We made the mistake of having our wedding reception at the Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort, which "supposedly" has the best banquet rooms in the area. What we got was an unprofessional staff, horrible food, poor service, and non-responsive management who could not care less about rectifying the issues both as they were happening and afterward. Below I am copying a letter that I sent to the General Manager, Anne Marie Hartman, so that everyone can read about our experience first hand, especially those who might be considering using this hotel for a special function as well. About one week after sending this letter, Ms. Hartman left one vague voicemail message, stating that she would call us again "in a few days." One month later, we still have not heard from her. Apparently, she does not feel the need to resolve guest service issues as such things are unimportant to her. For this reason, we will NEVER hold future functions at this hotel, nor will we stay there on vacation, and we will be sure to make our experience known to everyone so others can make wiser choices when it comes to banquet settings and not go through what we did! Our letter to Ms. Hartman follows...
Ms. Anne Marie Hartman
General Manager
Holiday Inn SunSpree Resort
1706 North Lumina Avenue
Wrightsville Beach, NC 28480
Dear Ms. Hartman:
After receiving your survey in the mail this afternoon, we thought a letter would better describe our experiences. Overall, we would rate the handling of our wedding and reception between average and poor. Following are some highlights of our event which we feel earned this rating.
Despite having requested (in writing) 8:00 am access to Turtlewatch/Oceanwatch so that we could have ample time to decorate and take photographs before our ceremony, we were informed only a few weeks before our event that the same room had been booked for a breakfast meeting lasting until approximately 9:30 am. Kim Reilly and Alyssa Stroup offered to handle all of our decorating for us, and we provided written instructions for how we wanted the decorating to be done. These instructions, however, were not followed, and we had no time for pre-ceremony photos as we had to spend the final moments before our wedding to correct what had been done.
We specifically requested (in writing) that the blue umbrellas on the Sunrise Terrace be removed during our function so as not to interfere with our photography. Approximately thirty minutes into our function, your employees decided to put the umbrellas back out on the terrace. As a result, all of the photographs of our wedding cake (which was in front of the window) show a big blue umbrella directly behind it, as if it were growing out of our cake.
Since our ceremony was held outdoors on the terrace in bright sunshine, we requested water to be available to our guests. Your employees placed one pitcher of water in the lobby for nearly forty guests, and never refilled it. Most people, including the bride and groom, did not get any water until the groom finally located an employee who could refill the pitcher.
We provided a large wooden arch to be used for our ceremony on the terrace, and requested that it be brought inside Turtlewatch/Oceanwatch to be placed overtop of our cake. Two of your male employees unassembled it and carried it inside. We watched as they then attempted to reassemble it directly over our wedding cake, rather than logically assembling the arch in an open section of the room and then moving it over the cake. After seeing one employee catch the center support to prevent it from falling on our cake, we had to instruct them on how and where to reassemble the arch. Had we not been there at that moment, we feel that our cake would have surely been ruined.
We asked in advance about the waitstaff's attire, and were told that they would be dressed in long sleeved blue dress shirts and black pants. Your male servers were dressed in more casual short sleeved blue shirts (one server did not even bother to tuck his shirt in) and baggy, loose-fitting pants. Alyssa, who coordinated our ceremony and cake cutting, was dressed in black capri pants, flip flops, and a sleeveless knit top. We feel that this was not appropriate attire to be serving a wedding in which the guests were wearing tuxedos and suits. Additionally, none of the servers were wearing name tags, and so it was impossible to refer to anyone by name, or even to know who exactly was serving us.
The service during our reception was very rushed. Before we even had a chance to sit down and say a blessing, the servers were already delivering the salads, and the entrees quickly followed before our guests could finish eating their salads.
Per our contract, the servers were to offer both sweetened and unsweetened iced tea to our guests during the meal. This never happened until the meal was nearly over and the bride and groom questioned why the iced tea had not been served. The servers then returned with two glasses of sweetened iced tea for the bride and groom only, and then finally offered sweetened tea to our guests after we made a second request. Unsweetened iced tea was never offered at all.
Water and iced tea glasses were never refilled during the entire function, nor were any pitchers available so that our guests could refill their beverages themselves. The servers seemed to have disappeared, reappearing briefly only to clear dirty dishes from the tables. We feel that the hefty 20% server gratuity we were forced to pay (per our contract) was not deserved.
We provided our own wine for our function, after being assured by Kim and Alyssa that the servers were knowledgeable about the serving of wine. When poured properly, each bottle of wine should have equaled four glasses. Your servers, who apparently were quite unfamiliar with how to serve wine, filled each glass completely full to the top rather than a standard six ounce pour, resulting in nearly half the number of glasses we should have gotten from each bottle. This caused all of our wine to be used up in less than thirty minutes. Additionally, a few servers did not even know how to pronounce common wine terms, such as merlot and sauvignon blanc, which was disappointing as they made their way around the tables offering each wine by mispronounced names.
The food was extremely disappointing. The salads were to contain mixed greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, and red onion. When the salads were delivered to the tables, the greens were very wilted and soggy, and not the least bit appetizing. We watched as our guests picked rotten pieces of greens out of their salads and politely tried to eat what was left. Also, the salads did not contain the ingredients that we were originally told. There were no red onion slices, and the chef chose to add shredded carrots and whole kalamata olives, ingredients that we would have never chose to have on our salads had we been asked first.
One of our entre selections was a grilled lemon-dill salmon filet. We had specifically requested this item for our guests who have certain dietary requirements, and were assured by Alyssa that the chef approved of this request and would have no problem preparing it to our specifications. When this entre came out, it was nothing like what we had requested. The salmon was not even grilled, but appeared to be poached. There was not a slice of lemon or sprig of dill anywhere on the plate. And, the chef decided to top the entire salmon filet with a rich cream sauce, which we NEVER requested, again due to some guests' dietary restrictions. Our guests (and the bride) who had ordered this entre were unable to eat any of it, and sent the plates back uneaten. The bride went into the sales office to inform Alyssa of this problem, and her reply was that we needed to speak with the chef and then quickly walked away without bringing the chef to her or letting her know where to locate him. The groom then found the chef and spoke to him about this situation, and his response was that he chose to use essence of dill (which we've never heard of) rather than fresh dill as we had requested, and that there was lemon flavoring on the salmon. He had no response when asked why the salmon wasn't even grilled as we had specified, or why he chose to add the heavy cream sauce.
The children's meals that we requested were not as described when they arrived at the table. We had to request the servers to bring the missing items (applesauce and carrot sticks) to the children, as well as ketchup and dipping sauce. When the children's meals arrived, they literally consisted of only two chicken fingers and a pile of french fries on a plate very unappetizing, even for the children. The bride's eight-year-old cousin commented that McDonald's kids meals looked better.
Also on the subject of the food, we found it interesting how there was absolutely no garnish on any of the plates. The food appeared to be served up cafeteria style with no regard for plate presentation, which is not at all what we expected after hearing your sales staff rave about the quality and presentation of the food months earlier when we were booking our wedding. The food did not even look appetizing.
After we witnessed one of your servers demonstrating unprofessional conduct in the beginning of our reception, the groom went to the sales office and asked Alyssa to have that server removed from the remainder of our function. Alyssa never took care of this request, and the server remained in the room for our entire reception.
We requested, and paid an additional fee for, a bowl of punch in Turtlewatch/Oceanwatch. This punch was never chilled and sat at room temperature the entire time. As a result, no one drank the punch and the entire bowl was discarded unused.
Your staff cut our wedding cake into giant wedges, rather than the standard one-to-two inch slices (the way a wedding cake is supposed to be cut). None of our guests were able to eat such huge pieces, and as a result our cake was wasted and thrown away.
We specifically requested that non-alcoholic champagne be offered, as the bride and several family members do not drink alcohol. Kim and Alyssa assured us that this would be readily available, and so we felt no need to bring our own. However, when it came time for the toast, your employees provided only alcoholic champagne. It was very disappointing that the bride could not participate in the couple's own toast, and neither could several family members.
Toward the end of our reception, the same server who we had originally requested be removed for unprofessional conduct, began discarding our table favors and floral centerpieces, without ever asking us if it was okay to do so or if we preferred to keep them. We had made plans to have these items delivered to a local nursing home so that others could enjoy them, but no longer could do this since everything had been thrown away.
None of your employees offered any assistance in bringing our gifts upstairs to our room. The groom had to find a bell cart and take care of this task entirely on his own.
Overall, we feel that we did not receive the quality of service that we were expecting after meeting with your sales and catering staff at length numerous times during the planning stages of our wedding. The service that we received was certainly not worth the price we paid. Months ago, we had excitedly told our families and guests about what a great place your resort is and how wonderful our reception was going to be, but the true experience left many wondering if this was the same place we were describing to them earlier. One of our guests, a Wilmington resident who is planning a very large wedding for next spring, was considering booking your ball room for her event before she attended our reception and experienced the food and service firsthand. We highly recommend that you provide additional training to your employees especially your sales and catering staff, banquet servers, and chef. Perhaps with improved communication channels and customer service skills, future weddings and other events at your resort will go more smoothly and your customers will leave more satisfied and likely to return in the future.
Sincerely,
Name Withheld
Raleigh, North Carolina
U.S.A.
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