David InterContinental Tel Aviv, an IHG Hotel

My wife and I usually stay at 4 & 5-star hotels only. We last stayed at the David ICH in TLV 15+ years ago when it was definitely 5-star, but for our two day stay just completed it has slipped a little and is probably now 4.5 stars. First the good: the staff are absolutely first-class - from the management right down to the most junior employee. The public areas are lovely and the bedrooms and bathrooms modernised. Breakfast is typically Israeli buffet style and magnificent. Our visit was in January, so we can't comment on the pool and its surrounding as these were closed (as usual in Israel) - but there was a small outside sitting area, which was good because the weather was superb. So, why the loss of a star rating? Firstly, there was no restaurant on-site (and there hasn't been for several months). Although there was bar food and 24-hour room service, hotels of this size and nature must have an open restaurant to be classed as 5-star. Secondly, the drawers and sliding doors in our bedroom were in desperate need of repair and modernisation. Doors were hanging off. Also, nights are very cold in Israel in January but the heating in our room was not working properly and the room thus quite cold. I raised this issue with one of the management team, who admitted that the problem was across the bedrooms of the hotel and had been known for several months - but not yet fixed. This is unacceptable. So, our previous rating of 5-star is downgraded a little.

We especially selected this hotel because of the assurances in the promotional material stating that the Hotel is taking special precautions in light of Covid. This was not the case. We were not asked to show our vaccination certificates at check-in. We WERE asked to wear special gold plastic bracelets. We seemed to be the only ones wearing them. My wife counted only 7 people wearing them at the outdoor pool. At breakfast, the buffet was plentiful but open. Nothing was covered and fruit flies were flying out of the prunes! There were many guests in the hotel. Many were not wearing masks. There were also many children. We did not feel safe. We were disappointed that pool only opened at 10:00 am - no facilities for lane swimmers. We would have been prepared to have an early morning swim to avoid the crowds, as we’ve done this year at other 5 star hotels in Tel Aviv. When we raised our concerns, the desk clerk dismissed them and was quite rude. For the price we paid, our hotel experience was less than worth it.