Intercontinental Wuxi Taihu New City, an IHG Hotel

24年新开张的洲际酒店，4月入住的时候几乎闻不到异味了。 ——位置较市区较偏，从恒隆过来半个小时，周边也比较荒凉。 ——新酒店的硬件还是可以的，房间内插座支持目前所有接口。枕头和床也较为舒适，空调、空气净化器晚上都不吵。 ——早餐比较丰盛了，没有想到还有我喜欢的豆腐花，中西餐点味道都还不错。

5 个月前

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.

这篇评论是我之前关于无锡太湖新城洲际酒店盛大开业的文章的更新：||||早在二月份，我离开酒店时对酒店的感觉相当积极。酒店管理团队考虑了洲际酒店集团多年客户经验中提出的许多个人建议。想知道过去两个月发生了什么变化，我决定回到无锡的酒店看看有什么变化。在 6 月 14 日至 15 日出游之前，我几乎不知道，在短短 24 小时内，我正处于酒店从试营业到盛大开业的过渡阶段。在我退房当天，酒店正式开业。因此，鉴于这个特殊（但巧合）的场合，以下是我对酒店如何更改为当前开业阶段的回顾：||||抵达前：||||使用 22,000 IHG One Points，我预订了当晚的住宿我到达的那天早上。我拥有 IHG One 钻石大使身份，酒店前台很快就帮我升级到了 1 张特大床的经典房（可使用俱乐部酒廊）。我和酒店之间没有任何抵达前的沟通联系，但考虑到我是当天预订的住宿，这是可以理解的。我什至没有联系过酒店里我认识的任何工作人员，所以这对酒店的管理层来说是一个惊喜。 ||||到达：||||进入酒店后，通往洲际酒店大堂的车道因第二天举行的盛大开业典礼而被封锁。仪式舞台已经搭好，椅子已经摆好了，喷泉边也摆好了花架，全国媒体、国营太湖新城开发公司代表、无锡市政府官员、酒店管理人员、以及洲际酒店集团大中华区的高级领导层。走进酒店，迎接我的是洲际俱乐部助理经理Wenzel Wen和宾客服务主管Franklin Chen。由于我比标准入住时间早了一小时到达，在将钥匙卡交给我之前，我的房间已被客房主管检查。与此同时，Wenzel带我去大堂酒廊兑换饮料券。 ||||1626 号房间：||||我进入了配备 1 张特大床的经典俱乐部休息室。您可以在第一篇评论中找到详细的评论。我认为洲际品牌的一个主要问题是始终关注客房服务的质量。我相信那些经常光顾大中华区洲际酒店集团奢华与生活方式地产的人都会谈论这一点。洲际酒店认为可以接受的内容与客房部认为可以接受的内容之间似乎存在脱节。我已经 3 次发现毛巾清洁度有问题。前两个人用毛巾夹住了别人的发丝。第三个毛巾上似乎有奇怪的红色污渍。这本来就不应该发生，因为它确实显示出应该修复的缺陷。 ||||客房服务结论：||||除此之外，酒店房间的其他部分都很干净，也许客房服务部门应该在向客人发放毛巾之前开始彻底检查毛巾。对于此类房型每晚近 2000 元人民币（268 美元）的价格，在这种情况下，客人应该得到更好的住宿。给酒店敲响了至关重要的警钟，就连我去过的中国智选假日连锁酒店在客房服务水平上也比这更好。 Wenzel 和值班经理游先生针对此事安排了套房升级至酒店目前唯一可用的房型：一卧室套房。他们还彻底要求客房主管温迪在我亲自检查后确保套房干净。 ||||一卧室套房：||||这间78平方米的空间为每晚2,600元人民币的套房，除了经典房类别的功能外，还提供起居室空间。浴室之间和走廊沿线的壁橱空间设有额外的存储空间。现在套房值得吗？不。除了增加的客厅之外，套房没有额外的价值。此外，酒店的室内设计师在考虑套房间距时犯了一个严重错误：套房唯一的卫生间实际上位于距主浴室20步之遥的化妆间内。此外，室内设计师没有补偿化妆室水槽旁边放置洗手液和毛巾的任何东西。结果，想象一下使用浴室，然后走出门，穿过走廊，穿过衣柜间，进入主浴室，那里有洗手液和毛巾。只有当我要求提供这些物品时，客房部才会在厕所上方提供这些物品。为了在伤口上撒盐，管家错误地放了洗发水而不是洗手液，这对作为客人的我来说无疑是令人沮丧的。 ||||食品和饮料供应：||||总体而言，自助晚餐和俱乐部酒廊的供应没有太大变化，无法注意到巨大的差异。可以说，当我体验的时候，这些东西确实有所改善，但公社全日餐饮体验也有一些小小的失望。我认为这部分是由于公社餐厅最近更换了行政总厨。 ||||自助晚餐：||||半自助餐经过重新安排，更加环保。那些被推来推去的精选食品现在可以在新鲜呈现的自助餐桌上找到。菜单中新增了惠灵顿牛肉和北京烤鸭卷。自助餐中还出现了时令小龙虾。龙虾现在是无限供应的，这肯定会让客人在预订餐厅时感觉很棒。尽管主厨人员发生了变化，但我认为它已经很完美了。嘿，自助餐价格从 450 日元降到了 388 日元！酒店正在打广告促销价，以吸引更多人入住！我认为，通过这种新的高效自助餐经营方式，对于酒店和客人来说，这实际上可以证明价格更加合理！我只是希望“Pan-fflé”能在自助餐的招牌煎饼和蛋奶酥混合中看到它的名字。 ||||自助早餐：||||这是食品和饮料方面的一些小失望之处。餐饮总监张西蒙告诉我，公社自助早餐有厨房自制的新鲜酸奶，而我早上的自助早餐只有第三方品牌的酸奶。我希望酒店的自助餐能扩大新鲜果汁的种类。例如，在最近参观的广州会展中心洲际酒店，他们成功获得了5种不同水果的纯新鲜果汁。我觉得仅仅喝新鲜西瓜汁是不够的。是时候多元化了。除此之外，酒店的自助早餐似乎没什么问题！看来酒店的行政助理经理 - 荷兰之傲 - 罗比·凯尔德采纳了我的一些建议，实际上改进了水果区，提供了单独的水果选择，而不是水果沙拉。 ||||俱乐部酒廊和彩凤楼：||||俱乐部酒廊的服务没有太大变化，但下午茶的形式可能有所不同。同层彩凤楼新装修了主餐厅，拆除了沙发椅，安装了合适的餐桌座位！这是我给西蒙的一个巨大的改进建议，值得称赞的是，他付诸了行动。我仍然认为主餐厅是否足够大仍在争论中，但我们拭目以待。 ||||新开业泳池：||||英迪格酒店室外屋顶泳池正式开业。为了庆祝这一新推出的功能，销售团队为媒体举办了一场特别的泳池派对，其中包括早些时候的有限精选自助晚餐。 Robbie 和酒店客房部助理总监 Vicky Shen 让我先睹为快。我亲眼目睹了新闻发布会是什么样的。似乎这个屋顶游泳池被宣传为英迪格酒店向公众的一个关键卖点，因此这次新闻发布会对销售和营销部门的每个人都至关重要。|||||盛大开幕：||||我有机会观察盛大的开幕式过程，我对这次活动的评价褒贬不一。我认为可以公平地说，适合参加这个仪式的理想嘉宾只有来自媒体、房地产开发公司、洲际酒店集团和当地政府的受邀嘉宾。我们必须记住，酒店是一家为客人提供服务的企业。酒店的盛大开业意味着酒店已准备好开始永久运营，并向客人开放。本来可以举办促销活动供客人互动，以庆祝这次盛大的开业。例如，为什么不为入住的客人提供特别的开业典礼礼品袋呢？否则，对于酒店的普通客人来说，这场盛大的开业仪式在很大程度上显得冷漠。需要提醒的是，酒店的主要收入是入住客人。这一晚几乎没有什么对他们来说特别的事情。 ||||我认为营销团队错过了一个巨大的促销机会。除了上面提到的正式邀请的各方外，直到开业前一天，没有人知道酒店的开业日期。这是一个难得的机会，可以提前宣布盛大的开业日期，并有可能出售洲际酒店和英迪格酒店的全部酒店。在我看来，一个成功的盛大开幕是在这个极其特别的夜晚，至少满足酒店至少一半的容量。开业首个周末晚上，360 间客房中只有约 80 间被预订。例如，如果他们提前一个月在洲际酒店集团的微信频道上宣布即将盛大开业，我保证大量的洲际酒店集团忠实拥护者会挤满这两家酒店！ ||||现在我必须向酒店的工作人员承认，在他们看来，仪式是成功的，因为他们成功地举办了一场可以提升酒店声誉的活动。表演和仪式协调得很好，彩凤楼还举办了仅限受邀嘉宾的单独用餐活动。 ||||总的来说，至少对于这家酒店的常客来说，这是一次平静的盛大开业仪式。也许洲际酒店集团未来应该找到方法来增强宾客对这些盛大开业活动的参与度。 ||||一次不太可能的遭遇：||||在上一篇文章中，我注意到我对总经理如何使用俱乐部酒廊开会以及信不信由你的纪律会议感到担忧。当总经理在公共宾客环境中时，在俱乐部酒廊中听到了许多不文明的叫喊和紧张的谈话。尽管我对此事表示担忧，俱乐部酒廊的总经理Helena Jiang还是向我打招呼。我不认为这几乎是可能的，因为我之前发表了批评性的评论，但独自一人在盛大开业一家酒店的巨大赌注中，所有来自某些团体的贵宾都会进来。我与海伦娜谈论了开设一家酒店的情况以及她在这个行业的最终目标。海伦娜最近脚部骨折，只能拄着拐杖，我必须赞扬海伦娜在健康问题的情况下度过了这次盛大的开业。我个人祝贺她和她的团队成功举办了这场高风险的盛大开幕式，但我担心常客在某种程度上被排除在这一里程碑之外。 ||||创造酒店历史：||||让我们开始有趣的事情吧！罗比告诉我，作为无锡太湖新泽洲际酒店的客人，我创造了重要的历史。这个里程碑将是在试营业期间和盛大开幕期间成为有史以来第一位来访的客人。此前在酒店试营业期间入住的其他客人在盛大开业期间没有再来。此外，我还创造了历史，成为 TripAdvisor 上该酒店的第一位宾客评论者。我在第一次访问中成功地鼓励了很多改变，其中一些在我第二次访问中实际上是显而易见的。 ||||这个时候，如果你是来无锡旅游只住一晚，我不会推荐这个位置。但是，如果您像我一样是 IHG 酒店迷，我会推荐它。酒店需要一些改变，所以让我在这个列表中简单说明一下，以便酒店可以更多地改善客人的体验。 ||||我觉得接下来需要改变的：||||1。开设 Char 餐厅和酒吧：位于 25 楼的一家早该开业的餐厅需要在酒店正式开业之际开业。 ||2。房间准备方面的改进，特别是毛巾的卫生水平。 ||3。套房卫生间的调整：我认为改善套房这个不方便的功能的最好方法是在水槽旁边加一个小桌子，只放毛巾和洗手液。酒店还需要确保为客人提供正确的 Byredo 容器，因为客房服务员似乎很容易将洗手液与洗发水混淆。当我担心将洗发水而不是洗手液送到卫生间时，工作人员从未解决这个问题。 ||4。叫出租车：离开或到达酒店时，使用滴滴APP是一场噩梦。 APP上仍然没有安装定位点来引导司机通过GPS到达两家酒店的大堂。相反，他们要么停在车道入口处，要么停在十字路口，这令人沮丧。 ||5。电梯楼层按钮编程一直让客人感到困惑；当您刷钥匙卡时，住宅楼层的按钮会亮起，让您感觉电梯将前往那里。不过，你必须再次按下住宅楼层的按钮才能真正确认你的目的地。||||话虽如此，如果他们能改善这些点，酒店将非常值得一游。||||我期待当我下次访问这家酒店时，他们开始更加踏入其盛大开业之旅的大门。

3 个月前

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!

江苏省无锡市。江南文化的据点城市之一，太湖之滨的城市。该市目前正在扩大规模，成为江苏省最发达的城市之一。部分开发项目位于无锡滨湖区，太湖新城集团一直在该区快速开发酒店、住宅区以及太湖新城集团拥有和开发的更多物业。太湖新城集团新设并试营业的酒店之一，就是两家对应的洲际酒店集团旗下酒店：无锡太湖新城洲际酒店和英迪格酒店。 ||由 IHG 华邑酒店和香格里拉资深人士 Helena Jiang 负责管理，这两家 IHG 酒店于 2024 年 2 月 1 日试营业。我决定将注意力集中在洲际酒店上，并在 TripAdvisor 上首次点评该酒店历史。在我对洲际酒店品牌的丰富经验中，这是我第一次在开业 24 小时后的试营业阶段参观该酒店。最近，我对这个洲际品牌的评价相当平庸，因此我想知道试营业的酒店是否会有所不同。因此，我在最后一刻预订了2月2日至3日入住无锡太湖新城洲际酒店。||入住前体验：为了让酒店措手不及，我预订了入住前一天晚上的住宿。停留。我决定支付 1,889 元人民币（263 美元）的全额灵活房价，并额外获得 5,000 点 IHG One 积分。酒店入门级客房的最低价格为 1,739 元人民币（242 美元）。对于开业一周来说，我不得不说这是非常值得的，因为您正在体验一家全新的酒店，拥有新装修的客房、特别提升的开业服务，最重要的是一次体验全新酒店的机会。作为 IHG 一钻大使会员的一部分，洲际俱乐部/宾客关系代理 Thea Zhou 于晚上 9 点（对其他客人来说可能太晚）给我打电话，讨论我的住宿偏好，包括抵达时间（下午 1 点）和我的房间位置。 Thea 在抵达当天通过微信确认了我的抵达时间，我让她更新了我从火车站到酒店大堂的确切抵达时间。||抵达：在一个下雨的周五下午抵达，我的出租车到了比预期晚了一点到达洲际大厦全新的大堂。穿过两扇门和相当滑的大理石地板，西娅在里面等我，并叫出了我的名字。在选择是在洲际俱乐部办理入住还是在大堂办理入住时，我选择了后者，因为有机会尝试一下前台的体验。帮我办理入住的是酒店的宾客服务主管 Criss Han。办理入住手续时遇到我的是荷兰之傲酒店的行政助理经理罗比·凯尔德 (Robbie Kelder)。在办理入住手续时见到我的还有酒店的前厅助理经理 James Xu。由于客人人数较少，酒店肯定一直在仔细观察客人，并确保客人提出的任何反馈都得到好评。||房间：作为洲际钻石大使会员，我从一张特大号床升级到了经典房至配备 1 张特大床的经典休闲房。由于这两个房间类别的室内设计几乎没有什么区别，所以可以肯定地说，除了楼层和景观之外，我认为这两个房间没有任何价值差异。两种房型之间存在约 700 人民币（100 美元）的价格差异，因此决定俱乐部酒廊是否值得额外支付 700 日元而不是房间的功能。 Thea 向我介绍了这个房间，我很高兴成为 1608 房间的第一位正式客人！ ||经典俱乐部客房配备 1 张特大床，面积 53 平方米/ 571 平方英尺，采用江南风格设计，配有舒适的特大床、飞利浦纯平电视、带现代古董风格灯具的氛围照明、加大沙发区、大理石办公桌空间和江南风格的装饰包括陶茶具、花瓶和金属雕塑。电气面板包括照明控制、窗帘控制、USB-C + USB 插座、电源插座等。与其他洲际客房相比，通风系统处于先进水平，包括强大的空调系统，以及我第一次体验到的：空气过滤机。还配备 JBL 蓝牙扬声器。在我看来，浴室的灵感可能是来自于无锡洲际酒店房间里的旧浴室。如果我没记错的话，这家酒店将无锡洲际酒店的浴室提升到了新标准，吸收了旧的设计并焕然一新。有类似于老酒店的杜拉维特品牌双盥洗台、熟悉的浴缸、大型淋浴间和马桶。便利设施包括 Byredo Blanche 肥皂产品、戴森吹风机和许多标准的洲际盥洗用品。室内设计方面，浴室采用了与无锡老洲际酒店类似的浅木色大理石墙壁和地板。高高的天花板、现代江南风格的墙壁、壁橱、地毯和木地板，这是一间设计精良的房间，整体而言，在整个设计阶段都经过了精心设计。 ||附加服务：客房每晚提供夜床服务。这包括折叠床、在淋浴区放置浴袍并放置浴垫、在床附近放置一双拖鞋、供水服务，最后在床上放置一只泰迪熊。我还收到了一张欢迎卡和一个果盘作为欢迎礼品。 ||一个未准备好的房间：令我感到相当惊讶的是，在我到达之前，这个房间实际上并没有完全准备好——尽管一开始就没有人使用过这个房间。房间没有达到我们在其他干净的酒店看到的指示性标准。木地板、浴室和沙发区域周围仍然散落着装修碎片。电视准备得不好，一开始就变色了，戴森吹风机的喷嘴也不见了。我们的目标是，落成的酒店必须给客人留下深刻的第一印象。我的第一印象是酒店仍然需要提高对客人的准备程度。从这样的时刻开始，对酒店的声誉来说不太合适。 ||洲际俱乐部：我是第二天第一个来到洲际俱乐部酒廊的客人。酒廊位于酒店二楼。全新的休息室设有螺旋楼梯，可通往一楼大堂、会议室、客厅、多个用餐空间和自助餐区。所有这些都具有江南风格，熟悉的木质色调、豪华家具、大理石柜台和更多硬件功能。管理洲际俱乐部的是洲际俱乐部助理经理 Wenzel Wen。 Wenzel 和他的员工（包括 Thea）让我对酒店业和一般工作条件有了深入的了解。下午茶和欢乐时光目前正处于试验阶段，休息室正在研究如何更好地完善其服务。 ||第一天下午的下午茶是自助餐；但在我离开的第二天，这是一个以茶具为特色的新单点概念。我认为茶具更好，可以添加烤饼、凝脂奶油和果酱来改善。茶的选择也很棒，有袋装茶和当地的散叶茶。 ||欢乐时光也是自助餐服务，以公社餐厅自助餐的浓缩版为特色。太多的酒店选择使用欢乐时光作为简化的晚餐概念。我和许多其他经理一样认为，欢乐时光应该只包括小食品、奶酪、熟食和其他鸡尾酒小吃。这可以成为欢乐时光进一步改善的一种方式。令我高兴的是，Thea 掌握了 Zurita Tonic Challenge，其中包括一种含有苹果汁、糖、柠檬汁和姜汁汽水的非酒精饮料。 ||今后，我建议总经理Helena Jiang不要亲自使用洲际俱乐部作为与酒店员工的会议场所。这也适用于可能自己也使用过它的其他营销和销售人员。也许办公室、空置的会议室或任何其他非宾客空间都是进行此类激烈演讲的理想场所。客人，尤其是俱乐部酒廊的客人，应该拥有一个专属空间，员工不会与客人共享相同的服务空间。我认为海伦娜使用俱乐部酒廊树立了一个坏榜样，尤其是当我看到她带了两名员工并坦率地在俱乐部酒廊里大声喧哗时。她强有力的领导力是我所尊重的，但我认为在宾客区的这种行为不仅会给她自己带来不好的印象，也会给酒店带来不好的印象。这是我在酒店看到太多的一个问题，许多总经理和俱乐部休息室经理客观地同意俱乐部休息室不应该由任何员工使用。 ||英迪格酒店：虽然英迪格酒店和洲际酒店是两个独立的品牌形象，但包括罗比在内的许多管理人员实际上都在两家酒店轮班。英迪格酒店大楼毗邻洲际酒店大楼。它以精品店为特色，但与传统的洲际酒店不同，它可能具有时尚奢华的风格。 Thea带我完整的参观了酒店的住宿和设施，其中大部分还没有开业。我参观了特大号床间、双床间、小型套房和一卧室套房；我认为所有这些在价格上都很有价值，但可以改善设计缺陷，例如狭窄的淋浴间。此外，我还参观了几间看起来很漂亮的会议室、已关闭的喜尚全日餐厅、已关闭的顶层酒吧、已关闭的室外游泳池和健身房。有趣的是，英迪格酒店的健身房被用作酒店年会舞蹈表演的练习场地。两家酒店的工作人员都在为这次活动排练，看得挺过瘾。||洲际大厦的更多房间：Thea还带我去了洲际大厦的其他房间参观，包括经典房、普通套房、和一间特大号床卧室套房。所有这些都经过精心设计和精心策划。 100 平方米的 1 间特大卧室套房（每晚 3000 日元）的设计明显比我住过的任何其他洲际套房都要好。如上海滴水湖洲际酒店的8000元套房、苏州洲际酒店的3000元套房、深圳大梅沙度假村的专属5000元一房行政套房。 ||餐厅和酒吧：在愉快地参观了英迪格酒店之后，Thea 在我在那里用餐之前向我介绍了餐厅和酒吧。所有餐饮业务均由 Robbie 和酒店餐饮总监 Simon Zhang 负责运营。以下是我有机会参观过的以下用餐场所：||大堂酒廊：酒店的大堂酒廊和酒吧位于大堂旁边。酒廊设有一个大型吧台，环绕着大堂酒廊的中心。天花板上有一个受现代江南风格美学启发的艺术装置。客人可以在这里领取 IHG One 迎宾饮品、享用鸡尾酒或下午茶。但请注意，大堂酒廊一直是内容创作者摄影的热门场所。 ||彩丰楼：洲际酒店集团旗下的招牌中式连锁餐厅，将当地食材和特色菜提升到享有盛誉的水平，在许多洲际酒店、皇冠假日酒店和华邑酒店都能找到。尽管彩凤楼的品牌本质上与全国其他连锁店一样提供粤菜，但这家酒店将无锡美食作为当地风味融入到菜单中。然而，该餐厅固有的问题是其主餐厅的用餐容量非常小，只有 8 张桌子。私人用餐座位比主餐厅座位多得多，这对于想要在这家餐厅用餐的酒店客人来说非常不方便，因为位置非常偏僻，附近没有太多餐饮选择。||Char 餐厅和酒吧：酒店的招牌美式牛排馆。这是一家开放式厨房概念的餐厅，供应美国农业部优质肉眼牛排等美食。这个现代空间审视了亲密简约的室内装饰，使招牌菜肴成为亮点。这家餐厅的传统是，您可以用自己选择的刀、不同类型的芥末和精选的海盐来吃牛排。 CHAR 餐厅也位于黄浦江畔的洲际酒店集团旗下上海英迪格酒店，著名 YouTube 博主“Max the Meat Guy”在这里发现了他对烹饪的雄心，并因此而声名鹊起。 CHAR 还在其网络的其他分支机构赢得了米其林指南。这家牛排馆仍在装修中，将于三月份酒店开业时开业。 ||Commune：洲际酒店的招牌全日制餐厅连锁店，在中国大陆许多较新的洲际酒店中都可以看到它的身影。这是一个现代化的空间，设有大理石墙壁、多个自助柜台、现代化的座椅以及设有儿童游乐场的庭院景观。周末和节假日期间提供自助晚餐。其他工作日提供单点午餐、晚餐或小吃。这里也是酒店自助早餐的场所。主厨是前重庆来福士洲际酒店全日制餐厅厨师Kevin Kong。||传统上，在我的住宿中，我会挑战每家酒店的餐饮总监，选择酒店的用餐体验供我回顾。在这种情况下，西蒙希望我体验一下酒店首创的公社自助晚餐服务。西蒙实际上是一位非常年轻的才华横溢的导演，在法国接受过烹饪培训。迄今为止，他是我亲自见过的最年轻的餐饮总监。他的决策非常大胆，和我一样对彩凤楼的现状还不满意。尽管如此，我真的很喜欢他对烹饪技艺的奉献。||繁忙的晚餐服务：值得注意的是，与几乎空荡荡的酒店房间相反，酒店的公社晚餐服务非常繁忙，当地人不在酒店过夜。除了罗比、凯文和西蒙负责监督极其繁忙的开业晚宴服务外，英迪格酒店的经理肖恩·金 (Sean Kim) 也过来监督服务并与我谈论酒店行业。 ||自助餐：西蒙创造了一个罕见的自助餐概念，但却提供了一个巨大的卖点：自助餐+购物车服务。这意味着您享用的是全套自助餐，但厨师会将特色菜放在推车或拼盘上送到每张桌子上供客人享用。此类推车包括伊比利亚火腿车、鸡尾酒车、生鱼片拼盘、干熟牛排车和甜点车。不管你相信与否，它并不止于此。每个站都有全套自助餐，包括沙拉、新鲜生蚝、中式菜肴、东南亚菜肴、精选西式菜肴，还有面站、火锅站、甜品站和烧烤站，还有更多牛排、羊排、虾和龙虾。当价格实际上约为 450 日元（63 美元）时，我真的无语了。这比上海佘山世茂洲际酒店的自助晚餐（618元）、广州洲际酒店的自助晚餐（568元）等更超值。我认为这顿自助晚餐是我吃过的最好的。问题只是他们能否在明年的自助餐中保持同样的质量和理念。总体而言，餐饮部做出了令人印象深刻的努力。我就是无法停止谈论它。有史以来最好的自助餐！！！||健身中心：吃完那么多食物后，我们需要燃烧掉那些卡路里。晚餐前，西娅带我参观了配备了最新健身设施的健身房。我唯一的批评是，健身房隐藏在墙后，与隐藏在玻璃墙后面的健身房相比，从健身中心大堂看去并不那么上镜。它只是给人一种奇怪的孤立锻炼的感觉。我尝试了室内游泳池，我是第二位使用它的客人。这是一个小型的绿色泳池，不适合长时间游泳，但确实是一个清爽的泳池。更衣室肯定缺少其他设施，例如更衣长凳、旧拖鞋箱、泳衣烘干机等。旧毛巾箱位置设计不佳，孔位上有一个可移动的盖子，堵塞了孔位，导致毛巾难以进入毛巾箱。 ||自助早餐：西蒙和餐饮部的自助餐工艺令人印象深刻。早上7点30分，酒店的公社餐厅远没有晚餐服务那么繁忙。事实上，当我第一次进去时，除了我自己之外，并没有其他客人在场。半小时后，餐厅里只有两位客人加入我。我很高兴也很荣幸能和罗比一起吃早餐。公社的早餐包括各种中式菜肴、豆浆、粥、水果、西式选择、面食、鸡蛋选择、欧陆式早餐等等。我的亮点包括迄今为止在中国吃过的最好的班尼迪克蛋、苏式馄饨、新鲜定制的煎饼、新鲜果汁和水果。这无疑是迄今为止我在大中华区吃过的排名第一的洲际自助早餐。无锡太湖新城洲际酒店让完善自助早餐如此简单，但不知为何其他洲际酒店却发现这件事很难。我不明白为什么。||结论：遗憾的是，我在试营业的无锡太湖新城洲际酒店的时光就这样结束了。我办理退房手续并由我遇到的一些出色的工作人员送走。酒店整体上正在走向完美。总经理Helena Jiang面临的首要挑战是改善客人对房间的第一印象，并确保在客人第一次进入之前，每个房间都准备得干净、运转正常。房间给客人的第一印象很重要。预计三月盛大开业，祝酒店好运！如果采纳我的建议，改进得当的话，这家酒店每晚的价值将超过 1,700 日元。 ||以下是我对酒店的排名：||洲际俱乐部：在 31 个酒廊中排名第 9 ||洲际自助早餐在中国：在 24 家自助餐厅中排名第 1 ||洲际酒店整体排名：在 37 家洲际酒店中排名第 4 ||最后，我必须感谢以下人士，他们真正提升了我第一次试营业酒店的体验： ||Robbie Kelder|Thea Zhou|Wenzel Wen|Sean Kim|Vicky Shen|Simon Zhang |James Xu |Criss Han |Torison Liu|餐饮部|前厅部|洲际俱乐部员工||祝总经理Helena Jiang带领两家酒店走向成功的未来！

7 个月前