Stayed here for a night. Disappointed. I used 50,000 HHonors points to book a standard room. At the completion of the reservation, I selected the eStandby upgrade to move from the Pavillion room to the main building rooms for the upgrade price of 39 EUR, which I had read on FlyerTalk were larger, which they are. The Pavillion is basically Holiday Inn Express quality. I thought it was worth paying 39 EUR to be guaranteed a larger room even though I am a Diamond.
At check-in, I was recognized as a Diamond and offered free Internet code and a coupon for two drinks. They had availability for an early checkin (1:00 PM vs. 3:00 PM). So far, so good. I then asked about my upgrade for 39 EUR and was told that it was not available for 39 EUR but would cost 100 EUR. I declined 100 EUR price. A few minutes later, I asked a second person in a different, fancier gray coat about the 39 EUR and even referenced eStandby particularly. She also declined and said she could not help me. At that point, I gave up and went to look at the Pavilion room.
When I got to the Pavilion room, I had free Internet so while I waited for my luggage, I had time to go back and read my email and see the eStandby email and ensure that I was not imagining things. The class of room was 39 EUR and was available. A Junior Suite was also available. My Diamond spidey-sense was annoyed that I was not offered the Suite and that they were trying to make me pay 100 EUR instead of 39 EUR. At that point, I was thinking that I might as well call and ask once more and on this call, the manager did allow me to move to the main historic building. So, while it was an annoying process, the right action did eventually happen. (I did not know it at the time, but they did not charge me anything for the upgrade at check-out.)
The upgraded room was not a suite but a largish size King Deluxe. It had a beautiful bathroom, one of the nicest non-suite bathrooms I've seen as far as being pretty. There was a nice view of some open space with sheep in the Versailles field.
If we had to stop the review at this point, I would say it was a win. I got there, got upgraded, had a nice bath, and it is super convenient to Versailles. The village of Versailles was fun to walk around, a nice contrast to the much more hustle and bustle experience of Paris. There is a two star Michelin restaurant on the property, but at 190 EUR per person for the prix fixe menu, we did not eat there.
HOWEVER, it became apparent to me that this property had a major issue. I want to be clear in my writing here because I don't want to be unfair to the property. I was traveling with my 5 year old daughter and she slept on an improvised bed that we made out of two purple chairs that appeared designed to be pushed together for this purpose. The maid was nice enough to give us a nice brown, wool blanket, which we made into a nest of sorts for our kid. The problem was that the next day she woke up bitten by something in multiple places. These bites look suspiciously like bed bug bites based on pictures I have seen on the Internet. Now, is this the hotel's fault? Does the hotel have an infestation? I think it may have. I wrote to them the next day to warn them to check the particular furniture and clean the blankets. None of the rest of us were bitten. I'm sure they're as careful as the next hotel and I doubt they did it intentionally for me being a pain about the upgrade. I wish we would have stayed in the Pavillion in retrospect, but that's life as a jet set traveler. By the time anyone reads this, it probably is not relevant because all hotels have issues with bed bugs that come and go from I read, but this is part of my experience at the fabled Waldorf Astoria. What can I do? It was already free on points and they gave me an upgrade. I feel I should be grateful on the one hand but am still annoyed on the other.
One thing I would say is that when I wrote to report the problem through their Web site, they did not acknowledge my email. That seems consistent with the customer experience I received - spotty. If they ever do acknowledge my email, I will update this post.
In conclusion, the Waldorf Astoria Trianon Palace is a lovely hotel in a superb location. I was happy to use 50,000 points to stay there. I got a free upgrade after asking enough times. I would not say that the customer service or Diamond recognition was exemplary. I hope our experience with the bed bugs bites is atypical, as I am sure it must be at any high end hotel over time. Good luck!