Very Disappointing
My work collegues and I had saved for 18 months for this trip to New York, and decided to splash out on the accommodation. The Waldorf Astoria has a reputation as an iconic New York hotel, and we hoped it would be a luxurious experience. We didn't wait very long to check in, our rooms were not ready on arrival, but we had arrived before 3pm. Our party had 3 rooms. The rooms were quite pleasant and spacious, but nothing special and in need of some redecoration. The bathroom was very dated and it was difficult to tell quite how clean it was. We had various issues during our stay, none of which were resolved. Room 1, ran hot, the air con did not work. Room 2, the safe and air con did not work, the windows did not open. During our stay the hotel hairdryers blew the fuse and we were without electricity in any of the rooms for over an hour. We did notify the front desk about the problems we were experiencing. They did give $100 dollars credit to each of the rooms with faults, to use at Oscars for breakfast. We really enjoyed breakfast, which we had on our last day. We were squeezed into a corner of the restaurant, but the food was lovely and the choices plentiful.
The main problem that we experienced with this hotel is the unauthorised use of our credit cards after we had settled our bill and checked out. I was charged $154 3 days after I got home, for breakfast for 3 people. I had used the credit awarded by the hotel and settled the rest in cash. My collegue was charged over $700 for various items, all of which had been paid for when we checked out. We both contacted the hotel by email for several days and had no response. I then rang billing and was told I would be phoned back, which never happened. I emailed Hilton Group customer services and got no acknowledgement. In the end we both contacted our Banks to investigate and try to get the money back. Eventually, after 14 days, we both got an email from billing saying they had no idea what we were disputing. Another few furious emails ensued and I have now had my account credited at a worse exchange rate!! My collegue is still waiting. There was no apology from billing until I demanded one. The customer service at this hotel is atrocious.