THE WESTIN PHOENIX DOWNTOWN

Planning our wedding celebration at the Westin Downtown was incredibly difficult. Though everyone we talked to was pleasant, the high rate of staff turnover (we talked to a total of 5 event coordinators in the 7 months between signing and having our wedding) led to multiple issues. A few examples: - While touring the hotel as a wedding venue, I was told that I could use the king suite as a bridal suite to get ready in. Literally a few WEEKS before the wedding, I was told that check in time was 4PM and they could not guarantee availability prior to that--we only found out about availability the day prior to the wedding, at which point we had already arranged for photography, videography, and make-up to meet at a conference room, leading to confusion on the day of. - The lack of organization: when we signed out letter of intent, it clearly stated a price per person that included our menu, a tasting, and wedding cake from a local bakery. When we FINALLY were able to organize a tasting (again the MONTH before our wedding, despite emails starting 6 months prior), we were told there was no tasting for a buffet menu. - The local bakery could not be contacted and had to be switched--I understand this happens, but nobody looked into this until, again, less than a month before our wedding despite multiple emails asking about it! (The responses largely consisted of gaslighting us--"you're so early!" or disguising the lack of contact as a benefit for us--"if you have someone in mind, we can order from them"--how many couples have a wedding cake bakery in mind??) The bakery that the cake was ordered from is one our coordinator was able to recommend. - When doing a walkthrough two days prior to our wedding, we were told that desserts in the buffet package we had chosen were not included in the wedding package, though this had never been brought up before and they were listed in the letter of intent. They were ultimately included, but definitely framed as a favor to us rather than a standard inclusion. - The week before the wedding, I received a call stating that the cocktail area would not be able to accommodate all our guests "since the count has increased"--the count we had estimated was 75, the total count was 85. Ridiculous. I was panicked all day, making backup plans about staggering cocktail hour arrivals, until I got a call at the end of the day stating that actually, surprise! They could accommodate us! WHY would you not double-check this before calling the bride literally 10 days before the wedding???? In summary, I would not recommend the Westin for any of my friends planning a wedding. There are plenty of other venues in the area that are better-versed in weddings and event planning, and I wish I had gone with one of them.