I stayed at this hotel for one night during spring break (April 12–13) with my family, who were also celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary. It was my first time staying at an InterContinental, and my experience was mostly fantastic. This hotel is near the top of my list for a luxury stay in Atlanta, but there are some kinks to work out and ways they could further enhance the guest experience. Overall, however, the hotel won me over with its plentiful amenities, great location, and beautiful interiors. I will surely be back despite some minor annoyances. Heads up, review is pretty long and detailed from my experience at this hotel.
The Hotel Amenities:
The InterContinental Buckhead is located in the heart of the Buckhead district, an area full of fine dining, designer shopping, and luxury cars. The hotel is within a 30-minute walk of almost everything in the neighborhood, including a 15-minute walk to both Lenox Square and Phipps Plaza, and a 5-minute walk to a MARTA station. If you prefer not to walk, there is a complimentary, first-come-first-served house car, a black Cadillac Escalade, with a drop-off limit of 2.5 miles. We used this service to visit the Atlanta History Center, and the driver was very friendly. I do wish the service included pick-ups as well as drop-offs though.
The layout is elegant and grand. From the staffed porte-cochere, a windowed hallway leads left to the reception room (housing the bell, concierge, and reception desks), right to one of their ballrooms and straight ahead is the manicured Windsor Garden courtyard. The reception room leads to the Great Hall, which features an entrance onto Peachtree Road, the Americano and Caffé Americano restaurants, a coffee cart in the mornings, and plenty of comfortable seating and potted plants. Back of the hall is the four keycard-secured elevators, and they are pretty fast. Another hallway leads to the hotel's meeting and event space. The Spa, fitness center, and outdoor pool are on the 2nd floor, while the Club Lounge is on the 21st. We didn't use the Spa but it looked nice, and every booking gets a $15 spa credit per stay. The heated year-round pool is large, with a nice-sized hot tub. The pool area also has a bar playing music, but you can also order food from the Americano and have it delivered to your pool chair. There's plenty of flowers and plants around the pool area to give it a nice vibe. They also have cabanas for rent, cushioned loungers, patio tables and chairs, and umbrellas. The gym is spacious and well-equipped, offering chilled towels, earbuds, and water. Great big windows overlooking Peachtree Road too.
However, despite the recent hotel renovation in 2023, the gym still felt a bit dated. And while the pool deck was generally well-kept and super clean, we had an issue when we visited at night. A broken plastic cup was floating in the water, and a pile of dirty plates and towels had been left by the hot tub. Also, the pool deck lights were off even though the pool was still officially open. Someone could have easily stepped on the broken plastic and gotten hurt, so the staff should have kept on top of making sure the pool area was clean and safe. I also feel like the hot tub was over chlorinated. Still a great pool area though.
I love the floors, the beautiful chandelier in the lobby, and the fresh floral arrangements. Particularly loved all the artwork around the hotel. The courtyard was also very pretty with manicured hedges, trees, and flowers, a fountain, comfy patio furniture, and some lawn games like bean bag toss, croquet, and mini-basketball. Everything was incredibly clean and spotless, except for on the pool deck where someone missed that mess that night. Despite some slight oversight, overall the hotel does feel very worthy of their 5-star luxury hotel classification.
Check-In:
We arrived at 12:30 PM and opted for valet parking at $62/night (self-parking is $45). You just text a number to retrieve your car, and the valet attendants were always quick and friendly. The reception area was slammed. There was a pretty long line and only two receptionists working despite there being four stations. We had a confirmed 10:30 AM early check-in and an upgrade through our travel advisor, but we were told our upgraded room wasn't ready yet. This upgrade was confirmed almost two weeks in advance, so they should have been prepared, but since we had plans until 4:00 PM, we weren't bothered and left our luggage with them and asked them to bring around the house car. They also asked for our numbers to contact us when the room was ready, but that never happened. When we returned at 5:00 PM, we had to wait for the single receptionist on duty. Our luggage had not been moved to our room, and since the bell desk was unstaffed, we had to wait and then call to have our bags brought up. Though they had two concierge desks on either side of the reception desk with spots for four concierges, we saw zero our entire stay. And after that morning, whenever we walked through the lobby, there was only ever 1 receptionist, zero concierge, always unstaffed bell desk, and outside, there was only two valet attendants. Definitely some staffing issues, but everyone we did meet was very helpful and polite. They could have been a little more warm though.
The Room:
I can't quite remember if we were in room 2004 or 2003, but it was a 2 Queen Premium City View High Floor room on the 20th floor. We paid $319 for the night (originally booking a 2 Queen Classic High Floor room and receiving an upgrade through our travel advisor worth about $30–$40). There's two categories of rooms, excluding suites, classic and premium. Premium rooms are slightly larger, exclusively come with turndown service, and can come with club lounge access. Our 488-square-foot premium room was modern, bright, and comfortable. The view, amenities, bed, bathroom, it was all of incredible quality and truly did feel up to 5-star luxury standards. Our room also came with a welcome gift, a big bottle of sparkling water, a platter of some of the freshest fruit I've ever had at a hotel, and 4 cutlery sets, all delivered with compliments from our travel advisor and the team at the hotel. The fruit was delicious, and the guy who brought it up was very nice. Very kind of them.
The TV was the biggest I've ever seen in any hotel room. The lighting was soft and warm, and I appreciate the reading lights on both sides of both beds. Non-suites have Keurig coffee makers, which is fine, but a Nespresso would have preferred since most of the other 5-star hotels in the city have them. The room also had plenty of glassware, missing saucer dishes though. Two complimentary water bottles are provided daily. Minibar had plenty of soft drinks and alcohol, little lacking in sweets and snacks though. You also get a daily $10 minibar credit. However, our beverage cooler wasn't working, so they brought us a mini fridge within 5 minutes after calling down. The bed was exceptionally comfortable with a heavy duvet and high-quality linens. I requested firm pillows, which were waiting for me with a nice note card identifying them. There were plenty of drawers and a decently sized closet, so plenty of storage. The room had a tablet on the nightstand which allowed you to communicate with staff, order room service, or view information about the hotel. Its dock also had a bluetooth speaker. Plenty of outlets around the beds too. The room also had two bathrobe and slipper sets, which were high quality, though unbranded and were more of a towel texture rather than plush, but they were still great. The bathroom was big and had a separate tub and shower. Loved the darker moody design. The water pressure was fantastic and the water got hot quickly. The complimentary toiletries were Byredo brand and certainly feel worth the $80 a bottle they ask for on their website. There's also all the little boxes of extra amenities you'd expect from a 5-star hotel like a mending kit, mouthwash, shower cap, etc. Our view from the 20th floor was amazing, we had a view of tall glass building that lit up the skyline beautifully at night. And if we didn't want to appreciate the view, we had a nice heavy set of sheers along with blackout curtains.
Turndown service was a bit hit-or-miss. They tidied the room, replenished the 2 water bottles, left ice in our bucket, closed the curtains, and left chocolates on our pillows, but they only provided two chocolates for four guests. They also didn't lay out the robes or slippers, which are standard touches at this price point. No water and glasses on the nightstand either, and this hotel doesn't have a breakfast menu to hang on the door handle. Despite this, the room was fantastic, we loved it and was very glad to have a 4:00 PM late check-out from our travel advisor.
The Dining:
The hotel has two, though technically one, restaurants called the Americano and Caffé Americano, both are off the Great Hall in the lobby. Caffe Americano is just what they call an area across from the Americano main dining room. We ate breakfast the morning of our checkout. It was incredibly good. Fruit was very fresh, omelets were delicious, and a true standout was the French Toast, it was very good. The specialty juices were also good. They sometimes do a breakfast buffet when the hotel is full, but not this time since the hotel was only half full. The staffing issues didn't seem to make it here, since there were a lot of very attentive waiters and waitresses, all bright smiles and were a pleasure to talk too. Breakfast can get pricy though, it was $122 for four, and there was an automatic 25% service charge. The breakfast was free though, thanks to our travel advisor booking. It came with two complimentary breakfasts and a $100 credit ($60 was used for parking so $40 remaining). Even if I wasn't staying at the hotel I would come back for breakfast, and I have to try dinner here when I return. I'm not sure if you get a 20% or $20 dinner credit per stay, as different staff said different things. They also didn't seem to know if our breakfast was a $36 credit per person or if it was truly complimentary. But we still enjoyed Caffé Americano.
Final Thoughts:
I overall had a great stay here at the InterContinental Buckhead. Despite some issues with staffing and a bit of danger at the pool area, I think this is a great hotel with very good value for what you spend here. Compared to other luxury hotels in the city, this hotel is definitely at the lower cost end, which bumps up the value to the best in the city in my opinion. When booking this hotel I originally thought the Intercontinental brand is to IHG like the Ritz-Carlton is to Marriott. So I did come in with higher expectations than I should have, but now with some experience, I believe this hotel is a tier lower. But still a fantastic option for a luxury hotel nonetheless. The rooms, amenities, breakfast, and ambience, all give this hotel a solid four out of five, but that can easily be a five out of five if they iron out some kinks with the staff and streamline the guest experience further. I certainly will consider this hotel next time I'm in Atlanta, and I think you should too.
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