I have been to New York on numerous occasions, but this time decided to fulfil one thing on my 'to do' list so stayed at the Waldorf Astoria. I have always wanted to stay at this iconic hotel, and to be fair we got a pretty reasonable deal on Expedia, so went ahead and booked.
Unfortunately, the reason for the good deal is probably due to the extensive renovation work being done at the moment. This, however was not made clear at any point before we arrived. One evening they were even relaying the carpets so half the lobby was shut off! There was no noise from any of the works, but large parts of the hotel were shut off, including the Park Lane lobby which I had been looking forward to seeing.
The communal areas (that were open) in this hotel are simply stunning and of a very high quality. This includes the lobby, restaurants, ballroom, restrooms and the corridors to the hotel. The rooms however do not meet the same standard. Whilst they are kept clean they are very small in comparison to other hotel rooms, and the beds were smaller than a double. The beds were very comfortable and the pillows amazing, just not really big enough to sleep 2 comfortably.
One thing that really frustrated me was the lack of tea/coffee making facilities in the room, something I consider a basic in even cheap hotels. Apparently, they have recently been removed and now to get a drink you have to phone for room service - no prizes for why they want you to do this when it costs $5.75 per person for any room service and this is before you even order - so by the time you add on the service charge (yes this is extra) you would be looking at around $12 for a coffee - simply not acceptable. Despite this complaint when I did go down and spoke to the Peacock Alley restaurant and stated all I wanted was a take-out coffee for my room, and where could I get one seeing as it was 8pm and all the coffee shops in the area were shut - they did provide me one in a take out cup free of charge, so I thought this to be excellent service. They obviously saw my distress :)
I found the staff at this hotel to be very friendly and helpful, and staying here was good owing to the history of the hotel. However, the hotel does not justify the prices it charges any more due to the small rooms and overall lack of facilities at the hotel. Even with the deal we got, I could have stayed in a variety of other hotels that would have been around the same price, or cheaper, but would have got much more for our money.
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