NWplatinum

LOL... after $8,000 of plastic surgery what’s a $300 room service bill for a simple lunch consisting of a sandwich and chips?

Adelphos

I’m here now - I must say, this place is decidedly not overrated. And given my points redemption, it won’t even be that expensive even when including meals and drinks. Detailed review next week.

NWplatinum

Just curious why is it “NOT” over rated? Yes it’s a fancy high end hotel and they make you feel special and have a really nice lobby area. But what about it makes it worth $1,000 a night? Because their super nice to you and sometimes mess up your room assignment?

Not to tear the property down it’s certainly very nice and luxurious. But $1,000 a night? Admittedly most (if not all) of us are using certs and credits and whatever else. I just don’t see why it’s any better than any other luxurious hotel in Dubai, Hong Kong, or Charlotte, NC for that matter? And don’t get me started on the $25 breakfast smoothie room-service menu...

jxd

$1000 is in line with the most luxurious hotels in BH.

BH is the most expensive area in LA, even the AC Marriott costs ~$400 a night. I'm not saying that the price is justified (I would've spent the $1000 in more exotic locations) but well that's BH for you.

And FWIW, this hotel is one of the best hotels I've stayed in. The service is top notch, and I love the decor of the hotel. Plus you get chauffeured around BH in a private Rolls Royce limousine!

Adelphos

Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills Review
3 Nights, Reward Redemption at 95,000 points per night
Cash prices ranged from $650 to $900 during our stay - so including California tax, redemption ranged from 0.8 to 1.1 cents per point

Great hotel with beautiful public spaces, well appointed and technologically advanced guest rooms, great service and good food all around. Checked in at around 3 PM, asked if an upgrade was available. They said a higher floor was available (same room type), and it would take about 30 minutes before it would be ready. Concierge had our bags and would set them up in the room. A front desk associate escorted us up to the roof for drinks while we waited for the room, so we saw the highlight of the hotel right away. Great rooftop with awesome views, good service, food and drinks. A local celebrity choice as LeBron James was having a casual lunch up there as well. Enjoyed the view and grabbed a drink, I get a text from concierge telling me that my room was ready, and that someone would get us from the rooftop and bring us down to the room.

Concierge brought us into the room, explained the features of the room, etc. Booked into a double queen (one of the reward redemption options), very well laid out and spacious room with two beds, desk, lounge chair, terrace, etc. Nice size bathroom with double sinks, shower, tub. Spacious enough for two. Great linens and Ferragamo toiletries. Tons of light switches and outlets everywhere, iPad used for ordering room service.

In addition to the rooftop, the Jean George restaurant is also great - we ate there the second night. Awesome service. Saw more celebrities.

In terms of Gold benefits, Golds get $25 F&B credit per person, free water bottle refills, the aforementioned 1 level upgraded. The “F&B” credit is a replacement for breakfast but will just as likely be used for drinks. Decent elite amenities, but nothing you can‘t get through Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts or something similar. In fact Amex FHR may be the better way to book this hotel if paying cash as FHR benefits seem to approximate Gold and Platinum benefits exactly (F&B credit, early and late checkout, free WiFi, property credit, room upgrade, etc),. Seems like a place where repeat visitors and celebrities will be the ones getting any extraordinary treatment as opposed to Hilton elites. Nevertheless the base level of service is excellent so not sure this matters.

It’s about a 10 minute walk to central Beverly Hills. Walked to the Equinox there and also to some of the shopping and restaurants. Very easy to walk to and from the property on Wilshire.

Texting with the front desk is probably the highlight of the service - they set up dining reservations, late checkout, service requests, and other items via text all seamlessly. They are very proactive over text. Concierge helped us with a recommendation for a bar off property and reserved the car for us. Unfortunately we haven’t been in the Phantom yet, we were given an Cadillac.

One more brunch on the roof tomorrow and off to LAX we go.
Late checkout of 1 PM was granted (normal is noon)

Overall, this is an excellent hotel if you want great service, great food, people watching, very comfortable rooms (even the base room) and a central location in Los Angeles (walkable to Beverly Hills and 30 minutes or so to most areas of the city, traffic permitting). They go over the top to make you feel at home in terms of service and amenities. One of the better ways to redeem points in the Hilton system, especially given high room rates and taxes. Wouldn’t mind making this a regular visit.

NWplatinum

I didn’t say that $1000 was expensive for that area. I just asked why you don’t think it’s overrated? You said it’s good service, decor, and they chauffeur you around.

I’ll save my $900 and just use uber and maybe the staff will assign me the correct room type. Just because it has the “Waldorf Astoria” logo doesn’t mean it’s not over rated. It most certainly is for those of you wanting to get the best bang for your buck and elite benefits recognized. Good luck with having friends visit you here since parking is outrageous.

Gomac

For us it is the constant feeling of being looked after and the attention to detail with the simple things that most hotels get wrong. We have stayed 10 nights in total this year over a few stays (and have 3 more nights booked) and here are a few examples:

- Request a house car to take us to a dinner reservation we made a few weeks earlier on Opentable at the Ivy. Unbeknown to us they had called the Ivy and when we arrived we were treated like VIPs with the best table the house (told we could have any table we wanted) and comp extras. (We got seated beside a lovely woman who was a regular and asked why we declined the best table when it was offered)

- Head down to the bar for some cocktails, the first questions the barman asks is if we like Manhattens, we say sure and he says here you go these are on me.

- We are sitting by the pool and decide it would be nice to have that bottle of champagne we bought cheap as chips in duty free at LHR so send a quick text requesting some ice be delivered to the room and get a cheerful confirmation a minute later. When we get back to the room they had taken to initiative to see the bottle of champagne on the bar and put it in the ice bucket, along with laying out some glasses, napkins and some treats. Again sounds simple I know but the reason I give this example is when I sent exactly the same request to our butler at the St Regis New York (same price category) I got a message saying there would be a tray charge of $60!!! $60 for some ice! Needless to say we won’t be staying there again.

- Head to the rooftop for some lunch, it’s obviously packed and i’m not sure we will get seated. Walked up to the desk and ask if they have any tables and get an immediate response, Mr Gomac you are our guest, we will always have a table here for you (immediately taken to a table with a great view). Still not sure how she knew who I was, never seen her before!

So all in all we genuinely look forward to every stay, the rooms are immaculate and are a lovely place to spend time and nothing is ever too much trouble. It isn’t cheap (we use a combination of sometimes points, sometimes higher rates than I would pay elsewhere and sometime BRG rates which the 25% discount work out great value for us) but we have stayed at hotels for a few hundred dollars that have been a complete waste of money in our eyes.

NWplatinum

That is certainly understandable and a perfectly good answer. For an older couple who flies into LA from overseas, and wants a high end experience with a prestigious logo and detail oriented service as you described, more power to you.

My stay was not so detail oriented as they assigned me the wrong room type at check-in. Obviously people are going to like certain properties for different reasons. If you like this property for a specific reason that suits you, then that’s great.

But speaking in a more general term for everybody since were in a community forum is what I meant by overrated. I think its important to share your experience, but also keep in mind what the public will experience. The bottom line, (and my point) is they don’t offer anything for elite members that’s of substance, they don’t offer upgrades, and they don’t really care if you’re Honors elite or not. For many of us who are road warriors and mostly stay in hotels all over these kinds of things matter.

Gomac

I agree, it would be a great improvement to get more on the Diamond benefits side of things, although the $50 credit is nice. To be honest I find the Diamond treatment across the US to be mediocre at best and have come to expect a one category upgrade and flexibility with checkin/checkout times. I even have to pay an up charge at most places for a decent breakfast. It’s obviously a different story in Europe and Asia. I think the problem is there are just to many US credit card Elites.

From the conversations I had with the guys at Waldorf BH they want to protect their suites revenue and despite the eye watering prices they do get plenty of people willing to pay for them. By offering upgrades all the time they would diminish their value. We always get a Deluxe upgrade from our standard Superior booking (which is basically a better view of the hills rather than the City) but there are no bad rooms at this hotel and in fact we requested a Superior last time over the upgrade so we could have the morning winter sun on our balcony with our coffees. Saying that if like you they didn’t get my bed type preference correct then I wouldn’t be happy either.

Adelphos

To me, the elite treatment issue is a Hilton wide issue more than anything else. Though I am a Hilton "Gold," this was my first stay at Hilton all year (I have gold through multiple cards). I've stayed more at Marriotts this year because it actually takes work to get a breakfast benefit from them (25 actual nights) There are many Hilton "Diamonds" that make one stay a year and have Diamond through the Aspire. Hilton is the only travel provider I know that lets anyone buy their top tier status for $450 a year. With that there is a limit to how well a hotel can treat you, especially one like this where there are plenty of customers willing to pay high cash prices without regard for status or points.

I think the great base level service without regard to status is actually a positive - anyone that redeems points or pays cash gets a (usually) great experience.

budumpst

Is there a way to find dates with standard room on Hilton website? Thinking of using free anniversary night cert here.

phant0m

I only see premium room rates on the site as well. Is it possible to use the Aspire cert on those rates?

hisdearqueen

Under "narrow your results" on the left sidebar, you need to check the "show accessible rooms" box.

You should then be able to see 95,000 points for the standard rooms Hope this helps!

phant0m

Thanks for the tip. I was able to use the flexible date search along with the standard award filter, which pops up only after you choose a date and then edit the date. Unfortunately there are not many "Standard Award" nights on the weekend until June basically and all of them are ADA rooms, which I guess you can request a change/upgrade at check in.

hisdearqueen

Yes, the standard awards are all ADA rooms, as mentioned in the wiki -- at the top of page 1 of the thread