Casa Marina Resort

The Casa Marina, A Waldorf Astoria Resort, located in Key West, Florida, is a superbly designed, constructed, and decorated place with much less than appropriately matching attention to the clientele. While the lobby and Flagler Bar, and the wading areas and full pools flanking the restaurant terrace, are all beautiful to behold, the staff in all these places are simply not up to the quality of service that their surroundings suggest they should be providing.

Background: We arrived a full three hours later than we planned, due to a car accident and multiple injuries and fatalities on one of the bridges leading to Key West. So, we reached the front area for luggage drop off and transport to our room just before 10 pm. I tipped the carhop/bellhop well to get the car parked and the bags up to our room pronto. The reason: I knew we had only 30 mins to check in, situate the luggage upon its arrival at our room, come back downstairs to park the car in the lot across the street, and get back to the dining terrace before dinner orders stopped being taken at 10:30 pm. To highlight my concern, at check-in I asked both the receptionist and the front office manager whether we would make the 10:30 pm cutoff. Not to worry, they said: The Casa Marina makes sure that Fine Hotels & Resorts Program members get a few minutes slack cut for them for such things

Cases in point: (1) The luggage simply did not get to the room in timely manner. At 10:15 pm, I called the Personal Assistant (so says the button on the phone) to ask what was happening. The operator called back a few minutes later to say, The bags are located and on their way right now. They arrived at 10:20 pm so, 25 mins after I got them out of the car and gave them to the carhop/bellhop. (2) Since we each had one large roller bag, I asked for a second folding luggage rack. This actually never arrived but, this is not the main issue. (3) I went out, moved the car, and came back in via the Flagler Bar a very well appointed place where I planned to have a nightcap after a swift meal. Sadly, there was no one working there but, this is also not the main issue. (4) I continued walking (swiftly) to the restaurant area, where I arrived at 10:30 pm sharp and was told that dinner is closed. This is only the next-to-the-main issue. (5) I then went back to reception, found the receptionist and the front office manager, and asked them if I misheard their statement about the whole we cut some slack for our members blah, blah, blah. Well, after all, they both said, it is 10:30 pm and dinner does close now. Even when I noted that we missed the dinner cut-off because our luggage took 25 mins to get approx 300 feet from the carport to our room, I was told this is not their fault (!) and theres nothing that can be done. Now, THIS IS the main issue. Not only did they lie about cutting some slack for premium members but, when they could have fixed this quite simply say, by offering a sandwich from Room Service they chose not to do this. So this is service? From A Waldorf Astoria Resort property?

Summary: Every very frequent traveler has multiple stories of mishaps en route. The issue is not whether they will happen thats guaranteed. The issue is how they are handled. Granted, I had expected from A Waldorf Astoria Resort property a generally higher standard than my having to chase down our luggage upon arrival or my being lied to about the cut-off time for dinner. But, the truly unfortunate issue is the lack of interest shown by management personnel in rectifying a problem. As I walked off, all I could think is that these people must get so much traffic that they consider a few disgruntled guests as no biggie. Fortunately, disgruntled guests now have social media to air their grievances.

Coda: To be fair, no one was injured and no property was damaged in the making of this mess. But, since there are many hotel-resorts in and around Key West, consider whether you want to spend this much coin to take your chances on a stay at The Casa Marina, A Waldorf Astoria Resort. You can count on a beautiful location just dont expect the service to match.