Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-21

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States. Such people claim that they are
driven to hotels by the inability TO find
good servants and other annoyances OF
housekeeping. The hotel men justify these
high prices on the ground that the cost of
running a first-class hotel is so great that
they cannot afford to accept lower rates.
and they insist that the multiplication of
hotels will not lower prices because the
cost of maintenance will remain the same
and Is likely to increase. The public taste
is becoming more and more eXacting well
as luxurious. AS hotels increase there is a
greater demand for first-class servants, and
that in turn raises the cost. Hotel mana
gers tell me that wages of cooks and wait
ers and other skilled employees going
up all the time. They have increased %
per cent in the last three or four years
and the cost of meats, vegetables and
other supplies has increased even more
rapidly. The Wadorf-Astoria pays $1,000
month for flowers and plants alone. For
merly all the walters in the first-class ho-
tells We're Swiss and Alsatians. Now
Greeks are beginning to appear They
learn readily and make good servants
Fifth Avenue and Broadway.
The rates at the new Broadway hotels,
the Aston, the Breslin, the Imperial and
others about 90 per cent lower than
those on 9Th avenue, which is accounted for
by the fact that ground costs more and
taxes are higher on the latter street. But
there is something in the name also.
The manager Of the Hotel st. Regis
which has the reputation of charging the
highest prices of any house in the world,
declares that he has been grievously in
jured by newspaper paragraphs, which
nave misrepresented and exaggerated mis-
charges in an outrageous manner. He adj
mitS that they are high, but denies that
they are higher than those of several other
hotels in New York, and declares that they
are no higher than should be charged for
such Accommodations he is prepared 10
furnish. Other hotel people explain that
the construction of the st. Regis was so ex-
pensive and its appointments are SO ex-
travagant that the managers are compelled
to charge extraordinary prices 10 make it
pay; and it is the general opinion that there
enough Midases and CroessIses IN this
country to furnish the necessary patronage.
The New Hotel Gotham.
Immediately opposite the ST. Regis,
next to the University Club, n the corner
of 18th street and 9Th avenue, is the Hotel
Gotham, which is now being furnished and
will be opened with of the unique din
ners of the Gridiron Club early in the fall
1t will be managed by Frank V. Bennett,
who was manager of the Arlington Hotel
a Washington for twenty-three years, and
was built for him by stock company com
posed of the solid friends he ms made
dAiioAiS NHS pdtloLS VI me Abingdon
that time. In the list of stockholders you
will find the names of ]. Pierpont Morgan,
Cornelius y. Bliss, George Westinghouse,
Norman B. Ream, George +. Baker, James
j. Hill, Grant 3. Schley, George r. Sheldon,
Thomas Clyde, Herbert L. Terrell, II. G.
Zimmerman l.. V. Bell, Mrs. Mark Hanna,
Dan Hanna and other members of tna fam
lily of the late Senator Hanna, who vas
warm personal friend of Mr.. Bennett. None
of these gentlemen or any other stocsholl-
ers have ever had any experience in the
hotel businss. and they have gone into it
this time because of their regard for him.
Some of them have already engaged suites
of room by the year, to be furnished 10 suit
their tastes and comfort, and to De always
ready for their use when they visit New
York. The Gotham is about the sa rae size
a. the Holland, the St. Regis, the Nethar-
lands and the Savoy. 1t has 800 rooms
and 30S baths, and the rates will be about
the same as those charged at the Waldorf
and the Holland. The rooms are more
spacious, however. and have more closets
than are usually found in hotels.
The Knickerbocker Hotel, at tie corner OF
42d and Broadway, was to have been run
ming long before this. but is still unfinished,
and the windows and doors are all boarded
up. 1t is one of the largest, and was in
tended to be one of the finest. in the city,
and was erected by syndicate up-n
ground leased for ninety -nine years from
the Aston estate. The company failed. ana
/ believe it was the first hotel failure in the
city within recent years. Work was stop
were going in. The property is now in lit
cation. 1t is expected that the Aston es-
tate will make settlement with the syndi-
cae finish the hotel and lease it, 1t has
over J0J rooms and mas one OF the rest loc2-
lions in the city.
Business Not Overdone
THE success of the new expensive hotels
in New York and the amount of money
they are making would not indicate that
ha h,,cf ic haiDo zJr
Bennett in answer to question. las soon
as a new hotel is opened there seem to be
enough travelling people or residents of New
York who give up their houses, to fill it.
1 think that when the Belmont, the knick
erbocker the new hotel on the site of the
Plaza, and others that are now under con-
structon or proposed are completed the
ho.eTs now doing bus ness will continue in
the same way. 1t is difficult to conceive ,
how any hotel popular as the Waldorf ,
Astor a. tie Mani It an. or the Holland ard
as well conducted they are, should suf-
fer by the competition of newer ones, even
if they are equally attractive. The tie of
the Plaza Hotel is pre-eminent, of course
and when the new $1,000 eco house is
opened 1t must necessarily draw a paying
business. The great difficulty with hotel
keeping in New York is the enormous in
crease in the cost of everything as com
pared with few years ago The catrons
demand everything of the hest and are
willing TO pay for it; but the cost incre ases
mefe rapidly than the charges. In hotels
of recent construction are many devices to
expedite service and add TO the convenience
and comfort of the guests. but tie increase
the cost OF maintenance at the same time.
Therefore / do not nix prices a:e ike
to come down in the near future. They
certainly will not tie lower as long as the
public demands are great as they are
today.