Note: This article — whose original title was Waldorf=Astoria Hotel in New York to Close For Renovations — But… — was originally published on Monday, June 27, 2016 at 2:22 in the afternoon and has been updated.
Hilton Worldwide Holdings Incorporated sold the historic Waldorf=Astoria hotel property in New York to Anbang Insurance Group Company of China for $1.95 billion — or approximately $1.4 million per room — in February of 2015.
To put that sale price in further context, Conrad Hilton reportedly acquired the iconic flagship hotel of Hilton Worldwide in 1949 for $3 million — an amount which would only purchase two rooms in the hotel property in June of 2016.
Reservations Now Being Accepted For Waldorf Astoria New York
Hilton Worldwide will continue to operate the Waldorf=Astoria hotel property under a management contract for a duration of 100 years, which began upon the closing of the sale — but significantly fewer rooms will be available, as the hotel property closed in March of 2017 so that many of the greater than 1,400 rooms can be renovated and converted to luxury condominiums.
The luxury hotel property was not forecast to open again to the public until as late as the year 2020, with only 300 to 500 rooms to remain available for the purpose of being occupied by guests of the hotel property. Reservations are now supposedly being accepted once again for guests to stay at Waldorf Astoria New York as soon as September of 2025…
…but at the time this article was updated and revised, reservations were not yet capable of being accepted via any official Internet web site.
Perhaps success of booking a reservation at Waldorf Astoria New York could be achieved by calling via telephone?
Final Boarding Call
“I would not be surprised to see the rate of the redemption of Hilton HHonors frequent guest loyalty program points increased as a result of the sale and renovations. Hopefully that will not happen.”
That is what I wrote in this article back on Wednesday, October 8, 2014 when news of the sale was first announced. I thought then that that could an understatement now that only approximately a third of the rooms in the storied hotel property will be used for the purpose of a hotel — as well as the maximum limit of points for a standard room rate per night was recently quietly increased to 200,000 Hilton Honors points per night…
…but, of course, that all depends on the basic economic principle of supply and demand; and 300 rooms is not a paltry number in and of itself, as there are hotel properties which have even fewer rooms in total. I anticipate that one standard room per night will likely cost at least 120,000 Hilton Honors points; and cash rates might hover in the $700.00 per night range?
I have never stayed as a guest at this hotel — I never had a need to do so, being born and raised in New York — but I would like to do so sometime in the future…
Source: Hilton.
