Sheraton Harborside Portsmouth Hotel

I was married here in October 2022 and prior to my event I was so excited to get married here but after my experience I'll tell everyone I know to stay away altogether- even just to use as a regular hotel. The rooms were filthy- a dirty towel was made into a bed, hair clippings on the floor, brown stained sheets, broken glass on the floor, lipstick stained glasses, and thermostats not working and keeping the rooms below 60 in October. The biggest problem, however, was the staff. I can honestly say I've never been treated so disrespectfully in my entire life as I was by the front desk and management staff at the hotel. There was a billing issue that they were well aware of (which they admitted to us) on Thursday when we checked in. My husband, parents, and most of our bridal party were downstairs the entire day on Friday setting up for the wedding (which we’d been told would be handled by event staff), but the general manager (CJ) waited until 6pm Friday night (after our ceremony, during portraits, and while our guests were at the cocktail hour) to go to my mother and tell her that if the wedding was not immediately paid for then he would be calling the cops, kicking everyone out of the hotel, and locking people out of their rooms. My parents were not paying for any portion of our wedding and never should have been involved in this. He also asked my mom to tell us about this issue rather than coming to us himself. After making the bride and MOB cry in the lobby and having the bride and groom yelling out front of the hotel in a panic (we were never offered a more private location for this conversation and were forced to have it in full view of our guests and random hotel guests) CJ finally agreed to let us wait until the next morning to sort it out and we were nearly an hour late to our own wedding- which is an hour we paid for of our other vendors' time that we lost out on. We chose the buffet option as we were put under the impression that our guests were able to go up for seconds during dinner service but they immediately cleaned up the food as soon as the final table had been served taking a lot of the food to be thrown away- including nearly 3/4 of the prime rib. Event staff tried multiple times to clear peoples plates and glasses while they were clearly still eating and drinking. There were a multitude of problems at the front desk including the fact that they didn’t seem to know our wedding was happening there and told guests they were at the wrong location- we had to put a groomsman at the door- and with people's cards being charged multiple times or being declined despite the cards being accepted for other things and they refused to take any responsibility for the fact that it was clearly their system (we watched it happen to random hotel guests as well). One guest was forced to miss the ceremony because they told her she wasn't able to attend the wedding until her room payment was sorted out (even though most of our guests stayed offsite). Our wedding license was lost and very little care overall was put into cleaning up from our ceremony and reception. They had one bartender staffing our event bar for 100+ people which made the lines 15+ minutes at some points and the prices of drinks at the bar kept changing throughout the night. While we still managed to have a great night with our loved ones, the Sheraton and the way we were treated definitely tarnished the memories.

The entire planning experience was amazing all the way through to wedding day. The venue was in the perfect location, our suite had incredible views of the harbor, and every staff member was extremely polite and professional. Susan was amazing with helping us plan even with COVID and all of the state regulations, the night went perfectly and I cannot praise this venue and the staff enough! The wedding packages were perfect for our wedding style and the prices were some of the best in Portsmouth.

We picked the venue based on the incredible team that works at the Sheraton Harborside Hotel. For size and scope, we had a big NYE wedding and was planning for close to a year. My now-husband and I were blown away with the level of service, attention to detail, responsiveness, and willingness to accommodate our wishes during our entire wedding planning process. Dan Witham and his team made all of our dreams come true on our magical day. They even surprised us with special touches that we did not even think about leading up to our wedding day. Dan is a seasoned professional and such a joy to work alongside. If you are looking at venues on the Seacoast with fantastic staff, pick the Sheraton!

I have not had my wedding yet but when we met to discuss prices and talk about the venue, the woman I was helped by mentioned it was anywhere from $10,000 to $15,000 JUST to rent the place. Not including anything else, I was so upset.