Altoona Grand Hotel — Hotel in Allegheny Township

DO NOT USE THIS HOTEL!!!!

We had our wedding at the hotel. The entire planning process was a nightmare. Maura, the sales manager, who was to be my point of contact for planning took forever to respond to any emails I would send and any time I tried to call her she was never there to answer.

We had a meeting the week before the wedding where her and the banquet manager,Kara , who I never heard mention of until that week, told me and my husband that we would be able to set up the ballroom and cocktail lounge area the night before. Two days before the wedding they told me that there was a party booked in there the night before our wedding and we wouldn't be able to set up. When I got mad and said that's not what I was told, the banquet manager said that that party had been booked for months. They can't manage their calendar enough to mention that to me the week before when we had our walk through? Maura, spoke to me once all weekend and she was supposed to be my point of contact. I saw her sitting at the bar more often than I saw her actually working.

When we arrived to the hotel to set up the entire staff was rude and not one single person greeted us or introduced themselves to us. Kouri, the manager responsible for booking our rooms eventually came to us and upgraded our room for Friday night to a suite. The suite didn't have a shower curtain and every single front desk person was new and didn't know how to do anything. Our Saturday night honeymoon suite was dusty and dirty and the shower was falling apart. There was water damage, the air conditioning didn't work and there were bugs in the bathrooms!

We paid for an open bar at our wedding. Our guests were left waiting because the bartender was never there and when she was there she was very rude and unpleasant. We paid for an over priced bottle of fire ball for our dollar shots dance, and they tried to keep half of the shots back behind the bar. I had to go and take them from her or else I don't know what she would have done with them.

We had planned a Sunday brunch for after our wedding to do gift opening with our close family. The linens on the tables were the same dirty linens from the night before, and the staff acted like they had no clue we were coming. It took over an hour for someone to even take our order and at least another hour for it to come out. We didn't have spoons in our silverware wraps and half of our drinks were forgotten. I couldn't even eat my crepes when they came out, partly because they were dry and inedible, and partly because by then I was so disgusted with this hotel that I lost my appetite.

When I asked to speak to the hotel manager, Lindsay, she came out and turned out to be someone who was wandering around the hotel all weekend. She never once introduced herself to us, even though I had been on the phone with her days before we came to the hotel, and she knew we were upset to begin with. When I told her about all of the problems we had, she disagreed with me and told me I was wrong. They think that they did nothing wrong. And actually said "Well what do you expect me to do about it?" We paid a lot of money (thousands) to have our wedding at this hotel and it most certainly was not worth the price we paid. She was supposed to call me today to discuss our final bill, and instead sent me a generic pre-typed email and thinks that comping the $250 room rental is adequate enough to make up for the horrible service her and her staff gave us all weekend. We will never return to this hotel and hope that no one else falls...

Our entire trip could have been a fluke but we won't be going back. The lobby and indoor courtyard with a fountain was beautiful. The pool was bigger than the average hotel pool and a decent temperature. The Grouses Nest had great food. The front desk agents were great. However, the pool area is HUGE. It's too big to heat so when you get out of the water it's FREEZING. Everyone got sick after the first night. No towels either. My husband and I checked in on a Thursday for a night to ourselves. We were going to get our kids for the next two nights. We booked a jacuzzi room for the two of us, then the Governers Suite foe the family. We walked I to the jacuzzi room and it was gross. The ceiling rusted from water damage with a huge crack near the wall. The jets in the jacuzzi were broken, as in physically. If we had rubbed up against one we would have known. The jacuzzi was full of hair. Clearly wasn't cleaned. We pulled the comforter back and the fitted sheet was sunken down into the bed and wrinkled. Clearly slept in and not changed. Added bonus, huge long black hair and public hair all through the bed. So someone FAKE CLEANED the room. Just fluffed the top cover and called it a day. That's disgusting. We went to the front desk and showed them pictures. They upgraded us to the honeymoon suite with no extra charge. That room was decent. Again, hair all through the jacuzzi. So we went to Target and got cleaning supplies and cleaned it ourselves. The bed was rock hard. Horrible sleep. We checked into the Governers Suite the next day. It's an old hotel and I guess I just had a different picture in my head of what to expect. It's sssssoooooooo old and outdated and there is just no way to feel clean in this hotel. Everything is chipped, peeling, and falling apart. The Governers Suit has two huge windows which I thought would be great. NOPE. They look out into the courtyard. The courtyard had an event the two days we were there. So we had to keep the blackout curtains closed. The one time I opened them, a caterer was right there and just stared at me. So it was like staying in a dusty old dark cave the whole time. The TVs only work when they want to. The hot water in both rooms only worked when it wanted to for a shower. Tiny showers. No water pressure. There is ONE elevator in the middle of a mile long hotel. The distance to walk to your room is ridiculous. They also don't have a lifeguard AT ALL. I do understand most hotels don't but this pool goes to 7 feet deep and there is a room to rent for pool parties. Parents these days DO NOT watch their own kids!!!!! I spent three hours in the pool ONLY becuase there was a 6 year old boy in there will NNNOOOO supervision. He couldn't swim, had no floaty, abd was wearing fleece pajama pants that were so heavy he couldn't keep himself up. I caught him in the deep end too many times to count. I turned my back for TWO MINUTES and he was sinking to the bottom. I've never moved so fast in my life to get to him. Still....no parent in sight. Someone walked through and yelled for him 2 or 3 hours later and he left. They need a lifeguard if there is a pool party. Anyway, the hotel is OLD and run down. The front desk staff and restaurant are great. The breakfast was disgusting. Just go eat somewhere else for breakfast. The place is just too big and too old for them to keep up with it. It would cost them a fortune...

We stayed for 2 nights and the staff was nice but not knowledgeable. We asked where we could eat that was a non chain with good food. They said the bowling alley! We were expecting nice dining not bowling alley food. We passed ||The room looked clean as we quickly dropped off luggage before eating. We got back and I looked at the hair dryer by the sink and it looked like someone blew their nose on it (as pictured). Very gross! We also noticed no toilet paper roller! Both issues were taken care of the next day immediately when we told the front desk.||Our room was not made up or cleaned nor towels replaced. We did get more towels from the front desk. The remote was low on battery power which they gave us new batteries. We do not expect them to know when batteries are low but the front desk took care of it immediately. My point is when the front desk knows about a problem they address it immediately. Very good!||Run as fast as you can from this Continental Breakfast. When we got there the exterminator was looking for cockroaches or mice as they were looking through the buffet and under the tables. He got to the side door and announced to staff and all guests sitting there as one was sitting by the door and now is out but was unsure where the rest were. ||The "buffet " is awful coffee, not cold orange juice and water for beverages! The "donuts" looked old and Dollar Tree specials bought by the bag. Hard boiled eggs that were sitting out. A toaster that burned toast and 3 cereals with milk sitting out and warm. On day 2 no slices of bread was to be found as all drawers were filled with English muffins. 1 yogurt left and hard boiled egg looked like leftover from the day before and still warm. They need to step up this Breakfast. ||The place was an old Sheraton that has seen better days in its past. There is an industrial Glade plug in smell when you enter the lobby. The entrance to the hotel is hard to find at night as you enter by the Outback restaurant parking lot.||I did not check for bed bugs as I didn't want to know based on the snot on the hair dryer. The rooms are pretty sound proofed. The location is near the freeway and located near many chain restaurants and shopping. ||Not an awful place but there is a lot of room for improvement. The place could be a gem if fully polished. Don't expect to use the hot tub as that has been closed/needing maintenance for months....if not years possibly. The place looked better than some others...