The Royal Sonesta Harbor Court Baltimore

ed that Jennifer would not be our wedding coordinator long term when we booked. Months go by and we had not heard anything which is typical but we had not heard from our new coordinator and I do not think she would have to introduce herself. When we reached out to follow up we had no idea who we were working with at that point. Then we met Amanda... We tried several times to give Amanda the benefit of the doubt and that she had other weddings to focus on but we were extremely displeased with her. I will give her credit and she was responsive closer to the big day. The weekend of our wedding she was a complete nightmare and utterly useless. I am not sure why she felt is was appropriate to email and call me the bride the day of getting ready but that was her choice of communication after she was asked to check in with me in the bridal suite. Nothing was set up so myself and bridesmaids took over and set up furniture and decor that was dropped off a week ahead. The linens were not pressed all wrinkled and floors were dirty. Talk about stressing a bride out. And our coordinator was no where to be found. I think it is extremely unprofessional to arrive after 11:00 with nothing set up and a bad attitude to match. Rude comments were made calling the groom the incorrect name, saying oh I'm confusing you with another wedding, and Amanda asking who was the bride. We had been communicating with her for some time and it felt like she did not care at all. In addition to being zero help she did not follow any of our requests. We wanted things set up a certain way and she went rogue and just did not care. We asked that all the cake was cut and placed on a table out side the ballroom with other desserts so guests could enjoy all the flavors and they saved the top tier and platted everyone's cake disregarding our directives. On top of all that they never served my husband and I cake or clean up our meals so there was dirty plates on the sweetheart table. Amanda argued with our officiant about a podium which was never requested. She was zero help the day of our wedding. You would think for the amount of money we spent she would have said goodbye day of our wedding but she up and left without checking in with us. On top of all of that the Sonesta and Amanda never followed up with us or thanked us for our business. They truly do not care about you and it was evident every step of the way. I would not recommend using the Sonesta for your wedding because you will have to work with Amanda who blatantly does not care about her work or customers. The most special day was spoiled at times due to her lack of professionalism and disregard for us. I have been in several weddings and observed wedding coordinators she hands down wins worst one yet. * THE WAIT STAFF WAS PHENOMENAL KEVIN AND SAGY DESERVE 10 stars and a raise! They were the only enjoyable part to the sonesta staff. They were very kind and really care about their jobs which was greatly appreciated.

l staff person we encountered through planning and throughout the entire wedding weekend was incredibly friendly and accommodating to anything we or our guests needed. Certain parts of the hotel (ie. bathrooms in rooms) are dated, however everything that really matters that you see (hotel lobby, other parts of the rooms, ballrooms, etc.) are beautiful. The view of the inner harbor is great from the ballroom, even better from the guest rooms on higher floors, and our guests enjoyed the time there. Jay will offer as much or as little advice as you want, and we were very pleased with all of his recommendations.

it was good, just somewhere in the middle. PROS: +Jay Day, the Director of Catering, is an incredibly knowledgeable, talented asset. He has done this a million times, knows all the important questions to ask, and is very very responsive. As two people who had never planned a large event before, this was invaluable to us. He spent a lot of time with us planning the event and clearly cares deeply about his clients. +The space is absolutely breathtaking. The layout of the ballrooms with their large windows and stunning harbor views, and eclectic, classy Baltimore style. The rooms are spacious and beautiful. The rooftop is stunning and the pool/sports area is very well maintained. It is a truly beautiful, unique space. +The price, as compared to the many many other venues we looked at, was reasonable for what it includes. Not having to pay any extra for linens, set up/break down, reserving the ballroom, ect, is very convenient. I'm not saying it's cheap, but the price is reasonable for what you are getting. +The hotel staff (note: not banquet staff) but the front desk, valet, concierge, ect, are all lovely people and consummate professionals. We visited the hotel many times in the course of planning and were blown away by their quality of service and friendliness. CONS: +For some reason, the hotel had a very difficult time making reservations under our Block. We had about 10 guests who tried to make hotel reservations only to be told that our block was full or didn't exist. So then, I had to call my hotel representative to book a room for those guests and it was very annoying. The problem was never fixed despite multiple complaints on my part and none of the hotel staff I talked to could seem to figure out why it was happening. +The food at the cocktail hour and reception was a big con. The appetizers were dry, cold, and I heard many guests complaining that they never got any because not enough were being passed around. The food at the reception came out very slowly and very late. Some guests had long finished their dinners before other tables had even been served. We heard guests complaining about their food being dry/cold; some guests even sent their food back! How embarrassing. We had a very simple menu so I'm not sure why they had so much trouble getting it out hot. Our appetizer was a soup with a meatball in it. When it came out, servers just dropped a bowl with a single dry meatball on the table in front of them and left with no explanation. 5 minutes later they came out to add soup to the dish, but by then many confused guests had eaten their single sad meatball already because they didn't understand. We had many vegetarian guests and were assured by the hotel that alternate food would be available to them. However, day-of, the vegetarians were told by banquet staff that there were no options for them until I personally had to complain because my vegan cousin didn't know what to do. +The hotel restaurant was very slow. It took us over an hour to get our food the day after the wedding. All in all, we were okay with our experience with the Sonesta but there was a lot left to be desired. We had high expectations of them based on our many planning meetings and felt that the banquet services did not live up to what we had been told.

were very nice to work with, and we had over 50 rooms booked and 150ish people for brunch that was great! The brunch was set up perfectly, food and room were phenomenal, and the hotel itself was very clean. We did have a few problems. The first was that one couple arrived late on Friday, and their room had been given away. Royal Sonesta did book them another hotel 8 miles away, but did not offer any transportation assistance to get there. These relatives drove from South Carolina for our wedding, and arrived after midnight, only to be turned away that evening - very, very embarrassing. The staff was kind enough to give them a presidential suite the following night, so all worked out okay, but it was terrible news to wake up to on my wedding morning. Secondly, we had tried to put in our room service order for the bridesmaids/groomsmen/bride/groom for Saturday for breakfast and lunch. We tried to do so ahead of time, but were told we could not do so until the day before, since that's when we'd be present. They were large orders (12 people for breakfast, 25 people for lunch). Breakfast was an hour late, with no estimate, and lunch was 15 minutes late. We were scolded by a staff for not notifying in advance... but that's what we tried to do. For the record, two other less serious but similar problems: -The maid of honor's room wasn't ready until after 4pm on Friday, which made her very late for the 4pm rehearsal. -The bride and groom ordered dinner (just them - 2 people) on Sunday, and it was almost 2 hours late, though the staff was kind enough to give us that meal for free.