Many hotels have free washers and dryers for guests.
Not in NYC looks like.
Not surprised.

I once saw Frank Luntz in the lobby (many years ago, but even so).

Wouldn't that have been another ten spot back to the hotel?

Still cheaper, though....

Your best bet is to have a pal in NYC with a washer/dryer! That's how I handle my forays--I stay with relatives in Queens--so I'm not even shelling out for the hotel!

She's European, and walks everywhere she can. It was snowing earlier in the day

And she is in incredible shape. I have seen some 62 year old women who seemed more like 82. She seems more like 42, and has a very can-do attitude for a European.

for everything that involves moving items from point A to point B (it's public transportation for me when I am in that neighborhood). Yes, I look like an idiot, but it gets the groceries back to the flat!

Not the one I would have chosen, but I wasn't given a choice.

Statue of Liberty"!)

I live in Düsseldorf and don't know if some hotel is considered famous or not. The lobby is pompous, but the rooms look like they haven't bee renovated since 1945. If THAT'S famous, then NY needs some serious repair, and not just the potholes on 7th Avenue.

check it out
and there's a drop down where you can read about the history
http://www.waldorfnewyork.com/

Good thing, too, as their inefficient check-in made everyone stand in line for at least half an hour!!

And the rooms haven't been renovated since Dewey was governor.

believe it or not, every sitting President since 1931 has stayed at the Waldorf when in NYC.

Of course ordinary folks can too - if they can spend $10,000 PER NIGHT.

We are probably paying $225 to $250 a night. Any more than that, and our top people would have vetoed our staying here.

P.S. the Prez stays in the "Presidential Suite" on the 35th floor.

And I haven't been president at any time in this incarnation.

I'm sure my outfit had a little chat with the hotel's management about the rate, although I doubt we have any "corporate" arrangement with any hotel chain. There are over 20 of us here for a few days, though, and I imagine that carried a little weight. Like what I understand to be the case in Las Vegas, they probably give you a break on the room rate if they think they can nail you otherwise. I'm sure room service costs $30 for potato chips or something. It won't work with us, though. We just run down to the Oxford Café and get a huge bowl of chili or Manhattan clam chowder for $5.95 and leave the $30 potato chips to whomever is too lazy or pressed for time to walk across the street. We are neither THAT pressed for time nor that lazy.

work for a law firm that has a corporate rate with a couple of hotels nearby - they use it for clients.

So, on those few occasions when I'm working here, the office here does the arrangements. I'm never consulted, just told where we're staying, and that's the end of it. It's kind of a don't ask type of arrangement. Not that I care much. Wherever they put me, we're talking about maybe 15 days out of my year, so I just quietly show up. I do make my own plane reservations, since most of the gang Stateside can barely pronounce "Düsseldorf," much less spell it.

you made a good decision. Enjoy NYC!

I can't stand the prices to have things sent up by room service.

And it doesn't help that the finer hotel properties tend to be miles from any simple grocers.

I like milk, and years ago learned that a pitcher of milk would cost #26 brought to my room at the Hyatt or whatever at Universal Studios.

I wanted some pickles and tomato juice, maybe some cookies, too.

So I had a cab drive me over to a Target and wait while I shopped.

Saved a lot of money, cheated nobody.

Now I know better and shop on the way to the hotel or pack some things I want.

A small number of hotels have in house convenience sales of drinks, toiletries, snack, etc., but most don't.

But good nonetheless.

That's making prudent decisions.

The outfit chooses them for me. When our work/conference is in a specific hotel, they put me in there with everyone else. I am not asked for my input or preferences. At least they are egalitarian. The support staff stays at the same place as the top brass, and there are a lot more of them than there are of us.

No way would I pay $600 for laundry.
For that kind of money they better saw diamonds onto my clothes.

if you're willing to do the work to figure it out.

My favorite needing to do laundry story while traveling was in Prague a year ago.
The hotel didn't charge us for the laundry that we sent out! They also
didn't charge us for the soup they brought to me when we arrived
because I'd been ill, but managed to make the train trip from
Salzburg to Prague that day, although I would have much rather
stayed in bed and close to the facilities. Family owned, small hotel.
The people were VERY nice. Definitely NOT NY!

Plus all four of my grandparents lived here at one time or another.

We learned long ago that food and services of identical quality can cost all kinds of different prices. I can get chicken in black bean sauce, one of my favorite Chinese dishes, at a super fancy place for about $36, or else get a portion just as good--and big enough for two people--at a hole in the wall on 6th at 36th street for $7.95 if I'm willing to walk over.

Although she now sometimes accompanies me on my travels, my wife remains the product of the relatively poor farming area of northwestern Germany where she grew up, and when she saw the prices the hotel was charging for laundry, she said there was no way she was letting that happen, and so she didn't.

I have tipped the desk clerk 10 bucks when they gave me change for the washer/dryer and had them bring my laundry to the door folded though.

out of $580. At least that's how I see it.

folks who won't care about the number on the bill, only the quality of the service.

I promise you my outfit cares about costs, and I'm sure they made a deal with the hotel. No way we are paying $350 a night for rooms. We'd all be staying down the road if that were the case. I just talked to some friends who decided to try the Sunday Brunch buffet downstairs and gagged when they got the $300 (for TWO!!!) bill, but we get a per diem of less than $90 per person per day for food (and that's augmented because it's New York), so I promise you none of us have ever eaten there.

Besides, the quality of service at this hotel isn't anything to write home about. I had to wait in line for half an hour to check in, and the only reason I got a room with a queen-sized bed (my wife and I still get along) is because I recognized the accent of the guy at the check-in counter (Italian) and spoke to him in his native language (my Italian is more than adequate).

didn't even have a 24 hour hairdresser available for the member of our party that accidentally dyed their hair Lucille Ball red the night before meeting some important dignitaries (or rarely seen relatives). Said party had to skip the Statue of Liberty tour to fix the mistake at an ordinary hairdresser the next day. One can only imagine the horror this individual had to suffer at this inconvenience.

That is a true story but the only reason we stayed there was because my mother was raised in Manhattan and had always wanted to visit the Plaza Hotel. She arranged it all and took 6 family members with her for a Macy's Thanksgiving parade.

We had a nice visit but outside of the location, doormen and glittery lobby, it really wasn't all that special and the rooms were quite dated as DFW experienced. Once was nice but I would never spend that kind of money again for the experience (oh yeah, I didn't pay for it to begin with).

All said, if you can go to one of these hotels for free, do it. If you have to pay, forget it.

You didn't "cheat" them out of anything, since you did nothing deceptive to get their money, nor did you overcharge for a service. They, on the other hand, were trying to charge you $600 more than the going rate for laundry service.

My thread title wasn't meant to be taken overly literally.

True, mine would consist of Miami Marlins teeshirts, jeans, a couple Hawaiian shirts, and $20 worth of socks and undies from Target.

We wouldn't have had to pay for it, and I wouldn't have had the time (which is what the hotel counts on) to wash or replace. However, my wife did, and she just couldn't stand the thought of tossing that much money out the window, even if it wasn't ours.

but for entire loads - it's a joke and overpriced.

I think I used it once because I spilled something on a good shirt I wanted to use for dinner later that night. It was worth paying too much for the hotel to clean the shirt since I had a busy day that day.

Other than that - giant rip off and the hotel knows it. Just like the know that $5 for a can of Coke is way over priced when I could buy a soda for $1 elsewhere and bring it with me into the hotel.