Living with Legends

A gentleman who manages a historic building in Washington DC enjoyed his stay at the Chelsea and would like to come back again.   He just had one small problem which you can read about below.  It turns out that he has the same question that we do: who's in charge of this hotel.  Maybe somebody can get this cleared up.  That is, if there is really anyone in charge.

I found your Chelsea Hotel Blog and just had to share a little frustration and ask if you knew if anyone is actually in charge of the place.  I stayed there back in November and received a parking ticket while my car was in front
of the Hotel waiting to be parked.  I found the ticket when my car was brought back the next morning and the valet told me to give it to the Front Desk.  Based on my overnight stay, I was less than confident this would resolve the issue, but figured it was my best bet.  Obviously, they did nothing with the ticket and I received a nice note from the City of New York asking me to pay the ticket. 

After several calls to The Chelsea I was informed “Arnold” had to deal with it, but Arnold seems to be some sort of mystery man who’s voicemail is so full that it can no longer receive messages.  After a few more futile attempts to track down Arnold I finally made it through to him and he gave me his email address.  Wow, I thought, this might actually work.  Long story short, I just paid the fine City of New York $125 for the few minutes my car was parked in front of The Chelsea Hotel and now I hope my credit card company will simply reverse the charge for the night’s stay. 

As a Rock-N-Roll fan and someone who professionally manages historic buildings in Washington DC, I was really excited to stay at the famous/infamous Chelsea Hotel while in town to see Springsteen at the Garden.  Based on a very short stay, I can say I would love to visit the place more, but it is simply a shame the place is so disorganized and obviously not well cared for.

Keep up the good fight!

(photo: nycpix)