The Plaza Hotel (also known as The Plaza) is a luxury hotel and condominium apartment building in Midtown Manhattan. The 21-story, French Renaissance-inspired château-style building was designed by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh. The facade is made of marble at the base and white brick in the intermediate stories, while the hotel is topped by a mansard roof. The ground floor contains the two primary lobbies, as well as a corridor connecting the large ground-floor restaurant spaces, including the Oak Room, the Oak Bar, the Edwardian Room, the Palm Court, and the Terrace Room. The upper stories contain the ballroom and a variety of residential condominiums, condo-hotel suites, and short-term hotel suites. At its peak, the Plaza Hotel had over 800 rooms. Following a renovation in 2008, the building has had 282 hotel rooms and 181 condos.

A predecessor hotel of the same name was built from 1883 to 1890. The original hotel was replaced by the current structure from 1905 to 1907; Warren and Wetmore designed an expansion to the Plaza Hotel from 1919 to 1921, and several major renovations were conducted through the rest of the 20th century. The Plaza Operating Company, which erected the current building, operated the hotel until 1943. Subsequently, it was sold to several owners during the remainder of the 20th century, including Conrad Hilton, A.M. Sonnabend, Westin Hotels & Resorts, Donald Trump, and a partnership of City Developments Limited and Al-Waleed bin Talal. The Plaza Hotel was renovated again after El Ad Properties purchased it in 2005, and the hotel was subsequently sold to Sahara India Pariwar and most recently to Katara Hospitality.

Since its inception, the Plaza Hotel has become an icon of New York City, with numerous wealthy and famous guests. The restaurant spaces and ballrooms have hosted events such as weddings, balls, benefits, and press conferences. The hotel's design, as well as its location near Central Park, has generally received positive acclaim. In addition, the Plaza Hotel has appeared in numerous books and films. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the hotel's exterior and some of its interior spaces as city landmarks, and the building is also a National Historic Landmark.

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Founded: 1905-1907
Category: Miscellaneous historic sites in United States

Rating

4.5/5 (based on Google user reviews)

User Reviews

Sun Valley (8 months ago)
Seated where the staff and carts come out. My chair kept getting kicked. Asked for an off the menu cocktail. Told him how to make it, with a lemon garnish....he didn't even trim it? Not the $700+ plaza experience i expected for our anniversary.
Connie Viers (8 months ago)
We went to the Plaza and had mimosas in the bar. Service was excellent. A little pricey, but worth the memory making experience
Craig M (11 months ago)
Stayed at the start of December. An amazing hotel but hugely over priced due to it being a tourist attraction in its own right at this time of year. The rooms are huge, very comfortable and luxurious with a bathroom almost as big as some hotel rooms in Manhattan. Check in was very slow. Only one member of staff on reception meant we stood waiting for almost 30 minutes to check in. Got to our room and a rollaway bed had been left in our room that we never requested. This took almost an hour until someone came to remove it. I see many reviews from non guests complaining about not being allowed access to the hotel but to give a review from a different perspective of someone who had paid to stay there - we had to wait almost an hour to get a drink in the Palm Court despite being residents and we were never able to get a table in the Champagne Bar. When you stay in a hotel you just don't expect that you won't even be able to sit and enjoy a drink there when you feel like one. Was surprised that a hotel charging a room rate of four figures per night didn't even offer complimentary bottles of water or tea/coffee making facilities. Even 2 and 3 star hotels pretty much offer this as standard nowadays. To summarise, an amazing and iconic hotel but really its only worth about half of what they charge in terms of facilities and guest experience.
Tim C. (11 months ago)
I booked a four night stay in an Edwardian suite to spend thanksgiving in the city. The check in was very smooth and the property appears well kept with nice fragrance pumped right through the HVAC system. The entire place smelled nice as a result. I am a die hard fan of Fairmont hotels and have tried many of their properties over the years. Having stayed at their flagship hotel the Savoy in London and their competitor the Ritz, it pains me to say that the service here fell quite short of my expectations of a flagship property. The staff working there seem just “tired” and they do not seem to want to have any sort of genuine connection with the guests. They are just all about business there. This is very different from places like the ritz there they take the time to get to know you and engage in meaningful ways to make the stay a memorable one. Our suite includes some sort of a white glove butler service but I’ve not even see the butler once during my stay. On the day after thanksgiving, somehow our room was not serviced all day. I even called in around 3 pm to request a house keeping service and it did not happen even then. I had to go to the front desk to request it to finally have the room cleaned. I think this hotel is great and has a lot of potential, but the staff training isn’t there yet. It’s also quite unique in the sense that it’s in a historic building in the sea of ultra modern high rises. However, the hotel seems to only occupy the south wing and is quite small despite looking imposing from the outside. As a result most of the rooms don’t have much of a view to speak of. If you are looking for rooms with views, you will have to pay quite a bit more for partial park views. All in all it was a rather uneventful and also unremarkable stay. I am Diamond with Accor and used four suite night upgrades for this stay, but they were not honored at check out. I had to call in and be put on hold for quite a while to get it sorted. The front desk person wasn’t even apologetic for this clerical error. I really want to like this hotel and would love more opportunities to experience its full glory. Perhaps the weekend was just too busy. Although For the same price I’d recommend going with four season or mandarin oriental both of which have much better views and modern amenities.
John Williams (12 months ago)
On my first trip to America on my 42nd Birthday, I decided to fulfil a childhood ambition and visit The Plaza. My partner and I got dressed up smart and planned to have breakfast before a walk in Central Park. We were greeted by a jumped up, rude, snooty member of staff who informed us that only hotel guests could be catered for, not what is advertised on the website and lots of empty tables. I don't know if he was after a cash bribe or just thought we didn't look rich enough but we left feeling judged and disappointed. We took our custom to Sarabeths down the street, priced very similar to The Plaza and made us feel very welcome indeed.
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