The Plaza, A Fairmont Managed Hotel

Christmas holidays are generally blacked out at alot of the hotels.. call concierge and they will tell you the low down.. I don't think there is a link for blackouts.. it used to be printed on the back of certificates, but not anymore.

NFAF generally doesn't work over the holidays neither.. although I think I saw an FTer post that they were able to book Mayakoba last year.. that wouldn't be too bad.. I'm in the same boat as you, and would love to use Fairmonts over the holidays. Problem is can't use the certificates at alot of the hotels over that period.. I used to be able to use suite certs for Banff over the New Years, but I think they've excluded that last I checked.

Best deal for Maui is October.. at $199, that's almost half of what NFAF is.. Check out the Renovation Sale I posted on the Special Rates and Packages Section.

At least according to the Fairmont website you should be able to use the free night certs at the Plaza:

http://www.fairmont.com/fpc/limitedaccess

The link also has a list of the black-out dates for each property.

Good luck!

I heard that they were working on getting complimentary night certs to work for the Plaza. Earlier this year it didn't work.. reading the limited access page, there is * beside plaza.. reading below guaranteed access to city center hotels are not available on dates indicated. A bit confusing, but seems that the * beside plaza is suggesting the dates posted is not available for guaranteed access, although the heading is specific dates of exclusion for use of free night certs. Last I checked with my personal concierge, they were working on it. Has anyone been able to redeem free night certs at Plaza yet?

You can use your free night cert at the Plaza but it ain't easy. When I tried to use one in April the earliest date for a free night was in September. So book far ahead since they have very limited availability.... 6 months minimum.

I haven't stayed at the plaza since the recent transformation to a condotel, but reviews I've heard don't really live up to the price you need to fork out. If you happen to stay somewhere else and save a few $$$ head to "Per Se" for a dinner you won't forget in this life!

Now only available in January. They have only X free night cert nights available monthly... and booked now through Dec.

As a member of the re-opening team at The Plaza, hopefully I can shed some light on the rooms breakdown:

The Plaza, the building, is divided in 2 halves:

1) Private Residences facing Central Park.
- These are completely private and strictly off limits to all guests of the hotel, outsiders, and even Fairmont colleagues

2) Hotel
- Within the hotel side of the building, the following additional breakdown exists:
-----Floors 4-9: Always hotel rooms, no suites whatsoever
-----Floors 5+ : "Condo" units, all these rooms can be purchased by a private individual. If purchased, the owner has right to live in these units for 3 months per year, and earns a cut of the room revenue during the remaining 9 months, when the room is rented out to guests. All furnishings must remain the same as the other units. All suites are located on floors 5 up.

Hope that helps!

Thank�s for the info and welcome to Flyertalk!

May I ask how many suites the Plaza now has?

I hope you�ll stick around! ^

Appreciate the feedback. Plaza is a bit of a different creature.. as its' a condotel. Is the revenue share profitable for the owners? I guess only the owners' would know.

Wasn't privy to the per-unit financial stats, but I can tell you that we treated the owners like GOLD. So if you have millions lying around and like to feel like royalty when you travel, buy into an investment like that.

On a side note, the setup presents a significant difficulty for the front office management, as the rooms need to be blocked according to which unit's "turn" it is to receive room revenue. Gets dicey when a non-owner guest complains about their room and wants to move. So have mercy on the front desk managers!

From an ownership standpoint its great.. but from a Fairmont President's Club perspective its been a bit of a pain. For example, the inability to use a free night cert in the past year, inability to use room/suite upgrades, inability to use $25 food and beverage certs, the unlikelihood of upgrades, and the high prices compared to St. Regis.. all does not help the situation from a retail customer standpoint.

I am currently staying a few nights at The Plaza and my wife I are both hugely disappointed with the experience so far.

The greeting by the front desk staff was incredible and really set our expectations on high for the rest of the visit. The upgraded room is very nice but nowhere nearly as remarkable as most of my other Fairmont upgrades. (YES, I understand that it is the busiest weekend of the year and YES I am grateful for any upgrade and, NO, the room has NOTHING to do with our "meh" review of our stay.)

After a wonderful start, nearly every other opportunity to get it right has been missed -- from housekeeping to "the butler" to the "less than warm" behavior of the door & front end staff. Service seems to be a "nice to have", not a "need to have" ethic among the staff here. At $900 a night, I expected a bit more of an effort -- silly me!! I can only imagine how high Fairmont could push this wonderful, grand old property were they to install one of the managers from within their stable of top performing hotels -- someone who would demand accountability toward a great service ethic.

I am happy to be here for the holiday but I am sure that there are a dozen other places that could provide more of a "WOW" factor.

Sorry to hear about your experience thus far.. hopefully it improves and you at least get an enjoyable stay at the historical famed property.

I don't think management are under the gun to provide stellar service since its become a condotel. Prices are a bit higher, service less than stellar.. its' bringing in rent revenue to the owners. Maybe provide feedback to management.

Thanks AM, but the Thanksgiving Dinner in the Palm Court was nothing shy of disastrous. I had to laugh at how many tables finally just walked out. The service was surly at best and they ran out of many dishes, yet they kept seating new tables WAY past their stated 6PM closing time. The meal was a pre-fixe @ $85 but was barely worthy of a Picadilly Cafeteria. How do you not have enough food when you have a fixed menu and are sold out weeks in advance (therefore know your plate count)?? It boggles the mind how poorly that room was run tonight -- and most of the staff was not the least bit apologetic (save for some real outliers, like one of the managers, Kate).

OK, so the property is profitable thanks to the condos. If that is your business model, then close the hotel and be done with it. You always manage to me mediocre when you straddle two markets.

Amazing to hear that a Fairmont Hotel Restaurant would stoop to such laurels.. totally unheard of. I'm so used to the excellent service that Fairmont provides, and the excellent food and selection that we receive, that your experience sounds surreal..

Well, sad to hear that things haven't changed for the better since I stayed there a couple years ago. I had a bad feeling about the "new plaza", and can't blame it really on Fairmont. I think they are just cheap and short changing the stupid customer who will pay up for this grand dame, that has simply gotten old and crumudgeonly. I said it last time I stayed there, which was just over 2 bones with F&F, I won't stay again even at THOSE prices.