I completely understand. I think your expectation may have gotten the better of you, even as that often happens to me, too. I just warn you that all luxury hotels—even those considered the best in the world—can and do make mistakes.

Price point reflects the supply and demand of Manhattan as much as the fact that the StR is a 5 star luxury hotel. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that a hotel is perfect, however. You know that’s true when a Westin in NYC can cost $600 a night, putting the $900-1000/night rate at the StR in perspective. It costs more because it’s comsidered better and therefore can command even higher rates, but it doesn’t mean it’s perfect. It just means it’s more pleasing to more people more or most of the time compared with other hotels.

That being said, we’ve had issues not unlike yours at many 5 star luxury hotels. We had a very subpar stay at the StR Washington and StR Dubai (no longer a StR). We also had a very subpar stay at the Aman Summer Palace in Beijing, a very subpar stay at the Waldorf Astoria Chicago, a very subpar stay at the Liberty Boston, a very subpar stay at the Four Seasons Lanai, the Mandarin Oriental Las Vegas, the Halekulani Oahu, etc. Things still can and do go awry at excellent hotels when the staff member of the moment screws up or the management fails to respond appropriately. If you take a look at the Luxury Hotels Forum, you will discover service misses and fails at almost every luxury hotel in the world.

To my mind, how a hotel responds to problems is just as important an element of service as trying to get it right in the first place. Our StR New York stay was amazing, but it wasn’t perfect. I complained on site about issues I had with the operator delivering butler service and about the surly front desk attendant; those were handled quickly and with aplomb. Our Aman Beijing screw ups were far more severe, and yet the GM comp’d a night and offered us a free dinner by way of further apology. The StR Bora Bora was an amazing stay for us but again not perfect; when we complained about some service fails after our first day, the GM assigned us our own butler 24/7 which solved all of our issues and made it clear the hotel was on top its service recovery. We had a spectacular stay from that point forward. The Upper House Hong Kong and the Lodhi New Delhi both had air con fails on the first nights of our stays—yet both hotels had tremendous service recovery and made it up to us such that we still consider those amazing stays and gladly would return again.

i hope that might be helpful perspective.



I’m sorry to say that it likely was a valet who brought your luggage to the room and not a butler. You need to call to ask the butler for unpacking and packing. Of course, the butlers also might have tried to call or introduce themselves on their own—but for the privacy sign you had on your door.



I hope my shared experiences above might allow you to rethink your approach and expectations. Ultra luxury or luxury or not, things still can and do inevitably go wrong. Even at the world’s best luxury hotels. When things do go wrong, even at the best hotels in the world, sharing your dismay and asking for the hotel to make it right is the best way to both ameliorate your dissatisfaction and improve the service level for the remainder of your stay. Not complaining is your right, too, but I find that results only in further dismay.

Either way, I’m most sorry you were so displeased with the StR NYC.