Milano Event Center — Attraction in Sugar Land

I rarely write reviews, but I feel compelled to share my experience with people prior to anyone else booking this venue. As summarized below, I found there to be a lack of emphasis on the customer experience, poor and infrequent communication, and an overall lack of professionalism. As any event approaches, there is typically frequent communication between yourself and your vendors, and it is normal to call back with questions or confirm amounts etc. Milano was unresponsive to emails and even by phone. Further, their representatives would give conflicting information or even take my details down but not call back. Due to their own internal coordination issues, I received incorrect information throughout the process. At one point, someone told me “I think we double booked your venue the night of your event, but we will call back to clarify”. No one ever called back, they glossed over this and acted like it was no big deal. A few times, I asked for the amount that was still outstanding and Milano communicated an incorrect amount (more on this below). Before the wedding, Milano emailed me a credit card authorization form for an additional hour of venue use. I filled this out and sent it back well in advance of the event. On my wedding day, they again emailed me the form twice asking me to fill it out. I emailed them back letting them know that it had already been submitted. I understand if a form needs to be filled out again because I made an error, but this wasn’t the case. It was just another instance of poor organization and coordination on their part. I can only say that they should rethink how they manage the forms as the wedding week is stressful enough. Maybe it would be better to preemptively fill this form out when you sign your contract. Milano will make you attend a layout meeting 60 days before your event. I find this practice redundant as we ended up changing everything later. This is problematic as Milano has issues with internal coordination and not paying attention to emails. The event coordinator was literally nowhere to be seen on the day of, you will need to hire your own wedding coordinator so don’t rely on them for this service. Not only was the lighting not in line with the plan, but their cleaning crew left a broom in the middle of the stage. They also did not turn the lights on the patio, which was a big part of the reason I chose this venue. Finally, after the wedding, they told me to come and pick up my deposit check (which is difficult due to my work schedule and distance to the venue, however I made it there). The check was 1,000 dollars less than the amount they were supposed to return. They said they would mail a new check but eventually called me and told me that they undercharged me. I told them to deduct it from the security deposit and mail the revised check, which I had to push them to do. The manager called me to discuss the amount discrepancy and I finally had a chance to share how badly this event went. I was able to overlook most of my frustrations until the wedding day, at which point, there was no way to overlook them. I pointed out the miscommunication, unanswered emails, patio lights, broom, etc. They replied saying it was other vendor’s fault, which I can’t understand. I asked them if they would consider a discount and they proceeded to say I was "pointing fingers" and "it’s too late, they cannot do anything, and I should have told them earlier". Earlier when? When I am on the stage on my wedding day? Brittany was extremely defensive and beyond a standard “we hope you let us make it up to you” showed nothing concrete to prove that they indeed wanted to make it up. I found Milano to be extremely unprofessional, unwilling to acknowledge mistakes, nonchalant, and only interested in doing the bare minimum for my event. I am expecting a standardized response from them below this, but the truth is they have already told me that they are not interested in making anything up. Anything they say will be to boost their reviews and save face. I really wish I had...

If you're looking for a nice, organized place to have your event at with amazing customer service this in not the place. DO NOT I REPEAT DO NOT BOOK WITH MILANO! Imagine thinking you found the perfect place to marry the love of your life only to find the place you paid damn near in full a year before your wedding day was the total opposite of perfect. Imagine your event planner and wedding party, including the parents of the bride and groom (YES THE PARENTS ALSO) having to move tables, put together the detachable seats that goes on the chairs (SOME CUSHIONS WERE WET) and trying to get stuff done that was promised to be done by the staff of Milano that wasn't done. Imagine all of that being done while being completely dressed (ladies hair and makeup done). Imagine trying to make sure the bride and groom doesn't get stressed because neglect and lies that was told by the representatives of this place. Different stories everytime. Imagine having everything perfectly planned that day and going accordingly as expected only to find out that sreval balls were dropped now everything is off schedule (pictures pushed back, guest waiting to get in etc) while the unprofessional staff walked around looking lost and talking under their breath to one another and watched the wedding party do their job. What you're imaging was our reality 2/4/23 @Milano's. I'm the mother of the groom and I was one of the people fully dressed and helping do what needed to be done to ensure my son and daughter in law's special day wasn't ruined. Below are just a couple of pictures of the groomsmen working together putting chairs together to save the day. One star is too much for them but unfortunately that's the lowest I can go. I will never refer anyone to this place. I hope this is read by every person considering booking with them in the future . Save yourself the stress, headaches and possibly heartache and DO NOT BOOK WITH...

UNPROFESSIONAL & LIARS & THIEFS

We booked a party there, signed a contract, and paid in full!!! Only to be called three hours before our party by the coordinator CLAUDIA to inform us that one of the two rooms agreed upon and that was set for us in our colors as we our map is no longer available and that they chained and locked it up on us. Both CLAUDIA and FAY the coordinators lied the morning of the event saying that room "for sure available for us for the dinner buffet" They were so unprofessional and rude. CLAUDIA was yelling on the phone and said "no I never said that, I won't be loosing my job over you guys" And then said she wanted to set up our food next to the restrooms!!!! 🤢 (also a fire hazard due to space and amount of people) CLAUDIA asked for $1000 to unlock that room. It wasn't until we spoke to her boss GULZAR and had a conference call of "who said what" that we were able to get it unlocked. After we mentioned legal actions.

It's an out dated hall where the AC didn't even work properly, bathrooms didn't even have toilet paper and staff were not at all trained well to handle guests or guests issues. Avoid the hall at ALL costs they suck big time!

UPDATE!!! Just when we thought it couldn't get worse... It's been over a month since we held our party here and after numerous amounts of phone calls, texts and voice mails we have still NOT received our damaged deposit of over $2000!!! Despite having it in writing that they will send the check in 10-15 business days. Now GULZAR will not even return our committee members calls!!! We are a non profit and this really hurts us. We spoke to CLAUDIA finally today and she said "I have no idea what you are talking about, there is no deposit check here for you" and really didn't even care or show any concern. CHEATS, LIARS and UNPROFESSIONAL!!!! We WILL be taking...