The Ritz-Carlton Sarasota Reviews
Reviews
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Ashley Sent on 06/19/2022
highly recommend the Ritz-Carlton Beach Club!
I cannot say enough wonderful things about the Ritz-Carlton Sarasota as a wedding venue. We were married at the Ritz-Carlton Beach Club in March 2022 and had 70 guests, and our Ritz-Carlton contact (Heather) as well as the rest of the Ritz-Carlton staff were exceptional. Heather was incredibly helpful, responsive, and an overall pleasure to work with throughout the entire wedding process. We did not hire an outside wedding planner, and my husband and I were both the first of our siblings to get married, so we really did not know anything about weddings when we started the process! Although Heather was ultimately only responsible for our venue, she answered so many questions for us and helped guide us through the entire wedding process. She was so patient and kind. On the day of our wedding, Heather helped make sure that everything with our vendors was set up so we didn’t have to worry about that while we were getting ready. Also, the experience that Heather and the Ritz-Carlton staff gave us for our tasting and planning meeting (we were from out of state) was unbelievable!
Many of our guests have mentioned that the food (we did the South of the Border buffet) was the best wedding food they have ever had. And, of course, the views are unmatched. Thank you, Heather and the entire Ritz-Carlton Sarasota team for making our wedding weekend perfect! We can’t wait to come back for our anniversary next spring!
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![Nicole]()
Nicole Sent on 07/08/2021Absolutely Amazing !!
It’s The Ritz. It was nothing short of exquisite. -
![Kimberly Driggers]()
Sarah Sent on 12/03/20191st time meeting
Excellent direction, suggestions and help -
![Morgan]()
Morgan Sent on 11/08/2018An Absolute Fairytale!!!
I worked with Jane Griffin as my wedding specialist. From the moment I walked through the door at the Ritz-Carlton for my first venue tour, I was treated like royalty. The staff members, customer service, and overall experience at the Ritz-Carlton is like no other. My wedding day was so memorable and absolutely beautiful. I can't say enough good things about this venue and recommend it for any highly particular, glamorous, perfectionist bride!!! -
User3516878 Sent on 06/12/2018We loved working with Jane. We had a wonderful day- couldn't be happier with our experience! She was fun, responsive and professional all along. The property is gorgeous and the staff is top notch. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!!!! -
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![Emilia]()
Emilia Sent on 03/25/2014Having our wedding at The Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota, FL was simply breathtaking! We loved every minute of our wedding on 1.4.14! They were all incredibly professional and they were so helpful. They would come to our aid with anything we needed. I do not even have enough words to express how amazing they all are. We had the most phenomenal A-team with Nicole Kaney, DJ Fitz Otis, Limelight Photography, VHVIDEO.COM, Inc. - Videography, and Botanica International Design Studio! We will be coming back to the Ritz in Sarasota often with our anniversaries to come! Thank you so much for giving us such a beautiful memory for years to come!
Love always,
Emilia & Christian -
![jenna]()
Jennifer Sent on 08/06/2009I cannot say enough good things about the staff and service at the Ritz. We were faced with relocating our entire wedding one week before the event due to an impending hurricane. They handled the deadline with ease, gently guided us through our choices, and worked with our original budget even though it was one third less than the set pricing structure. The hurricane ended up missing us, so we attempted an outdoor ceremony, but when the time came...so did the rain. The Ritz staff relocated our wedding indoors with lightening speed. The service at the reception was delightful, the food was delicious, and our wedding went from disater to fabulous. "Thank you" does not even come close to expressing our gratitude. -
![Kelsey]()
Kelsey Sent on 06/14/2019Perfect Venue for a Perfect Day
We had our wedding at the Ritz-Carlton Sarasota Lido Beach Club location and the day went just perfect! The staff was amazing with their attention to detail and everything ran so smoothly! They were helpful in their vendor recommendations and the one's we went with, were above our expectations. I asked a lot of questions throughout the wedding planning process and they were kind enough to assist with everything along the way. We cannot thank the staff enough for executing the best day. -
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Kristen Sent on 04/25/2010The food from the Ritz-Carlton in Sarasota was absolutely amazing. They were very helpful in helping us select and perfect the perfect menu for our wedding day. We also got our cake from the Ritz-Carlton and they did exactly what we wanted. -
Nicholas Sent on 11/21/2017My husband and I could not be more pleased with our experience, and now all the wonderful memories we will be able to carry with us following our dream sunset wedding at the Ritz Carlton Beach Club. Our wedding coordinator and all the staff were warm, friendly and very accommodating to all our needs. If you are looking for the perfect Florida beach wedding then this is the place for you.
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![Hillary]()
Hillary Sent on 12/31/2018Impressed and Grateful
Our wedding experience at the Ritz Carlton Sarasota totally exceeded our every expectation! We knew it would be great, but we had no idea it would be so amazing. Vanessa was a pleasure to work with during the planning process. She was responsive, informative, and understanding. What really set her apart however is how dedicated she was on the wedding day to ensure everything was executed smoothly and to plan. I felt like I could take a step back and breathe because I was confident she had it all under control, and she did. She was thoughtful to ensure no little detail was overlooked. I can't recommend enough! -
![Melissa]()
Melissa Sent on 07/12/2011I had my ceremony on Lido Beach at the Ritz's Members Beach club and my reception on the sunset terrace. The food was great, the weather was warm as expected, (May 28, 2011). I worked with Scott and wasn't completly impressed with my interface at the Ritz. He frequently took a few days to get back to me and dropped the ball on coordinating the shuttle to and from the Beach Club after hours. We ended up having to hire a bunch of cabs at the last minute to take my stranded guests home. I partly blame my wedding planner (Shannon,Table 6), who convienently went home "sick" DURING my wedding. The Ritz also charged the wrong credit card on two separate occasions which contribute to my opinion that they lacked the organization skills or "customer service" to pull off my wedding over memorial day weekend. Overall, I hope these not so great memories will fade soon. But as a cautionary statement, be ontop of what you want keep track of the Ritz's commitments, and make sure you have a planner you can trust, otherwise things will get overlooked, misplaced, lost etc. -
![Jennifer]()
Jennifer Sent on 04/14/2021Struggled to write this review
I meant to write this review for a while but frankly I was embarrassed to discuss how we were treated on our destination wedding weekend in October 2019. My MOH encouraged me to put this out there because maybe it will help someone else avoid the same mistake we made. We picked a Sunday on Columbus Day weekend because we really wanted the reception at Ridley's Porch (PS - it's not cheaper and some vendors may have an upcharge!) and they said that they couldn't close the restaurant down any other day. I've been staying at Ritz Carlton's for years (including my engagement night in Chicago) and was treated more special each of those times than I was on my wedding weekend. We had some major hiccups and everything else was just "fine." I loved my wedding because of the other great vendors and guests, and the setting was undoubtedly gorgeous, but I was definitely not treated like a bride at a 5-star resort. Our first sales manager left shortly after we signed our contract, then the front desk worker we were close with moved hotels, and someone mentioned to us that this hotel has a high employee turnover rate. Our wedding coordinator was polite but didn't attend our tasting in July so we didn't meet her until the wedding. The food was AMAZING (kudos to the chef) but when we went outside to walk around the ceremony spot (hotel lawn) with her colleague, we were greeted with MAJOR condo tower construction that no one informed us about! We were absolutely shocked. We spent the next month trying to find another ceremony location but ultimately chose a different lawn at the Ritz (that we didn't like as much, next to the pool) because the only other venues available for offsite ceremonies so close to the wedding date were too far or really limited/strict. Guests at the pool got to watch and cheer after our ceremony, which we laughed about in the moment, but it definitely wasn't what I imagined for my elegant and private wedding. Fast forward a few months to wedding weekend. When I arrived on Friday evening, not one staff member checking us in knew who I was (after I mentioned my name) or that I was having my wedding there (after I mentioned my details). They did excitedly mention a corporate conference though, which I hadn't heard about before. We checked into my parent's suite (fully paid for, BTW) that I was staying in with them and were greeted with a dark view of a rooftop. This was the room my bridesmaids and I were getting ready in with photography/video to remember the day (we were actually originally promised a "getting ready" area that was then unavailable later on). I couldn't believe that they couldn't put us, who are paying tens of thousands of dollars just for the wedding reception, in a premium suite facing the water or at least some trees. Especially since we are Marriot Bonvoy members. Some of our guests (we had 60, NONE local and many of whom stayed at the Ritz) had better rooms than we did and told us they were upgraded. Every couple gets a complimentary room on their wedding night and they gave my husband and me a handicapped suite with a view of the parking lot and acted like that was something special. I really quietly approached the front desk about the room issue and kindly said that I just felt like we weren't really being prioritized and was told that "it was a really busy weekend for them with a major conference." I really couldn't believe that the front desk staff was telling me – to my face – on the most important weekend of my life that a small corporate conference was more important than my wedding. I was humiliated, honestly. I'm very laid back about most stuff but when you're spending this amount of money on something and you've already been let down several times, then to be told there are no more suites left because they upgraded all of the conference attendees before you... It was just really rough to hear. There were a lot of other little things that went wrong (i.e. ran out of water during the ceremony and no one refilled despite the onsite wedding coordinator and my two personal day of coordinators being there; they didn't arrange for the flowers to go back to our room as promised and the florist almost left with them after the reception). My advice: choose another Ritz Carlton if you want the Ritz Carlton experience for your wedding or go to a different hotel and pay half the price for the same level of service. -
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User948675 Sent on 09/26/2012We had our wedding & reception at the Ritz Carlton Beach Club on Lido Key. The venue is breathtaking. The staff was incredibly accommodating. However, they did not read the banquet set-up sheet. They screwed up serving the soup, totally did not serve a special dessert for which we'd paid extra & the cake has become known as the "ugliest wedding cake in history", it was just down right embarrassing.
Overall, the food was fabulous but their screw-ups were simply ridiculous for the price of a wedding at the Ritz. The quality of food was phenomenal but the screw-ups were so incredibly disappointing. For the price & reputation of the Ritz-Carlton Sarasota, they did NOT exceed my expectations. You can't beat the food or service staff BUT I would make sure, check, double check and triple check your event.
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![Phoebe]()
Phoebe Sent on 03/25/2022Our Ritz coordinator, Meredith saved our experience at the Beach Club!
Ok - so I want to preface that this was a COVID experience; we signed our contract March 2020 and finally had our wedding reception in March 2022.
We decided to have our ceremony elsewhere in Feb. 2021 not only because of the added costs at the Beach Club venue, but also privacy. We had our reception this past weekend at The Beach Club. Main takeaways-
- I do not recommend your ceremony at The Beach Club if you want any intimacy; all locations except the Terrace are by the pool with onlookers, kids in bathing suits screaming, etc. We are very glad we ended up having our ceremony elsewhere. They have members and guest that they "can't control" so keep that in mind.
- Again during COVID and truly hoping this isn't the case moving forward but we probably had to call the sales office 15+ times the past 2 years because we just never received responses to emails when we were planning which only made the stress of planning heightened. The lack of response was the worst part of our planning process- we truly couldn't believe the lack of service we were receiving.
- If you have your reception on the Terrace and you have a live band, the setup will be weird. The bands only option is to kitty-corner near the bathroom which blocks the walkway for guests- we didn't have a lot of ppl dance because the setup was awkward and right in front of the walkway.
- Small annoyance but they do not offer just plain white linens; they offer silver or gold crinkled so you will have to rent.
January 2022, we received our 3-4th new contact, Meredith Riff. Literally saved our entire experience and showed us what it was actually like to have an event at The Ritz. She was responsive (Who knew that would be something so unexpected), on top of every need/request and was also such a sweet individual. She made our stay at the hotel amazing, and the planning process/weeks leading up to the event a breeze. She was the reason our event went off without a hitch! Thank you Meredith for all your hard work!
Overall, the Beach Club venue is truly beautiful but Id say only on the Terrace; the other locations below are right next to the pool so do not expect any intimacy or privacy.
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![Keira]()
Keira Sent on 12/07/2021Would Not Recommend
While this is a beautiful venue and I will be forever thankful I had my wedding here, I cannot recommend that you do the same. There were certain things that were great (the natural beauty of the hotel and Ca D'zan reception room, the gorgeous cake design, the quality of the food) but also a lot of drawbacks for me. I chose this venue because of positive experiences I have had at Ritz-Carltons in the past - believing that their quality of service was top-notch and that they would take care of everything and make my wedding perfect. I put way too much trust in the Ritz-Carlton, and maybe that is my fault. There was a lack of attention to detail that I was really disappointed with unfortunately. There was also a major renovation done to the original reception room we chose which we were never told about either prior to booking our wedding or after they started construction. I only found out about the complete change of the room by visiting the hotel myself. I just had way too high of expectations I guess - based on past experiences where the Ritz exceeded my expectations.
If you do for some reason decide to have your wedding here, here is my advice:
- I 10000000000000% recommend hiring an outside wedding planner if you have the budget for it. I did not, but I felt like that is a must if you get married here. You need someone who will stay on top of everything, including all the small details.
-Do not get ready in the Bikel and Burns rooms (as a bride) as there is no way to get to a restroom (or even get out of the room) without having to go outside and walk through the packed restaurant full of people. The Florida humidity will make your hair fall out on one bathroom trip.
- The other "getting ready" rooms do not have windows/natural light, so keep that in mind and use a suite to get ready if there will be enough space (there was not enough space in my suite for how many people were involved in my wedding - 8 bridesmaids, two mothers, grandma, two flower girls, and flower girl's mothers)
Overall, I would not recommend this venue unless you can afford an independent wedding planner that you really trust.
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