Tag: hotels

The Right Hotel for Your Wedding Guests

Many of your wedding guests will come a long way to celebrate your wedding, or the wedding you are planning. It is important to choose just the right hotel. In my previous article, we focused on the pros and cons of an historic hotel. This article will give you additional guidelines on choosing just the right hotel.

hotels, accommodations, registration, reservations, customer service, safety, food prep, Health Inspection Report, kitchen, rooms, Estes Park.
Toasting the Bride & Groom  – The Right Hotel – Courtesy of Laura Grace Photography
Cost
hotels, accommodations, registration, reservations, customer service, safety, food prep, Health Inspection Report, kitchen, rooms, Estes Park.
Army Medical

If your ceremony or reception is being held in a hotel, your first point of contact would be the event/wedding planner for the hotel. This is where you’ll get the group rates. If the bride, groom, or their parents are military or a veteran, ask if they provide a military discount. The hotel may also provide the bridal suite as part of the package. If this hotel is costly, you may want to check the surrounding hotels to provide an alternate hotel.

__ Are the group rates reasonable?
__ Is there a military discount?
__ Is breakfast included?

Reservations

Call the reservations desk and see how responsive they are. If it’s difficult for you to get a response, rest assured your guests will have the same problem. A friend of mine called 5 times to make a reservation at one hotel and left messages each time; no one called back. Although the 6th time was a charm, I would not recommend that hotel.

__ Is the reservation desk responsive?
__ Are they courteous?

Registration Desk
hotels, accommodations, registration, reservations, customer service, safety, food prep, Health Inspection Report, kitchen, rooms, Estes Park.
The Right Hotel

All registration desk personnel are supposed to be trained in customer service and security issues. The key word is “supposed.” It wouldn’t hurt to watch and listen for a while when you check out the hotel.

__ Are they courteous?
__ Do they inappropriately share guest names and room numbers?
__ Do they gossip to each other and other guests?

The Rooms

___ Are they clean?
___ Do the showers/bath tubs have:

safety bars?
Non-stick floors or a mat to put down?
Soap dishes and a place for the shampoo?

___ Is there a place to hang the wedding attire?
___ Are the walls paper thin or are they adequately soundproof?
___ If there are tours, will it affect your guests?

The Food
hotels, accommodations, registration, reservations, customer service, safety, food prep, Health Inspection Report, kitchen, rooms, Estes Park.
Enjoying the Dinner – The Right Hotel – Courtesy of Laura Grace Photography

If the hotel is the place for the reception, definitely check out the food and ask to see the kitchen. Often venues offer tasting opportunities where you can taste the dishes you’d like to serve. Keep in mind, they will be on their p’s and q’s for this, so you may want to just have an unannounced meal at their restaurant. Check out the kitchen and the Health Inspection Report done on their facility.

___ Is the food something you’d like to serve your guests?
___ Is the kitchen clean?
___ Are food prep safety standards met in the kitchen?
___ When was the last Health Inspection Report made? Did they pass?

Some of your most favorite family and friends will share this big day. You want them to be comfortable, safe, and secure with only positive memories to take back.

hotels, accommodations, registration, reservations, customer service, safety, food prep, Health Inspection Report, kitchen, rooms, Estes Park.
It’s Also About the Guests – The Right Hotel – Courtesy of Laura Grace Photography

What additional suggestions can you share?

(C) 2018 Karen Van Den Heuvel Fischer

Choosing An Historic Hotel for Your Wedding Venue

Hidden Bloodlines, romantic suspense, Colorado Rockies, Karen Van Den Heuvel
Hidden Bloodlines

There are many reasons to choose an historic hotel for your wedding venue — the history, excitement, ambience, stories… . As a novelist, I love stories and when my daughter chose the Stanley Hotel for her venue, it made my day. After all, the Stanley Hotel inspired the setting for my first novel, Hidden Bloodlines. However, there are certain key factors to take into consideration if you’re leaning toward an historic venue.

 

Tours

Historic hotels are likely to have regular tours, especially if there is a unique feature about their history or if it’s “haunted.” This could be problematic if not dealt with up front. If you’re not a professional wedding planner (like me), you may not think to explore the circumstances surrounding tours. Hopefully, my experiences will put things in perspective and assist you in your decision making process. I knew the Stanley had tours, I went on one myself and thoroughly enjoyed it!

wedding, wedding planner, venue, hotels, historic hotels, tours, haunted hotels, Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Hidden Bloodlines
Ghost Tour
The Reception

When I asked our wedding planner from the Stanley if I could set up for the reception the night before, there was a long pause. She told me that usually tours were scheduled 1 1/2 hours apart, but there was so much interest that they were scheduled every half hour and each one was packed. Since one of their stops was the Music Room, she was afraid our decorations could be taken or damaged. Had I known it was possible to cram in more tours, I would have head that off in the contract or chosen a different venue. As it was, we had issues with an exceptionally rude tour guide and tourists crowding around our reception area.

Check List

If there are regular tours in the historic venue of your choice, the following checklist may prove helpful:

__ Is your reception room part of the tour?
If it is:
__ How often are tours given?
__ If the number of tours are acceptable to you, is the hotel willing to guarantee in writing that they will not be increased during your reception?
__ Get a written guarantee that the place settings (dishes, glasses, utensils, and napkins) will not be open to the public during the tours.
__ Get a written guarantee that you will have access to the reception room the day before the reception, even if it is just to show it to your bridal party in anticipation of the celebration.

wedding, wedding planner, Hidden Bloodlines, wedding budget, Stanley Hotel, Christmas, Christmas wedding, budget, checklist, timeline, organization, organization tips, library, military discount, veterans, savings, cost savings, Our Lady of the Mountains, Estes Park, Colorado, preferred vendor lists, vendors, D.J., Disc Jockey, Sound Junction, Gary Liebowitz
Dancing to the Music – Courtesy of Laura Grace Photography

An historic hotel can provide a very unique and exciting venue as long as you understand how they operate and head off potential issues “at the gate.” We had a phenomenal wedding reception and everyone enjoyed themselves. Had I known what I know now, it would have been even better.

What were your experiences with historic hotels?

(c) 2018, Karen Van Den Heuvel