Business ProfileforSylvia Hotel Limited

We had our wedding reception at Sylvia Hotel’s Dining Room in August 2021. They mishandled this important event in our lives to a gross degree and treated us with utmost disrespect. Here are the series of deficiencies that took place: In the morning of our wedding, the venue was not set up as agreed. We were told this would be done the night before. My wife and her bridesmaids went there in the morning to set up centrepieces. There was nothing on the tables and they were not set up in the configuration we had instructed them to do. The hotel’s event manager was nowhere to be found. We had agreed that he would be there all day to oversee our event. When my wife called him he said he is on his way. An hour and a half later, he still wasn’t there. Staff started to put linens on the tables but these were all wrinkled. My wife had to stop them and ask for these to be ironed. These are basic services. This stressful morning turned into an even more stress afternoon. At 1 pm, this event manager texted my wife to say he was going to the emergency room and that restaurant manager was ‘on the floor’. There was no follow-up communication from the hotel about a plan B. On top of this being stressful and unprofessional, we believe Sylvia hotel did not provide an adequate replacement. We did not see this restaurant manager all night as she was obviously busy doing her job managing the hotel restaurant and not our event. As a result many things fell through the gap. When we arrived at the reception, no one from the hotel actually received us. we and our families had to look for parking as their underground parking was full. Only after time wasted looking a family member went inside to inquire and they gave him a parking slip that let us park in front of the hotel. At dinner, our family’s table and two other tables were not served their food until half an hour after everybody else was finished. They were disorganized and understaffed. Servers were going around asking our friends/family for direction. We had agreed on installing a divider on the patio separating the side that we had rented from the restaurant patio , in order to ensure our event is private and that our guests stay safe, given that we are in the middle of a pandemic. This divider was not implemented. There was no security or anyone looking over the floor. There were non-guests seen wandering through our wedding unmasked. Our family had to ask them to leave. This is unacceptable. We trusted Sylvia with our health and safety. We had also agreed that the centre table would be removed after dinner to add safe space for dancing. This table did not get removed even after this was requested multiple times. At some point our guests took it upon themselves to clear the table! When we met with their event manager initially and decided to go ahead with the booking, we asked to leave a deposit. He said that is not necessary. They did not write up a contract for us and we trusted that they will live up to the standard promised; especially because they charged 18% gratuity on top of everything. But the level of service fell very short. We are shocked that they treated our big milestone with such negligence. We had agreed to meet with the event manager after the wedding to go over the bill. This was the extent of conversation about payment at this point. He was absent the next day and the hotel manager never connected with us about anything. When we came downstairs to check out the morning after (Sunday) we were presented with the full bill at front desk in the amount of approximately $14000. We explained this is not how we expected to do this. We expected to have a meeting to go over our event , not deal with this at the front desk where hotel guests are coming and going. We explained we had to move on as we were running late for an important family gathering. Even though we had been corresponding with the hotel for over 2 months, we offered to leave ID/credit card and settle the invoice when we came back later that day to collect our rental stuff. This front desk person said no that is not an option. We couldn’t even leave to go to the bank. We were once again shocked and speechless. We felt we were being taken hostage. We could have walked out because we had no agreement/contractual obligation to settle up that very morning. We felt hostility from this employee. She had no understanding/empathy for our situation and offered absolutely no solution. This all is so wrong. They botched our wedding and they are still failing to own up to their many mistakes. We don’t believe we should be paying full price for this kind of service. We have asked management for a refund for a percentage of the bill. Their refund offer is inappropriate and does not match the magnitude of the problems. We have asked for the contact information of the hotel president but have gotten no response. Alas, the memory of our wedding is forever tarnished; but we are sharing our experience so other couples do not go through the same terrible treatment we did.