A kind act brings manifold returns

Nazeer Waris

Waldorf Astoria is the most expensive hotel of New York. It is situated on Park Avenue of Manhattan. It’s a 47-floor building and has over 1,400 room and suites.

When the President of the United States is on official visit of New York, he stays at Waldorf Astoria where a particular suite is reserved for the President and is known as the ‘Presidential Suite’.

The hotel was first opened in 1893 and was rebuilt and opened in 1932. It is currently owned by a Chinese insurance company.

There is a legend about Waldorf Astoria. An elderly couple was desperately looking for a hotel room in Philadelphia on a stormy night when the region was in the grip of a tempest.

They entered into a small hotel and asked the front desk clerk, ”We’d like a room, please”.

The young man looked at the bookings and reservations and pleaded helplessness as all rooms had guests. But then he pondered at the plight of the couple.

“Where would they go if I deny them accommodation in this stormy night”.

He told them, “I cannot send a nice couple like you out in the rain. Would you perhaps be willing to sleep in my room? It’s not exactly a suite, but it will make you folks comfortable."

The couple was hesitant and did not know how to respond. The young clerk told them, “Don’t worry about me, I’ll make out just fine.”

After a good night’s rest the husband, while paying the bill next morning, told the clerk: "Finding people who are both friendly and helpful is rare these days. You are the kind of manager who should be the boss of the best hotel in the United States. Maybe someday I’ll build one for you."

The clerk smiled and bade them a goodbye. Two years after the incident, the clerk received a letter from New York inviting him there with a oneway ticket for New York.

He was received at New York by the elderly couple. Husband took him to the Park Avenue and showed him a towering new building he had constructed on a plot.

He told the young man, “I have built this hotel and have called you to manage it.”

The young man could not believe the words he heard. He asked him, if he was not joking.

The elderly man assured the young man that what he heard from him was true and he was indeed the owner and was offering him the job at his new hotel.

“This is the hotel I have built and want you to manage,” he told him.

The young man was George C. Boldt and the elderly man was William Waldorf Astor.

The building he was pointing at was William Waldorf Astoria, the most luxurious hotel ever built in New York. Boldt took up the job and introduced new norms of hospitality.

He introduced daily room service and directed that all guests be presented with a bouquet of flowers and day’s newspaper upon arrival. Moral: A kind act without expecting any returns bring you manifold rewards.