Iconic hotel looses its luster

I was in New York City recently for a travel industry conference and was very excited by the fact that I’d be staying at the Waldorf Astoria, one of the world’s most iconic and beloved hotels.  The Waldorf has an exemplary image of luxury and excellence.  Located right on Park Avenue and Third Street, the Waldorf stands as tall as she is grand.

Built in 1893 by millionaire William Waldorf, the hotel was the embodiment of the owner’s vision of a grand hotel, which was complete with electricity throughout and even included private bathrooms in most of the rooms, an opulent feature at the time. The Waldorf was also the first hotel to offer room service, which forever changed the lodging industry. Four years later, The Waldorf was joined by the 17-story Astoria Hotel, which was erected on an adjacent site by Waldorf’s cousin.

After decades of hosting distinguished visitors from around the world, the original Waldorf Astoria closed in 1929 to pave way for a reincarnation 15 blocks north, to its current location on Park Avenue. The existing hotel opened in 1931 as the world’s largest and tallest hotel, and while the Waldorf continues to be one of the world’s most revered hotels, it has certainly lost a bit of its luster.

During its 100-year reign as the queen of hospitality, the Waldorf Astoria maintained a status of legendary proportions.  However today, while the lobby and conference rooms still maintain a level of opulence and grandeur, the accommodations are a tired and worn.

I took a red-eye flight to NYC and arrived at 5am.  I had an early check-in request and was able to get a room around 9am.  As I entered my room, I was not surprised by its meager size given that this was New York City.  I was however surprised by the fact that I was not overly impressed, especially given the cost of the room—with taxes, the nightly rate was near $600 per night.

I was exhausted since I had not yet been to sleep, as I flew in on a red-eye flight. I needed to be at the conference at 4pm, so I thought I’d sleep for a few hours, shower and head down.  My room was a bit warm, so I turned on the air conditioning, but soon found that no cool air was coming through vents.  I called the front desk to tell them of the situation and they sent up an “engineer” to have a look.  I had just fallen asleep when there was a knock at the door.  The engineer came in, looked at my air conditioning unit and then he opened the window and said, “how’s that?” I was befuddled and said, “it’s loud!” He then informed me that the hotel runs on a central system and therefore only produces heat in the winter, or cool air in the summer—there are no individual air comfort systems in any of the rooms. I was amazed, especially given the cost of the room. They brought a fan to my room, and thank goodness for that or I would never had been able to sleep with how warm my room was.

After closer inspection of the room, I noticed that the desk chair had a tear in it, the rug near the bathroom was peeling up and the bed must have been 20 years old as I could feel the springs poking through. This is a 5-star hotel, mind you.

The lobby, conference and ballrooms still have an air of panache about them, but I dare say that the Waldorf-Astoria has without question lost its luster and is one of the worst values in lodging that I’ve come across. By the way, I’m not the only one who thinks this about the iconic New York City landmark.  I mentioned my opinion to several fellow travel writers and bloggers and all of them agreed with me.

Have you ever stayed at the Waldorf…recently?  If so, please leave your thoughts below as I’m curious if you too have had a similar experience.