The Roosevelt New Orleans, A Waldorf Astoria Hotel — Hotel in New Orleans

My stay with at The Roosevelt could not have been much more disappointing. I was very excited to stay at the Roosevelt, it's style, it's reviews and ratings, it would be perfect, so I thought. What I did not expect was the following:

1. To have wait staff in a restaurant laugh in my face after I refilled my own coffee and water after having asked one of the wait staff to refill it and waiting an additional 10 minutes with empty cups and glasses. In the Fountain breakfast restaurant in The Roosevelt we were sat promptly with our water and coffee filled upon seating, we then ordered our meals, drank our initial drinks, and waited. Prior to our meals being brought we asked for drink refills (approx. 20 minutes after seating), our drinks were empty, after ten additional minutes, our food arrived, yet we still had no drink refills. At this point, I had to have water in order to be able to eat and swallow my meal (for medical reasons) and I either had to let my food get cold OR I had to fill my own glass, I chose to fill my own glass, which, while off putting in such an establishment, I found tolerable. Being laughed at by wait staff who was standing around not serving patrons while I was filling my glass (with water), was not tolerable. I told the manager, who then appeared to take the staff into the back to discuss their actions-he also said my meal was comped. Overall, the manager acted appropriately and I appreciated his actions, that said I would have preferred the superior service I was expecting and to pay for my meal accordingly.
2. To have my credit card stolen out of my hotel suite by a hotel staff member and then to be treated as I was by other hotel staff upon reporting the issue. On the last night of our stay, my spouse asked me if I had removed their credit cards from their wallet, I had not, and the wallet had not left the hotel room (specifically the restroom) since we arrived 3 days earlier. Upon checking my online card information, I found that the card was stolen and charges were being made (10 charges that day alone)-I reported the card stolen to my card company. As mentioned, the card and the wallet did not leave the hotel room, it was there strictly for emergency purposes. Therefore, a staff member of The Roosevelt had to have taken the card since it had not been outside the room and was verified to be in the room one night earlier. After speaking with my card company, I called the front desk of the hotel and asked for a manager-not because the front desk was non-helpful, but I knew they wouldn't be able to assist appropriately with such an issue-I was told a manger was unavailable and that security staff would be up to my room promptly. Once security arrived (approx. 5 minutes after hanging up with the front desk), the experience only got worse-there was no "how was your day", or "I apologize this happened", instead it was a flat conversation with no customer service at all, just questions regarding the facts. Upon answering all of the questions I mentioned to the security agent that his customer service skills were lacking and that while hospitality wasn't his job, it was still a key part of working at any hotel and he could really use to improve those skills. Approx. 30 minutes after the security agent left my room, I received a call on my room phone from the agent's boss-his boss had great customer service skills, apologized profusely, spoke respectfully, and assured me the issue would be looked into and that this was one of very few incidents of its kind to occur at The Roosevelt and that I would receive a call from him-the second security agent provided great service, other than the fact that eight days later I am still waiting for the call. I called and left the hotel GM a message after my stay hoping to speak with him regarding the issues I experienced a I received no response, which given everything else is not surprising. On a positive note, the hotel is beautiful and the room...

I did considerable research in planning for our 50th wedding anniversary trip to New Orleans. Previously, I traveled extensively in Medical Industry (had LA in my territory while based in NC)and stayed 1000 nights in hotels before retiring. Plus, my wife and I visited New Orleans 15 or so times during the years. It should be noted that previously I had achieved high reward status with Hilton - now just Hilton Honors. ||Wanting to do something different, I called 3 luxury hotels and inquired as to any small in room food perks that would make my wife feel special. At the Roosevelt I was told chocolate covered strawberries and a bottle of wine. All hotels promised similar but different items. I decided on the Roosevelt Hotel and was told to be sure to put in the notes/request section that it was our 50th anniversary. Additionally the front desk staff said that they make such milestones as special as possible. ||When we checked in the front desk person welcomed us and extended 50th wedding anniversary greetings as well as an apparent supervisor. Our room was in the final stages of inspection and was ready in 10 minutes. Our deluxe room consisted of a sitting room, bedroom, and bathroom as well as a walk in closet containing a safe.||We had dinner reservations and left the hotel for a very special evening. The excellent valets hailed a cab for us and protected us with umbrellas(pouring rain). After dinner, we returned around 10 PM. Nothing special had been delivered to our room.||At 08:30 the next morning, we had reservations for breakfast in the Fountain Lounge. We were seated promptly, given menus, and ordered coffee. Our server was covering 90% of the dinning room. Water and coffee arrived and issues began. The almost flavorless weak coffee was slightly warm. ||My wife ordered Eggs Benedict and I ordered the cheddar tasso/crawfish tail omelette. Our server was still overloaded but at a little past 9 more staff began appearing. The table next to us received their food (they were sitting when we arrived). The gentleman had to ask twice for his bagel that was included in his smoked salmon plate. In the dining room his table was the only one that we observed eating. ||Our food was finally delivered by another server. My wife’s Eggs Benedict were just above room temperature and the poached eggs were almost void of liquid yolks (way over poached). My omelette was barely warm, skimpy on cheese, tasso, and crawfish tails. The egg portion was dry and overcooked along with lacking much taste. Tasso is supposed to be highly seasoned smoked pork shoulder. I’ve had boiled ham with more flavor. My rectangular cold accompanying dry biscuit was almost inedible. What a poor representation of supposedly classic and cajun/ creole food. ||We left for the day and returned mid afternoon and then left around 6 PM for dinner. We had planned on having beignets for dessert at the hotel. Instead, we stopped elsewhere rather than take a chance on the hotel’s food. When we returned the excellent valets kept use dry. Upon entering the room, there was still nothing of the promised strawberries and wine. ||The next morning we decided to check out and then get breakfast. Upon checking out we were not asked how our stay was. I saw no reason to say anything about the lack of the promised anniversary perks. ||I take responsibility for going against my previous excellent experiences for lodging in New Orleans. Do not be fooled by the name that used to mean quality and luxury. This is a typical meeting space/conference hotel. Instead think of it as a hotel featuring bulk bottled bathroom product, a shower that has very low sliding glass shower doors with the frame making people about 6 feet tall duck or hit their head, and reneging on making something special. Late life...

I left this review on Yelp last year, and then got this private response from a staff member of the Waldorf on Yelp, pasted below: My initial review: This review is long overdue. I sat on leaving this review for several months, thinking that I could just let things be. I booked a 4 night stay at this hotel. The first night, I woke up in the middle of the night to find a massive cockroach on the floor. I trapped it with a shoe, and had to call maintenance to remove it in the middle of the night. The morning after, I checked out prematurely and was only offered $100 off my one-night stay. At the desk, put on the spot, I initially agreed. But after a few minutes of reflection, realized that the compensation was in no way commensurate with the time, labor, and energy of finding a cockroach, trapping it, coordinating and waiting for room service to take care of it, and then staying up in the middle of the night to find a new place to stay. And then, having to pay last-minute prices to book a new hotel room. When I reached back out to the hotel about trying to get more fair compensation via their texting service after checking out, I (respectfully and neutrally) requested to direct my question to someone higher up in the chain of command and was essentially, well.. ghosted. No one ever called me back, as if their customer service department is run by a bunch of teenagers who opt to avoid rather than do the more difficult thing of problem-solving in the face of possible conflict or tension.

DO NOT STAY HERE. The silver lining of this event is that in my impromptu, frantic hotel search, I learned that New Orleans is truly filled with a plethora of wonderful, newer, equally amenity-filled hotels that are HALF THE PRICE. I ended up staying at the Cambria in the Warehouse District, and my room was double the size, the fixtures were brand new, and I had a whole wall of sunlight-filled, full-length windows that looked onto a quaint street. Ultimately, the name and the history of a hotel like the Waldorf might be compelling, but the reality is that the name is NOT worth the experience of being disregarded and unvalued. Private message by Nils E, in response, on Yelp: Re: your review for The Roosevelt New Orleans, A Waldorf Astoria Hotel

I can't stop laughing about somebody complaining about cockroaches in their New Orleans hotel room. Man, I LOVE Chicago, where it looks like where you are from. But you should really stay out of the American South. I say this as a Texan and current Californian. You should be thankful you weren't over-run! It happens down there. It's not a quality indication. You just live with it, like hurricanes. LOL. My last word to advice to anyone who is reading this and considering booking in this hotel: This response is truly symbolic of the hotel's care and attitude toward their guests. I'm from NYC. I've had bed bugs twice. I have no issue with bugs or critters if I'm camping or staying in my own apartment, walking on the streets of NYC. But his response is the Merriam-Webster dictionary's literal definition of gaslighting for someone to tell me that the "correct" or "appropriate" way I should be feeling is just fine and content when I'm paying $500 out of pocket to stay in a hotel, and that my response and reaction is actually unreasonable or...