Having stayed at Essex house in Feb 08, we had no complaints and as members of Jumeirah loyalty card Sirius, we decided to book another stay for our NYC trip in December. However, this time we were very disappointed with the level of service during our stay. We arrived for check in at 6pm after a long journey only to be told our room wasn't ready. At 6PM!! No-one at check in wished us a 'welcome back', which we have come to expect from a Jumeirah hotel. We were given vouchers to order a house cocktail while we waited for our room but no apology or indication of how long our wait might be. When we were told, 10 minutes later, (before anyone had come to order our drink) that our room was ready, we went up only to find 3 staff members in the room scrubbing the carpet, and apologising that they were just "getting a stain out". Delightful. The mini bar had not been restocked and we were charged for the water that was half drunk inside the fridge despite being told it would not be put on our bill.
Turn down service was offered the first night of our stay but mysterioiusly not for the other 4 nights we were there.
Breakfast at the Southgate restaurant was a farce; up to 20 minutes wait time in a queue right by the lifts, causing lots of irritated people (both in the queue and people trying to get in and out of the lifts) No apology was ever made by the front of house ladies while we waited, they seemed about the least bothered American restaurant staff I have ever met. The management of the restaurant seemed to be disorganised bordering on chaotic, every morning we would stare at half a restaurant full of empty tables that needed clearing while we queued to eat. When they were cleared they were not restocked properly and we constantly had to ask for butter, jam, milk etc. The wait staff, although well meaning, were badly trained and inefficient. One morning once we finally did sit down we waited 10 minutes to be served juice and coffee and I ended up helping myself to juice and serving the 3 tables around me as well. Each morning our simple order of 1 espresso and a decaf coffee plus 2 toasted English muffins proved too much to handle and we didn't get the right order on first time of asking even once.
Two shining lights of our stay were the Concierges - Cullen & a lady whose name I can't remember - both were excellent, polite and accommodated our requests with speed and efficiency. Aside from these two front of house staff, the rest appeared to be merely looking for extra handouts for doing nothing or providing what I would consider a basic service in a 4-5 star hotel. I have no problem tipping people who go the extra mile, but the bellman having me lift my own suitcase onto the trolley, giving me a ticket for storage and waiting for a tip? I don't think so. That was the general feeling I got from many of the staff - everyone wanting more money. How terribly un-5 star.
Of course I put all this in a feedback form (the check out staff are not interested in the response to 'how was your stay' and merely tell you to respond to an email) but have had no contact from the management...I'm not suprised but I am disappointed. I'm unlikely to be going back to Essex House - there are plenty of other hotels in the same price range in great locations around Manhattan and in my opinion Jumeirah needs to do a serious review of their management to get service back up to scratch.
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