Sheraton Raleigh Hotel

ue to cocktail hour space being limited. Now for the negative, food horrible! The food they gave us on our tasting was completely different taste wise on the day of. Besides that we kept it simple with only having a choice of Chicken or Beef for our guests. The only problem was they wanted to know exactly who got beef and who got chicken! How are you going to figure out how many people ordered chicken on an invitation to a family of 5? They wanted me two weeks before my wedding to give them everyone's names and what they ordered. I said no! I can tell you how many out of 100 are having beef and chicken! Your job is making sure you ask my guest when dinner is being served who ordered what! This is a sit down plated dinner! When you go to a restaurant you get better service than this! Also the servers did not understand any English! Cocktail hour was horrible! Food was cold and they ran out! Then with the room block! It was a nightmare! My guests had the hardest time getting a room for the RIGHT rate! Some were charged twice for other guests rooms! It was so unorganized and unprofessional. Hannah was there for cocktail hour and then left! If your holding an event I expect you to be there! Just saying it falls on your name if you dont handle and make it happen the right way. Besides that it was a nice space but you do have to pay for parking which sucks too! I dont know i wouldn't recommend for a wedding! But overall I got married to my amazing husband and that was the end goal. So if all the other stuff doesn't matter to you then go for it lol

e catering manager. It took several follow-ups to get the information I needed to coordinate with other vendors. This was a theme throughout setting the menu and even my day of wedding coordinator encountered when she stepped in to attempt to coordinate final details amongst the various vendors that would be involved in the day. We had numerous reservation issues to work out. Worse than that, we found out the week of the wedding that WE, THE BRIDE AND GROOM, DIDN’T HAVE RESERVATIONS (this comes in the standard contract)! To Sheraton’s (more like, Cy at the front desk) credit, they did give us very nice suites and even though our suites for the night doubled as the getting ready rooms, they were MUCH nicer accommodations than the typical getting ready rooms. Now the reception… Catering staff serving the appetizers did not know what they were serving and were consistently telling guests who asked “I don’t know” without offering to find out and we did have a guest that had to take emergency medicine due to an allergy. The bar wasn’t stocked with the correctly planned/coordinated beer selections until after cocktail hour was over. Once most of the correct beers were brought to the bar, the bartenders served those beers to guests warm as they had not been iced down. Even though we had purchased an upgraded liquor package, they couldn’t accommodate basic signature drinks within that package, so they had to charge us full price for each signature drink (the signature drinks tasted awful!). We put a cap on the amount of signature drinks that we expected to take us through the cocktail hour only and that was fine. The bartenders were under the impression that the whole bar was turning into a cash bar once the signature drink cap was reached. We don’t know if they were correctly accounting for signature drinks or including other liquor drinks that would have been included in the liquor package, but worst of all, they started COMMUNICATING TO GUESTS that it was a cash bar after cocktail hour! We paid for an upgraded liquor package, and instead they started charging our guests – and we don’t know how many guests paid cash before this was corrected. The bar ran out of glassware and had to switch to plastic cups less than halfway through the event, servers had to be asked several times to clear empty plates from the guest tables, then they tried to stack the plates from the guests tables instead of just having the guests bring them up with them (health code violation), they weren’t providing forks to guests after the cake cutting, providing wrong plateware at time, etc.. Essentially, the staff was standing around not serving guests throughout the night and had to constantly be told to help clear items and provide items to guests. The buffet was delayed in getting set up, food had to be sent back multiple times because it wasn’t cooked properly, incorrect menu items came out, and there were multiple times the buffet line was at a standstill because items on the buffet were empty and replenishments weren’t coming out of the kitchen in a timely manner. So much more to say - overall, the experience with Sheraton was regrettable (embarrassing and frustrating), even being compensated, it's a day we can't get back!

nses and went above and beyond what was expected. Because we booked at least 40 nights, we were able to get the Governors Suite at a discounted rate. What a treat that was! It's like an apartment with a separate bedroom/bathroom, kitchen, dining room, living room and another bathroom. We could have also gotten the Presidential suite, with a larger kitchen but one less bathroom. My daughter had so much space! She stayed in the suite Friday night and her bridesmaids stayed in the connecting double queen room. Because her wedding ceremony was at 11 AM, makeup and hair artists showed up at 6am to set up in the large suite. I woke up the bridesmaids as needed and my daughter was able to sleep in until her time while the rest of us had our makeup done in the dining room. It could not have worked out better. Then she and her husband stayed in the suite Saturday night. The hotel is in a great location and we were able to walk to most attractions. They took care of setting out our gift bags and also had treats of their own for the guests coming in. The rooms have been remodeled and have wood laminate flooring which was appreciated for cleanliness. Room service was quick and the pool was great for the young kids. There were just a couple of downsides. First, was that two of the three elevators were broken and it was about a 20 minute wait. We would have walked, but were on the 15th floor. Second was the 4pm check in process. It was so crowded at the front desk and there was a line to pull into the Salisbury hotel entrance to drop off people. Our rehearsal was at 5pm, so we barely made it. But the downsides were overwhelmed by the amazing customer service, location and friendliness of the staff.

bout it! The staff is incredibly nice and helpful. We worked with the Social Sales Manager, Ana Garcia, to plan our event. Ana gave us so much help in finding the perfect space and planning the evening. She really went above and beyond for us, even dropping of a rented cake stand that I'd forgotten for me! There were a few minor problems along the way. For example, although our room block included parking and internet, not all of our guests received their vouchers. However, this was fixed promptly when we spoke to the front dest staff. Overall, this was a great experience, and I would recommend the Sheraton to other couples planning their weddings.

responsibility that the Sheraton should take regarding the commitment to customer service that a hotel chain (especially as large as the Sheraton) should have. Although, you indicated that these things "rarely" happen, I was not the only unhappy patron the weekend of the 20th, but I can only speak to my own problems. I have a laundry list of issues that happened, starting on the Thursday (10/18) when my grandmother (89 years old) and aunt (68 years old) who had booked a room ~8 months in advance were told that their accommodations were unavailable and that one of them would have to sleep on a cot or a sofa bed. My cousin and I were informed that a guest who chooses to stay cannot be removed from a room despite somebody else having a reservation (which, in my opinion, the guest that is occupying their room should have been moved to a different room to allow for the reservation). Numerous individuals did not receive their welcome letter (despite me complaining multiple times), additional individuals did not have their hospitality bags delivered to their rooms (even though we were going to have to pay $4 a bag to have them delivered, this charge was ultimately waived), my cousins golf clubs were lost (and then found after he left), numerous guests rooms were not ready by 3 pm. In fact, many guests had to get ready in another room and this caused my family to be late for pictures because they were still waiting on rooms. For example, my brother's room was not ready until 5:30 pm and our wedding started at 6 pm, this is unacceptable. One of my biggest headaches, was that I specifically requested that my bridal suite be ready by 1 pm. When a group is paying over $7,000 for a weekend at your hotel, I would imagine the hotel should accommodate this request for a bride (if check-out is at noon, then turning a room over in an hour should not be an issue). In fact, this room was not ready until 3:30 pm which even in itself was 30 minutes after the guaranteed check-in time. Because of this, my bridal party and I had to rush to get ready and was late for my own pictures with my groom at 4 PM because of the hotel's incompetence. This is just a handful of the issues that we had with the Sheraton on our wedding weekend. There were other problems, including accommodations with requests like (rooms next to each other, due to children in the party) that were only accommodated after my friends or family had to get angry. Not only was the hotel's incompetence and disorganized style disruptive to my friends and family's travel, it interrupted my own time as the time that I should have spent relaxing and getting ready, I spent pacing in the lobby of your hotel, very angry with no attention or help from the front desk staff. The staff did not even take the initiative to let me know what was happening, as I had to go up to the front desk repeatedly to ask for a status update. Additionally, when we did get our suite, as we left the elevators, we noticed that the housekeeping staff were standing in the hallways chitchatting instead of doing their jobs.

Allyson and Martha were great to work with. The Oak Forest Ballroom is elegant and was great for our reception. So many couples had warned me that at their weddings they didn't get to eat dinner or have cake. We got both! The Sheraton staff made sure that my husband and I were served our meals first so we could eat before greeting all of our guests. The food was excellent! I had the salmon oscar and my husband had the beef medallions. They also made certain that we got a piece of cake. My husband and I were also offered a complimentary room for the weekend, so we didn't have to worry about our accommodations. The beds are incredibly soft, something I remembered from when I stayed at the Sheraton for a conference. The staff also had sent up some cheese, fruit, and a bottle of champagne for my husband and I when we returned to our room after the reception. A really nice touch that showed great service! From what our guests told us, they had a great time at the Sheraton and enjoyed the reception immensely. A fantastic hotel, great service, and a perfect wedding reception! Couldn't have asked for more!

ccessible room at the same rate) without escalation. They wanted to charge us for providing a tiny gift bag to each guest upon check-in. We ended up with a tiny hotel room as our hospitality suite. If you have a chance to choose a hotel outside of downtown, definitely do so. The hotel ended up being quite comfortable, but it's poorly run, has a terrible events coordinator.

re to spend beyond the minimum (which is fairly high, but reasonable in comparison to similar venues). I'm from out of town, but Joanie worked with me so that we could accomplish things long distance. It was wonderful!

nd will fix any problems that arise. When guests rsvp and do not show up and you have already paid for their meal don't expect to get all of your paid meals boxed up for you. We asked to get the guests that were unable to attend our wedding meals' boxed up and that we would take them home since we had already paid for them. We received 4 meals of the 10+ that did not show. Overall they made it a special day however I was not delighted when the staff took my food away that I was not done with.

you could get online if you paid in advance) and didn't charge us the $4/bag that was in the contract for handing out welcome bags to guests. granted, we had less than 10, so they may have just made an exception for that reason. customer service with the events people was great.