InterContinental Presidente Guadalajara by IHG — Hotel in Jalisco

Negative Five Stars if I could||||This hotel was advertised as supposedly being the best in Guadalajara, and by the looks of the pictures, I decided to book it. It was my first-time visiting Guadalajara and so I was unfamiliar with the area that this hotel is situated on. I should’ve informed myself better.||||As soon as I arrived, I quickly noticed that this perhaps was not the best area that Guadalajara had to offer to its visitors. The area surrounding the hotel is filled with seedy people and it immediately made me feel unsafe. There was nobody in the supposed valet area to welcome me, and so I chose the self-park option and feared I’d be mugged for the BMW I was driving.||||It was very confusing getting to the hotel lobby from the self-parking. When I finally arrived at the hotel lobby, I was immediately disappointed as I saw no people except restaurant staff standing in front of empty restaurants. It was like walking into a ghost town with few unwelcoming locals. ||||As I arrived in the lobby, I could see that this hotel was dilapidated and in a state of disrepair. I could immediately see cracks on the walls near the elevator that run several floors high which might be indicative of structural damage. Just by standing in the empty and cold lobby, I felt as If I was in a hotel that was abandoned long ago. ||||The check in process was easy as I am fluent in Spanish. I had booked a two-night stay in what supposedly was a terrace/balcony view suite similarly priced in comparison to the other big hotels in the city. At this point, I was willing to overlook the aforementioned factors and give this hotel a chance since I had booked what I believed was a suite that I would be comfortable doing work in, and since I had a vehicle, I thought I could circumnavigate the dangerous areas surrounding the hotel. ||||As the bellman escorted me to my suite, as soon as I got off on my floor, I could see how dirty and old the rug and how poorly lit the hallways were. As I approached my room, there was two housekeeping carts blocking my path because an adjacent room was being “cleaned” … The housekeepers saw me attempting to squeeze on by and they neither attempted to make way for me nor acknowledged me.||||When I arrived at my suite, the bellman did the best he could to show me around in the poorly lit room and as he was showing me around, I could see what terrible condition this room was in. The only thing that was done right was the sheets. The sheets appeared white and neatly pressed, and the bed was well made. I began to walk around to make a thorough inspection like I’ve been trained to do so.||||The first thing that I noticed was that the furniture was old, cracked and peeling. I also noticed that the glass on top of the work desk in which I planned to do my work in was cracked (could present a liability if a guest gets cut). On the old and cracked nightstand there was a note with the IHG promise to service, cleanliness, etc. Right around that note on the nightstand there were unknown yellow stains. On the black lampshade from the lamp above the nightstand had not been cleaned in ages because dust is fairly visibly on the color black. What a great start for somebody with both asthma and allergies!||||Next to the window on the side of the bed, there was a long work desk with a phone that was full of dust. How does Intercontinental intend to protect their guests from Covid-19 if they can’t even clean the phones? The long work desk had some old crusty white stains that I wouldn’t want to speculate what they were. As I looked up, I could see that the paint was old and cracking. As I looked below, I could see the carpet was torn along a crack on the window where insects could crawl in, and this area back there had not been vacuumed in years.||||I found another table with a coffee maker that had never been cleaned due to the obvious coffee cup stains from the previous guest. The carpet was completely deteriorated throughout the room and the room’s walls had several cracks on them while the roof had evidence of recent water damage. I could see that the water damage was recently painted over with cheap paint that does not correspond in a hotel room.||||When I stepped in the bathroom, I could see that everything had been swept to the door leading to the terrace and never picked up. I swiped my fingers on the bathtub, and my fingers were immediately filled with white crusty chemicals. I’m guessing the chemicals left in the bathtub were probably left behind to enhance my skin, instead of negligence.||||As I stepped onto what was supposed to be my private terrace. It wasn’t very private because I could easily jump over to the other suite’s terrace. The terrace area was full of discolored tiles and the divider wall that divided the other terrace was full of some black substance that appeared to be mold. The lounge chairs were stained and dirty and literally falling apart, they were so badly damaged that if I would’ve sat, I probably would’ve fallen through. I walked back in to gather up my belongings to leave this nightmare when I observed more cracked paint and rotting wood at the bottom of one of the pillars. ||||I never unpacked, I called and asked to speak to the hotel’s GM. They asked me what was the reason that I wanted to speak to the GM, and they told me that the GM was not available but that the reservations manager would be contacting me. Of course, not even the hotel’s GM can come out and speak to the guest because they’re too embarrassed, I’m assuming they know how terrible their hotel is. I was called back by the Reservations Manager and I invited him to come in person and do a walkthrough inspection of the room with me. I showed him each and every issue with the room, he did not say much and did not even appeared slightly remorseful nor embarrassed. He just kept on trying to upgrade me for the same price and wouldn’t stop like a pushy salesperson. At this point, not even an upgrade would’ve been adequate compensation for this nightmare. Apart from the housekeepers cutting corners, maintenance was non-existent on this room. I advised him that I was leaving and that I wanted to cancel my reservation.||||I had my reservation cancelled and I left without not knowing where I was going to spend the night. I booked a room at the Hyatt Regency Andrades which turned out to be a real four-star hotel that met my expectations for about the same price as the Intercontinental Presidente. I’m not sure if even the President of the poorest country in the world would ever stay there.||||I have been to the Intercontinental in San Francisco and the Intercontinental in Downtown Los Angeles which are true four-star properties, not unlike this property in Guadalajara. This property should be stripped of their name and not be allowed to be part of the IHG brand. I have stayed at Forbes five-star properties and I wouldn’t even consider this place to even possess one single star. I have seen the crackhead filled motels in seedy areas of Los Angeles that were in better condition than this hotel. ||||I’m a Hospitality major in one of the best Hospitality programs. I will definitely use my pictures and my nightmare as a learning experience to share with students and professors in the industry. This hotel is a disservice to hospitality. Perhaps it once was something in the early 90’s. But not in the present. I will never recommend this place and never return. I’d rather sleep on a bus bench. Not a four-star hotel by a longshot… Now I await the textbook response from management if they...

If you're in the area for business, not a bad option, as the rooms have been renovated and are quite nice -- at least on the club floor hallways. Modern, nice, and comfortable rooms with well appointed and big bathrooms. But it's not in central Guadalajara and quite far from most things, other than the expo center and a business park.

However, some things to be weary of:

What other travellers have said regarding the A/C is quite true. You're either a popsicle by morning's come, or you're a sweaty mess (depending on if you left the A/C on or off); there is no scaling of A/C in these rooms.

There is a nice Nespresso machine in the room with 4 varieties of espresso coffee for the morning. Since there are no creamer packets, you can only go with the espresso option (no cafe americano option w/o creamer or cream). I was disappointed since i like my coffee with cream or creamer, but I needed a jolt, so I made an espresso in room with the maker. No other coffee machine or coffee was in the room. I get my folio later that day and find that there was a 48 peso charge for my 2 oz. cup of espresso that I made myself earlier that morning. I couldn't believe it since i'd never heard of charging someone $4.50, basically, to make a 2 oz. cup of espresso in their own room, without any sign on the espresso/coffee machine. I had to dig into the mini-bar book to find that there was a charge for the capsule of espresso. SO not cool. This is so low on so many levels.

I paid for the capsule, told the staff it was not cool, and also promised that I'd never stay at this property for sneaky stuff like that. And of course I'll never stay here again.

Also, the lobby and bar -- while very nicely renovated -- are run by staff members who could care one iota whether you're enjoying yourself or even are being served. Very poor service but not as poor as the quality of drinks they serve. Only 25 mL pours in their alcoholic cocktails (1/2 of a US shot) and they charged about $10 USD for a simple 1/2 shot of gin Tom Collins. Really??

Also, the club level staff are hit and miss too. Miguel is a very nice server (and friendly) but the other guys are quite rude and have very few high end customer skills). Not a fan of the rest of the staff at all. The afternoon snacks weren't bad but very very limited. Also, you're only allowed one glass of atrociously bad Mexican wine or a beer (better go with the beer if you want to live) in the club level in the evening. Anything above that or liquor in nature, carries a charge. The morning club level breakfast was neat (poached eggs on tostadas, but without any flavor at all. One juice was offered (OJ) and no water at all, unless you asked for it. Very disappointed in the "Club" level.

The front desk staff (and porters) were much nicer and friendlier than most of the other service staff). The facility staff were also very nice and friendly.

Management was nowhere to be found in the restaurants, bars, club room, or front desk. Ever.

Overall: nice new room, pleasant bathroom, and pleasant front desk staff. Enjoyed my room. Did not enjoy most of the wait staff and found the 48 peso charge for a make your own 2 oz. coffee in room (with no signage) just abominable. What's next? I need to check under the bathroom sink to see if there is a secret slab announcing the price for my shampoo and conditioner?...

I was at this Intercontinental for 12 days for a business trip and I will not stay at this property again. The beds are horribly uncomfortable (unless you like a very hard bed, it was almost like sleeping on the floor) and the service was extremely inconsistent. One day my room just wasn't even cleaned, and the mini bar wasn't restocked a few days of my trip. I only got my complimentary water 3 days of the trip, and I only had washclothes replaced two days. Another day it looked like they "half" cleaned my room - the trash was taken out, but the dirty dishes remained behind and my bed was unmade and the used towels had been taken but were not replaced. Also, the room has "personal climate control" - but the controls are locked so you cannot turn off the AC, or turn to fan/heat, and you can only chose between 20 and 25C, so I was freezing pretty much the entire trip. The only time I wasn't cold was in the afternoons when the sun directly hit the windows and the room got very hot. The windows then would crack and pop all evening as the glass cooled. The first room I had did not even have a window - it had an indoor terrace that was shared with another room, so I had some stranger's children running around banging on the sliding door to my room. The sliding door which - by the way - was broken, so I could not access the terrace to see the view for which I had paid anyway. The good news is they were willing to move me to another room. The room service was fast, but the food was not that great, and the bartender downstairs was extremely unfriendly. One day I asked the front desk staff for help finding the hop-on hop-off tour, and they actually sent me to the wrong location. I walked in to the Staybridge across the street after waiting in the wrong place for 20 minutes and they were the ones to actually direct me to the right place and give me some more information about the tours. Finally - I had requested to use the business center for some early morning calls to Europe that myself and two other colleagues needed to make, but the center was locked unless you asked to enter - and then they would not allow us to use one of the conference rooms to make our call so we had to make it out in the open while other people came in to check email and print things, etc. There was no offer of explanation or how to book a conference room, etc., they just told us no and left. The only bright spot in this stay was the breakfast buffet, which was a real winner and the staff in the breakfast restaurant...