DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Utica

The food was amazing and the ballroom was like a dream. Despite the last minute change in staff everyone was so professional and attentive to our needs and desires

We contacted Hotel Utica on 10/31/18 inquiring on having a wedding ceremony only here in November 2019. "T" showed us 4 options for ceremony rooms for a ceremony. She was very soft-spoken, hesitant & did not show confidence at all. During our tour, we explicitly ruled out the Saranac Room. It was outdated & we could not visualize a ceremony in that space. We told her we liked the grand ballroom, because the other two locations were public. T told us she would email us the availability. She gave us her business card. She wrote a different phone # on the back of the card, saying that she does not use the number on her business card. Several days go by & I have not heard from T as promised. I gave her a call on Sunday & explained how we have been waiting.. T said "well let me just see if your dates available. " It is! She pencils us in for our date/time in the grand ballroom, also giving us a different (cheaper) price than what was discussed during the tour? She lists our date that we told her during the tour. She told me to come in that Thursday or Friday (don't remember) and drop the check off. She asked me to text her my email address which I did. She now has my name, email & phone #. All the info she should need to make contact with me. On Tuesday, I realize I am missing the contact! I took out her business card & sent her an email requesting this. No response. Day of our meeting arrives & I go in Hotel Utica the same time as last weeks meeting was, 7pm. She wasn't there & had already headed home for the day. One of the bartenders calls T at home on her cellphone and gave me the phone so I could talk with her. I did not ask her to do this but hey I'll take it! . I told T I was here with the check waiting to commit to Hotel Utica for our ceremony as discussed several days ago. I informed her that I emailed her requesting a contact, to which she replied, and I quote: "Oh, I don't use that email. " WOW! So none of the information she provided me on her business card was correct. She told me "well, I talked with my manager who may not want to book you in the grand ballroom because we may want to have a full wedding in that room that day. " Also claimed November is "wedding season."I reminded T that she had penciled me in for this spot & said nothing of this the past 1-2 weeks about changing this. She apparently had this conversation with her boss that did NOT result in her calling me to inform me of their decision. Instead, I go down to Hotel Utica ready to commit to a wedding ceremony/blocking hotel rooms & this disaster is slowly unfolding. To put the cherry on top, she says "we were thinking of putting you in the Saranac Room. " I reminded her of our conversation during the tour which involved us explicitly stating we were not interested in the Saranac Room. The grand ballroom was more, we understood that, and were prepared to pay more for this. Hearing my frustrations and STILL requesting to see a contract, T says "okay, let me go talk to my boss and I'll get back to you. " (meaning about the contract and their decision about the rooms). I said okay and the call ended. IT HAS BEEN 53 DAYS NOW. No contract. No phone call. I have purposely been checking my spam email as well. Nothing. I have only spoken respectfully with T and have been nothing but professional with her. I was neither rude nor unreasonable. I would highly suggest that all newly engaged couples look elsewhere for their wedding ceremony, reception, and hotel rooms.

The Hotel Utica caterers were super helpful with those in the wedding party who had food allergies. Hotel Utica is timeless, classic and can give a special vintage feel to a wedding.

Hotel was beautiful, the food was fantastic. The only issue I had was reserving a room block for my guests. When my guests would call in to reserve a room, it seemed no one who answered understood how to work the computer system to book a room in the reserved block. It took a few calls back and forth to get things settled.

Both James and Dave were wonderful to work with and went above and beyond to adhere to our strict budget as well as giving us the biggest bang for out buck! I would highly recommend this venue to anyone looking for a glamorous wedding venue without the wallet busting price

We had our wedding in the lobby of the Utica Train Station. Dave Morgan and his staff at the Blue Flag Room were tremendous taking care of every detail and making the day perfect! We heard time and time again what a great venue it was and how excellent the food was. Dave's staff was fast and efficient and very attentive. Everything was absolutely perfect! It was the middle of July and it did get warm, so be thoughtful of the time of year you're booking.

We were married at the Hotel Utica on July 23, 2011. We chose the hotel because of the very unique architecture of the lobby and mezzanine, and from the very beginning planned to have our ceremony in the lobby, and dinner and reception on the mezzanine and in the adjoining banquet room. We were not told until two days before the wedding that there was no air conditioning - there was no time to re-seat the entire guest list, and re-print all of the programs. The air conditioning was not simply "not working well", it has NEVER worked, and some of the registers don't even have units installed inside of them. We feel this fact was deliberately withheld from us, as we would not have selected the venue for the reception had we known it. It was over 90 on our wedding day, and the mezzanine was so hot that some of our guests left before dinner. Though the planning process generally went well, or seemed to, the staff did not listen to our directions pertaining to setup or seating and numerous errors were made. The Saranac Room, which we filled to 3/4 capacity, had inadequate air conditioning as well, and halfway through the night the heat was a problem. Staff members made inappropriate comments to our guests about our seating arrangements and our choice of rooms in the hotel. If your wedding is going to be in the summer, or any month where hot weather is a possibility, don't plan to use the lobby, mezzanine area or Saranac Room. There is a very large conference room on the second floor that we did not choose to use, that perhaps has proper climate control, but I don't know and unfortunately you can not trust the answer if you ask. Sadly, though the hotel is a true landmark and is breathtakingly lovely, we don't just not recommend it, we recommend against it.

There was a mezzanine level that wrapped around the entire hotel lobby. Our cocktail hour was held here. It was important to us to have a separate space for cocktail hours and this was perfect. The hotel reminded us of 1920's Hollywood. There was a lot of history to the hotel - Dizzy Gilespie had played there Judy Garland performed there... We got to make our 'entrance' in through the main doors of the hotel while our guests watched from the mezzanine level. It was a very beautiful venue.;We didn't have much confidence in the event coordinator/catering manager at the hotel. We kept every single email were sure to get everything in writing and hired a day-of coordinator to be our advocate. She was worth every penny.