InterContinental Kansas City at The Plaza by IHG

They let me check in early so I could put flowers in the room for my wife on Valentine’s Day, which I appreciated. The room was nice, though the shower drained slowly. The TV only had cable options, and after places like Loews and other nice hotels with streaming sign-in, I would have liked that here too. Valet was hard to reach over Valentine’s weekend. The first time I asked for my car, I still had to wait downstairs after several calls, and eventually spoke with the front desk. They said they were swamped, which I can partly understand. I came expecting a top spot on the Plaza and left a little underwhelmed. It was still a nice Valentine’s Day for my wife and me, but for the price and what I want in a hotel, I don’t think I’ll return.

We had a cozy drink at the bar and patio off the lobby, and the location is hard to beat. We stayed at the Plaza to see the Country Club Plaza lights. The room was clean and spacious, and the bed was comfortable. Check-in was easy and friendly, and the front desk followed up by text to see if the room met our expectations. The in-room coffee was good, though real creamers would have been nice with the Keirig. There were plenty of outlets, and the bottled bath products smelled nice.

My vehicle was stolen from the parking garage on the evening of November 5, 2025, just two hours after I checked in. I had been assured at check-in that it would be safe, so this has made me question the hotel’s claims about on-site security and precautions. I also wasn’t told that other vehicles had been stolen on the property this year, which feels unacceptable given the premium rates guests pay for what is supposed to be a secure environment. Staff hadn’t collected my vehicle information at check-in. If I hadn’t checked the garage myself the next morning, I wonder how long it would have taken me to learn what happened. Despite a broken exit arm in the garage, the theft wasn’t reported to police until 8 a.m. the next day. I want to know how General Manager Jeff Keeley plans to address this and what the Intercontinental Hotel will do to improve security and transparency. The way the property’s security was represented has caused significant distress, and I hope the hotel takes meaningful action to uphold its promises of guest safety and comfort. One further note: the General Manager’s response about an "active review of our current security procedures" closely resembles what another guest was told about eleven months earlier after their vehicle was stolen. It’s concerning that, despite that earlier assurance, there don’t appear to have been significant changes since.

I’ve been returning to the InterContinental on the Country Club Plaza whenever I visit my hometown of Kansas City since the early 2000s. After all these years, it’s still my usual place to stay and the standard I compare hotel experiences to. The Plaza puts you in the middle of everything, and the hotel manages to feel lively and relaxing at once. Service is reliably excellent, the atmosphere is warm and welcoming, and the location can’t be beat. It still feels like home.