Victoria

Review of Vintage Hotels

WARNING TO ALL BRIDES!!! We were so excited to hav...

WARNING TO ALL BRIDES!!! We were so excited to have our wedding catered by Queens Landing. Niagara-on-the-lake has always been such a dream and we couldn't wait to get married there and have it catered by one of our favourite places. However, from the moment we signed our contract all the way to after our wedding day, Vintage Hotels broke their contract and all of their promises and did not follow through on one item, let alone make any of it an enjoyable experience for a soon-to-be-wed couple. Here is what happened with zero exaggeration:

1. In our contract they put aside 5 rooms for our guests (of a 200 person wedding) and wouldn't let us hold any more. We tell our guests hurry and start booking because we have limited rooms. Soon after that, we get phone call after phone call saying that guests are trying to book and not only do they not have a room block on hold for us but they have never heard of this wedding. I call and ask what is going on... THEY HAVE SOLD OUT FOR THE ENTIRE WEEKEND. Completely broke our contract and we got 0 rooms at Queens Landing.
2. We call all of our guests back and apologize and say to instead book at their sister hotel because they sold out for our wedding. We then get AGAIN phone call after phone call saying they only have 2 rooms on hold not 5...
3. Your wedding night is supposed to be complimentary (although in my opinion you should get your entire wedding weekend complimentary because they are not a cheap caterer...) They not only did not follow through on this but they double charged us for the hotel. I had to call back after our wedding because they processed too much on my credit card.
4. Our tasting was supposed to be for us and both our parents. We get there and it is just set up for two people. They argued to us in front of our parents saying they are only set up for 2 people and they can't accommodate more and they even went as far as printing the contract, shoving it in our faces.
5. All of our payments were scheduled to be spread out over the course of the year. Someone "forgot" to process these and ALL of the payments were squished into the last 2 months right before our wedding. You can imagine how much money this was and to have it all come out 2 months before your wedding is incredibly stressful and uncomfortable to say the very least.
6. Out of all of this, we had expressed our disappointment several times and no one cared. We spoke to several Vintage Hotel employees and all they could offer us was a discount on their trolley which only started at 5pm and we needed to be at our venue at 3pm - zero use to us.
7. After all of this struggle before the wedding day... the day of was just as bad. They were understaffed for our wedding (that was booked a year in advance) and made us 40+ mins behind schedule. This actually resulted in us having to cut half of the mother and son dance in order to get the dessert out. So sad.
8. We had place settings saying what each guest ordered and communicated this in advance along with the seating chart. Several people were served the wrong items which was very scary considering that quite a few people had severe allergies.

I wish I had this warning before we booked as I certainly wouldn't have moved forward. I felt uneasy right from the beginning and no one at the entire company did anything to reassure us. It is very unfortunate as it is your wedding day and not just "any" event. I strongly suggest to all brides considering Vintage Hotels to look elsewhere. Happy to share more of what we went through with all brides-to-be. Please take my advice and do not book anything with Vintage Hotels for your special day.