This review is an update to my previous post regarding the InterContinental Wuxi Taihu New City Hotel in light of its Grand Opening:
Back in February, I left the hotel feeling quite positive about the hotel. A lot of personal advice from years of IHG customer experience has been taken into account by the hotel’s management team. Wondering what developments have evolved in the last 2 months, I decided to take a trip back to Wuxi’s hotel to see what’s changed. Little did I know prior to my June 14th to 15th outing, I came at the hotel’s transitional phase from soft-opening to grand-opening in just that 24 hour span. The hotel officially grand-opened on my day of checkout. So given the special (yet coincidental) occasion, here is a review of how I thought the hotel changed to its current opening phase:
Pre-Arrival:
Using 22,000 IHG One Points, I booked my night’s stay the morning of my arrival. With a Diamond Ambassador Status with IHG One, the hotel’s front office promptly got me upgraded to the 1 King Classic with Club Lounge Access. There wasn’t any pre-arrival communication contact between me and the hotel, but that’s understandable given the fact that I booked the stay on the same-day. I didn’t even contact any of the staff members I know at the hotel, so this was a surprise to the hotel’s management.
Arrival:
Upon entering the hotel, the driveway leading into the InterContinental’s lobby was blocked off by the Grand Opening Ceremony taking place the next day. The ceremony stage was set, chairs were laid out, flowers stands were arranged along the water fountains - all set for the national media, representatives of the state-run Taihu New City Development Company, Wuxi government officials, managerial staff members of the hotel, and senior leadership at IHG’s Greater China Division. Walking into the hotel, I was greeted by the Assistant Club InterContinental Manager Wenzel Wen and the Guest Services Supervisor Franklin Chen. Given I arrived an hour earlier than standard check-in time, my room was on hold for inspection by a housekeeping supervisor before the key card was given to me. In the meantime, Wenzel took me to the lobby lounge to redeem a drink voucher.
Room 1626:
I entered the 1 King Classic Club Lounge Room. You can find a detailed review of it down there on the first review. I think a major problem with the InterContinental Brand is maintaining a consistent focus on the quality of housekeeping. This is something I believe those who’ve frequented the Greater China IHG Luxury & Lifestyle Properties talk about. There seems to be a disconnect between what InterContinental finds as acceptable, and what the housekeeping division find as acceptable. 3 times have I found problems with the cleanliness of the towels. The first two have caught someone else’s hair strand in the towels. The third seemed to have a weird red stain on the towel. This shouldn’t have happened in the first place, as it does show flaws that ought to be fixed.
Housekeeping Conclusion:
Aside from that the rest of the hotel room was clean, to which maybe the Housekeeping Department should start thoroughly inspecting towels before releasing to guests. For nearly ¥2000 RMB ($268 USD) a night at this room category, the guests deserve better in this situation. To give the hotel a crucial wake-up call, even the Holiday Inn Express chains in China I visited have been better than this on a housekeeping level. Wenzel and the Duty Manager Mr. You in response to this arranged a suite upgrade to the hotel’s only available room category currently at the hotel: 1 Bedroom Suite. They also thoroughly requested the Housekeeping Supervisor Wendy to make sure the suite was clean upon my personal inspection.
1 Bedroom Suite:
This 78SQM space is a suite that values at ¥2,600 RMB a night, which provides a living room space in addition to the features found in the Classic Room category. Extra storage is found in the closet spaces between bathrooms and along the corridor. Now is the suite worth it? No. The suite lacks extra-value apart from the added living room. Also, the interior designer of the hotel made a critical error when considering the spacing of the suite: The suite’s only toilet is actually in a powder room 20 steps away from the master bathroom. Furthermore, the interior designer did not compensate for anything to hold the hand soap and towels next to the sink in the powder room. As a result, just imagine using the bathroom, then walking out the door through the hallway, through the closet room, into the master bathroom where the hand soap and hand towels are. The housekeeping department provided those items above the toilet, only when I requested such items. To put salt on the wound, the housekeeper mistakenly placed hair shampoo instead of hand soap, which was certainly frustrating to me as a guest.
Food & Beverage Offerings:
Overall, not too much has changed in the dinner buffet and the club lounge offerings to notice a gigantic difference. You could say that the items actually improved when I experienced it, but there were also some minor disappointments in the Commune All-Day Dining Experience. This I believe is in part due to the recent change of Executive Chef in the Commune Restaurant.
Dinner Buffet:
The Semi-Buffet was rearranged in a more waste-friendly setting. Select items that were carted around are now found at the buffet tables that are freshly presented. The additions of Beef Wellington and Peking Duck Wraps have been added to the menu. The seasonal selections of crayfish has also made its appearance to the buffet. Lobsters are now unlimited, which certainly would make guests feel great about making that restaurant reservation. I thought it was perfected, despite a change in head chef staff. Hey the buffet price went down to ¥388 from ¥450! The hotel was advertising a promotional price to lure more folks in! I think with this new efficient way of operating the buffet, this could actually justify the price even more for both the hotel and the guests! I just hope the “Pan-fflé” will see its name to the buffet’s signature pancake and soufflé hybrid.
Breakfast Buffet:
This is where some of the minor disappointments come in for the food & beverage aspects. I was told by the Food & Beverage Director Simon Zhang that the Commune Breakfast Buffet had fresh yogurt made by the kitchen, to which the morning of my buffet breakfast only had third-party branded yogurt in there. I wish the hotel’s buffet could widen its range of fresh juices. For example in the recently visited Guangzhou Exhibition Center InterContinental, they managed to get pure fresh juices of 5 different types of fruits. I feel that just Fresh Watermelon Juice won’t be sufficient enough to make do of. It’s time to diversify. Apart from that, nothing else seems to be a problem in the hotel’s buffet breakfast! It looks like the hotel’s Executive Assistant Manager - The Pride of Holland - Robbie Kelder took some of my advice and actually improved the fruit section by having a separate fruit selections instead of a fruit salad.
Club Lounge and Caifenglou:
The Club Lounge offerings have not changed much, but the format of afternoon tea may differ. Caifenglou on the same level has a newly improved main dining hall, where the sofa chairs are removed and proper restaurant table seating is installed! This was a huge improvement advice that I gave to Simon, and to his credit he acted upon it. I still think the main dining hall is still in debate whether it is big enough, but we shall see.
A Newly Opened Pool:
Hotel Indigo officially opened the outdoor rooftop swimming pool. In celebration of this newly inaugurated feature, the sales team hosted a special pool party for the press consisting of a limited selection of the dinner buffet from earlier. Robbie and the hotel’s Assistant Director of Rooms Vicky Shen gave me a sneak peek of this party. I got to witness firsthand what a press event was like. It seems like this rooftop pool was advertised as a key selling point to the public for the Hotel Indigo, there for this press event was crucial for everyone at the sales & marketing department.
The Grand Opening:
I had a chance to observe the Grand Opening Ceremony Process and I had a mixed review in regard to this event. I think it’s fair to say that the only ideal guests that were suited for attending this ceremony were the invited guests from the press, the real-estate development company, IHG corporate, and the local government. We have to remember that a hotel is a business to cater to guests. A hotel’s grand opening is meant to signify that the hotel is ready to start its permanent operation, yet be open to guests. There could have been promotional events for guests to interact with in celebration for this grand opening. For example, why not offer a special grand opening inaugural gift bag for guests checking in? Otherwise, much of this grand opening ceremony felt like an indifference for the general guests at the hotel. It is to be reminded that the mainstream of revenue to the hotel are staying guests. There was barely anything made special for them on this night.
The marketing team in my opinion missed a massive opportunity promotion-wise. Apart from the parties mentioned that were formally invited, nobody up until the day before grand-opening knew about the grand opening date of the hotel. That was a rare opportunity to announce a grand opening date way ahead in advance, to potentially sell out a full hotel in both InterContinental and Hotel Indigo. A successful grand opening in my eyes is when you at least cover at least of half of the hotel’s capacity on this extremely special night. Only about 80 out of the 360 rooms were booked on the grand opening inaugural weekend night. If for example they made an announcement a month in advance on the IHG’s WeChat Channel about the upcoming grand opening, I guarantee tons of IHG loyalists will pack both hotels!
Now I must admit for the hotel’s staff, the ceremony was successful in their eyes because they managed to pull off an event that could boost the reputation of the hotel. The performances and ceremonies were well-coordinated, along with a separate dining event in Caifenglou that was limited to the invited guests.
Overall, it was an uneventful ceremonial grand opening for at least the regular guests of this hotel. Maybe IHG in the future should find ways to perhaps enhance guest involvement in these grand openings.
An Unlikely Encounter:
In the previous post I noted how I was concerned about how the General Manager was using the Club Lounge for meetings and believe it or not disciplinary meetings. A lot of uncivilized yelling and tense conversations were heard in the Club Lounge whilst the General Manager was in there in a public guest setting. Despite my comments of concern in this matter, the General Manager Helena Jiang in the Club Lounge greeted me. I didn’t think that was near-possible because of my critical comments earlier, yet alone amidst the high dramatic stakes of grand opening a hotel with all the VIPs from certain parties coming in. I spoke to Helena about the situation of opening a hotel and her ultimate goals in the industry. With a recently broken foot and her confined to crutches, I must commend Helena for coming through this grand opening amidst this health problem. I personally congratulated her and her team for pulling the high stakes grand opening ceremony off, amidst concerns that regular guests were somewhat left out of this milestone.
Making Hotel History:
Let’s get to the fun stuff! I was told by Robbie that I made significant history as a guest at the InterContinental Wuxi Taihu New City Hotel. That milestone would be being the first ever guest to visit once during soft-opening, and once during grand opening. No other guest previously staying during the hotel’s soft-opening came during the grand-opening. In addition, I also made history by being the hotel’s first guest reviewer on TripAdvisor. I managed to encourage a lot of change in my first visit, some of which were actually noticeable in my second experience.
At this time, if you were on tourism for only one night in Wuxi, I would not recommend the location. However, if you’re an IHG hotel fan like me I recommend it. The hotel needs some changes so let me make this simple in this list so that the hotel can improve the guest experience more.
What I Feel Needs To Change Next:
1. Open the Char Restaurant & Bar: A long overdue restaurant on the 25th floor in need of opening amidst the officiated opening of the hotel. 2. Improvements on Room Preparation, especially with the towels on a hygiene level. 3. Adjustments to the Suite’s Toilet Room: I think the best way to improve this inconvenient feature of the suite is adding a small table next to the sink to hold just the towels and the hand soap. The hotel also needs to make sure guests are given the right Byredo container, as it seems easy for housekeeping folks to confuse hand soap with the hair shampoo. It was never addressed by staff when I raised concerns about having hair shampoo delivered to the toilet room instead of the hand soap. 4. Hailing a Taxi: Using the DiDi APP was a nightmare when leaving or arriving at the hotel. There still wasn’t location points installed on the APP to lead drivers on GPS to the lobbies of either hotels. Instead, they either stop at the driveway entrance or intersection which was frustrating. 5. The elevator floor button programming has been confusing for guests; as when you swipe your key card, the button of your residential floor illuminates giving you the impression the elevator will go up there. However, you have to press the button of the residential floor again to actually confirm your destination.
With that said, the hotel will be much worth the visit if they manage to improve these points.
I look forward to my next visit to the hotel when they start getting their foot more into the door of its grand opening journey.
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住宿日期： 2024年6月旅程類型：單人旅行
房間建議：Use the Wuxi New Area Station when taking the high-speed train to this hotel.
Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. One of the stronghold cities of Jiangnan culture and a city by the Taihu Lake. The city is currently enlarging itself to become one of the most developed cities in Jiangsu province. Part of the development stems in the Binhu district of Wuxi, where the Taihu New City Group has been developing a fast-paced production of hotels, residential areas, and many more properties owned and developed by the Taihu New City Group. One of the hotels that was newly established and soft-opened by the Taihu New City Group is a pair of corresponding IHG Hotels: InterContinental & Hotel Indigo Wuxi Taihu New City.
General Managed by IHG’s Hualuxe & Shangri-La veteran Helena Jiang, the pair of IHG Hotels soft-opened on February 1st, 2024. I decided to focus my attention to the InterContinental Hotel and review the hotel for the first time in its TripAdvisor history. For the first time in my veteran experience with the InterContinental Hotel brand, I visited the hotel in its soft-opening stage after 24 hours into its inaugural service. I’ve been having my fair share of mediocre reviews lately with this InterContinental Brand, therefore I was wondering whether a soft-opening hotel would make anything different. Therefore, I booked at the last minute to stay at the InterContinental Wuxi Taihu New City Hotel from February 2nd to the 3rd.
The Pre-Arrival Experience: To catch the hotel off-guard, I booked my stay in the evening before the stay. I decided to pay the full flexible rate at ¥1,889 RMB ($263), which comes with an additional 5,000 IHG One Points. The minimum price the hotel charges for its entry-level rooms is ¥1,739 RMB ($242). For an inaugural week, I have to say it was quite worth it because you’re experiencing a brand new hotel with newly renovated rooms, a special elevated inaugural service, and most importantly an opportunity to experience a brand new hotel. As part of the IHG One Diamond Ambassador Membership, I was given a call at 9PM (maybe too late for other guests) by the Club InterContinental/ Guest Relations Agent Thea Zhou to discuss the preferences of my stay including my arrival time (1PM) and my room location. Thea made sure on the day of arrival via WeChat my arrival time was confirmed, and I kept her updated on my exact arrival time from the train station to the hotel’s lobby.
The Arrival: Arriving on a rainy Friday afternoon, my taxi arrived at the brand new lobby of the InterContinental building a little later than expected. Through two sets of doors and a rather slippery marble floor, Thea waited for me inside and greeted me by name. Given the choice whether to check-in at the Club InterContinental or the lobby, I chose the latter because of the opportunity to test out the front desk experience. Checking me in was the hotel’s Guest Services Supervisor Criss Han. Bumping into me during check-in was The Pride of The Netherlands Robbie Kelder, the hotel’s Executive Assistant Manager. Seeing me at the check-in as well is the hotel’s Assistant Front Office Manager James Xu. Due to the small number of guests, the hotel must have been observing guests carefully and making sure whatever feedback is given from those guests are well-received.
The Room: As an InterContinental Diamond Ambassador Member, I was upgraded from the 1 King Classic Room to the 1 King Classic Lounge Access Room. As there’s little difference between the two room categories from the interior design, it’s safe to say that I saw no value difference in either room apart from floor level and view. There is an approximately ¥700 RMB ($100 USD) price difference between the two room categories, therefore it’s determined whether the Club Lounge is worth the extra ¥700 or not rather than the room’s features. Thea introduced me to the room and I was happy to be Room 1608’s first official guest!
The 1 King Classic Club Access Room is 53 SQM/ 571 SQFT large, and features a Jiangnan-Inspired Designed room with a comfortable king bed, Philips Flatscreen TV, mood lighting with modern antique-inspired lamps, enlarged sofa area, marble desk space, and Jiangnan-style decorations including a pottery tea-set, a vase, and metallic sculpture. Electrical panels including lighting controls, curtain controls, USB-C + USB outlets, power outlets, and more are featured. Ventilation systems are on an advanced-level as opposed to other InterContinental Rooms including a powerful air conditioning system, along with for the first time for my experience: an air filter machine. A JBL Bluetooth speaker is also featured. The bathroom to my eyes may have been inspired by the old Wuxi InterContinental Hotel bathroom in their accommodations. If I’m not mistaken, this hotel took the Wuxi InterContinental’s bathrooms and elevated to a new standard taking in the old designs and refreshing it. There are Duravit-branded dual vanity sinks similar to the old hotel, a familiar bathtub, a large shower cubicle, and a toilet. Amenities include the Byredo Blanche Soap Products, Dyson Hair Dryer, and many standard InterContinental Vanity Products. In terms of interior design, the bathroom features the similar light wooden colored marble walls and flooring seen in Wuxi’s Old InterContinental Hotel. With high ceilings, a modern-Jiangnan inspired walls, closets, carpets, and wooden flooring, this is a really well-designed room overall and beautifully well thought of throughout its designing-phase.
Additional Services: The room is serviced every night with turndown service. This one consists of the bed being folded, a bathrobe being placed in the shower area with the bath mat being placed there, a pair of slippers placed near the bed, water service, and finally a teddy bear placed on the bed. I was also given a welcome card and a fruit plate as the welcome amenity.
An unprepared room: I was rather surprised that the room was actually not fully-prepared before my arrival - despite no one ever using the room in the first place. The room was not prepared to the indicative standards we see in other well-cleaned hotels. There was still renovation debris lying around the wooden floor, bathroom, and the couch area. The TV was not well-prepared as it was discolored at first, and the Dyson hair dryer was missing its nozzles. The goal is that an inaugural hotel has to make a huge first-impression for guests. My first-impression is that the hotel still needs to improve its readiness for guests. It wouldn’t be a good fit for the reputation of the hotel to start at a point like this.
Club InterContinental: I was the first incoming guest of the second day to visit the Club InterContinental Lounge. The lounge is located on the second floor of the hotel. The brand new lounge features a spiral staircase that goes down to the first floor lobby, a meeting room, a living room, multiple dining spaces, and a buffet area. All of which are Jiangnan-inspired with its familiar wooden color tones, luxury furnitures, marble counters, and more hardware features. Managing the Club InterContinental is the Assistant Club InterContinental Manager Wenzel Wen. Wenzel and his staff including Thea gave me insights to the hotel industry and the general working conditions. Afternoon Tea and Happy Hour are currently undergoing an experimental phase, where the lounge is figuring out how to better perfect its service.
Afternoon Tea was a buffet service on my first afternoon; but towards my departure on my second day, it was a new a-la-carte concept featuring a tea set. I think the tea set was better and could improve with a scone, clotted cream, and jam. The selection of tea was also great, as there are both bagged tea and local loose-leaf tea.
Happy Hour was a buffet service as well, featuring a condensed version of the Commune Restaurant Buffet. Too many hotels have chosen to use Happy Hour as a simplified dinner concept. I like many other managers believe that Happy Hour should only consist of small finger foods, cheese, charcuterie, and other cocktail snacks. This can be a way the Happy Hour can improve much more. To my delight, Thea mastered the Zurita Tonic Challenge, which consists of a non-alcoholic beverage with apple juice, sugar, lemon juice, and ginger ale.
In future, I recommend the General Manager Helena Jiang to not personally use the Club InterContinental as a meeting space with employees of the hotel. This also applies to other marketing and sales personnel that might have used it by themselves as well. Perhaps the office, a vacant meeting room, or any other non-guest space would be the ideal place to conduct such fiery speeches. Guests especially in the Club Lounge deserve to have an exclusive space where employees wouldn’t be sharing the same service space as guests. Helena using the Club Lounge I believe set a bad example, especially when I saw her bringing in two employees and frankly being unreasonably loud in the Club Lounge. Her strong leadership is something I respect, but I think actions like this in guest areas can bring a bad impression on not just herself but the hotel as well. This is one issue I have been seeing too much in hotels, and many general managers and club lounge managers objectively agree that club lounges shouldn’t be used by any employees.
The Hotel Indigo: Although the Hotel Indigo and InterContinental Hotel are two separate brand profiles, much of the managing staff including Robbie actually do shifts in both hotels. The Hotel Indigo building is just adjacent to the InterContinental Hotel building. It features a boutique, yet perhaps a fashion-trendy luxury style as opposed to the traditional InterContinental Hotel. Thea gave me a complete tour of the hotel’s accommodations and facilities, most of which are not opened yet. I toured a King Room, Twin Room, Junior Suite, and 1 Bedroom Suite; all of which I think are well-valued in price, but can improve on design flaws such as the narrow shower cubicles. In addition, I visited a couple of smart-looking meeting rooms, the closed Xi Shine All-Day Dining Restaurant, the closed top floor bar, the closed outdoor pool, and the gymnasium. Funny enough, the Hotel Indigo’s gymnasium was being used as a practice venue for the hotel’s annual meeting dance performance. Both hotels’ staff members were rehearsing for this event, which was quite enjoyable to watch.
More rooms in the InterContinental Building: Thea also took me to the other rooms in the InterContinental building for tour including the Classic Rooms, the Junior Suite, and the 1 King Bedroom Suite. All of which are well-designed and well-curated. The 100 SQM 1 King Bedroom Suite (¥3000 per night) noticeably is designed better than any of the other InterContinental suites that I have stayed in; such as the Shanghai Dishuihu InterContinental Hotel’s ¥8000 suite, the Suzhou InterContinental’s ¥3000 Suite, and the Shenzhen Dameisha Resort’s Exclusive ¥5000 1 Bedroom Executive Suite.
The Restaurants & Bars: After a nice tour of the Hotel Indigo, Thea gave me an introductory tour to the restaurants & bars before my dining experiences there. All of the Food & Beverage operations are run by Robbie and the hotel’s F&B Director Simon Zhang. Here are the following dining venues I had the chance of looking at:
Lobby Lounge: The hotel’s lobby lounge and bar next to the lobby itself. The lounge has a large bar counter that encircles the center of the lobby lounge. The ceiling holds an art installation inspired by the modern Jiangnan-style aesthetic. It is where guests can collect their IHG One Welcome Drinks, have a cocktail, or an afternoon tea. Be warned though, the Lobby Lounge has been a popular spot for content creators to do photography.
CaiFengLou: IHG’s Signature Chinese Restaurant Chain that takes local ingredients and specialties to a prestigious level found in many InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, and Hualuxe Properties. Although CaiFengLou’s branding inherently serves Cantonese cuisine as consistent with other chains around the nation, this hotel brings Wuxi’s cuisine as a local infusion into the menu. However, the restaurant inherently has the issue of a very small dining room capacity of 8 tables in its main dining room. There is shockingly more private dining seating than main dining room seating, which can be very inconvenient for hotel guests looking to dine at this restaurant in yet a very isolated location with not much dining options nearby.
Char Restaurant & Bar: The hotel’s signature American-inspired steakhouse. It is an open-kitchen restaurant concept serving gourmet dishes such as the USDA Prime Ribeye Steak. This modern space examines intimate minimalistic interior decorations that make the signature dishes the highlights. The tradition at this restaurant is that you eat a steak with a knife of your choosing, different types of mustard, and selected sea salts. CHAR is also found in IHG’s Shanghai Indigo Hotel along the Huangpu River, where the renowned YouTuber “Max the Meat Guy” discovered his ambitions of cooking which led to his fame. CHAR has also won Michelin guides in other branches of its network. This steakhouse is still under renovation, and will be opened at the hotel’s grand opening in March.
Commune: InterContinental’s Signature All-Day Dining Restaurant Chain, which is seen in many newer InterContinental properties in Mainland China. It is a modern space featuring marble walls, multiple buffet counters, modernized seating, and a view of the patio holding a playground for children. During the weekends and holidays, a dinner buffet is featured. A-la-carte is featured on other weekdays for any other lunch, dinner, or snack. It is also the venue for the hotel’s breakfast buffet. The head chef is the former Chongqing Raffles City InterContinental All-Day Dining Chef Kevin Kong.
Traditionally in my stays, I challenge the F&B Director of each respective hotel to pick a dining experience at the hotel for me to review. Simon in this case wanted me to experience the hotel’s inaugural Commune Dinner Buffet Service. Simon is actually a very young talented director with culinary training in France. To date he is the youngest F&B director I have personally met. He is very bold with his decision-making, and just like me is not yet satisfied with the state of CaiFengLou. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed his dedication to his culinary craft.
A Busier Dinner Service: Noticeably as opposed to the nearly empty hotel rooms, the hotel’s Commune dinner service was bustling with locals not staying overnight in the hotel. In addition to Robbie, Kevin, and Simon overseeing the dramatically busy inaugural dinner service, the Hotel Indigo’s Manager Sean Kim came in to oversee the service and chat with me regarding the hotel’s industry.
The Buffet: Simon created a concept for the buffet rarely seen, yet provides a huge selling point: A Buffet + Cart Service. What this means is that you have a full buffet, but the chefs will bring out special features on carts or platters to each table for guests to enjoy. Such carts include the Jamon Iberico Cart, the Cocktail Cart, the Sashimi Platter, the Dry-Aged Steak Cart, and the Dessert Cart. Believe it or not it does not stop there. You have the entire buffet at each station, which includes salads, freshly-opened oysters, Chinese dishes, Southeast Asian dishes, a selection of western dishes, a noodle station, a hot pot station, dessert station, and a grill station including more steak, lamb chops, shrimp, and lobsters. I was actually speechless when the price was actually at around ¥450 ($63 USD). It is better value than what you get in let’s say the InterContinental Shanghai Wonderland’s Dinner Buffet (¥618), the InterContinental Guangzhou Dinner Buffet (¥568), and many more. I think this Dinner Buffet was the best I have ever had. It’s just a matter of whether they can maintain the same quality and concept in this buffet for the next year. Overall, an impressive amount of effort pulled off by the Food & Beverage Department. I just can’t stop talking about it. Best Buffet Ever!!!
Fitness Center: We need to burn those calories after all that food. Prior to the dinner, Thea had me tour the gymnasium which is full of up-to-date workout facilities. My only critique is that the gymnasium is hidden behind the walls and not as photogenically revealing from the fitness center lobby as opposed to gymnasiums hidden behind glass walls. It just gives a weird feeling of isolation working out. I tried the indoor swimming pool, in which I was the second guest ever to use it. It is a small green-titled pool not fit for long lap swimming, but certainly a refreshing pool. The locker rooms are certainly missing other features such as a bench for changing, a bin for used slippers, a swimming suit dryer, and more. The used towel bin location was not well-designed, as the hole featured a movable lid which clogged the hole, making the towels difficult to enter the towel bin.
Buffet Breakfast: There’s more impressive feats of buffet craftsmanship by Simon and the Food & Beverage Department. At 7:30 AM, the hotel’s Commune Restaurant was far less busier than the dinner service. In fact, there was no other guest present apart from myself when I first entered. Only 2 guests joined me in the restaurant half an hour later. I had the pleasure and honor of eating breakfast with Robbie. Commune’s breakfast includes a variety of Chinese Dishes, Soy Milk, Porridge, Fruits, Western Options, Noodle Dishes, Egg Options, Continental Breakfast and more. Highlights I had included the Best Eggs Benedicts I have had so far in China, Suzhou-Style Wontons, Freshly Made-To-Order Pancakes, Fresh Juices, and Fruit. That is easily the #1 ranked InterContinental Breakfast Buffet I have had in Greater China so far. Wuxi’s Taihu New City InterContinental makes perfecting the breakfast buffet so easy, yet for some reason other InterContinentals found it difficult. I would not understand why.
Conclusion: Sadly, it was the end of my time at the Soft-Opened InterContinental Hotel at Wuxi Taihu New City. I was checked-out and sent off by some of the great staff members I met. The hotel overall is on its way to perfection. The primary challenge General Manager Helena Jiang retains is improving the first impressions of rooms for guests, and making sure every room is prepared in clean full-working order before a guest enters for the first time. The first impressions of a room to a guest is important. The Grand Opening is scheduled for March, to which I wish the hotel good luck! The hotel will be well worth more than ¥1,700 per night should the suggestions I made be followed, and the improvements are done properly.
Here is how I rank the hotel:
Club InterContinental: #9 out of 31 Lounges
InterContinental Buffet Breakfast in China: #1 out of 24 Buffet Restaurants
Overall InterContinental Hotel Ranking: #4 out of 37 InterContinental Properties
To close, I must thank the following who really uplifted my first-ever hotel visit that was soft-opened:
Robbie Kelder Thea Zhou Wenzel Wen Sean Kim Vicky Shen Simon Zhang James Xu Criss Han Torison Liu The Food & Beverage Department The Front Office Department The Club InterContinental Staff
Good Luck to General Manager Helena Jiang in leading the two hotels to a successful future!
