The Bethesdan Hotel, Tapestry Collection by Hilton Reviews

We are absolutely so happy we decided to have our wedding at Bethesdan hotel. Everything was above and beyond. The venue was extremely beautiful and it looked truly amazing in pictures. Megan was the best. I recommend her to everyone. She was super helpful and assisted as in every aspect. I am so happy with the service I got.

I couldn’t have asked for a better wedding day experience! Lynn the catering manager was the absolute best! She made sure that everything ran on time, she made sure that I was OK, she kept my wedding party together along with our day of coordinator. She just did the absolute best and made sure I was happy above all things. The actual hotel venue was perfect as well. We had our rehearsal dinner lunLynn the catering manager was the absolute best! She made sure that everything ran on time she made sure that I was OK, she kept my wedding party together along with our day of coordinator. She just did the absolute best and made sure I was happy above all things. The actual hotel venue was perfect as well. We had our rehearsal and rehearsal lunch The day before our wedding and they really made us feel like royalty! I had quite a few people staying at the hotel and they got our rooms ready in a timely manner. And the rooms were perfect! My suite was impeccable! I just truly am so happy with everything from the start of planning all the way to the night of my wedding. It just went perfectly! If you are looking for a venue that is affordable and all inclusive, definitely pick the Bethesdan! Being able to have everything all in one location definitely took the stress levels way down! And to top it all off there were no other events going on the night of my wedding (as promised) so I didn’t have to worry about any other noise or interference during our day!

Our wedding at the The Bethesdan Hotel was amazing, all thanks to Lynn! Lynn was assigned to our wedding, months after we had already booked the venue, after our original contact left for a new position. I was worried to have to work with someone totally new after all of our plans had been made with someone else, but Lynn quickly proved she was more than capable of getting up to speed with all of the plans that had been made so far and had a genuine interest in getting to know my husband and I. For about 4 months leading to our wedding, Lynn and I were in weekly (sometimes daily) contact discussing the wedding. She was always very quick to respond and always had an answer or a solution. A week before our wedding, I showed up with 7 or so boxes of supplies that were needed for the day of, along with typed up instructions for each item and where I wanted it placed. So Lynn's office became my storage closet for a week and she actually did read all of my instructions because everything on the day of was set up just as I had described! On the day of our rehearsal, Lynn took the initiative to get our wedding party and officiant organized so that everyone would know what to do the next day. Now the day of, the most important part....to say Lynn went above and beyond is an understatement. I was in touch with Lynn most of the day via text, which was very helpful since I was so stressed! Lynn kept our guests, wedding party, and family organized and where they needed to be at all times. She made sure that I had some time to breathe (away from wedding guests) between the ceremony and reception because it was clear to her that I was overwhelmed and everyone wanted my attention. She worked closely with our DJ to make sure that everything ran according to schedule during the reception and was constantly checking on my husband and I to see if we needed anything. Not only were we so impressed by what a good job Lynn did, we've also been receiving comments from our wedding party about how great she was. My matron of honor's shoe broke when she was in the wedding party's holding room right before our ceremony. What did Lynn do? My matron of honor told Lynn exactly where she had a change of shoes in our suite and Lynn quickly went to retrieve another pair of shoes for her. Lynn is amazing at her job and has a lot of knowledge when it comes to weddings. I highly recommend The Bethesdan Hotel (specifically Lynn), for your wedding venue. Lynn will dedicate her life to making sure that you are happy and that your wedding day is amazing.

Doubletree did an amazing job by accommodating all of our requests and providing upgraded rooms to all of our guests. We had roughly 120 guests and they all said wonderful things about the venue, the food and the staff.

The Bethesdan Hotel 11/7/20 .The Atta-Safoh Wedding during COVID-19 !!!!!!Was the best choose ever for a wedding and affordable..Ask for Lynn she is great to work with ..The room are great sizes...Lynn really made sure my wedding was everything I looked for ...Lynn even fixed my dress coming down the aisle...Thank you so much Lynn for being a wonderful person ....

I used Suzanne and the double tree for my proposal. I used the rooftop and they were more than accomidating. Suzanne opened up the rooftop for me eventhoufh it was closed until the spring. She helped set up everything and even had a special dessert ready for us after it was done. She was Great!!

Trevor did a great job understanding what we wanted, and made some great suggestions. All of our guests comments what a great time they had--this venue worked very well for our ceremony and reception. We also heard lots of raves about the guest rooms, and flexibility in accommodating meals before and after the event for groups of our guests.

This site asks for feedback that future brides would find helpful--we are two grooms :) Maryland has had legal same-sex marriages since the first of the year. Just like everyone we've heard from, the staff at the hotel were very enthusiastic about our wedding and our plans, and constantly went out of their way to be helpful. If your experience is like our experience, you'll appreciate working with them.

We had my daughter's wedding reception at the Doubletree Hilton, as well as had many overnight guests for the weekend. We perhaps had the worst weather the night before the wedding, with many power outages and stressful situations to deal with. The person we had been dealing with all year left the week before our wedding as she was promoted; the hotel immediately took care of our needs and more as they seemlessly took over. We dealt with many people, but Sharon and Paula stepped right in and made sure that any concerns we had were addressed, and any needs and reception requests were personally taken care of. They went out of their way to be responsive, flexible, and calm any nerves. I would recommend using the hotel for any reception or event, as the staff made sure everything look beautiful and was taken care of.

If you have people staying at the Doubletree, know that there is only Valet parking or free parking across the street (on weekends). The free Valet parking was included in our package, but once there was no room, guests had to park across the street.This is the only drawback at all that I can find with the hotel.

We had some difficulty with the car service to the airport that was part of the wedding package, but the hotel was good to their word, got a taxi for the newlyweds paid by the hotel, and made sure they were taken care of. Several times we had taxis show up early and then leave as we weren't down to meet them. Although this is not the hotel's fault, it might be good to know this as a guest staying overnight.

I would highly recommend using this venue for a wedding reception, as it looked beautiful, ran very smoothly, and the staff went out of their way to accommodate our needs. They clearly have systems in place in case of last minute emergencies and there was absolutely no gap in service! An excellent experience having a wedding reception there!

I recently got married at this location on April 9th. My entire wedding was at the Hilton from two ceremonies, to cocktail hour and reception and a breakfast the next morning. It was the absolute best. All of my guests were happy, comfortable, and most importantly thought the food at my reception for over 300 people was excuisit. I had several resturant owners comment on how delicious the food was and they are hard critics!!

Riva Neam was incredicble and really made my day awesome. She worked with my wedding planner, and was also available to me 24/7. On the actual day...Riva stayed for the ENTIRE event and was visible to check and make sure everything was running smoothly, which I was incredibly greatful for. The rest of the staff wasn't far behind Riva's standard. They made sure all of my guests were well taken care of and really catered to everyone!

The venue itself offers variety. The different ballrooms, and the courtyard make for beautiful pictures and exceptional areas.

I cannot express enough how pleased I am with my wedding day and a large part of it is because of the Hilton. I highly recommend this venue to anyone looking for amazing services, awesome customer service, great food, beautiful ballrooms, and cost effectiveness. GREAT value for the cost...GREAT :-)

I recently had my wedding ceremony and reception at the Hilton in Rockville and was blown away by the service and attention to detail. After reading the last review I was a little hesitant to book here but then I read further and realized that the bride was crying because she didn't get her room right away and had nothing to say about the wedding itself.
My ceremony was flawless. I did not have a coordinator but Riva Neam (sales coordinator) put everything together for me. She seemed tireless and paid attention to all the details. She made sure that me and my husband had time to ourselves in the holding room and showed us the ballroom before anybody else was in it.
And the food was amazing. People were raving about the filet and crab cakes. My mom ordered the vegetarian meal and even she was saying how great it was.
I could go on and on but suffice it to say that the wedding was executed flawlessly. Riva was truly the best. I know that her job wasn't to be a coordinator per se, but she was there for me throughout. I know what I compensated her surely wasn't enough!
As far as the hotel rooms were concerned, I didn't want to leave! A breakfast in the morning would have been nice, but I'll take what I can get!
Thank you Hilton!

Event was a Swim Team banquet.

We organized out corporate holiday event with the Doubletree. We opted to do a themed event that was very much inspired by the vision of the Doubletree staff. We had a lot of fun putting this event together because the sky was the limit. Anything we said that we wanted to do... they had a way to accommodate it. The event was a huge success and all of the employees had such a great time. The food was amazing, the details were handled with care and not a single things was out of line. Perfect event; fantastic team; great location!!

Suzanne deSousa is always wonderful to work with for all of my corporate events. She is very responsive and helpful with everything.

Suzanne and her team did an amazing job of working out the details, providing great foods, and needed direction. Her support made it possible for me to actually enjoy my daughters special day, rather than stressing over the fine details. Thanks again for making this an unforgettable evening! We are looking forward to using your facility and services for other occasions!

Bonnie Ballard

Dakota was amazing.... it was so easy to work with her. There was no pressure since day one. She made us feel so comfortable planning everything. She kept us up to date with everything that was going on. She made sure that the venue was ready. I never had to worry about anything AT ALL... the food was amazing!!!!!! Everyone loved it and it was even better than the food tasting!!! If there’s any couple out there looking for a good and efficient planner with good pricing this is the place to go!!!

THANK YOU DAKOTA!!

Overall the venue was absolutely beautiful and was exactly what I dreamed of. There was a change over in staff but they picked off where the others had left. The food was delicious and the coordinator Kelly Flores did everything in her power to alleviate any stressors that I had. She was wonderful. The only thing was the banquet manager who did not discretely let us know it was time to go. We were having a wonderful time and he acted a little like a bouncer. However, the venue, the food, the sleeping rooms were absolutely perfect and I recommend working with Kelly and the Chef very much!

I've waited a couple of months to write this review so I could be more clear about what I wanted to say. This is a beautiful space and the value is decent for the DMV area being this close to DC. The rooms aren't a nice as other Hilton hotels, but this was previously an apartment complex thats been renovated to be a hotel. I would have preferred more natural lighting in the hotel room for getting ready. The food was great, probably some of the best hotel food I've had. Everything tasted like what we had tasted at the tasting except for one dish, but I guess we can let that pass. The day before and the day of, everyone was very professional and the front desk staff went out of their way to help us get settled. I would recommend this venue with a grain of salt-I had trouble communicating with people at this venue before the wedding with questions and concerns. Sometimes it took several emails and phone calls before a response.

I liked the atmosphere and rooms but I was not pleased with the event staff. The event coordinator from the hotel that worked with me and my wedding planner was not very professional. They canceled a tasting on the day of when my parents drove an hour to get there because a room was not reserved for it. It took a long time to hear back on emails about questions. A couple things fell through the cracks. I felt like we were not a priority because we weren't the most expensive wedding. The food was good and I liked the chef a lot. The room price for the block was extremely reasonable but the breakfast in the hotel was very expensive for most guests.

I did not have a great experience with the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel—Bethesda. I have never left a review like this before for anything, but when you spend tons of money, you expect things to be the way you were promised and the way you imagined, and that’s not what happened during my wedding weekend at this venue. They have heard from my husband about why we were dissatisfied, and they answered with a lot of excuses and basically said “well, we fixed it after you noticed it was wrong, so what’s the problem?” I’m sure they will respond to this review with much of the same. But they haven’t heard from me yet, and I am the person who was in contact with the directors of catering (plural, because the original woman got a new job and left in May) and was planning this wedding. I don’t usually stand up for myself and I didn’t say anything to the director or anyone else at the hotel about my dissatisfaction (friends and family did, but I stayed out of it), but I feel it’s important to share my experience in case it can save others from being stressed, anxious, and majorly disappointed on their wedding day.

I first reached out to the hotel in January. I sent an inquiry about their prices through Wedding Wire, and the director of catering at the time responded promptly and asked me several questions so she could draft up a proposal for me. It was never my first choice, so I forgot about it for a while until my then fiancé mentioned that he would like to get married at a hotel for the convenience—he has a huge family and most of them live out of town and would be traveling here for the wedding. After that, I contacted the DoC and asked for a tour. Again, she was very prompt and accommodating and we scheduled a tour with no issue. She told me early on in our communication that the hotel was going through renovations, and that the event space and guest rooms were getting a complete makeover (she sent mock ups of what those spaces would look like once renovations were done). When we went for the tour, we were given hard hats so that we could tour the spaces while under construction. We saw the event space, but we were also shown an updated guest room and an updated suite that would be complimentary for us the night of the wedding and discounted the night before. We talked about how I could use it as a bridal suite because it was so spacious, and the DoC mentioned that they could even bring in extra floor-length mirrors so everyone would have space to get ready (I had eleven bridesmaids). When I asked if the renovations would definitely be complete by June 22nd, I was assured that they would be. She told me that the renovations were happening floor by floor, so all of our wedding guests would be placed on a renovated floor. Again, I wasn’t crazy about getting married in a Doubletree, but the promise of renovated rooms for us and all of our guests is what made the hotel a frontrunner in my search for a venue. It ended up being between the Doubletree which offered convenience to our many out of town guests because it was metro accessible and closer to airports, or a golf club venue that was beautiful and offered a waterfront ceremony space, many beautiful locations to take pictures, and spacious and well-equipped bride and groom suites. Because of this, I asked the DoC if she was sure the renovations would be completed, and she assured me they would be and I didn’t need to worry about that. I want to emphasize here that the only reason I chose this venue is because of the renovated rooms. We looked at other hotels and even other Hiltons, but the renovations won us over.

There are a lot of things I can complain about. For example, I was never sent a fully executed copy of the contract until I asked for it. I also never received the “exclusive list of vendors” I was promised until I asked for it. However, the DoC was friendly and again, I don’t usually make any waves. I just knew with this venue I had to be on top of my stuff and ask all the right questions so I would have the information I needed. Not what I pictured when the contract promised a “dedicated wedding planner to guide you through the planning process.” But again, she was friendly and prompt and when I did ask something, she answered. I was fine with that, though it was less than what I signed up for. But it can be argued that this is a perception thing—my idea of a wedding planner and their idea of a wedding planner were different. So, I’m not here to complain about any of that. Fast forward to the beginning of May. We have our tasting at the hotel, and it’s the first time we’ve been back since January. The woman we originally met and worked with was there, but we also met the new DoC. They took us to the now-completed event space to show us how it looked, and then they took us to see the renovated guest room and suite again. That day eased so many of my worries about the renovations not being complete in time. While we were there, they were installing new tubs in the suites and they said everything was coming along nicely.

Okay, so fast-forward to the week before my wedding. I sent my numbers and meal specifics to the DoC a couple of days before the final day to do so, which I was told at some point was the 18th. On the 18th, a couple of guests dropped out so I sent that change in before close of business, thinking I still had time to make those changes. The next day the DoC responded that she couldn’t make those changes. I was confused, because I was told I had until the 18th. She said that they order food at 2 p.m. on Tuesdays, and she apologized that the original DoC didn’t tell me. Which of course was just playing the blame game, because she had been our planner for over a month at that point and she should have told me. I also reached out to her a couple of weeks before this because I was very overwhelmed and stressed and wanted to make sure I was on track and knew everything I needed to know. She assured me that I was on top of everything and that she didn’t need anything from me. However, the week of the wedding, all this stuff comes up. Final payment was due and I didn’t get any reminders until the day of. She told me she’d send me a final total before they charged my card, but she never did. I checked my card that night, and saw that they already charged me without sending me any information about that amount. I was very upset about that, because I planned to ask her to split the total between two cards when she got back to me about the amount. My card was very close to the limit, and I didn’t want to do anything to hurt my credit. Then she asked for a vendor list the Wednesday before the wedding, and asked if I was bringing stuff by the next day. I didn’t know what she meant so I asked for clarification and told her she could call me if she wanted. She said she was going to a meeting and explained that she meant decorations, card box, guest book, etc. Again, none of this information was given to me before by my “dedicated wedding planners.” I live an hour away from Bethesda and already had a hair appointment and friends coming into town the next day and didn’t have time to bring anything to the venue. If I’d known earlier, I could have planned for it.

On Friday, my family, friends, and bridal party arrived at the hotel for check-in and the rehearsal. This is when everything went downhill. I checked in and went up to the room I was expecting to be the full, renovated suite I’d been shown twice, but instead it was a much smaller junior suite with a completely different layout. My MOH called the front desk to see what was going on, but they weren’t helpful. I was already so stressed that things weren’t going to go the way I planned that weekend, and the room thing just confirmed all my anxieties. I became even more overwhelmed and stressed. I got dressed and went down to the event floor for the rehearsal and just burst into tears when I saw my family and friends. It’s such a stressful time and you want everything to go perfectly, and that pressure was intense for me. So many things were wrong just off first glance. I was told parts A and B of the ballroom would be set up for the rehearsal—I had told the DoC several weeks before that I thought we would need more space than just part A for our ceremony because our bridal party was very large. She said it would be no problem and confirmed it multiple times. However, only part A was set up for the ceremony when we arrived for the rehearsal, so we couldn’t rehearse in the space the way we intended. My aunt worked with the hotel on all the issues and told me to go to the rehearsal dinner and enjoy myself, so I wasn’t there for the conversations she had with the DoC about the issues. But I know that the tablecloths on all the tables were super wrinkled and she asked that they rectify that as well as set up the ceremony space the correct way. She tried to work on getting me in the correct suite that night, but was told that they weren’t ready yet. She asked them to keep their promise about the suite and get it ready as quickly as possible. When I came back from the rehearsal dinner to begin setting up/decorating the space, I was frustrated to find pink tablecloths on the gift/favor tables and white ones on the cocktail tables when I clearly said I didn’t want pink tablecloths and that I wanted the damask ones on the cocktail tables (when I came in for the tasting, they were on the tables and I told them I wanted them. I also reminded the new DoC about them again via text). It was just very frustrating that even the simplest things weren’t right, and they were holding us up from being able to set up. When my aunt asked the DoC about it, she said “I suggested pink tablecloths and Jordan agreed.” However, I have the text where I said no to that suggestion and asked for white. At this point, my stress and anxiety levels were through the roof. I’d been planning this day for months and just desperately wanted everything to be perfect.

The next day, the suite was finally ready, but too late for my vision of the day to be realized. I planned for all of us to get ready in the same place with music and laughter. Instead, my sister had to do my makeup in my parent’s room while the bridesmaids were all in their own rooms. The room wasn’t ready until she had almost finished my make up, so my MOH had to move all of my stuff from the jr suite to that suite herself. None of the bridesmaids got ready in there because they had already started the process in other rooms.

Also, I went into a couple of guest rooms and none of them were renovated. I asked around to a couple of other wedding guests and they told me their rooms weren’t renovated either. This was more devastating to me than even my suite not being ready, because as I said earlier, the renovated rooms were the deciding factor. I had even told my guests on our wedding website that if they booked a room in our block of rooms, they would have spacious, renovated rooms. I hate that they didn’t actually get what I promised them because I didn’t get what was promised me.

I could say more, but I’ll leave it at this. We spent thousands of dollars, and I expected to get what we were told multiple times that we would. They said that renovated rooms weren’t promised, but we were shown them twice and I asked for assurance that they would be done. They never showed us a regular, unrenovated room on either of our two tours, yet that’s what most, if not all, of our guests were given. They don’t want to admit that they misled us, but that’s what they did. I feel cheated and hustled, and it’s not a great feeling. Maybe if they had at least warned us that we weren't going to have the experience they originally told us we would and apologized for that, I wouldn't be so upset. I do want to thank the event staff who worked tirelessly to right all the wrongs with the event space, tablecloths, etc. They were all so nice and helpful, and I’m really thankful to them. And I will say the GM offered us a complimentary weekend stay when my husband came to him with our complaints, but we feel like we deserve more than that, and I don’t really want to stay there again. I wanted to put this out there for other people searching for a venue. That was a really stressful time for me and I desperately wanted to make the right choice. I don’t feel that I did, and want to help others who are on the fence.

First of all, let me just validate everything Jordan wrote in the prior post. Our wedding was one week after Jordan’s and I can verify that DoubleTree can not be trusted to honor their promises.

Jordan, if you see this, please contact me to discuss our shared experiences.

We decided on DoubleTree Bethesda as our wedding venue in January after viewing several hotel options in the DC area. We choose the DoubleTree since I had a lot of guests from out of town and the hotel had a central location. At the time, the hotel was going through renovations, but we were told on several occasions that all construction would be completed by April. We have emails from our original Director of Catering (“DoC”), Dakota, promising a brand new look and feel to the hotel. This was reiterated in person on a few occasions. Our wedding was at the end of June so we thought even with a slight delay in construction, we would be in the clear. As it turned out, the hotel renovations are still ongoing. We were never notified prior to our wedding that the construction was delayed and that it would impact EVERYTHING at the hotel.

Ok, so before we even get to the wedding weekend, we negotiated block rates with DoubleTree for family and friends that wanted to stay at the hotel. The rates for rooms were in our wedding contract. The DoubleTree setup a group website for us to send to our guests that, in theory, would allow them to get the block rates during our wedding weekend. Included within the block rates was a breakfast option (to discuss later) for an additional $10 per night. Block rates are a standard practice for events at hotels and should be easy for a company like Hilton to manage. I personally have booked hotels using block rates at several weddings. It has always been a seamless and easy process. Unfortunately, this was not the case with DoubleTree Bethesda. On several and repeated occasions, the website either did not work or showed the wrong room rates. Every week or two, we would be notified by one of our guests that the website rates did not work. Then, on other occasions, I would check the website myself, and to my dismay, the rates on the website were significantly higher than what we had negotiated. Each time there was an error, I would have to reach out to Dakota or Lynn (our new wedding DoC) to have the issue resolved. It was extremely annoying and frustrating that DoubleTree could not handle such a simple website. To make matters worse, we were given excuses for the issues. Dakota would apologize (we have emails to document the issues and apologies) and tell us the issue would not occur again, but the problem would repeat again and again. In total, I must have had to contact Dakota and Lynn on 6 to 7 occasions to have our website fixed. This was annoying, frustrating, and embarrassing to have to explain to my guests. What makes the situation even worse is that I have no way of knowing which of my wedding guests ended up booking at DoubleTree and not getting the negotiated contract block rates. We were told by the DoubleTree that the hotel staff would review each of the reservations in our block rate to fix any issues with incorrect rates, but based on my other experiences with the DoubleTree, I highly doubt they did that.

The month prior to our wedding, Dakota, our original wedding DoC quit, and we were introduced to Lynn as our new wedding DoC. Lynn was a nice lady and friendly, but a lot of things she promised did not end up occurring.

Wedding Weekend:
Me and several hotel guests arrive to the hotel on Thursday June 27. Immediately I notice the hotel is under renovation. Construction workers and equipment are all over the place. The lobby was dark and did not look inviting at all. I was really annoyed since we were promised a brand new hotel, but it was too late to raise an issue, so we figured to just go with it. Unfortunately for us, the renovations did not just make things look bad, they actually were impacted operations at the hotel. The elevators were constantly being occupied by construction workers. There are only two slow elevators to begin with at the hotel, but with the construction, it took up to 15 minutes to get an elevator and at least 5 minutes. Some of our wedding guest rooms were on the 12th floor, but we ended up taking the stairs to get down many times. In addition to being extremely inconvenient, the construction made the hotel look like crap, nothing like the “brand new” hotel we were promised.

As me and some of my guests are getting checked in, we receive vouchers for breakfast. The block rates included an option to pay $10 more per night to receive breakfast at the hotel. Most of my guests purchased the breakfast option since it would be convenient to eat with everyone. A little later in the afternoon, my sister notifies me that when she was checking-in, the front office did not give her and her husband breakfast vouchers. The frond desk employees told her breakfast was not included in her reservation and she could purchase the breakfast each day on the third floor for additional costs. I thought maybe my sister made a mistake and did not purchase the breakfast option. She then showed me her booking confirmation and it clearly showed she purchased breakfast. I was then notified by several of my other guests that they had the same issue. They purchased breakfast in their booking but were told by the DoubleTree front desk that they had to pay additionally upstairs each morning for breakfast. I was shocked and reached out to Lynn immediately. At first, she said it might be that me and my guests were confused. I had to tell her to check the contract and the bookings of my guests. Why were some of us given breakfast vouchers but not others? It did not make any sense. She finally realized the hotel messed up big time. She apologized for the confusion and said the hotel would reach out to all the effected guests. Some guests did receive their vouchers after I talked to Lynn. Other guests had to go back to the front office and ask again. Besides being inconvenient, it was so embarrassing. My guests paid a lot of money to fly to my wedding and stay at DoubleTree, and they paid additional money for breakfast, but then were denied by the front desk. The hotel made us feel like we were inconveniencing or harassing them even though the breakfast was clearly paid for and was in our contract. How does an organization like Hilton screw up something as simple as breakfast?

Water Issues: On Friday, June 28, Lynn casually mentions to me that during the construction process, the hotel noticed eroding water pipes (or something like that). She said as result, the hotel would have rolling water outages on June 28 and June 29 (the day of the wedding reception). She said not to be alarmed because she had notified the hotel front office to make sure the rooms in our wedding block rates would not be impacted by water outages. We even confirmed with the front desk that our rooms would not be impacted the night before the wedding. Then, on the day of the wedding on June 29, the unthinkable happens. Several of our wedding guests have their water turned off. I was actually getting ready to take pictures. The bride was getting her make-up done. The water in my parent’s suite, sister’s room, and several other guests was turned off starting at 10am. My sister had to shower before her makeup appointment in the early afternoon. She called the front desk and they offered her another room with water. That room actually did not have water either. By the time she went back down and go got another new room with water, it was too late and she missed her makeup and hair appointment. Several other guests were scrambling. The hotel gave rooms with water to some guests that were impacted. I had two people actually come shower in my honeymoon suite. I contacted Lynn as soon as I was notified, and she did not initially respond. She responded after 3pm to let me know that water was back on. It was already mostly too late. The damage was done. When I complained to Lynn after the wedding, she apologized but said the hotel provided everything in the wedding contract. I am furious with that response. The hotel failed to even provide running water on the day of the wedding, but she had the nerve to say the contract was honored. We paid top-end money for a wedding venue, and we received third-rate services and facilities.

Check-out: The day after the wedding, my wife and I leave for our honeymoon in the Bahamas. When we arrive in the Bahamas, I have some messages from family members saying they were being charged incorrectly at check-out. They sent me pictures of their invoices from the front desk. It was clear right away that some of my wedding guests were being charged at almost double the rate of what was in our wedding contract. Even my parents’ room, which I had booked on my credit card was being charged double the contract rate. I immediately contacted Lynn, who again, deflected and said she would check. A day later she informs me that the hotel messed up again. This time, she didn’t even apologize for the error. She told me to have wedding guests contact the DoubleTree controller to have invoices fixed. As a result, I spent the first day of my honeymoon contacting wedding guests to make sure they were not charged incorrectly. Again, I just hope that some of my guests were not overcharged, but I have no way of knowing. How does an organization like Hilton screw up something as simple as an invoice? Each booking has a receipt with amount owed. It’s not complicated, but DoubleTree screwed this up to.

I’ve listed several issues, but honestly, there were a bunch of other things the hotel screwed up, but I don’t want this post to run longer than it already has. I’ve highlighted the biggest issues, but in general, the front desk was constantly giving contradictory information, getting things wrong, or treating my wedding guests unprofessionally.

So to recap:
• Wedding website was constantly wrong
• Hotel was still under construction even though we were promised it would be finished
• Up to 15-minute waits for an elevator
• Guests were treated unprofessionally constantly and not given services they paid for (breakfast)
• No running water the day of our wedding
• Incorrect invoices for wedding guests upon checkout

I have emails and texts documenting each of these issues. Either Dakota or Lynn apologized or acknowledged the issues each time. However, when we complained after the wedding, we received several more apologies but were told that the hotel provided their contractual obligations. Like with Jordan, the GM offered us a free weekend stay at the DoubleTree when the hotel construction was completed. It was a disrespectful offer. Why would we want to stay at the place that ripped us off at our own wedding? Bottom line, we did not receive anything even close to the level of service or facilities that we paid for. I would not trust ANYTHING that the DoubleTree staff says. They are completely dysfunctional.

Even right now, three weeks after the wedding, I am angry. My wife and I will always feel resentment about our wedding experience, and while we feel helpless about how to rectify our own situation, I want this story out there so others can make an informed decision about their wedding venue. Luckily for my wife and I, our friends and family are easy going and did not throw a fuss about all of the inconveniences that were thrown their way.
Later this year, I’m sure the hotel will be fully renovated. It will look new and shiny and someone will think about paying a lot of money to have their wedding there. I just want people to know that based on my experience, nothing the hotel says can be trusted or relied upon. Some of the issues we dealt with were the result of renovations at the hotel, but a lot of the issues were just incompetency. False promises and not being able to perform basic execution of reservations can’t be blamed on the construction.

I know I stated all the negatives, but the good was that the wedding reception hall did look very nice. The servers at the wedding were professional and did a good job.