wedding venue being brought out. need advice our wedding is 4 months away

tovtm

Thanks for your responses. I managed to contact the new owner this evening. He said the degrading of Hilton will happen end of July which will then be called St James hotel Portsmouth until the last venue booking has taken place, then Iit will be holiday inn.

He said they will not be holding any more venues there after that add they will be constructing a new modern hotel on the site. As it will be limited from end of July they will be getting rid of staff from 50 to around 20.

mountainofdebt

tovtm wrote: »

He said they will not be holding any more venues there after that add they will be constructing a new modern hotel on the site. As it will be limited from end of July they will be getting rid of staff from 50 to around 20.

I think for me this would be the concerning bit.....how would the reduction in staffing levels affect the quality of service you received....which I guess depends on the size of your wedding.

I guess you could ring around a couple of places tomorrow and see if they are available, what the costs would be etc to see if changing was a viable option.

Did you ask him about the reduction in staffing levels and the possible knock on effect of level of service.

I wouldn't worry about the hassle of letting people know - that in the grand scheme of things maybe sweating the small stuff

rosie_78

I would arrange a meeting with them asap.


Sit down and run through the contract with them. Ensure they are sticking with the original contract which you signed before, ask them to also sign perhaps.


Ensure that they understand what you expect them to do, and that you are fully aware of what they are going to do.


In terms of catering / decoration / security / bar etc etc.


The £2k offer to people who are leaving will be to save complaints, as was said above. They wont offer £2k to those that will stay with the venue, as you're agreeing that the change isn't a major problem.


If you want a hand with any of the details, feel free to pm me. I can help you with a bullet point list to take with you to the meeting.


I've arrange around 70 weddings in the past 6 years with my job, amongst around 500 conferences and other events!


Rosie x

GobbledyGook

You need to ask more about those staff reductions. If it's that they are cutting how many rooms they let out and how many functions they do and they are letting go chambermaids and casual staff that is one thing, but if the wedding planner and the head chef that could have a massive impact on your day.

Also ask about waiting and bar staff - are they getting rid of all of theirs and planning to just have temps on the occasions of functions. That can be good if they pay a quality agency for decent staff, but if they are planning on hiring some cheap kids every now and again not so good.

FatVonD

£2,000 is a lot of money (and will more than pay for reprinting new invitations.) Before deciding I'd be ringing round to see if I could find a suitable alternative venue for the same date and same price as originally agreed and swap the venue.

whitewing

I would guess that part of the reason for offering the £2K is that it would probably be more expensive to rebook your wedding elsewhere at short notice. And there may be other incidental costs eg the photographer may charge more if he needs to go further to a new venue.

MX5huggy

Does your wedding have to be on this date? What else have you got booked? Take the money, find another venue and date at leisure why put the pressure on.

cheeswright

I went to a wedding in a hotel once where the venue was being closed down for refurbishment very soon after..it was awful. The hotel was running down - loads of things were not working (lights - lifts - tvs all sorts !) and it had no food in !! could only get 1/2 a breakfast oh and the listening service for kids didnt work - so spent a lot of the evening in our room - not watching tv..instead of at the do.

I would look for somewhere else - right away!!!
I wouldn’t have wanted a wedding like that..although I guess it is one we all remember
oh and the the staff didnt give a *** as they were all on notice

cheeswright

http://www.royalmarinesmuseum.co.uk/venue-hire/item/venur-hire/your-wedding-reception

what about here - i dont know it - but it looks lovely compared to the hilton

http://www.hitched.co.uk/wedding-venues/royal-marines-museum_4569.htm

tovtm

I'm going to have to ring or go in to see the hotel manager tomorrow as the new owner said he wasn't back down in the area until end of next month. The 20th September is the day the registry office is booked for so ideally we would like the reception the same evening. We didn't get this package cheap/on offer it was there ordinary package they was offering at the time of beginning of last year.

We did look at royal marines museum which was lovely but was more than what the extra 2k would cover on top. If we are going to change I think I'm going to need to find somewhere different just to get the date we want to like a country house/estate.