Sofitel New York : stay very far away from this hotel

A discussion was started in the welcome amenity thread and here is my review of my very disappointing stay at Sofitel NY. Of course, I know some of you may already think “how could he has stayed there knowing the catastrophic reviews we had here on FT since Covid reopening and all the very negative comments on the hotel webpage (from the customer satisfaction survey or from Trip Advisor) ;)

Yes I shouldn’t had but I did book there for the following reasons :

• the last reviews here were now a while ago (2022) and since that Gaby restaurant has reopened, so service was supposed to be back to normal (or close to)
• you may think that a normal competent management would take all the issues raised very seriously and solve as much problems as possible. Of course I was very naive on this.
• Rates are totally insane in the USA, and even more in NY. I was struggling to find something below $500 (non Accor, as of course the Fairmont Plaza is….what is is), and with not good hotels. Even for 500$/night in NY, you can have absolute crap. Sofitel was in the $320 to $420 range (depending on the night), so thinking that I could hopefully enjoy a few Diamond benefits, and that it would also lead me to renew my Diamond status for 2024 (or very close to), I gave it a go. The location of the hotel is also a big plus.

I needed a room with 2 beds, and so booked a classic room with 2 beds (floors 3 to 14 as per the site). It is interesting to note that the hotel is charging significantly more for 2 persons occupying a room with 2 beds that for the same 2 persons occupying a room for a double bed. For sure, there is another set of bed sheets to clean, but…this is one of the numerous scams you have to endure in this hotel. The room rate was also a “ALL Visa Ultimate” card rate coming with breakfast included (including taxes and tip) + a $50 F&B credit. The stay was over a weekend + monday (checkout on monday), so free Diamond breakfast would have applied anyway for the 2 first nights.

Of course, being in NY, the 2nd scam is the resort fee, or “Urban experience fee” as they call it here !. It comes at 29$/night. The description in the booking is of course absolutely laughable :

“Urban tax : includes ALLSafe kit, 10 USD laundry credit, premium WIFI, in-room packages delivery (up to 3 pieces), business center open 7/24, -15 % at Bloomingdales, 1 free movie for Diamond members and more”.

Just a few comments about this :

• ALL safe kit : LOL, it was nowhere to be seen. And sincerely, nobody cares anymore about this.
• Premium wifi code was never given, and in any case it is supposed to be free for Plat/Diamond members
• And all the rest is just pure joke
• you have certainly noted the “and more”: WOW I really wonder what to expect :)

The day before arrival, I sent an email to let them know about our planned arrival time (about 2 pm) and asking them to waive the scammy Urban fee as a gesture for Diamond member. This email remained unanswered until the day after checkout…I will come back on this.

Check-in : nothing to really complain about the way we were welcomed. But, after having said that our room was ready on the 4th floor, the employee checked if there was something nicer available on a upper floor, but apparently not and we were stuck with the room on the 4th floor. Two drink vouchers were given (1 per person).

Room on the 4th floor was a bit dated but certainly OK in term of space, bedding, bathroom, but :

• main criticism was that the room was super dark. It was facing 45th street, but whatever the time, there was almost no natural sunlight.
• Of course, no welcome amenity or letter.
• As reported by other posters, no water, no coffee machine, not even a kettle
• minibar was totally empty
• only one bathrobe while occupancy was double

In summary, they gave one of the worst room to a Diamond member.

When going out I asked for some water and a 2nd bathrobe and it was done when we returned from walking around. An additional bottle of water was placed on the 2nd day. No turndown service was provided. 

Breakfast : the 3rd scam

• Gaby restaurant is now reopen for breakfast and dinner. But not for lunch. And for dinner, don’t go too late…see times of operations on the picture below.
• As I said above, booking said breakfast was included (as well as taxes and tip). The 1st morning, we were explained that we could order anything on the menu as part of the Diamond weekend package. Toward end of meal, our waiter bring us the bill saying that we need to sign it even if it was free for us and that we can leave an extra tip for him if we wish. The bill I signed was showing all what we ordered + tax and 15% service charge for a total amount around 110$ (yes, for breakfast…).
• 2nd morning, we received a bill to sign for about 15$ ! Asking for some explanations, it was “this is what remains for you to be paid for what you ordered exceeding the max amount allowed with your free breakfast”. I said that I don’t understand as, yesterday, the same person said to us that we could had anything (and just to make it clear for everyone here : we just took 1 dish each + coffee & orange juice). The server then said that we are correct, so she would cancel the charge but we still have to sign the bill for accounting purpose.
• 3rd morning (monday) : we received a bill of around 40$ IIRC. Asking why, the answer from the server (a different one than the previous days) was we took dishes that were above the maximum amount allowed because, during the weekend we were on the “free Diamond breakfast package” which comes with a higher allowance than the free breakfast included in some rates. I then said that nobody told us that and they accepted to waive the charge. Why making it simple when you can make it very complicated ?

More to come on this…but nothing is clear and they are trying to scam you constantly.

We had dinner there one evening to use the 50$ F&B credit. We used the drink vouchers before the dinner for aperitif and this was the most pleasant experience of the stay. We could have anything from the menu up to $35. I don’t know if this is for all drink vouchers as ours were clearly displaying “diamond drink voucher”. My travel companion wanted a cocktail but could not find what she wanted on the menu. Explaining what she likes or not for alcohol, the waiter and the barman did their best to create a special cocktail for her according to her taste and she was very happy. I had an Aperol spritz. Food was good, although there is nothing exceptional on the menu.

Leaving the restaurant, we stopped at the front desk to request a late checkout at 3 pm as we wanted to take a shower before heading back to JFK for our flight to CDG. A bit of reluctance and argumentations, but it was granted and keys reprogrammed. The next day, returning at 2 pm to pack and shower, keys were refused to activate the lift. Back to front desk, we were told in a semi-rude way that our checkout time was only extended till 1 pm. I said that it was wrong and the guy reprogrammed our keys. For information, here is what is displayed in the room for late checkout price, unbelievable… :

4th scam : the bill at checkout

During checkout, they mentioned that they used the 50$ F&B credit to deduct from the dinner at Gaby and that was fine of course. Then I said that I wanted to use 5 Diamond F&B vouchers to cover the rest of the meal and I was replied that they don’t accept those vouchers at this hotel. I was quite puzzled and upset and ask for some more explanations, but I didn’t had any, just “I don’t know why, but we were told to not accept them”. At this point I told them that they were just the Nth Accor hotel doing their own rules with ALL program and that was unacceptable.

Then they charged my CC and printed the bill and placed it in an enveloppe. At that stage I totally forgot about the resort fee. But in the lobby and before leaving the hotel, I checked the bill and discovered 3 breakfast charges of around $73 (total $222). I was boiling, returned to front desk. They acknowledge the mistake, reprinted a bill showing that they will re-credit my CC of $222 (as the initial charge was already done). Similar problem was reported by Matmatlr for his stay last year.

The next day, back in Paris and looking at my CC charges, I discovered that, on top of the initially charged amount, I have another charge of 222$ instead of a credit, and I have also a 3rd charge of $47 and I don’t know to what it corresponds. The same day, they finally replied to my email sent 5 days before about resort fee. The response (from the front office director) is a piece of art and I copy here below :

“Thank you for choosing to stay with us at Sofitel New York. I have received your inquiry about our urban fees, please be advised that this is completely legal and we are well within the law to charge this. Over 80% of hotels in NYC currently charge a fee allocated into the room. As a one-time courtesy for our loyal Diamond member, we have waived this fee for your stay. Please let us know if you have any questions”. 

I don’t even know if he realized that I already checked out. So now I have to claim for reimbursement of the additional undue charges + the resort fees.

And 5th scam for the beauty : tomorrow will be one week post checkout and no points have been posted. Starflyergold has also reported the same issue

In summary, this hotel is a total shame to Accor. Stay away from it. Most of the problems I reported here were already reported by other members of this forum in 2022 and the fact it’s still continuing show that it is amateurism at its best.

I will of course report here the after stay discussions. Having to deal with such problems should never happen.