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Quality of service
3.0 out of 5 rating
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Average response time
1.0 out of 5 rating
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Professionalism
1.0 out of 5 rating
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Value
3.0 out of 5 rating
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Flexibility
1.0 out of 5 rating
Poor professionalism took away from venue's beauty
While I am happy overall about our wedding hosted at the Houdini, I would strongly caution ALL people from booking an event there.
Put more directly- DO NOT BOOK THE HOUDINI. Ella (our main contact), often treated us as an annoyance. We never felt any kind of hospitality on par with a venue of this caliber. The beauty of the venue is NOT worth the stress.
Some objective information:
-Gardens are incredibly well kept and absolutely gorgeous - definitely the reason for booking.
-House is dated: A/C didn’t work for some time when we were there, and the two bottom bedrooms still smell STRONGLY of smoke (there was a fire ~2 years ago?). It’s unpleasant enough that we did not want to sleep in the master bedroom or leave my wedding dress there overnight in case it took on the smell.
-Logistical challenge: difficult to load in/out rentals, only one street so we had to stage who came when. Also there are truck height limitations that also make rentals a challenge.
-Like most of LA, there are severe noise ordinances, and sound is very carefully regulated.
Problems:
1. We were told we have full "freedom of choice" for all vendors. Later we were scolded that the houdini needed to "sign off" on vendors. We complied and would send over approval emails. Ella would not respond to these for months (some she NEVER replied to!), making booking vendors very challenging.
2. The Houdini sprung an additional $5k fee if we wanted to have a band, over 7mos after booking with them. We were very up front from day 1 about our intention of having a live band, and nothing was communicated or listed in our original contract. We pushed back on this fee, and then the houdini/ella proclaimed that the band we had booked was banned from the venue. The band manager had _no_ information regarding this status, and houdini never produced any evidence in writing. Clearly there is a lot of hearsay in this conversation, but I feel pretty confident that Ella/the venue lied about our band being banned, because they simply didn't want to allow a band to play on the property.
3. Venue walkthroughs were very difficult to schedule, as the venue refused to hold any of our walkthrough appointments. They stated that they would only confirm our appointment 24 hours before, as they might book something last minute. With travel from SF, work schedules, and vendor schedules, this made walkthroughs incredibly challenging. On one such occasion, the venue cancelled our walk through the day before, only after frantic calls and emails, agreed to move up our walkthrough by an hour. Why that wasn’t suggested initially is beyond me, but clearly indicates an unwillingness to support people who have contracted them as a venue.
4. Communication with Ella (our main contact) was incredibly challenging. She would not respond to emails for weeks or months (she would also ignore or refuse to respond to many follow up requests (via email, phone, AND text), both from us and our wedding planner). When Ella did communicate with us, she also often gave conflicting information, and always with a ton of entitlement. She treated us like gum underneath her shoe that was an irritation, not people who were spending top dollar to rent out their wedding venue.
When we finally had a phone call with her, the call would last HOURS as she berated us, and then would finish the call telling us that we did not pay for "administrative services" and so should not expect her to respond... given that she was our ONLY point of contact for a venue that supposedly does this regularly, we were absolutely dumbstruck.
Ella also would make snide comments, like we have no "contract" with the houdini estate, only a "rental agreement." These veiled threats would often put us on edge, as the Houdini is NOT cheap to rent at all.
During booking we were also told that "all emails can be used as part of our contract" ... later on when we would reference those emails, we were reprimanded, and ignored. Since they were our venue - we felt locked in and strong-armed into doing what they wanted. To this day - we have many unanswered phone calls, and emails.
While I am happy overall about our wedding hosted at the Houdini, I would strongly caution ALL people from booking an event there.
Put more directly- DO NOT BOOK THE HOUDINI. Ella (our main contact), often treated us as an annoyance. We never felt any kind of hospitality on par with a venue of this caliber. The beauty of the venue is NOT worth the stress.
Some objective information:
-Gardens are incredibly well kept and absolutely gorgeous - definitely the reason for booking.
-House is dated: A/C didn’t work for some time when we were there, and the two bottom bedrooms still smell STRONGLY of smoke (there was a fire ~2 years ago?). It’s unpleasant enough that we did not want to sleep in the master bedroom or leave my wedding dress there overnight in case it took on the smell.
-Logistical challenge: difficult to load in/out rentals, only one street so we had to stage who came when. Also there are truck height limitations that also make rentals a challenge.
-Like most of LA, there are severe noise ordinances, and sound is very carefully regulated.
Problems:
1. We were told we have full "freedom of choice" for all vendors. Later we were scolded that the houdini needed to "sign off" on vendors. We complied and would send over approval emails. Ella would not respond to these for months (some she NEVER replied to!), making booking vendors very challenging.
2. The Houdini sprung an additional $5k fee if we wanted to have a band, over 7mos after booking with them. We were very up front from day 1 about our intention of having a live band, and nothing was communicated or listed in our original contract. We pushed back on this fee, and then the houdini/ella proclaimed that the band we had booked was banned from the venue. The band manager had _no_ information regarding this status, and houdini never produced any evidence in writing. Clearly there is a lot of hearsay in this conversation, but I feel pretty confident that Ella/the venue lied about our band being banned, because they simply didn't want to allow a band to play on the property.
3. Venue walkthroughs were very difficult to schedule, as the venue refused to hold any of our walkthrough appointments. They stated that they would only confirm our appointment 24 hours before, as they might book something last minute. With travel from SF, work schedules, and vendor schedules, this made walkthroughs incredibly challenging. On one such occasion, the venue cancelled our walk through the day before, only after frantic calls and emails, agreed to move up our walkthrough by an hour. Why that wasn’t suggested initially is beyond me, but clearly indicates an unwillingness to support people who have contracted them as a venue.
4. Communication with Ella (our main contact) was incredibly challenging. She would not respond to emails for weeks or months (she would also ignore or refuse to respond to many follow up requests (via email, phone, AND text), both from us and our wedding planner). When Ella did communicate with us, she also often gave conflicting information, and always with a ton of entitlement. She treated us like gum underneath her shoe that was an irritation, not people who were spending top dollar to rent out their wedding venue.
When we finally had a phone call with her, the call would last HOURS as she berated us, and then would finish the call telling us that we did not pay for "administrative services" and so should not expect her to respond... given that she was our ONLY point of contact for a venue that supposedly does this regularly, we were absolutely dumbstruck.
Ella also would make snide comments, like we have no "contract" with the houdini estate, only a "rental agreement." These veiled threats would often put us on edge, as the Houdini is NOT cheap to rent at all.
During booking we were also told that "all emails can be used as part of our contract" ... later on when we would reference those emails, we were reprimanded, and ignored. Since they were our venue - we felt locked in and strong-armed into doing what they wanted. To this day - we have many unanswered phone calls, and emails.
