Very disappointing, Over charged, Bad service, NOT RECOMMENDED!
On Friday I went for some pre-dinner drinks at the Arch Bar with a friend to celebrate Valentines Day. After having two glasses of champagne each, we decided to share one final glass. However, when the bill arrived, we noticed that we were being charged for 7 glasses of champagne instead of 5. Thinking that the waitresses had simply made an honest mistake, we got the attention of one of the waitresses to kindly explain that we had only had 5 glasses of champagne. The waitress then had a discussion with the Bar Team Leader and the other waitress that had served our champagne.
>>>To our surprise, the Team Leader told us that she had spoken to her waitresses and that she had no choice but to “100% believe them” that we had had 7 glasses of champagne, not 5. She then said that she was willing to give us one glass for free and charge us for 6 glasses instead. After we insisted that we had only had 5, the Team Leader said that she would check the CCTV footage later in the evening and agreed, for the moment, to only charge us for 5. Although we were almost entirely certain that we had only had 5 glasses of champagne, my friend left his contact card with the Team Leader and said that we would happily come back and pay for any extra glasses that we may have had.
This morning I received an email from the Bar Team Leader. She explained that she had gone over the CCTV footage and apologised because she confirmed that we were right and that we had only had 5 glasses of champagne in total. She offered us a couple of complimentary glasses of champagne on our next visit.
The worst part about the whole situation was not that the Bar tried to overcharge us – it was the poor and rude service from the staff. We were completely taken aback that the waitresses insisted that we were effectively lying and would not take our word. Surely in these situations the customer should have the benefit of the doubt? I have been a loyal customer of the Intercontinental Hotel for a long time, not just in London, and I have to say that I was extremely disappointed with the level of service.
This experience has undoubtedly completely changed my opinion of the level of service at the Intercontinental Hotel. We will no longer visit this hotel and in the future will instead have lots of choices to choose other hotels or hotel bars where we wouldn’t receive such poor treatment. Very disappointing.