Rancho Bernardo Inn Reviews

I was able to have a small, beautiful outdoor wedding during all of the craziness at this beautiful location, along with a free nights stay. I would recommend 100%

I'm the owner of Tayler Ashley Photography and I had the pleasure of shooting a wedding here. What a wonderful spot to get married! Gorgeous scenery, tons of options for ceremony and reception locations. Even though it's a popular hotel, the wedding felt so private and intimate.

Words cannot describe how much we LOVE the RBI and couldn't have picked a better venue for our wedding!! We had the BEST experience working with Fran and Adrian. They were incredible throughout the entire process and we absolutely LOVED getting married on the Aragon Lawn and dancing the night away in the Aragon Ballroom! The minute I stepped onto the Aragon Lawn, I knew that was where I wanted to stand under the chuppah and marry my best friend. From start to finish, Adrian was my rock and so incredible to work with. She was there by my side morning, noon and night and truly helped make my dream wedding come true. Fran was amazing setting everything up for us and Adrian helped finalize our plans for our perfect wedding day. Even when it came to our tasting, they let me customize the menu due to our dietary restrictions and it was delicious! All of our guests could not stop raving about how delicious the food was and how beautiful the ceremony and reception were. The RBI was 100% the most incredible, reliable, attentive, and support venue to work with. The venue it self, staff, food and entire ambiance was truly amazing and we highly recommend using the RBI as your wedding venue!!!

Getting married at the RBI was an absolute dream. Growing up in the area it meant so much to me to get married at this stunning venue. The locations are all gorgeous and there are countless areas for spectacular photos (especially during sunset). We were married at the North Lawn/Bernardo Ballroom area, and the flow of the evening could not have been more perfect! Special shout out to Adrian Dean for her help and attention to detail to make it our dream day :)

We had a small, intimate wedding for less than 30 people at RBI. The venue itself is very beautiful and relaxing and has many gorgeous lawns to meet different wedding needs. The RBI team, Adrian, Fran, Gina, and all other staffs, were perfect as well. They were very professional and always responded to our emails/phone calls promptly. All of our guests were impressed by the venue and Thank you RBI for making our wedding perfect!

I had my wedding at Rancho Bernardo Inn at the Aragon Lawn and Aragon ballroom. When I first saw it, I fell in love with the venue and signed right away. They have the most gorgeous lawn and I felt like I didn't really need to do much for it to look nice. I am so happy I hired them. They were very accommodating to my needs and made sure my needs were met. They are very professional and makes sure everything is going the way I want it. Thank you RBI for an unforgettable experience!

I got married at the Rancho Bernardo Inn and it was the perfect day! The venue itself is simply beautiful, and the service and staff are wonderful. What I loved about getting married at the RB Inn was that my ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception were all in the same area, which meant no transportation needed! Another plus was being able to keep the party going in the bar after the reception. We loved having a built-in after party that, again, didn’t require transportation. Special thanks to Adrian, our catering services manager, for answering questions in a timely manner and making the day about US. She checked in with us during dinner and made us feel like we were in great hands.

Rancho Bernardo Inn will go above and beyond to make your dream day happen. Catering Sales Manager, Courtney Ikeda offered a world-class first impression. We looked at several locations up and down California, no one offered the attention to detail and personalization that Courtney did. We selected Rancho Bernardo Inn for our wedding site, not only because of the beautiful landscape, but because she set such a high standard for service. Fast-forward several months and 1000s of emails, the wedding weekend was successful due to the efforts of the property staff. Our Catering Services Manager, Adrian Dean, did everything in her power to make sure we had dinner outside on a rainy Memorial Day Weekend. RB Inn utilized a space on property that had never been used in this capacity and it was perfect. Thank you so much, Adrian! The team at RB Inn will go above and beyond to accommodate requests. A very special shout out to the banquet housemen who stayed calm through many location changes. The valet and bell staff were always eager to assist. The banquet team was exceptional, especially our captain and bartender. Thank you to RB Inn’s General Manager for allowing us to do something unique and truly memorable. You all played a part in our unforgettable wedding weekend.

The Rancho Bernardo Inn is always absolutely incredible to work at. We love teaming up with them time and time again for weddings that exceed our clients expectations!

Incredible Venue for a wedding reception! From our initial contact with Fran Brunn-Anderson who booked our event to the outstanding customer service provided by Louise Lambert, our catering manager the care, attention to detail, professionalism and awesome customer service extended to us by the entire staff was exceptional and exceeded our expectations!
The food was outstanding and our guests commented on how delicious the meal was.
The resort hotel rooms are luxurious and well appointed and our out of town guests were very pleased with the accommodations. We held our wedding reception in the Bernardo Room and it was the perfect size to comfortably seat 175 guests, bridal party, band etc...
The resort is beautiful and well maintained and has a spa, golf course and two restaurants.
Because of the outstanding customer, attention to detail, excellent oversight and management by the entire staff, we completely enjoyed this special celebration with our family, friends and guests. The best decision we made was to select the Rancho Bernardo Inn as the venue for our wedding reception. Highly recommend!!

Elena was great to work with and did an amazing job on our flowers they looked absolutely beautiful!!!

We chose the RB Inn because of the beautiful venue choices. Our son & daughter-in-law's wedding was small, but we were treated as though it were the biggest event of the season. Our venue coordinator, Carly Henkel was absolutely wonderful. Everyone we encountered throughout the process was extremely professional, pleasant and helpful. We found the Inn personnel very flexible with our requests and felt they genuinely wanted to make the wedding a very special day. Kudos all around to everyone from the valet parking staff to the food service staff, the bartender, and the folks at Inn Florals who provided the arch for the ceremony. I don't see how it could have gone more smoothly.

Rancho Bernardo Inn was the perfect place to have my daughter's Alice in Wonderland wedding. The hedged garden with all of the blooming white roses and the hanging lanterns was absolutely incredible. Carly, our wedding coordinator from Rancho Bernardo Inn, was so easy to work with. She always responded quickly with all of my questions and concerns. She worked hard to make everything work out just right for Courtney's special day. Thank you so much Rancho Bernardo Inn for giving my precious daughter the wedding day of her dreams.

Beautiful, accommodating, fun, and comfortable place for the wedding and entire weekend. The whole family was able to stay here and had a fantastic time. Plus, the food is delicious!

Everything about the RBI exudes understated elegance, superb quality, and top notch service. You get 5 star treatment from beginning to end. The Event Coordinators know their job inside & out & are invaluable resources. Jackie Young & Rina Giglio made sure our wedding was carried out to perfection.

When my husband proposed, the only place I dreamed of getting married was at the Rancho Bernardo Inn. We didn't even consider any other venues.
We had a true "fairy tale" wedding.

Thank you RBI ! K+M

The Rancho Bernardo Inn was a wonderful place to have our wedding ceremony and reception. We were so pleased with the staff and the venue is absolutely beautiful. We had our reception in the Bernardo Ballroom, a really neat room with a rustic, romantic feel. If you are looking for a venue in San Diego, you really need to check out the RB Inn. Gloria Thorpe was our wedding coordinator and she did such an amazing job. Rick Mellon was our banquet manager and he also did an amazing job, we didn't have to worry about a thing throughout the whole reception and everything looked so great! I am so impressed with everything that took place for our wedding, I would not have changed a thing. LOVE THE RB INN!! We plan to go back and visit often to get dinners just so we can try and re-live it all.

The Rancho Bernardo Inn was a fantastic place to get married. Our catering manager, Jackie, could not have been more helpful or accommodating. All of the staff were great to work with and made the day an extra special one. All of our guests commented on the beauty of the setting and how great the food was. Overall, everything was excellent.

I couldn't say enough about Heather Blythe and all her help as a wedding coordinator there at the RB Inn. She was very organized and professional and really helped to make sure that our day went smooth. I definitely recommend this venue for weddings. The food we had was beyond what we could have imagined, not to mention the great views!

Driving to the RB Inn can be discriminating. It is in the midst of a suburban quaint old neighborhood. Upon getting to the RB Inn, it is very rustic yet whimsical. I knew that I had to have my wedding here, especially at the Aragon Ballroom! It is gorgeous and well worth your money. Not only did we reserve for the entire ballroom for our 300 guests, we also had the whole foyer and outside patio with the lush garden full of white roses. Our guests were amazed and astounded at the beauty. I'm not going to lie, it was expensive; It was about 60% of our wedding budget... But they take care of you, particularly our catering manager, Gloria Thorpe. We owe her an arm and a leg for taking such good care of us. Additionally, people are still taking about how great the food was - we opted for the buffet choice because of our finicky eaters and we had the salmon, chicken, and a carving station of tenderloin. It also featured 4 other salads and soup. Yummy! Last minute we x'ed our original cake design and took a chance on having their pastry chef who recently started doing wedding cakes and it was fabulous! Everyone was asking where we ordered our cake from. We also rented out 3 golf carts to transport our guests from the parking lot to the Aragon ballroom and the staff was very professional and our guests loved it. There are so many wonderful elements that the RB Inn has to offer. We received a free suite the night of our wedding which I have to admit was a bit of a disappointment considering how much we invested and it ended up not even being a suite. But overall we love the RB Inn. We also had a complimentary brunch at El Bizcocho which is one of the best breakfast buffets I have had in San Diego. This place is a hidden gem. And I loved every aspect particularly customer service! I left my makeup bag the night of the wedding at the ballroom which had my cell phone, eye glasses, jewelry, perfume, etc. and fortunately a staff member turned it in and they held onto it for over a week while I was on my honeymoon. Every time we come in, we are greeted warmly. Great for adults and kids alike. The pool has some cute cabanas. The golf course looks fun, if I played golf. And this resort takes you away from the feel of being in suburban Rancho Bernardo!

I can't thank the coordinator enough, she kept me on track the entire year. The place was gorgeous, the food was delicious, and for the price, well worth the money!

we used the rb inn for a wedding buch and in truly turned out better than expected, beyond our expectations

Excellent venue, very professional. Definitely on the higher end of the wedding venue market but the staff were wonderful, the venue was beautiful, and overall we were very pleased with this venue for our wedding reception.

My wife and I chose this hotel for our wedding weekend. We spent two nights in one of the Estate Suites and could not have been happier with our choice. The hotel is beautiful and well-kept. We arrived early (around 12:30 pm) but our suite was already ready for us when we decided to check in. The suite itself was massive and gorgeous. Everything from the bed to the bathroom was super clean and tidy. The Estate Suite has an adjoining living room with a couch and separate TV in case you plan to have some guests over—it was excessive for our needs but oh well, it was still nice to have! Overall, really happy with the service and experience here. It's pricey, but we'd gladly stay here again.

We also had our rehearsal dinner in the hotel restaurant, Avant, and were blown away by the friendly service and delicious food. Highly recommend giving it a try if you stay here.

Lastly, they pump a perfume into the lobby that smells SO GOOD. Such a small detail, but it made entering and exiting the hotel a really pleasant experience.

I chose RB inn for my wedding. I loved the garden wedding idea and also have reception to follow right after so that my out of town guest can stay wo hassle. Everyone loved the site, the entire hotel was family friendly, beautifully decorated w/ christmas theme. My wedding was just perfect. The food was great, and the room we stayed and everyone stayed was sooo beautiful. I would highly recommend this place for hotel wedding

RBI is a lovely resort. We had our wedding on the Aragon Lawn and reception in the Aragon Ballroom. This area is new and beautiful. Since we had our wedding on a Sunday, they were quite flexible with the prices. The customer service during the rehearsal dinner and on the big day were exceptional.

The Rancho Bernardo Inn is an amazing place to get married. The sales staff was very flexible with dates and times to meet my specific needs. Since we had rehearsal, ceremony and reception at the same location, our out of town guests only had one set of directions to worry about. They were also able to attend to small children without having to miss out on the festivities.

The banquet staff carried out every specific direction and request. They were attentive, bringing us (the birde and groom) refreshments while we had our pictures taken.

The Rancho Bernardo Inn not only offered our guests a reduced room rate, but also gifted us with our honeymoon night along with strawberried and champagne in our room.

The billing process was quick and accurate.

If I were to do it again, I would add a day at their Spa a day or two before the wedding.

Rancho Bernardo Inn is a beautiful place to have your wedding. We had an intimate guest list of 69 and could not have been happier with the garden setting we chose on the property. Our rehearsal dinner was flawless and Tricia (the catering director) was very helpful and professional. The service was great and all of our guests enjoyed their accommodations at a discounted rate! Highly recommend this venue for an elegant wedding or any special event!
-Caroline & Bart

We were so pleased to have our ceremony & reception at the RB Inn!

Gloria was our wedding coordinator and was so helpful and responsive with all my questions. We received so many compliments on the staff and service. Everyone from the valet attendants to the bellmen to the banquet servers were easy to work with and helped make our day a success.

We used the Bernardo Ballroom which had the foyer (Cantina) and Bernardo Patio for our cocktail hour. Our ceremony was right next to it on the North Lawn. The ambiance of the resort is so peaceful and classic. It set the tone for our wedding. It is not a tall standing building like most hotels so it feels more private than other resorts. It is tucked away at the end of a quiet Rancho Bernardo neighborhood�about 5-10 minutes off the freeway so it is easy to get to.

The Bernardo Ballroom has such a romantic feel to it with the deep carpet colors and the many bronze candle chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. They also have some rustic looking mirrors and the french doors that lead onto the patio are accessible. The food was delicious! We got so many compliments on this too. We had a plated menu with the 1) flat iron steak au poivre, mashed potatoes and asparagus 2) pan seared chicken breast with sage brown butter sauce, wild mushroom risotto and green beans. We also had a vegetarian option but I forgot to ask our few vegetarian eaters for feedback.

Overall, great venue that I would recommend to all brides!!

Great venue!! Loved everything but be preapred as there can be multiple events happening on your wedding day and they don't provide a day of coordinator.

I knew from the get go I wanted my wedding here. My vision absolutely came to life here for a black tie, formal, italian-villa esque, fairytale, garden party wedding. They are flexible with what vendors you use, how you use their wedding spaces, and they really worked with us to make our vision come alive. I do agree with reviews— once your deposit is down, it’s harder to get a hold of your coordinator.
That said, we would write down all our questions and concerns and address them with our planner rather than bombard with questions and it all was set and figured out the week before the wedding. RBI’s coordinator was worlds more helpful than our wedding planner (which was required).
Food was excellent, room blocks were cute and easy for guests (definitely pricey, but there are other hotels nearby), and atmosphere was great.

This is an amazing venue. The property features acres upon acres of photo opportunities and varying types of ceremony and reception venues. You can save money by having your reception outdoors, you can make it really modern by using their brand new facility, or make it classic and European like we did. The service is amazing as every single employee at the resort is helpful, kind and accommodating. All amenities including golf, several pools and a world-class spa will only impress your guests. They go above and beyond without you even having to ask. Our sweetheart table and cake were up on risers/stage! It was so beautiful and a "class act all the way" as one guest described it. If you're looking for a San Diego wedding, but something off the beaten path, this is the place. It seemed as if we had flown to another part of the world as the decor and grounds were spectacular. This is a place in which we will be happy to return for our honeymoon, and it's only 30 minutes from downtown San Diego! THe only drawback was the timliness of getting the details hammered out...planners are a MUST and will save you money in contract negotiations with all of your vendors. We were charged a couple grand AFTER the wedding despite arguing with them about it due to a very confusing contract. And, they did NOT have our permission but charged one of the cards we had used for deposits! We found that unprofessional. Just get a planner/coordinator so they can deal with that side of things.

Our rep was Catering Manager Gloria Thorpe. She was not the best at communication before the wedding. Email conversations were slow.

I do have to say that every time I visited the venue though, the staff in general was always extremely helpful and would go above and beyond with my requests.

On the day of the RB Inn delivered. We got a gorgeous suite to get ready in. It had a parlor suite type room attached to a bedroom and two bathrooms, so my hair and makeup stylists were able to set up stations separately and there was still tons of room to hang out and eat as well.

The ceremony site was gorgeous. The chairs and everything was set up by noon even though our ceremony wasn’t until 4pm. They stopped the fountain just for the ceremony so there was no noise conflict, and they broke down the chairs right afterward so my guests could enjoy the courtyard during the cocktail hour.

The complimentary suite we received for the wedding night was beautiful with a great view of the golf course. Overall the RB Inn was a great venue, and we’re so happy that we chose it.

We had a wonderful wedding at the Rancho Bernardo Inn. All our guests commented on how wonderful the food was and how beautiful the ceremony site and receoption room were. Working with the staff and RB was a good experience and they were able to accomodate some special requests that we had. They were able to give us a great room rate for our guests an so we had many of our guests stay the night in their excellent rooms. It is a beautiful venue that was great to work with. I would highly reccomend having a wedding there.

This is an awesome and beautiful place to have a wedding and reception! The food is fabulous! The only problem we had was a delay in communication sometimes!

We had our daughters wedding reception at the RBI Bernardo Ball Room.
The venue was beautiful, I loved the patio for the cocktail hour. Food and service was spectacular! We did have some lack of communication from our lead cater, but in the end it all worked out and was perfect!

We just had our wedding in the Bernardo room in June 2018. We had looked at 10 other venues before ultimately deciding with RBI. The grounds are beautiful and the level of service was exceptional. We had our reception at RBI after having the ceremony at a Catholic church. We liked that this was a resort that had a couple of restaurants on site as well as a café for all of our out of town guests. The spa and pool area are beautiful. They recently renovated their lobby and all of our guests were impressed with the ballroom and the outside patio where we had our cocktail hour. The grounds were so beautiful and all of the staff, from the valet, to the people at the front desk, were incredibly nice and pleasant. There were some minor hiccups when we checked into RBI the day before the wedding but the staff went above and beyond to make sure that everything worked out. The only issues that we had were that there was no tea/coffee service after dinner and the appetizer that we picked from our tasting was not presented the same at our actual reception. Minor things, but something to keep in mind.

Jackie Young, caterer, was amazing! She was friendly, helpful and did her utmost to take care of our needs for our wedding weekend. She gave her awe and then some! Her assistant, Holly, was very friendly and assisted every time I emailed or phoned the office.
Rancho Bernardo Inn - a beautiful venue for a wedding!
Front Desk - Cold, did not work with passing out welcome bags according to THEIR instructions. No smiles and all business...just no warmth in taking care of your guest needs.
Their bellmen, cleaning department and engineering/security department were given five stars. Very kind, helpful. The chef in charge of our reception did a spectacular job. His staff executed the wedding dinner to perfection.
The management gave a buffet/drinks/music on Friday evening which was incredible!
The grounds are beautiful and there was plenty of personnel to make keep the place in spotless condition.

The Food was fabulous, The Inn a beautiful place for photographs and the ceremony. The Inn was generous about having us on site for tasting and leaning about the facility. Catering person amazingly helpful and flexible before the wedding date. So we were able to not serve alcohol and could decorate the room to empasize our theme. Major problem, the Inn depts don't work together to communicate, they work in silos; so all the wedding materials were lost until 45 min before the wedding, and the outside and inside chairs were dirty, outside maintenance waited until the last minuet to set up/clean up vs having it all set up by 9am like contract said. Bride had to move chairs and rerequest communition table the morning of the wedding. Communication about rooms and locations were garbled, servers were minimal (3 vs 6) and guests were not directed by conciere desk to the wedding. The rooms were excellent and clean, and even though there was a huge function happening at the same time, the Wedding still felt private. Overall I would not have changed the location the wedding was beautiful and was a succiss.

Pros:
- Gorgeous!
- Amazing food
- Great wait staff
- Guests who stayed there loved it and felt well taken care of.

Cons:
- My catering manager was a complete scatterbrain. Weekend trips had to be taken down to San Diego for the sole reason of sitting with her to get changes made to our contract. Then, she not only failed to incorporate all the discussed changes, but made new changes that we didn't ask for! In the end, I had to do so many edits, that I felt like I wrote the contract. Definitely the most frustrating and time consuming part of wedding planning.
- Requests that I had made were not followed through with (e.g. I requested an inside bar and the bar stayed outside all night).
- Ready room had neither chairs nor water (which were both in the contract). When we called for them, they didn't show up until five minutes before the ceremony.
- Golf carts didn't show up to transport my elderly guests up the huge hill from the ceremony to the reception.
- Kids chicken finger meals cost 40 bucks!

I thought this was the dream location for my wedding. Setting wise, it was. Staff wise, not so much. The wedding coordinator had a change of staffing. My coordinator left the company in the middle planning of my wedding. The transition of staffing was horrible! The positive is their floral department did an amazing job.

After reading the other reviews on this Venue they are really deceiving so I really want to leave an honest, current review. Many of these reviews are from years ago and the has been a big turn around in staff. I got married at Rancho Bernardo Inn in September of 2017.

I could go on and on with the problems that occurred over the weekend, but here are some major cons:
- The room block for my guest was such a hassle
- I felt like now that they have my money and won me over I was no longer of any importance to anyone at the resort.
- My catering manager quit a month before my wedding and I was not notified. Eventually they assigned me a new catering manager who knew nothing about me or what I wanted.
- My venue chairs were not the ones they originally showed me, they gave me ugly brownish / purple office looking chairs instead of the dark wood ivory cushion ones they presented earlier on.
- My guest were unhappy with their rooms and with management
- A/C was terrible in guest rooms and in Reception Ballroom
- My highly recommended/ well known wedding planner had a bad experience on his end and will not be recommending the venue to his clients moving forward.
- The wedding management that you communicated with along the whole process do not respond quickly.

Pros:
-The banquet staff for my wedding was very friendly and accommodating
- The food was excellent and came out hot
- All of the bellman are extremely helpful

Was very disappointed with the staff. After they received the initial deposit, we became less important. Communication was horrible and everything needed to be corrected. Make sure you get everything in writing, because their word means nothing.

Avoid this venue for weddings! Horrible customer service and completely overpriced. They don't help with any planning but charge you for a "wedding planner" who does nothing. They tell you that other services at the Inn will be discounted but they are not. Their general manager, John Gates, won't respond to any requests to speak to him regarding concerns. There are plenty of other venues in San Diego that won't cause you stress while planning for the biggest event of your life.