Originally Posted by
scented
MacMyDay, I hope Didier Le Calvez reads this. It is weird for you not to meet management at all, given the nature of the suite. Also many service aspects are very underwhelming indeed. They could get away with that in many markets, but certainly not Paris. MikeFromTokyo mentioned they are re-thinking their F&B offerings, so that might help. They are only as good as their last meal.
I checked on our arrival and it seemed at least half the rooms were still available, plus at breakfast time there was barely anyone there, so I would have hoped they could have done some of these things better and got to know their guests.
We were upgraded, plus were already on a great deal, so I didn't expect anyone to be treating us above and beyond a normal customer. I do not expect to meet management at city hotels - in fact, I would never expect it at any of them, unless I knew someone there. But it felt like La Reserve was not trying to be a city hotel, but a resort, hence why I rightly or wrongly keep thinking of how it could compete against Aman, in the same sense of Aman Venice or Aman Tokyo (just with good service). How somewhere makes you feel is a very unique and very hard to describe, but having the belief that the hotel is thinking one step ahead of turns it into a definitively positive experience and makes it feel like home. La Reserve just isn't quite there yet. They're all small points not worth complaining about, but worth noting. One of the butlers was really exceptional and had this forward thinking mentality, but ironically we needed so little in our room, as they had set it up so perfectly, so I only met her twice.
I would return.