My wife, daughter, and I stayed four nights at the Park Hyatt Paris - Vendome in January. The hotel's rooms, restaurant, and lobby are, indeed, elegant - five stars. The entire hotel is tastefully and beautifully designed and decorated. The rooms are spacious and well appointed. The restaurants are excellent. Every reasonable request is granted. And, very importantly, the Park Hyatt's General Manager is highly dedicated, professional, and extremely responsive.
So, what then is the Park Hyatt's one major weakness? None, if you are want complete anonymity and do need to be greeted and/or assisted on occasion by seasoned and knowledgable employees. However, if you are someone who travels frequently to the same city and likes to always stay at the same hotel, the Park Hyatt may not be the best choice.
Here, then, is what appears to be the management and business model of the Park Hyatt Paris - Vendome: Hire extremely attractive and very intelligent young men and women between the ages of 23 and 27 fresh out of a university and/or with little or no experience, keep employment costs down, and use the Park Hyatt Vendome as a training center for hotel career development.
The average age of the Park Hyatt Paris - Vendome employee is, literally, thirty years (a fact learned from management). And, the only reason the average is thirty and not twenty five is because of the significantly older housekeeping and maintenance staff. Also worth noting is that almost the entire staff at the Front Desk, Concierge Staff, and Restaurants are not culturally diverse. One has to wonder why the Park Hyatt has placed such importance on the way its employees look as it would seem to be no accident that almost every young man and woman looks like they stepped out of a fashion magazine. Does one have to be beautiful or handsome to land a position on the lobby floor of the Park Hyatt? Would an average looking , highly intelligent person somehow detract from the decor of the hotel? I think of my daughter. Despite her proven academic excellence, maybe she would not be attractive enough to work in an entry level position at the Park Hyatt if she had an interest in hotel management.
The real problem, though, with having such an extremely young staff is that their intelligence, politeness, and well manners is no substitute for experience. Equally important, it was obvious that all of the young people working at the Hyatt are following such strict Hyatt rules that they are very afraid of making any mistakes. The result is an uptight and unrelaxed staff that is too nervous to be themselves and to be, naturally, friendly. Youth also contributes to an understandable lack of knowledge and often wrong advice on Metro directions and distances to reach a location. Were this a four star or lesser five hotel with a large bar and/or a night club, the hotel personnel would be perfect for a Starwood W Hotel.
All of the above may not matter to the one time visitor. But, I would think the lack of experienced hotel employees undermines repeat guest visits. In this respect, Hyatt is penny wise, pound foolish. There is no substitute for experience and this is where the Park Hyatt's business model undermines its potential for being one of the truly great hotels of Europe. What is needed at the Park Hyatt are, at least, three to five older and necessarily experienced individuals, in positions of mid level management. Hiring more experienced individuals will not only provide better training and mentoring of the young staff but will provide a more relaxed and friendly environment which guests on business rate as an extremely high priority.
The most beautiful hotel structure in the world is no match for a five star hotel with an experienced staff who will remember repeat guests and who, ultimately, become the single most important reason why guests return time and time again on business to the same hotel. Given the average age of the Park Hyatt's staff, turnover, by necessity, will be significant as one young person is promoted through the Hyatt organization or joins another hotel management company, and is replaced by an even younger and less experienced individual.
In summary then, the Park Hyatt is a true five star luxury building where the first time visitor should be pleased. Every young Park Hyatt employee is well meaning, polite, intelligent, and helpful. But, they are also very afraid of making a mistake and appear alway on-guard to be sure they are not deviating from the Park Hyatt rule book. The resulting ambience of the hotel undermines the potential for the Park Hyatt Vendome to be the hotel of choice for the frequent visitor to Paris.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
