Inside legendary New York hotel after a $2.84 billion revamp

There are few finer feelings when in a strange city than walking into the lobby of a hotel that’s so loved and lived in, it’s part of the city’s timeline. When it’s the original Waldorf Astoria – fresh from an eight-year, $US2 billion ($2.84 billion) total refurbishment – you might have to sink into a velvet armchair in fabled Peacock Alley and realise you just checked into one of New York’s most famous hotels.

The “alley” – more like an exceptional lounge room with its distinctive fish-motif carpet in oceanic blue, and a boulevard-style entrance – is named after the promenade that once connected the Waldorf and Astoria hotels, and was the city’s place to strut. Today, you can sit at the mahogany art-case grand piano once used by former hotel resident Cole Porter, now part of Peacock Alley. This 1907 Steinway & Sons piano (on which he composed I’ve Got You Under My Skin) still features the many ring marks from his Martini glasses. When Porter died in 1964, Frank Sinatra took over his Waldorf apartment, along with his piano.

The alley’s famous American oak bronze-and-gilt Queen Victoria Grand Clock – commissioned by Queen Victoria for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and later purchased by John Jacob Astor – stands a few metres from the piano. “It’s all so New York, isn’t it?” says hotel assistant director Danny Harpaz, when I meet him by the clock for a hotel tour. “So New York!” I chime, thinking this is the closest I’ll ever come to a brush with High Society.

It’s an investment, not a purchase

A fashion editor friend from Sydney in the early 2000s used to insist that an expensive blazer “was an investment not a purchase”. Looking back, she was most likely parroting that other grand dame of New York, Anna Wintour. As I recline on the well-padded chaise in my 620-square foot (57.5-square metre) junior suite, which overlooks a Mad Men-style building on Park Avenue, I take her advice. Surely, a stay in this $US1700-a-night suite could be also written off as “an investment”, if only in bragging rights.

The hotel’s backstory is one of New York’s best: the Waldorf Astoria brand originated in New York after two hotels built side-by-side in the 1890s on Fifth Avenue were finally merged by feuding Astor family relatives – more specifically, feuding cousins William Waldorf Astor and John Jacob Astor IV. The current hotel opened on Park Avenue in 1931, after the original hotel was demolished for the Empire State Building. In 1949, the Waldorf Astoria was bought by Conrad Hilton, who declared it to be “the greatest of them all”.

The property reopened only in mid-2025, and its long refurbishment is touted as America’s most expensive. It also puts the four-year (2012-2016) $US620 million overhaul of the Paris Ritz in the shade; ditto, the $US200 million spent on Raffles Singapore over almost three years from 2017.

The eight-year makeover took the original 1930s 47-storey art deco tower built of granite, brick and limestone, capped with signature bronze-clad cupolas, from a 1400-room hotel to a centre with 375 luxury rooms and 372 private residences.

Who wouldn’t want to road test the results?

These rooms in midtown Manhattan are blue chip

The design brief of “restrained, modernised art deco-inspired elegance and gilded glamour” has been dutifully followed. The light and bright rooms are a triumph of stylish neutral tones and low-fuss technology. And the built-in bookshelf in the lounge area of my junior suite is graced with the sort of coffee table tomes, sculptural vases and well-dusted trinkets you can only dream of replicating at home.

Architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill led the project, and Pierre-Yves Rochon did the interiors, which feel like a classic blue-chip choice that definitely taps your best travelling self.

On the bed are 400-thread-count cotton sateen sheets by Italian linen maker Frette, while Australian brand Aesop is a pump press away in the large spa-style bathroom.

This is a complimentary media stay, but I’m a complete sucker for epic nostalgia and have long considered a couple of nights in a heritage hotel akin to an artwork for the soul. I’m anticipating a paid return to the Waldorf Astoria New York even before I’ve killed the soft mood lighting on the first of my two nights in residence.

Not least after a quick check of nightly rates for early 2027 reveals during New York’s low season (January to early March), two people can enjoy a 53.4-square metre Deluxe King entry-level-room from $US1295 ($1806) a night. And if you’re staying at the Waldorf in winter, who even needs to go outside?

The impeccable renovation preserves the vibe of all that history with practical, contemporary flair, and it’s all matched by thoughtful, generous service from fully engaged staff – from the quick-witted concierge to the cheeky wait staff and the zen masseuse I had for a facial in the Guerlain Wellness Spa. From Queens, she explains that coming to work here is like “a heavenly dream” once she’s up out of the subway, and I can only agree.

If an overnight stay is out of credit-limit reach, at least head for lunch or dinner at the hotel’s lower-level fine diner Lex Yard, helmed by chef Michael Anthony. Upstairs is seriously swanky, degustation territory. Downstairs, not only is the menu more affordable, but you’re far more likely to rub shoulders with busy New Yorkers dropping in for a plate of the $US34 mushroom tagliatelle with bacon, black pepper and Alpha Tolman sauce, or the $US38 Lex Yard burger. The “bar bites” start from $US17 for pickled vegetables, and the impressive global wine list includes Australian and New Zealand drops.

Still too expensive? A freshly brewed piping hot cup of Joe is $US8 in Peacock Alley. Sip and ponder those dreams as clouds in your coffee. But don’t forget, this is investment coffee – it’s at the Waldorf. Even if you are wearing a thrift-shop blazer to help fund it.

THE DETAILS

STAY
New York tends to be cheapest during January, February and sometimes early March. Hilton Honours members enjoy the cheapest rates, with rooms starting from $US1295 ($1806) on the Waldorf’s website. See waldorfastorianewyork.com

EAT
The all-day restaurant Lex Yard is the hotel’s flagship eatery. You can also dine at kaiseki-style Yoshoku, and Peacock Alley is perfect for a quick breakfast, lunch or supper.

PAMPER
The world’s largest Guerlain Wellness Spa has 16 treatment rooms and is on the hotel’s fifth floor. You’ll also find a Cryotherapy Chamber, an infra-red sauna, steam room, Moroccan hammam, arctic snow cave, and three lounges. The Deep Muscle New York Signature massage is priced from $US380 for 90 minutes.

FLY
Air New Zealand flies direct into New York City via Auckland. See airnewzealand.com.au

The writer stayed as a guest of the Waldorf Astoria, and flew to the US courtesy of Air New Zealand.