We selected Robert Treat Hotel for our wedding scheduled April 2020. Due to the pandemic we had to cancel. We called and emailed and It was difficult to get a response but they gave us our money back.

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First let me begin by saying we had very high hopes when we chose the Robert Treat Hotel for our wedding venue. The experience started off promising with your Banquet Manager, William (Will) Pillajo, making a lot of promises of a wonderful wedding experience at the Robert Treat Hotel (BW Premier Collection) NEWARK NJ.

Our experience was anything but wonderful. As a bride you dream of your special day all your life and to have my day ruined by the Robert Treat Hotel in Newark NJ is not only heart breaking but now I will forever have to remember the horrible night I had. I will never get that day back. I don't want anyone else going through what I had to with the Robert Treat Hotel. People deserve their dream wedding. They deserve a venue that goes above and beyond to ensure their day is special. Those were the promises given but not delivered by your Banquet Manager and staff at the Robert Treat Hotel.

May 26th, I arrived to set up. I was beyond grateful because William (Will) Pillajo had mentioned this is not always possible. When I arrived the wrong table linens were on the table. I specifically asked for ALL white table clothes but instead I got white and gold. Then, because William (Will) Pillajo said the staff that dresses the tables had gone home for the day I changed them myself so they would be right.
As we changed the table clothes we came across several napkins that were stained badly. " Why would those be used for a wedding event?? " I laid all the dirty napkins on the backs of chairs and made William (Will) Pillajo aware of this, and asked that he have them changed.

Not only were the napkins dirty but the table clothes were extremely wrinkled. William (Will) Pillajo claimed they had been pressed but that couldn't be true because of the amount of wrinkles. Because the tables were already dressed with plates, cups and silverware I had to have tablecloths that were extremely wrinkled. The round tablecloth on the square cake table was also wrinkled. With the cake being the center of attention you can imagine how embarrassing this was when I got to my reception and saw it. Not only were the table clothes wrinkled and the napkins dirty, the tables didn't have all the silverware and wine classes they were supposed to have. The glasses at each place setting didn't match either. Some didn't have forks or butter knives and some were missing glasses all together.

We were told by William (Will) Pillajo that the loading dock was for our use and the use of our vendors. When we arrived Friday we alerted him we had begun setting up. He provided us a cart to use and assured us it was fine to unload there. After setting up, we ended up stuck in the loading dock for 3hrs. When (Shah Deen) GM, finally returned from your stroll down the street, you had a drink in your hand and an attitude when we asked if you knew whose care it was. His response to my husband was " This is my parking spot" . The loading dock is the designated spot for the GM of Robert Treat? Is this how Best Western Premier Collection expects their customers to be treated?

When trying to check into our rooms there was a gentleman at the front desk insisting that he had the presidential suite reserved for Friday May 26th and our wedding day Saturday 27th. He told the front desk clerk he spoke with William (Will) Pillajo and was promised the presidential suite for both days. It was well after check-in time and I was tired, so I left and told the front desk clerk, I would return when they figured it out. I ended up with a really small room for Friday May 27th. The next day William claimed that he had informed them we had the presidential suite reserved for Friday and Saturday and apologized saying
"Everything is about you and your wedding" I accepted the apology and let it go. He assured me there would be no complications on May 27th (Wedding Day).

Wedding day: Saturday May 27th 2023
The day of my wedding, being excited, but nervous about my special day; I woke up early to take care of last minute touches to the Crystal Room and to wait for William and his staff to fix the table napkins etc. and do one last look to make sure everything was right. My decorator worked on the last few finishing touches while William (Will) Pillajo walked potential customers around the Crystal Room showing off all our hard work. At least four couples toured the room while the decorating team tried to maneuver around them. The day of someone's event is the worst time to give tours to potential customers. Using your customers to get business is very unprofessional to say the least.

Guest Arrival:
Weeks prior to our wedding day I explained to William (Will) Pillajo that we did not have a wedding planner and asked how the guests would know where the ceremony would be held and who would direct them to the reception afterwards. His response was, and I quote "Don't worry, we'll take care of everything". "All you have to do is say I DO." This couldn't be further from the truth. When guests started arriving they had no idea where to go. Because there was no signage or person directing them to the ceremony room, most of them ended up in the Crystal Room before the reception started, ruining the big reveal of the reception hall. Because William (Will) Pillajo nor his staff was anywhere to be found, my own mother (Mother of the Bride!!) had to stand in the hallway and show my guest where the ceremony room was located. Seriously!! This is how Robert Treat Hotel (BW Premier Collection) NEWARK NJ does weddings and treats their guests! After the ceremony, once again there was no William or RT staff to show the guest where the reception room was, so some guests wandered the halls and ended up in the restaurant bar buying drinks at a wedding that was open bar. This was humiliating for my husband and myself to know our guests were paying for drinks while attending our wedding.

Cocktail Reception:
It was reported to us by our guest that the bartender didn't know how to make basic cocktails.My husband (GROOM!) usually will only drink a long island iced tea if he drinks. He had to request his drink 3 times because the bartender couldn't make it right. He finally gave up. The wait staff wore clothes that barely fit them. And because the uniforms weren't the right size, one of the waiters walked around all night with his underwear showing. How could this be acceptable at a wedding? William, who should be dressed appropriately as the banquet manager, was very poorly dressed for a wedding. He walked around all night with a Darth Vader gaiter mask on. This is extremely poor management from both the Banquet Manager, William (Will) Pillajo and someone who is supposed to be the GM, Shah Deen. It's a horrible representation of the Best Western Hotel chain. I don't think this is what Best Western had in mind when they put someone in such an important position in one of their establishments.

For cocktail hour, I planned to have a beautiful 6foot long Charcuterie Board supplied by a third party caterer. When I asked William where they would be sitting in the room he said, and I quote "We do Charcuterie Boards" I said "you never mentioned that before" He and the chef assured us they could make a beautiful Charcuterie Board for our wedding. The chef even boasted about how wonderful he could dress it up and make it look. The day of my wedding the Charcuterie Board was anything but wonderful. Not only was it extremely small considering it had to feed 90 people, but they put it in a dark corner, and none of my guests knew it was there. The Charcuterie Board just went to waste. $(250) down the drain. I would have much rather had the original board I planned on ordering, but I was assured by your Banquet manager and Chef that they could have provided a beautiful board for my wedding.

Plated Dinner:
Plated dinner began and everything got worse and worse. My guest were served overcooked steak with NO STEAK Knives. They had to hack at the overcooked steak with butter knives. One table's centerpiece almost fell over onto the table because of how much the table shook while people tried to cut their rock hard steaks. When my husband asked William (Will) Pillajo how we or our guest were supposed to cut a steak with a butter knife, William went to the kitchen and brought back steak knives for us but not for our guest. Because our guests couldn't cut their steaks, they didn't eat them. The butter knives to cut steaks was embarrassing, but the steak being overcooked was even worse. The sad part is I specifically asked the chef in front of William how he was at cooking steaks and they both assured us, and I quote " That's blasphemy to ask that" it was also told in front of my decorator and her team who was standing with us in the ceremony when the discussion took place. So, for the food to be overcooked was a BIG disappointment. Especially at the rate ($95) we paid per plate just to have our guest eat potatoes and carrots.
It gets worse, while dinner was being served one of your waiters turned and knocked four steaks on the floor. Myself, my husband and several guests witnessed it, but he blamed a child for it. We explained to William that the child was nowhere near that side of the room when it occurred. Because they dropped four steaks and William (Will) Pillajo claimed they only had the exact amount of food he ordered, some of our vendors didn't eat. The vendors didn't eat because they were nice enough to give their food to my guest. I had a cousin who had dietary restrictions that I was unaware of. I asked one of the waitresses if she could at least bring him one more salad, she replied " My manager will be very upset" I asked her to get William (Will) Pillajo. William said he didn't have a salad to give him. How is it that the Robert Treat has a restaurant right downstairs from my banquet room that was still open for business and he couldn't get my family member a salad? My cousin left my wedding to go down the street to find food for himself. Can you imagine how embarrassing this was for us? My cousin traveled all the way from Texas to be at my wedding and had to go without dinner.

My guest reported to me that their water glasses were only refilled once during the duration of the evening. The children that attended the wedding were going to the bar where adults were mingling to ask for water and juice because they weren't being served. The vendor dinners we did receive had a piece of chicken the size of a single chicken nugget. A vendor works long hours to make someone's dream wedding come true. These are adults not children and they should at least get a full plate of food for dinner.

End of night:
When going to retrieve the things we left in the bridal suite my uncle and sister had to stop the hotel staff from throwing away our things. When asked why our personal things and gifts were being thrown away, the RT staff member said " William our manager told us to throw everything away " I can't image the Robert Treat Hotel (BW Premier Collection) NEWARK NJ. is okay with their guest being treated this way and having their belongs trashed. There are gifts I never received from my guest because they were trashed during clean up by your staff, or possibly stolen. At this point I don't know. Some of my guests while leaving told me the Robert Treat Hotel staff members were hitting on them and trying to make passes. One guy (Brian) Gave a Robert Treat business card with his phone number written on it. Do you consider this to be professional ? Because I don't.

I have had to hear nothing but complaints and remarks from my guest the entire week following my wedding. How horrible the staff at RT was. How bad the food was, how they couldn't get a decent drink from the bar, how the waitstaff was sloppy and unprofessional. I am absolutely mortified and embarrassed at how the Robert Treat Hotel (BW Premier Collection) NEWARK NJ handled my wedding.
My experience having a wedding at Robert Treat Hotel (BW Premier Collection) NEWARK NJ has left me mentally and emotionally scarred. You can't treat people this way when they trust you with something as important as their wedding. We won't allow this to be swept under the rug.
DON'T BOOK ROBERT TREAT FOR YOUR WEDDING!!!!