Miami, Florida: InterContinental

January 2025, two nights, weekend

Beautiful sculpture in the lobby at InterContinental Miami.

Reservations, arrival, platinum perks

InterContinantal has an ambassador program, and elite level IHG members do not usually receive perks if not also an ambassador member. I am not a member of the ambassador program, because there is a cost to join, and the program is only good at IC hotels. I received the platinum on-site 600 bonus points at check-in, and I opted to pay for club access. I had booked this stay with points, and the only points room available when booking was a basic guestroom. The club upgrade was a bit pricey, so we only added this for one night of our stay.

Floor 28 in InterContinental Miami hotel

Guestroom on floor 28

This guestroom is one of the corner rooms with a partial view, so I suppose we also received a slight room upgrade. The guestroom did not seem particularly large, although the corner rooms do look larger in the guestroom diagram (see photo above).

Guestroom on floor 28 in InterContinental Miami hotel

Unfortunately, I do not recall the exact guestroom number of the room we stayed in, and the detailed folio does not show on my IHG profile. The guestroom was comfortable and well soundproofed. The only extras in the guestroom were a nice bathrobe, and a costly mini-bar. 

Bathroom in guestroom on floor 28 in InterContinental Miami hotel
Safe below located in bathroom closet

Although we thought the bathroom was nice, the rest of the guestroom did not give the appearance or comfort of elegance, like I expected. The sheets and bedding were the same quality I usually experience in Staybridge Suites. 

Club InterContinental in Miami, Florida
Photo below: view from club lounge

Club InterContinental lounge on floor 29

Foods and beverages in the concierge lounge were good quality. The lounge was open for self-serve breakfast in the morning, cookies and coffee/tea in the afternoon, and for evening snacks and alcoholic beverages. 

Club InterContinental in Miami, Florida

Although we enjoyed the lounge, I thought the $100 per day charge for two people was a bit steep. I suppose this price is fair when considering the cost of restaurants in Miami. It seemed high to me, because we had paid this same amount for club access at a JW in Cancun a few years ago, which provided superior foods and beverages.

Pool photo and cabana area for rent at InterContinental Miami

Pool area, misc., and overall

The pool area and outside bar looked nice. We only walked through the area, as the weather was cool during our stay.

This hotel charges a resort fee of $35 per night, which we had to pay in addition to the redeemed points and Club access fee. After our stay, I noticed this information on the hotel website: The Nightly resort fee includes free wireless internet (Wi-Fi), access to Steam Room and Sauna in mySpa including a credit of $10 at Toro Toro and $25 credit in mySpa. No one made me aware of these credits during our stay, even though I questioned the resort fee, and I had to check-in twice. Our nights were linked together; however, because we only had club access one day, staff said I had to return to the front desk to have our keys recoded and check-in again. 

Overall, this was a hugely disappointing stay, and I would never choose this hotel again. I expected superior quality service and guestroom amenities from InterContinental. We ended up at this hotel, because the first hotel I had chosen, The Gabriel Miami Downtown, Curio Collection by Hilton, left the Hilton family before our trip, and that reservation was canceled. Next time, I would choose the Kimpton before InterContinental. 

We walked to the cruise port when we checked out of this hotel, and I will provide information about that in my next post. 

Let me know if you have any questions, and feel free to share this post!