Waldorf Astoria Jerusalem

We stayed at the Waldorf Astoria Jerusalem for my birthday and our anniversary (they fall out a few weeks apart) last year and loved every minute of it! So this year we wanted to come back and celebrate again. The hotel is centrally located and technically has everything we wanted in a hotel. NOT TRUE ANY MORE! We arrived at the hotel on Wednesday 7 January and checked out of that dump today Friday January 9. I am writing this immediately upon returning home - so anyone planning on staying here should think twice. The furniture THROUGHOUT the hotel is starting to look old and chipped, the rugs in the lobby are frayed and not particularly clean (at least in our room the rug and one of the couches had stains) - it’s obvious no one is worried about upkeep. The shower leaked into the toilet area. The electric kettle in the room is chipped, cold air seeped in through one of the windows and it just goes on. But the worst thing was that we had ordered a Deluxe King room and found immediately that the bed was in essence a twin bed pushed together (there is BTW a deluxe twin room - which we didn’t order). My husband immediately went down to the main desk and told them and was told they would take care of it. The next morning my husband again told the front desk and they asked when they could come up to deal with it – we said 1200 and happily left the hotel to enjoy ourselves. At 2:30 PM we returned to find that nothing was done. My husband once more asked that this be taken care of and two Waldorf employees (!) in succession came up to the room and had no idea what we wanted and left. When I went down to complain (my husband was disgusted by this point) I was told by the front desk that my husband never talked to anyone and no complaint was ever lodged and that he in essence lied! I was then told that there are no king size beds – at all - just two beds put together with a zipper (front desk’s words). So when I asked why didn’t anyone tell us this to begin with and why bother offering this on their site – I got no answer. This morning as we checked out of this dump as quickly as possible – I heard a young women complain about her room (I just heard scraps of the conversation that she "...couldn’t sleep all night…") and the look on the face of front desk was “this is a YOU problem”. The Waldorf has forgotten what service is all about. (The employee who took care of our luggage and valet parking – both check in and check out – was wonderful, friendly and understands service, but sadly he is just one of a very few who work there). The Waldorf is now just a very expensive Plaza (if you know – you know) hotel that itself went down hill years ago. For the amount of money we paid for two nights we could have enjoyed a few nights and flights to anywhere in Europe. For their price point we have many actual luxury hotels (who know what service with a smile really means) in Jerusalem to choose from. The Waldorf can keep their name (that’s all they have left) and I’ll take my money somewhere else.

This review is long overdo. To begin we must thank Gilly Frankel. She, more than anyone at the hotel, saw to our pleasant and enjoyable experience. Gilly was involved while we were still in the United States, communicating with care, concern and professionalism. Some details bear mention. When we arrived at the hotel, Gilly made herself available for anything and everything we needed. From places to go, to the few overlooked details by others at the hotel, we knew we could count on Gilly. Being that the war was still ongoing, its effect was painfully felt by the fewer numbers of tourists all throughout the city. Our weekend Shabbat was wonderful. One of the front desk members dropped the ball on the last morning of our visit, forgetting to leave us breakfast packages to bring with us to the plane, leaving us without food for our journey back home. Disappointing for a hotel of this calibre. But the visage of Gilly lingers and we are deeply grateful for the kindness and professionalism she extended. Ask for her when you visit the WA Jerusalem. It will make your special occasion in a wonderful hotel more special.

We are regular guests at the Waldorf Astoria Jerusalem and the level of service consistently exceeds expectations. Special recognition goes to George from the Food & Beverage team, who continually goes above and beyond to ensure his entire staff is attentive and perfectly aligned with the needs of every table. Each guest is cared for with exceptional attention and professionalism

PROS: Great location Excellent food at breakfast and dinner Beautiful building CONS: Bad service (with a few exceptions) The kindest way I could describe the service at the Jerusalem Waldorf Astoria is to call it “INDIFFERENT.” It was cold and impersonal from the moment we checked in to the minute we checked out. Whenever we approached the front desk to ask a simple question we got the feeling we were interrupting something more important and were inconveniencing the staff. It was that kind of attitude. One evening when we waited to be seated for dinner, the hostess was obviously busy with a personal phone call because she was yelling at someone on the other end of the line. Even though we were standing right in front of her, she didn’t take any notice of us until she finished her call. There were 2 exceptions to this poor service: Fuad at breakfast in the dining room was always very cheerful, charming, and kind. Nadine, a server we met at both breakfast and dinner, was very sweet and helpful. NOTE TO MANAGEMENT: At checkout, after putting many THOUSANDS of shekels on my credit card, it would have been nice to hear the front desk person say “Thank you for your business” or “We hope you enjoyed your stay.” But all he did was to continue staring silently at the computer screen without ever looking up. Will NOT be returning. There are other nice hotels in the same neighborhood where my thousands of shekels might be more appreciated.

Probably the best hotel I have ever stayed in. But that is what you get for that price. Room is excellent, location is excellent, breakfast is excellent.