I was attending the wedding of two close friends of mine over the weekend of August 6. The first issue that occurred was when I attempted to check into the hotel. I had confirmed my reservation that afternoon over the phone with one of the front desk staff two hours prior to my arrival. Tehy coul;dn't find the reservation!!! The best man (who is a close friend from high school) had even checked my reservation and confirmed it as well. Finally, they did find the reservation, as it was misspelled in the computer!!!
On the day of the wedding, the area outside the room for the wedding was extremely hot. How hot you ask? Lets just say that the best man was sweating bullets, along with most of the people there. There was a member of the catering department of the hotel there, and she should easily have noticed that the A/C was not up to par; it wasn't that hard to see (and hear people saying) that it was very hot in the rooms.
The wedding and reception started off without a hitch. However, the first issue with the serving staff was that they acted like they didn't give a *, insomuch as harassing my guest, constantly asking if "I was done with my salad" (I wasn't) and not serving the small child that was at my table her childrens meal. It took literally cornering one of the service staff to get the little girl served; the person I spoke with had an attitude, and basically pointed to a person who supposedly was our table server. The server for our table finally brought out the food for the little girl.
Also during the reception, there was an incident involving a guest of the wedding, who was putting "gang type" graffiti on the "congratulations" board for the bride and groom. The best man, a few groomsmen, and myself had to physically escort this person out of the wedding reception, and when we got outside, he tried to start a fight, and started spouting gang affilliations. There were numerous calls to the police, which included several squad cars from the local police, and an Illinois State Trooper! (For full disclosure, I spoke with several people, who said that they told the 911 dispatchers that the incident was involving a gang member; hence the heavy police response). And where was the hotel representatives when this was going on? Nowhere in sight! This includes not only the hotel catering representative, but the "security guard" who was at the hotel the night before, doing his rounds! The major issue with this is what if this idiot was packing a firearm, a knife, or some other kind of weapon? Not only would there have been a police presence, but maybe even multiple ambulances for injured people! To add insult to injury, the service staff took my dinner away (which I had taken two bites of), and also took my piece of wedding cake (which I hadn't even touched) and took that away too. However, for the hotel's sake, there was a security camera in the area where this idiot committed his acts; it caught him doing the acts on video, which the police now have.
I did place a call to Holiday Inn Customer Service; the representative who I relayed the story to seemed to be absolutely in shock hearing this horror story. She said the manager would be calling me back; this call was made Monday and I haven't heard anything from any management member from the hotel since
If you are planning to stay here as a regular guest, the hotel is okay; the room was perfectly cleaned, and the bed was soft as a cloud. However, if you're planning a major event (wedding, bar mitzvah, etc.) my suggestion is to steer clear of this place, unless you bring your own fans, air conditioners, and/or your own armed security.
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