View from the Room: Intercontinental Warsaw

5*****

In our room in possibly the tallest hotel I’ve stayed in, through a hallway, we found a large comfy bed, with lamps on both sides plus that micro reading light and a lovely large desk with handy drawer for wallets and keys, an armchair with a little coffee table plus seating along the base of the bed. All together well equipped with lots of lights throughout.

Amenities

• Bathrobe and slippers. Just the one and the slipper split on the second wear.

• 2 USB points on 1 side of bed

• Luggage stand

• Hair dryer

• Iron & board

• Laundry bag (material so I didn’t take it for dirty laundry as I normally would have)

• TV (almost all Polish)

Storage

• 3 drawers on one side of bed

• Bedside table with shelf

• Fantastically placed ample shelving under the TV which served well for things to grab on the way out

• Double wardrobe with an assortment of 12 quality wooden hangers

• Glass cabinet with glasses, cups, (wine glasses and beer glasses untouched) (lit up - unable to turn off separately so warm)

Refreshments

A kettle plus sachets of hot chocolate, coffee & teas are provided but no milk.

For some sort of safety reason, the fridge was locked and we unable to use it and there was no milk. We had to call down in the morning for this, which I forgot to do every morning until after the coffee was made but thankfully they bought it (an unnecessarily huge jug) up quickly. I have yet to learn why it’s safer for staff to be in close proximity to me to hand over a jug of milk than just to have the fridge in operation.

Bathroom

• Full set toiletries including a sanitiser spray. Curiously, the bar of soap was taken and not replaced on the second day, so we had to ask for it. I was surprised the room was being cleaned automatically without us requesting it in the current (2021) climate. Ever since South Place Hotel supplied a soap holder, I’ve taken to grabbing what ever is left of the soap to bring home. It seems so wasteful to bin it.

• Only storage is the around sink

• Towel rail

• 2 large 2 small towels. Bath mat.

• Amenity kit (cotton wool. Buds, shower cap)

• Separate shower and additional towel rail (which remained unused

• Tissue box and sanitary bags

• Close up mirror

Our main complaint was that there is no control over the air con. It is set centrally and we had to ask staff four times in 24 hours to lower the temperature. Twice, an engineer had to visit (but we can’t have access to the fried). I find it strange, especially in a 5* establishment that each guest cannot decide what temperature they’d like they’re onw room at. This goes back to my mantra that a hotel room should be at least as good as my home. For a 5*, I’d expect it to be a little more luxurious. Which brings me onto my final point.

It was the beloved’s birthday and as the last one was spent at home, we pushed the boat out for some lux for 2021.This is probably the tallest hotel I’ve stayed in, which is lovely for the views, which are even better from the spa and leisure centre. However, not so good when walking down 34 flights of stairs after midnight as instructed by the loud voice coming out of the speaker in the room. A fire alarm rings for a reason so of course we must leave the building to keep ourselves safe. However, when we reached the bottom, there were no staff to greet us, instruct us or worst of all, check if we were all present and safe.

I did grab my coat and boots as they were by the front door and I always place my mask on the front door handle in case housekeeping arrive. I daren’t look at the floor numbers as I was rushing down but I looked up to see peaked floor 17, half way. From this point, all I could think of was Grenfell and I quickened my stop. There was only 1 other person going down this stairwell with us, from xxx hotel rooms and the apartments. When we got outside, there were only about 25-30 people there. As we had our coats, we waited about 5-10 minutes for staff to approach and update. They were not forthcoming. Eventually, we walked towards the hotel entrance and staff just beckoned us in. No explanation. No apology. We didn’t get this during the rest of our stay either. At the very least, I expected an apology for the few of us that bothered to heed instructions. It is pretty frightening to be in a tall building with the fire alarm going off.

Staff were friendly during every interaction throughout, with their perfect English. But after the fire alarm, my confidence waned somewhat for our safety while in the Intercontinental Warsaw.

November 2021