Luxury begins with Service
My husband I had a get away to New York 8/24-26 and we stayed at the Chatwal based on a recommendation from a good friend that frequents the hotel. We had high expectations given the trusted recommendation and that Joel Freyburg's (the GM) assistant assured my husband that we would be treated like VIPs for our special trip. I have to say that I was very let down. First let me recognize the hotel for all that was great about it. The location is fantastic- close to Time Square but on a quiet street that allows you to escape. The design and furnishings in the hotel were top notch. The hotel had an art deco feel in the lobby and the room was well appointed and the furniture, appliances/technology was first class. There was a TV built into the bathroom vanity which surprisingly I enjoyed. There was a rain shower and also a hand held- very nice shower but more to tell on that in a moment.... And my favorite feature was the toilet. I know it sounds crazy but the seats were heated and the bidet was perfect! And lastly the spa was great and my massage was excellent. 
So where did it fall short you ask? The service (with the exception of the bell and door men who were great). All presented a friendly aim to please spirit and the white gloves were a nice touch but the service fell apart in the execution. It started upon my arrival. Our room wasn't ready which was fine so I asked the concierge for a spa recommendation. I did not know they had a spa in the hotel and his response was "Well what about our spa, is it too expensive?". Rule number one, never assume anything about someone's finances. I ended up going to the spa in the hotel and that is when the second incident occurred. After my massage I asked if I could go up to my room in the spa robe. The spa agreed and called to the front desk to have my keys brought down to the spa so that I would not have to go to the main lobby. We waited for 25 minutes for my key that never arrived (after 2 additional calls to the front desk) and finally I had to go and get my own key in my robe. The third incident was that I did not know how to make the shower water warm (not the hotel's fault) so on the first night of our stay we called for help and they said they would send someone up. After waiting and hearing nothing I took a cold shower. I called early that next morning and the engineer was not in, so once again I could not get help with the shower until after we were scheduled to leave for our breakfast reservation so I took my second cold shower that am. I am assuming that the engineer did fix the shower because it worked great that evening but after 2 cold showers you would think someone would let us know that it was handled and ensure that we knew how to use the shower appropriately. At this point I was done. 
The final kicker for me was that when asked if we enjoyed our stay the day of our departure, I politely expressed my dissatisfaction and the lady at the front desk kindly apologized and asked to make it up to us on our next visit. While I believe she was sincere, offering to rectify an issue on some future date that may never occur is a service faux pas. You can not assume you will get a second chance to make something right. Especially not after failing the first time at $~600 per night.