Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is happening now! Follow us as Greg, Nick, and Stephen compete to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines before November 23rd. Who will complete the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
My wife and I recently spent a marvelous two weeks in Austria. We still had three Fine Hotels and Resorts (FHR) credits from our various flavors of Amex Platinum cards and were hoping to find somewhere to use them during the trip. We landed on a great option at the Intercontinental Vienna. The FHR rate was only $220, just $20 above the $200 Platinum credit, and the hotel ended up being a stellar base from which to explore Vienna.
Intercontinental Vienna Bottom Line Review
We thoroughly enjoyed our time at the Intercontinental Vienna. It has a great location just outside of the main tourist melee, but within 15 minutes on foot of just about any place you’d like to go in the central part of the city. Service was on-pointe, food and beverage was excellent top-to-bottom. The manner in which they fulfill the FHR benefits on multi-night stays was incredible…we quite literally weren’t able to use up all $300 of our credits. In some ways, it toes the line between sophisticated and dated, but we were charmed from beginning to end.
- Price: We booked all three nights through Fine Hotels and Resorts (FHR) in order to make use of the American Express Platinum‘s $200 credit. The direct cash price for a standard room when we booked was ~$205/night and the cost through FHR was ~$220/night. After the $200 credit, we only paid about $20/night out of pocket.
- Value: As an FHR booking, it’s an amazing value. They provided $100 in food and beverage credits daily, so those alone were worth ~$300. Add in the room upgrade, early check-in/late check-out and complimentary Wifi and the $220 price starts to feel like a great deal, even without factoring in the $200 Platinum credit.
- Location: The hotel has a marvelous location. The metro is literally across the street, as is the lovely Stadtpark. The tram is about a block away. It’s just outside the Ringstrasse, the ring road that circles old Vienna and, because of that location, nothing is more than a 15-20 minute walk (including Schloss Belvedere). However, you’re still blissfully separated from the crush of summer tourists in the Altstadt.
- Room: We booked a standard room with one king and were pro-actively upgraded to a 5th-floor King Premium corner room before we arrived. At ~500 sq ft with windows on both exterior walls, the room felt spacious, airy and bright.
- Parking: Parking is €35/night.
- Resort/Destination Fee: None.
- Internet: Excellent, able to stream throughout the hotel.
- Service: Very good. Efficient, prompt and friendly. We booked three consecutive one-night reservations (in order to use our FHR credits) and they combined them all. The keys worked the whole time without having to be reset and they transferred all three $100 credits to the same tab at the end, proactively (and accurately) comping everything that needed to be. Fairly miraculous compared to what I was expecting. From the housekeepers to the front desk agents and servers, these folks are pros.
- Turndown service: Nightly, with different hot teas and chocolates.
- Dining:
- Cafe Vienna: Located on the first floor, next to the Intermezzo Bar (and sharing some seating). It functions as a Viennese-style coffee house with the normal list of espresso drinks and a pastry counter, then turns into more of a lounge in the afternoon. Breakfast is served 10am-Noon daily with lunch and snacks from 12pm-6pm (at which point it gives way to the bar)
- Intermezzo Bar: Currently the only evening restaurant for the hotel, it focuses on Austrian standards and is located on the first floor next to Cafe Vienna. Closed during the day, it opens late afternoon and becomes a lounge/restaurant with good food and spot-on cocktails. A cool wraparound bar with a massive chandelier overhead is the centerpiece. Excellent service. Food is served from 5pm-10pm (sometimes 11pm) and the bar stays open later for drinks.
- Parlor: This used to be the main dinner restaurant, but it’s now open for breakfast only and closed for lunch and dinner. Open for breakfast from 6:00am-10:30am daily, ’till 11am on the weekends.
- Spa: There is a steam room and sauna connected to the fitness area that includes a “relaxation room” with loungers. Massages can be arranged, but there isn’t anything in-house.
- Fitness Room: Located in the basement and feels like it. It’s a little stuffy, especially with more than a handful of people inside at the same time. Modestly-sized, it has just enough cardio and weight equipment to manage a full workout.
- Fine Hotel and Resorts Benefits:
- Room Upgrade: We booked standard rooms and were upgraded to a ~500 sq ft King Corner Premium room, which was bright and lovely.
- Free Breakfast: Served daily at Parlor Restaurant. Very good breakfast buffet supplemented by made-to-order egg dishes, waffles and pancakes. There was an on-demand juice bar, included wine service and unlimited espresso drinks.
- Property Credit: $100 in food and beverage. We were given a new credit for each day that we were there ($300 in total), something that doesn’t always happen with back-to-back FHR stays. We used ours at the excellent cafe/bar for pre-event drinks and appetizers.
- Early Check-in: 12pm.
- Free WiFi
- Late Checkout: We were automatically given a 4pm checkout.
- Welcome Amenity: A fruit bowl was waiting for us in the room when we arrived. On the second day, when the reservation switched to my wife’s name, another fruit bowl was left as well.
- Would I stay again? Absolutely. The location is ideal and it’s a terrific place to burn FHR credits.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Excellent service
- Spacious rooms
- Feels more elegant than some Intercontinentals
- Hard to imagine a better location in Vienna
- Breakfast is very good with a wide-variety of regional and international options
- Great cafe/lounge with good drinks and food (pricey without having credits, though)
Cons
- I’ve heard some complaints that the rooms are dated and can understand that. They toe the line between “elegant” and “aged.”
- Subpar fitness area
- No pool
- Many Vienna hotels are in historic buildings. This isn’t one of them.
Image Gallery
Intercontinental Vienna King Premium Room (corner)
Restaurants – Parlor
Restaurants – Cafe Vienna/Intermezzo Bar
Intercontinental Vienna Breakfast
Intercontinental Vienna Common Areas
Intercontinental Vienna Fitness Area
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
[…] my excitement to try everything, I unfortunately forgot to take photos. But luckily the Frequent Miler did when they visited back in August. Now you’ll understand how truly large this breakfast […]
Apologies if you mentioned this, but do Amex FHR bookings for IHG earn points/recognize elite status? Thanks!
Yep, this one did. Outside of MGM/Hyatt, most of mine do as long as I add my number to them before the stay.
There most certainly is a pool! It’s right next to the fitness center, and when we visited earlier this year, the cardio equipment was arranged in front of the window between the two amenities which made for a bit of an awkward situation where you watched other guests swim while they watched you sweat.
However, having a closer look at the pictures above, it’s clear that they’ve either moved the fitness center to another room, or remodeled it – if you think that’s stuffy, you should have seen it before! Dimly lit, fully carpeted with fraying red carpet…
(All of this said, the hotel was fantastic, easily one of our favorites in the hyatt system, notwithstanding the gym situation.)
I have used the FHR credit at the IC Vienna 3 times over the last couple of years. It’s my go to place to use this credit.
Hey Tim, thanks for the great review. Did you happen to check what the IHG points price were for those 3 nights? Just curious, thank you.
Hey Grant, I did, it was just under or over 40K each night. It seems to often hang out around 38-39K, and would be an excellent use for a cert, especially a non-topoffable one.
That’s great pricing, definitely a contender for the IHG FNCs 🙂
I stayed here in late June. I liked the location just fine, and the lobby and bar are really cool, but that’s where the goodness ended for my group. The service was very mixed — one night the bartenders at the lobby bar were perfectly fine, but another night they did not seem interested in helping us at all. The breakfast, though there was a big selection, did not have many items that were really good. The rooms seemed VERY dated, and not in an elegant way. Maybe we got bad rooms? Overall, I would only stay here again if I was using FHR credit and that brought the grand total under $50 out of pocket for each night. It was sad because I wanted to love this place. Glad you had a good experience Tim.
Good info! I have never been able to use our Amex hotel credits, for various reasons. When you use P1 and P2 hotel credits together in one stay, is each reservation required to be in separate names and are each of you required to provide ID? Could I travel alone and use my credit and my husband’s credit?
Possibly? Check out this post.
How were you able to book 3 consecutive nights using the $200 Platinum credit for each night? Thank you.
We just booked three, consecutive, one-night reservations, each using one credit.
I thought Amex somewhat recently put restrictions against back-to-back FHR reservations. Is it not the case?
Some properties that is true. MGM is an example.
You are not restricted from booking 3 back to back reservations, you just don’t get the $100 property credit 3x times.
Problem is, based on the terms, RAT can come back later and remove the additional FHR benefits if they were used and charge the card.
When my wife and I do this, we simply alternate the names on the reservations night to night.
Nick wrote about a change in terms awhile ago that seems to indicate that Amex doesn’t support the alternating back-to-back reservations (which could give the hotel cause to cause a ruckus). I haven’t heard of anyone being denied a night or forced to leave, but just that the $100 credit isn’t provided after the first night…which is pretty much what always was the case when trying to use multiple credits (and what I suspect Amex was trying to support with the change in terms). Could be YMMV, though.
No longer FHR
If you’re looking at next year, I believe it’s one of the (many) hotels that FHR still hasn’t made bookable. It’s still available through FHR almost every day in 2023.
Nothing about the tafelspitz?