InterContinental Mzaar (Mountain Resort & Spa) by IHG — Hotel in Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate

The Intercontinental chain is one that I am a loyal customer of, due to the professionalism of its staff, the facilities and the overall experience. The only thing that related the property at Mzaar with the Intercontinental Hotel brand is the name above the reception. At the Intercontinental Mzaar there is no care shown for the property and even less care for the customers - even loyal ones. The hotel is in a beautiful location right on the ski slopes. When you enter the lobby you see the many awards that it has won over the years. Unfortunately it seems that the hotel lives on its past glory, because nothing in our stay could be considered a five star Intercontinental experience. The facility is run down- display shelves in the lobby have been left empty with broken lights dangling - the place gives off an air of unkemptness. The toilets in the rooms do not flush properly - the rooms are run down. The play areas in the basement are dilapidated. The staff overall regard guests as a nuisance. A visit to the spa for a one hour massage demonstrated this quite obviously. Though there was no other guest in the spa the masseuse arrived ten minutes late and showed minimal interest in her customer. We cancelled the other two booked massages because of the first unpleasant experience. The purpose of our visit to the hotel was for the children to go skiing. Since it was their first time there we asked for ski instructors to guide them. We hired one ski instructor for each child due to their different skiing ability. The ski instructors took the children out for two hours and charged USD250 each. When I queried the extortionate price, they told me I had to pay the fee for a full day not just the two hours. Reception, who recommended the two instructors, were sheepish when I complained, but told me there was nothing I could do because the instructors belonged to a company not the hotel. We had numerous experiences of bad service but the last one was unbelievable. We booked two cars to transport us back to Beirut. The women at the desk explained that the cars would take us (a family of three adults, two children and a considerable amount of luggage) to a meeting point where we would have to swap transport. This was because the hotel needed the "four wheel drives" to return back to the hotel to bring out more guests since the snow was getting really heavy. We were assured that two cars or one van large enough to accommodate the number of people and amount of luggage would be picking us up at the swap point. After a pretty hair-raising drive - not in a four wheel drive- we arrived at the swap point to find that only one car albeit a seven-seater was awaiting us. The vehicle could not physically fit the number of people and amount of luggage, which is why we had confirmed and paid for having two vehicles the whole way. When we insisted that we needed another car to get to Beirut the driver of the car who took us to the meeting point became abusive and literally kicked us out of his car and left us standing in a snowstorm, whilst he turned back to pick up the next batch of passengers from the hotel. Our only saving grace was that an empty taxi happened on the scene and drove us to Beirut. It is unfortunate that this hotel carries the Intercontinental name because it misleads loyal Intercontinental customers into believing they are paying for and will experience the service the brand is renowned for. A total overhaul of the property and training of the staff is sorely...

Definitely not 5 stars.

An Ad kept popping up on my facebook page about a very special offer made by Intercontinental Mzar for the month of April 2019. The offer was catchy. One night including Fondue Dinner for a fair price. I called, booked, and asked the operator if we can book a one-hour massage session on the phone, and his confident answer was no, you can book once you're here.

My wife and I were really looking forward for this getaway after long weeks of work. Our main plan was to chill at the pool, have a one-hour massage session each, and enjoy the food.

Once we arrived, we waited for at least 5 minutes at the reception for someone to show up... He said your room will be ready soon. Check-in was supposed to be at 3:00 PM (50 minutes before our arrival). We said it's okay, we're going to the SPA reception to make our booking...

SPA is on the -3 Floor. Once we got there, we could not find any signs that lead us to the entrance. Once we discovered the door, a very newly-refurbished reception was there, with no one at the counter. We did a small tour trying to find someone to talk to. After around 10 minutes of playing hide-and-seek, we discovered that the receptionist was probably taking a nap in the reception's back office.

Anyway, he told us that they're fully booked for the day and and that they can only try to give us a 30-minute session each the next day (for almost the same price of a 60-minute session each, which is not logical at all). I mentioned that when i previously booked on the phone, the operator said that there's no need to make a phone reservation. The answer was: We are a different entity. We are not related to the hotel, and there's nothing we can do.

We went back up to the reception, and Elie, the receptionist, tried his best to fix the situation. Unfortunately, he couldn't do anything. To make it up, Elie upgraded us for a mini-suite instead of our standard room.

The suite was luxurious, clean, and had a nice view. However, the air conditioner was not working, the heater was not completely turning off, and for that reason we had to sleep with the balcony door open.

We woke up at 8:00 AM to the sound of two maintenance workers shouting and tearing down the roof of the building right below our balcony! Of course, we couldn't close the door due to the high temperature inside the room and couldn't turn on the air conditioner because it was not working.

So, we had no other option but to wake up, go down to have breakfast, and check out forever from Intercontinental Mzar.

Briefly:

Food is great, and the restaurant staff are friendly.

Rooms are spacious and new.

The bed is comfy.

They have staff shortage at the reception and probably the cleaning team (very late check-ins).

Booking operators lack experience.

If you're looking for a luxurious 5-star hotel experience, Intercontinental Mzar is not the place....

I stayed in this hotel last week. It is well known to be low season, but it is low in services. This Hotel is well located and this is the only advantage I can say when I pay that amount of money.

If we start by parking valet: there is hidden cost added to the hotel bill of 13$/night. We have not been informed about it and you discover it at the checkout. All parking slots are outsources to third-party, and if you want to have self parking, you can use the slopes!!

Secondly, it was low season, and the hotel was almost at 20% capacity. The customer care was equally to the "low" season.

If I need to mention the WIFI, it was always unstable, weak and low speed. When I inquire, they said that is the best we have!!!

Morever, in the second day of our stay, there was a maintenance to the elevator, and they used some materials like kerosone for some purpose. So we had to smell for the rest of our stay this odor. When we complained, the rep just promised to see what he can do, without any serious consideration.

We went to the cinema theater, the cashier informed us in advance that we need to garantee 6 tickets at least in ordet to run the movie. We were two,and obviously he did accept to run the show.

If you go to the bowling area, you have to pay 10$ / person for a row that does not proper sliding scheme, no side support for the kids and not tray support for kids. My daughter had to over pass the line, and walk down the non-"sliding" path to through the ball.

When you go to the arcades, half of the games are not working and the others are oldies.

And the GYM, it has the best machines, but is the has the worst monitor. We went the first day all of us as family: parents and kids and there was no monitor . The second day, as the monitor Mr. NIdal was sleeping and he was annoyed because we wake him up, he starting imposing rules as kids are not allowed, and he has been so rude, not inline with the 5 star hotel services. On my way out, i checked the noticeboard and it did not mention anything about kids. but it was mentioned only the opening hours for the GYM.

The restaurant is the only good option that I enjoyed during my stay. Service plates were large enough and with the half board option we took with our package, the food was really more than enough.

As an overall, the hotel has an average rate,versus very high prices. The hotel is taking advantage of its unique location, but the services are not worth the...