The Plaza Hotel

I booked a four night stay in an Edwardian suite to spend thanksgiving in the city. The check in was very smooth and the property appears well kept with nice fragrance pumped right through the HVAC system. The entire place smelled nice as a result. I am a die hard fan of Fairmont hotels and have tried many of their properties over the years. Having stayed at their flagship hotel the Savoy in London and their competitor the Ritz, it pains me to say that the service here fell quite short of my expectations of a flagship property. The staff working there seem just “tired” and they do not seem to want to have any sort of genuine connection with the guests. They are just all about business there. This is very different from places like the ritz there they take the time to get to know you and engage in meaningful ways to make the stay a memorable one. Our suite includes some sort of a white glove butler service but I’ve not even see the butler once during my stay. On the day after thanksgiving, somehow our room was not serviced all day. I even called in around 3 pm to request a house keeping service and it did not happen even then. I had to go to the front desk to request it to finally have the room cleaned. I think this hotel is great and has a lot of potential, but the staff training isn’t there yet. It’s also quite unique in the sense that it’s in a historic building in the sea of ultra modern high rises. However, the hotel seems to only occupy the south wing and is quite small despite looking imposing from the outside. As a result most of the rooms don’t have much of a view to speak of. If you are looking for rooms with views, you will have to pay quite a bit more for partial park views. All in all it was a rather uneventful and also unremarkable stay. I am Diamond with Accor and used four suite night upgrades for this stay, but they were not honored at check out. I had to call in and be put on hold for quite a while to get it sorted. The front desk person wasn’t even apologetic for this clerical error. I really want to like this hotel and would love more opportunities to experience its full glory. Perhaps the weekend was just too busy. Although For the same price I’d recommend going with four season or mandarin oriental both of which have much better views and modern amenities.

On my first trip to America on my 42nd Birthday, I decided to fulfil a childhood ambition and visit The Plaza. My partner and I got dressed up smart and planned to have breakfast before a walk in Central Park. We were greeted by a jumped up, rude, snooty member of staff who informed us that only hotel guests could be catered for, not what is advertised on the website and lots of empty tables. I don't know if he was after a cash bribe or just thought we didn't look rich enough but we left feeling judged and disappointed. We took our custom to Sarabeths down the street, priced very similar to The Plaza and made us feel very welcome indeed.