This hotel is not fit to be part of the Sofitel brand. For context, we were staying in a Prestige Skyscraper Terrace Suite. Two adults and an 11 year old child, paying $600US per night. After an exceptional stay at the Sofitel Beverly Hills, our expectations for our final hotel stay as part of a 4 week holiday to the USA were high. Unfortunately, the Sofitel New York did not meet our expectations, and we would argue it doesn’t even meet the standard of a four star hotel. Our flight from Charlotte to New York was delayed due to a winter storm, so our original check in time of 9:30pm ended up being closer to 12:30am. On arrival at the hotel, there was no bellman to greet us outside. After we unloaded our bags from the taxi and brought them inside a man did approach us and offered to load them onto a trolley and pointed us in the direction of the reception desk. We waited at the hotel reception desk for around 5 minutes before a man emerged from the back office to check us in. We had already completed the online registration through the Accor Live Limitless app, but it still took around 10 minutes for the check in process. The man checking us in appeared to be disinterested and somewhat annoyed at our late arrival. The man checking us in advised us that if we needed the sofa bed made up, that we should contact housekeeping and they could come and do this. I had noted the request to have the sofa bed made up when making the original booking, and also followed up with two separate emails requesting the same. After receiving our room key and heading up to our room, the bellman followed shortly behind and delivered the bags to our room. He unloaded our bags and then proceeded to stand in the entryway until I went back to see him. He didn’t say anything and just stood there. I assumed he was expecting a gratuity, so I handed him $20 (smallest note I had) and he promptly left. If it had of been earlier in the day, and we weren’t so tired, I would have politely asked him to leave. I wasn’t intending to tip him for the following reasons: - He did not assist with unloading our bags and it wasn’t until we were inside the warmth of the hotel lobby that he decided to offer his help. - He made no attempt to explain any features or inclusions of the room or hotel (this was standard practice for the bellman at every other hotel we stayed at during our trip). We noticed that there were no amenities in our hotel room, and the omissions included: - No bottled water. - No tea or coffee. - No kettle or coffee machine. - No minibar (just any small empty fridge). After enquiring with reception about the lack of water and tea/coffee making facilities we were told that bottled water could be delivered on request, and that we had the option of ordering (and paying for) tea and coffee through room service. I am an ALL Platinum member and we did not receive a welcome amenity. There was a paper cup with cigar butts on the terrace and a cigar wrapper left in one of the cupboards. There was mould on the shower silicon. We had ongoing issues with the televisions in the room. The Chromecast streaming on the TV in the living space didn’t work and required a technician to attend the room and reset it. The TV in the bedroom needed to be repeatedly turned off and on until it would eventually start working and detecting channels. On the second night of our stay, we contacted guest services and spoke with the front office duty manager (Darren) and raised our concerns with the room we were staying in, highlighting that we were paying $600US per night for a product and service that we considered to be significantly less than what would normally be expected from the Sofitel brand. Darren was apologetic and advised us that he had intended to place us in the “better” of the Prestige Skyscraper Terrace Suites, but it unfortunately wasn’t available for our stay. He offered to see if there was an opportunity for us to change to a different style of room and asked that we contact the front office service manager in the morning to confirm if a room change could be accommodated. We spoke with the Assistant Front Office Manager (Jasmine) in the morning, and she was also apologetic and advised us that we could relocate to a different style of room. The room didn’t have the terrace (which we were paying a premium for) but did have a larger interior and slightly different layout that Jasmine suggested might be better suited to us. It was claimed this new room had newer décor and furnishings. Jasmine offered to show us the room first but couldn’t make it available until around 2pm. We met with Jasmine that afternoon and viewed the new room. The style was mildly different and not wanting to uproot everything and relocate to a different hotel, we accepted the offer to change rooms. Jasmine asked us to collect our belongings and call her once we were ready to relocate rooms – she would send the bellman up to help us move. After packing up our things, we called front reception and asked to speak with Jasmine. The man on front reception advised that Jasmine wasn’t available and asked what we wanted. We advised him that we were relocating rooms and that Jasmine had offered to send the bellman up to assist us with the move. The man said we would need to speak with Jasmine, because he didn’t know anything about the room change. Noting that Jasmine was not available (per his advice), we asked that he relay the message to her that we were ready to move. He didn’t respond and hung up the phone. We had a call from Jasmine around 15 minutes later asking if we were ready to move. We explained that we had contacted front reception, and it became apparent that no one had passed on the message to her. She was again apologetic and advised she would send the bellman up immediately. Shortly after the call with Jasmine, housekeeping knocked on the door and seemed surprised we were still in the room – they were wanting to access the room so they could prepare it for incoming guests. We phoned Jasmine back and advised her that housekeeping wanted access to the room and asked for the bellman to attend promptly so we could move our things. In hindsight, it would have been quicker for us to relocate our things ourselves. Jasmine did advise that our new room was ready, but the sofa bed was not yet made up for our son to sleep on. She advised that the sofa bed would be made up as soon as possible. We relocated to our new room with the assistance of the bellman and started to unpack. The sofa bed had been opened but was not yet made up (which was consistent with Jasmine’s earlier advice). At this point we noticed that the fridge door could not be opened while the sofa bed was set up. We promptly called Jasmine and advised her that we would be checking out. I requested a refund for the nights that we were not staying, and Jasmine was happy to oblige. We met Jasmine at reception. She was apologetic and could understand our frustration. She presented the bill and they had charged us for the first two nights, but had waived any cancellation fees for the remaining three nights. I asked if there was any way we could have the first two nights accommodation waived, given the issues we had experienced with our stay. Jasmine advised she wasn’t authorised to deduct these payments and would need to consult with the Assistant Director for the Front Office. The Assistant Director for the Front Office (Yasser) met with us and offered to waive one night’s accommodation from our bill. Yasser was also apologetic and asked if there was anything he could do to encourage us to stay. We had already made arrangements with another hotel, so we declined Yasser’s offer. Yasser took us aside to discuss our concerns with our stay, and we explained all the issues that we had experienced. While Yasser was apologetic, he excused the poor experience on the basis that New York hotels can’t be compared to other countries or even other cities within the US. Yasser also made reference to staffing difficulties and the fact that the people we had been dealing with weren’t employees of Sofitel (I'm not sure exactly what he meant by this but can only assume they might be labour hire personnel). Yasser suggested that we were unlikely to have a better experience at any other hotel in New York. Contrary to Yasser’s suggestion that all New York hotels would be the same, the experience we had with our second stay in New York couldn’t have been more different. All the staff were friendly and attentive and although the room was smaller, the amenities provided were befitting of a four star hotel. Accor and Sofitel should be genuinely concerned that this establishment represents their brand. We have had fantastic experiences at Sofitel hotels in Australia, Singapore and Los Angeles. If this had of been our first experience at a Sofitel, it would have turned us off the brand completely.…
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.