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Losing trust in the wedding venue.
alexlyne
Posts: 740 Forumite
Getting married in a lovely hotel in the countryside. Not overly cheap - around £60 per guest for meal&drinks, plus overheads (cermony cost, marque hire).
The hotel management changed last year, and the original wedding planner also left. We had a meet with the new planner back in March, to go through the choices we made at the time and confirm the quotes that we had been given (we went there back in 2007 and were given a list of prices and they say now they will honour those prices - though we ned to be careful as much of it has gone down in price!). We also asked about block booking all the rooms in the hotel for guests (the hotel has only 20 rooms). 'Sure, no problem' she said.
About 3 weeks after that meet, the bride-to-be rang up th hotel and confirmed a room for herself and her mum for the night before, and also for her mum on the night of the wedding. Her mum is disabled and needs a ground floor room. This was done without any problem, though we were told that there weren't any rooms at all booked under our name. What?! OK, so we took the opportunity to book all the remaining rooms, of which we were told tehre were only 7 remaining.
After hearing about this, I called them up a couple of days later to get clarification on this. Were told on this occasion that 17 rooms had been block-booked for our wedding. Phew, that sounds more like it.
A bit of time has now passed. A few weeks ago as we were sending out invites to family, I got onto them to pencil in my family. That was done ok.
Last Monday, the OH called up to tell them we had confirmed our food choices and were ready to come in for our complimentary sample meal. The guy on the phone confirmed our choices, and booked us in for last night.
So the events of last night:
When we get there, we had a reservation. Goodo.
The duty manager looked a bit blank when we confirmed we were there for our sample meal. 'Oh, are you getting married here then?' she asked. She then told us that there was no note of this being our wedding meal, and the chef won't have got the right food (the wedding meals are different to the standard menu). The oh explained the conversation she had with the hotel the previous week. The duty manager agreed that something had gone wrong at their end. Our only option was to have dinner from their menu that was similar (or the same) as options on the wedding menu. At least we could rule things out definitely if necessary.
While we were waiting to be seated, I bought us a couple of soft drinks. The drinks menu said £1.35 each. We were charged £1.40.
When we were seated, the waitress came with our starters and explained she would come back with bread rolls for us. She never came back (there were 3 other tables in the restaurant, not exactly busy).
The meal was good, about what I would expect from any restaurant, though you could tell that the bowls of veg were clingfilmed and microwaved because they were flat on top!
We asked for a glass of house red each, as it would probably be our choice for the wedding. The glasses she bought back weren't exactly clean - traces of lipstick on them.
After dinner we went through the room allocations with the duty manager. We found out that the room booked for the OH's mum (the disabled room) was not booked for the night of the wedding, and was actually under someone elses name. Also, we had a total of 12 rooms allocated - not good when she was reading out names of guests that had booked in the other rooms and we said 'no, don't know them' to most of them.
On the way home we reflected that as long as all the hassles happen before the wedding, then there is time to get them sorted before the big day. I would hate to have any of this happen on the day.
So is this normal? Should we expect some incompetence from the hotel staff (it's only a job for them after all), or should we expect, nay, demand better service? We are arranging a meeting with the wedding coordinator woman as soon as she's back off holiday, and being more 'in her face' for the next 3 months so she knows us! Should I wait til then to read her the contents of this post, or should I be more proactive and write directly to the hotel manager now? What would you do?
Cheers
Al
The hotel management changed last year, and the original wedding planner also left. We had a meet with the new planner back in March, to go through the choices we made at the time and confirm the quotes that we had been given (we went there back in 2007 and were given a list of prices and they say now they will honour those prices - though we ned to be careful as much of it has gone down in price!). We also asked about block booking all the rooms in the hotel for guests (the hotel has only 20 rooms). 'Sure, no problem' she said.
About 3 weeks after that meet, the bride-to-be rang up th hotel and confirmed a room for herself and her mum for the night before, and also for her mum on the night of the wedding. Her mum is disabled and needs a ground floor room. This was done without any problem, though we were told that there weren't any rooms at all booked under our name. What?! OK, so we took the opportunity to book all the remaining rooms, of which we were told tehre were only 7 remaining.
After hearing about this, I called them up a couple of days later to get clarification on this. Were told on this occasion that 17 rooms had been block-booked for our wedding. Phew, that sounds more like it.
A bit of time has now passed. A few weeks ago as we were sending out invites to family, I got onto them to pencil in my family. That was done ok.
Last Monday, the OH called up to tell them we had confirmed our food choices and were ready to come in for our complimentary sample meal. The guy on the phone confirmed our choices, and booked us in for last night.
So the events of last night:
When we get there, we had a reservation. Goodo.
The duty manager looked a bit blank when we confirmed we were there for our sample meal. 'Oh, are you getting married here then?' she asked. She then told us that there was no note of this being our wedding meal, and the chef won't have got the right food (the wedding meals are different to the standard menu). The oh explained the conversation she had with the hotel the previous week. The duty manager agreed that something had gone wrong at their end. Our only option was to have dinner from their menu that was similar (or the same) as options on the wedding menu. At least we could rule things out definitely if necessary.
While we were waiting to be seated, I bought us a couple of soft drinks. The drinks menu said £1.35 each. We were charged £1.40.
When we were seated, the waitress came with our starters and explained she would come back with bread rolls for us. She never came back (there were 3 other tables in the restaurant, not exactly busy).
The meal was good, about what I would expect from any restaurant, though you could tell that the bowls of veg were clingfilmed and microwaved because they were flat on top!
We asked for a glass of house red each, as it would probably be our choice for the wedding. The glasses she bought back weren't exactly clean - traces of lipstick on them.
After dinner we went through the room allocations with the duty manager. We found out that the room booked for the OH's mum (the disabled room) was not booked for the night of the wedding, and was actually under someone elses name. Also, we had a total of 12 rooms allocated - not good when she was reading out names of guests that had booked in the other rooms and we said 'no, don't know them' to most of them.
On the way home we reflected that as long as all the hassles happen before the wedding, then there is time to get them sorted before the big day. I would hate to have any of this happen on the day.
So is this normal? Should we expect some incompetence from the hotel staff (it's only a job for them after all), or should we expect, nay, demand better service? We are arranging a meeting with the wedding coordinator woman as soon as she's back off holiday, and being more 'in her face' for the next 3 months so she knows us! Should I wait til then to read her the contents of this post, or should I be more proactive and write directly to the hotel manager now? What would you do?
Cheers
Al
0
Comments
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I would write directly to the hotel manager who ever you have spoken to, to book all the rooms ect ect is obviously incompetent in their job. Tell them that you want this sorting asap and that you expect some sort of discount for the stress you have so far suffered.
I hope that they get their act together soon
Steph xx0 -
i would address this asap as they may need a bit of pushing!
I have been into my hotel on many occasions speaking to different people and paying money and asking questions. As soon as i mention my name and date they get my file and bend over backwards to be nice to me!
I am booking in for my menu sample in a few weeks and have been told the chef will actually come out after we have eaten to introduce himself and answer an queries we have.
I would do it in writing and take a copy of what you have written then send it by signed for delivery so you know they get it. Recorded very rarely updates on Royalmail site so i would go for special delivery although it costs a bit more.
Good luck.xwould love to win an ipad!
A-Z Challenge - ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0 -
Hi Al
Errr, I would be hopping mad! you need to write to them now. The manager needs to know you are feeling a little worried and you need to know you won't have these problems on your wedding day. Also, due to their incompetence you should also have some sort of discount/free stuff.
I used to work in Hotels and I never showed that lack of regard for any guests, let alone a wedding party!0 -
Your post could pretty much be turned into a letter to the management (with a quick edit) as it details all of the issues you want to get sorted without sounding like a massive rant.
Ask them to address each of the points, explaining how they will overcome them.0 -
have you looked at tripadvisor for your venue? hopefully there wont be any scare stories but if there are you can get assurance from the management that the same wont happen for youI am not bossy I just have better ideas:p0
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Thanks for the replies guys.
I was reading through my post after writing and felt that it wasn't far off a letter - the potential to become an irate customer is difficult to resist, but I must stay calm until they have had a chance to address the issues.
Only 2 scare stories from tripadvisor - neither wedding related, but generally pointing to nighttime noise from the kitchen and the incompetance of the 16yo staff with no managers in sight. A couple of otehr issues people had are things I could expect to have happen to us, so would seek to clarify that they have resolved the issues (they have a tripadvisor pop-up on their reception desk, so should keep tabs on reviews). Unfortunately, I have found no reviews from wedding parties - it is a popular place though, and generally bad reviews are the first to be found online!0 -
Thanks for the replies guys.
I was reading through my post after writing and felt that it wasn't far off a letter - the potential to become an irate customer is difficult to resist, but I must stay calm until they have had a chance to address the issues.
Only 2 scare stories from tripadvisor - neither wedding related, but generally pointing to nighttime noise from the kitchen and the incompetance of the 16yo staff with no managers in sight. A couple of otehr issues people had are things I could expect to have happen to us, so would seek to clarify that they have resolved the issues (they have a tripadvisor pop-up on their reception desk, so should keep tabs on reviews). Unfortunately, I have found no reviews from wedding parties - it is a popular place though, and generally bad reviews are the first to be found online!
Could you try googling the venue but including reviews in your search i.e 'the hotel reviews' there are lots of different review sites out there and I know tripadvisor is very popular but this doesn't mean all reviews have gone on there - hopefully they'll all be good reviews and this is just a little blip, I would definately get something in writing to the hotel and keep records, copies of letters and a diary of events as should anything go wrong on the big day - hopefully not as everything should be rectified, they'll be more akward sorting out issues that you had a chance to bring to their attention before the wedding0 -
Going to the hotel this evening to get things sorted out - OH had a long chat with the general manager who seemed to want to help, he's meeting with us as well as the wedding planner woman, so they should be able to relieve us of our concerns - although I hate going into these things as I am always cynical about when things go wrong and you get the apologeticness and the 'it won't happen again' spiel. I will do my best to keep an open mind. It sounds like we may get another free meal out of it - our wedding choices - which will go a long way to helping.
As for reviews - there are no wedding related ones I can find. The only good bit of advice is that we mustn't put anyone in room 4. It's above the kitchen which is very noisy!0
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