Estancia Villa María — Hotel in Carlos Spegazzini

We recently booked Estancia Villa María for our wedding, expecting a luxury experience that matched the venue’s reputation and cost. Unfortunately, what we received fell far below expectations due to poor communication, mismanagement, and a lack of attention to detail.

It is a shame, this review needs to be written, the Estancia is undeniably beautiful and many of the staff providing the services did the best they could but it's clear as a smaller wedding we were given less consideration from management.

From the beginning communication was slow and unclear, leaving us with unanswered questions leading up to our big day. On some instances the communication from Paz the general manager was simply rude, highlighting the "small" nature of our wedding. Laughing at our enquiry about providing our own DJ, and disrespectfully saying "no your cousin can't just turn up and play". After the ceremony Paz initially reached out apologising and promising the mistakes would be investigated and that we would hear back soon. This was the Monday, on the Friday I had to follow up. My final email was ignored entirely.

On the day itself, mistakes piled up, turning what should have been a stress-free and joyful event into a frustrating experience.

Key issues included:

A general lack of coordination: The event team failed to manage service flow, leading to delays, confusion, and disruptions throughout the evening.

The start time provided to us by the wedding planner was 5:30 PM, this was printed on the itinerary and confirmed by email yet by 6:00 PM, drinks had still not been served to guests, who were waiting in extreme heat (34°C). The groom had to go locate the bar tenders who had not been informed this was the start time.

Our guests, including children, were initially told to stand during the ceremony to avoid bringing out more chairs, until the bride insisted, and later, many had to sit on the ground while waiting to be let into the reception, this was due to my wife being incorrectly told to prepare for the first dance immediately after the ceremony and before the meal. This meant she spent only 40 minutes in her wedding dress and our guest were encouraged to dance for 15 minutes before attempting to be seated.

My largest frustration is that no table or name placements: I (the groom) had to manually place guests himself, which is completely unacceptable for a premium venue.

Bride’s arrival mishandled: The horse carriage was unavailable, forcing the bride to walk across the field to the ceremony in her wedding dress and heels. I understand that horses may not respond well to the heat, my frustration is that it was later implied the delays were our fault.

Our wedding planner was absent during the wedding, instead of attending, she sent an assistant who was clearly unprepared and struggled to manage the event. This reinforced a clear bias towards the larger weddings taking place on the days either side of ours. We haven't been able to shake the feeling that, because our wedding was smaller, it wasn’t given the same level of care and attention.

Despite raising these concerns directly with the venue, their response has been dismissive and unwilling to take real accountability. Instead of offering a meaningful resolution, they only provided a "gesture" that did not reflect the severity of the issues we experienced.

A wedding is a once-in-a-lifetime event, and Estancia Villa María failed to deliver on the trust and investment we placed in them. We left not with a sense of magic and joy, but with frustration, disappointment, and regret and we have unfortunately had to begin the process of escalating our complaint to the governing bodies and prepare to...

For the sake of quick reading, I’ve bulletpointed the main reasons for my poor review: ||- Poor greeting - no help with cases to our rooms and the main entrance was shut on arrival |- Shabby to the point of dangerous. We’re from the UK, we know what faded grandeur is and this is not it! Missing curtains, chipped porcelain, light switches and sockets coming away from wall and loo flush button kept falling out. Both baths we’re just very grubby. |-Staff seems confused about service and what good looks like. |- Front Desk operated between 9am and 6pm. No one is on site overnight, which is health and safety issue. What if a gust is unwell? Or there is a fire in a room? |- We were told we could ride horses the next day on arrival (we saw a group riding them and were told the hours available) No horses were there in the morning and when we asked, we were told it was not possible and could only travel round the grounds in the cart. The cart was dusty and uncomfortable. This was by far the biggest disappointment as the main reason we chose to stay here was to rise a horse! |- No tour of the grounds on arrival or building so we were never sure where we were allowed to go |- The estancia markets itself on their website as being near airport but the staff made it appears as though it was impossible to get a taxi to collect us out of hours to take us to the airport for a flight. They did not offer confidence and it took them hours to sort out with no guarantee |- Food - not great quality and no choice of what to eat. |- Pool was dirty and towels were threadbear||All of my comments are based on what this establishment charges per night. This place needs investment in maintenance and staff training to warrant what they charge. The only positive was that the bed was comfortable. ||It’s not often I am baffled but I don’t understand how this place has so many good reviews. Perhaps we were just unlucky but I wish we’d chosen to stay elsewhere. We were...

For the sake of quick reading, I’ve bulletpointed the main reasons for my poor review: ||- Poor greeting - no help with cases to our rooms and the main entrance was shut on arrival |- Shabby to the point of dangerous. We’re from the UK, we know what faded grandeur is and this is not it! Missing curtains, chipped porcelain, light switches and sockets coming away from wall and loo flush button kept falling out. Both baths we’re just very grubby. |-Staff seems confused about service and what good looks like. |- Front Desk operated between 9am and 6pm. No one is on site overnight, which is health and safety issue. What if a gust is unwell? Or there is a fire in a room? |- We were told we could ride horses the next day on arrival (we saw a group riding them and were told the hours available) No horses were there in the morning and when we asked, we were told it was not possible and could only travel round the grounds in the cart. The cart was dusty and uncomfortable. This was by far the biggest disappointment as the main reason we chose to stay here was to rise a horse! |- No tour of the grounds on arrival or building so we were never sure where we were allowed to go |- The estancia markets itself on their website as being near airport but the staff made it appears as though it was impossible to get a taxi to collect us out of hours to take us to the airport for a flight. They did not offer confidence and it took them hours to sort out with no guarantee |- Food - not great quality and no choice of what to eat. |- Pool was dirty and towels were threadbear||All of my comments are based on what this establishment charges per night. This place needs investment in maintenance and staff training to warrant what they charge. The only positive was that the bed was comfortable. ||It’s not often I am baffled but I don’t understand how this place has so many good reviews. Perhaps we were just unlucky but I wish we’d chosen to stay elsewhere. We were...