You could say Leona Helmsley had hotel omnipresence.

A stickler for details, there was nothing that Leona didn’t catch. If she thought there was something that might compromise the quality of her real estate cubs, as the lioness she was always quick to protect her little ones.

“She had a very sharp eye and was very good about the smallest details and noticing every little thing,” recalled Mercedes. “I don’t know how she did it, but she could tell when an employee had just been on the phone chatting. Somehow she could tell it had happened and who had been talking. She would walk right up to the person and tell that person to get off the phone.”

While she made an art of popping in unexpectedly, she made her presence known instantly — without even trying.
“You always knew when she was in the room. You could feel her presence without her even saying anything. Everyone would change instantly. They would stand up taller and straighten up so as to impress her when she would walk in, and she would walk in unexpected.”