Fly2Where

Maybe I misunderstood you. By the way you described, it seems you Did took the minibar, but "say otherwise", if not, you wont offer to send you the bill.
If you just paid the 12.5, even after you settled the 1400 bill, everyone is free to go. No one's time is wasted.
I feel bad for the hotel wasted so much time...

Jermyn

Just came back from a rather depressing one night stay a this property.
Some highlights:

• We ended up in the conference centre building away from the main hotel despite having diamond status and being on an FHR booking.
• Our room was next to a conference waiting area of sorts that was used as a pseudo playground with kids running riot and random people sleeping on the sofas.
• Requests made to the concierge before our stay were ignored.
• Made to wait until 10pm for a dinner table (because the concierge had forgotten to make our reservation) only to find the place half empty when we sat down.
• Bed was not properly made.
• When bags were delivered to the room the bellhop just dumped them in the corner and ran off. No offer to place them on a rack or see if we had any questions or requests.
• 15 minute wait for checkout (no Honors priority line)
• 25 minute wait, sitting in our car waiting for bags on departure (despite us chasing for them twice)
• Air conditioning barely functional in public areas.

The hotel clearly caters to large tour groups and events and isn't made for individuals interested in luxury.
Hotels are entitled to have different business models but had I known what this place was about I most certainly wouldn't have bothered staying here.

My most disappointing hotel stay in recent memory.
Avoid at all costs.

AStarr

Has anyone stayed here at Christmas?

Any more recent experiences? Or any good ones at the very least?

I have the option to stay here or in Paris properly for my birthday (which is on December 25) and Versailles is one of my favourite places in the world. I would hate to be disappointed.

Happy Traveling Consultant

Any updated opinons on this hotel? Gotta think someone has stayed here in the last two years, though probably not in 2020...

Hilton Diamond, booked an upgraded room but not a suite. Not sure of the chances for an upgrade, but really want to see Versailles. Just curious, will be going in August for 2 nights.

pazza2000

Saw a suite upgrade, albeit was there towards the end of 2019! Great property, lovely breakfast with a mix of buffet and a la carte, hopefully Covid hasn’t seen that scaled back.

beachfan

How was it, Happy?

TheWiseOne

Any recent reports on this place? Particularly keen to hear how Diamonds are treated.

i stayed once in 2015 as a Gold and got a three category upgrade, 2 x free cocktails but no breakfast (which I expected) so was very happy with my stay. Interested to hear what I can expect in 2021 with Diamond.

TIA for any replies.

Biggie Fries

I was there 5 weeks ago, and before that a couple times in the summer. If they have nice suites, I don't know about it, since I've never gotten one. But they do have some appealing rooms in the main building, and lately we've been having good luck getting upgraded to one of them from entry-level bookings in the pavilion, or bunkhouse, or whatever that other building is called (not that the rooms there are bad, by the way). Is it because of my Diamond status? Maybe, but a couple of the bookings had a FHR reservation mixed in, so I can't be sure. When I wasn't there through FHR, didn't have much trouble getting a 1 or 2pm checkout.

They definitely give Diamonds breakfast. Post-Covid, the breakfast service moved around a bit, but now seems to be back on the enclosed terrace looking out toward the Parc at Versailles, which is a pretty nice place to have breakfast. Also, our last meal there, one of our favorites, the delicously sugary St-Tropezienne, was back.

On the other hand, the bar in the hallway has functionally disappeared, which means you can't drink and eat light meals there. At least not in October. The barkeep in the interior bar said that they were very short-handed.

This is not my favorite hotel in the world, but there are some nice aspects to it, particularly for the price, and the location is fantastic. So I just try to enjoy what is working and not be surprised when some things disappear and others re-appear.

Gertjaars

Hi any recent stays? Debating between Hilton vs the Hyatts in France. Does this WA have any advantages?

krazykanuck

I thought I posted my experience from my stay in January. Guess I forgot. I had a one night stay here on an FHR rate because I wanted to check out Versailles and the January rate was just a hair over a $200 Amex Platinum FHR credit I wanted to burn in 2021. Overall, I was not really happy with the stay as a result of multiple service failures, though the hard product was decently good.

In more detail, I arrived and was upgraded (I guess) to a room in the main building with a internal/garden view of some type, not that I could really tell the difference vs what I booked. The room was very nice, albeit a bit warm. I went out exploring the city, gardens, etc. and had a nice afternoon walking around. The indoor pool at the hotel is really nice, especially in the winter. I also had dinner at the restaurant in the hotel which was very good. Exorbitantly overpriced, but it was fully covered by the on property FHR credit, I wouldn't have had dinner there if I was paying cash out of pocket. However this is where the problems began. I mentioned the room was warm, however, it didn't seem like the HVAC controls did anything. Setting the temp lower didn't cool the room down and it was uncomfortably sweltering when in bed. I also needed to set a wake up call for the morning and upon calling, nobody answered the phone. Multiple times. I got dressed to go downstairs and there's nobody at the front desk! Wondered the first floor, nobody's home. It took about 5 minutes before somebody finally shows up and said he's the only one working that night. Finally, I woke up at 6am to catch my train and found a cockroach sitting on my toothbrush. Gave it a good smash and left it, and the toothbrush, on the counter.

Now I will say that this has all been remedied to my satisfaction. No thanks to the hotel itself, which after multiple emails offered a make up night later in the year, subject to availability Like after that do you think I'd even want to come back? Our always helpful Hilton Lurker, William, put the feedback into the right hands and fixed it.

Biscoff27

I had similar service failures with a FHR stay in March. The front desk agent checking me in was pleasant though seemed new. He didn't know what the FHR credit covered. He gave me the wrong drink vouchers. He said we would get a 4pm checkout but made the room keys to expire at noon. We enjoyed our room, but the big refillable lotion bottle in the room was basically empty. I called down to the front desk and they said someone from housekeeping would come up and fill it. No one did. Later someone walked in to the room to check the minibar (and I mean just walked in). I mentioned the lotion to them and they just said basically "that's no my job." It felt like overall the service here was not up to Waldorf standards. It felt more like maybe a Curio hotel?

Service issues aside, I am still glad we stayed here. It was a good option for the Amex Platinum FHR $200 credit. It is also on the Hilton Resorts list, so after using up the $100 FHR property credit, we started to chip away at the Aspire $250 resort credit. Our room was upgraded to a corner room in the front, where we could see the palace. For visiting Versailles, it was nice to have a room nearby. It was easy to get to the palace for the opening time slot. We then walked the grounds for a while, went back to the room to relax and grab a coffee, then went back out walking more of the gardens (they are huge!). We could then freshen up and grab our bags before heading back into the city. I would stay again, just with lower service expectations.

hugolover

My goodness, a cockroach on your toothbrush at a so-called luxury WALDORF ASTORIA?

I would expect a full refund. Plus a BMG at a minimum. That’s horrific.

Did you take a picture by any chance?

krazykanuck

Yes - picture below. If it was a direct booking I definitely would have pressed for a refund, but being an FHR booking, there is no way that would be done easily. Also it was like pulling teeth to even get some points in lieu of the "make up night" offer, though the number of points I was offered wouldn't have covered a night there. The hotel had no interest in resolving this, which again, it's France. Not really a surprise. As an aside, the only other hotel I've had so many service failures that it resulted in the one and only BMG cert I've received was at the Hilton Opera in Paris. Either the Hilton properties in Paris are not up to snuff, or I have extremely bad luck. I'm not sure where on the spectrum it falls. I basically just gave up with the compensation chase. It took so much effort to get the points that I did, but I agree that I think I should have received more.



I didn't get any drink vouchers at all! At this point, I've spent enough time in France that I'm happy when people do the bare minimum required of their jobs.

Biscoff27

I think welcome drink vouchers are supposed to be given to Hilton Diamond members. The front desk agent seemed to be checking me in as a Diamond member, and it was only a few minutes into the process when I started asking about FHR benefits that he seemed to notice and talk about the Amex stuff.

I know what you mean about France. We had stayed at the Park Hyatt before taking the train out to Versailles. After years of reading glowing reviews of the PH Vendome, we were underwhelmed.

sof_lance

Yikes, sorry to hear about the roach incident. But hey, at least it's a 5-star Waldoroach. Think about all the VIPs he had met.

I had a few stays at this hotel over the last few years and latest was summer 2021. Booked direct mostly. It's a love/hate relationship with this hotel. Front desk are not terribly friendly. Concierge is quite an arse (Marcelo?) but on my last trip, he was actually quite helpful. Yes the pool is nice in winter. Did not use the dining service as there are some good places in the neighborhood. I find the proximity to the Gardens very peaceful and the breakfast very blissful esp in the outdoors.