’s only a 5-minute walk. The exterior is plain, not luxurious, and the interior is average.
  • This InterContinental was one of the best choices before next year’s big devaluation of the Chase IHG annual free night. In land-scarce, expensive London, prices are sky-high; even though this hotel isn’t luxurious, it’s still at least an 8/10 choice in London.
  • The service was pretty good. Because of Platinum status, we got free cocktail vouchers. The front desk staff were very attentive, chatted with us for a long time, and didn’t even take a tip.
  • In short, this InterContinental in London is worth recommending.
  • Most hotels in London are very expensive, so if you have an uncapped Free Night, that’s the best way to use it. In fact, the IHG Premier credit card’s annual certificate worth up to 40,000 points can still be used at quite a few places in London. This $89 fee is absolutely worth it.