Courtyard by Marriott Omaha Bellevue at Beardmore Event Center — Hotel in Bellevue

I met with Sam in Nov 2016 on three occasions before I decided to book my wedding & reception at the Beardmore Event Center. Flash forward to my food tasting (about 2 months before the wedding) this summer I discovered Sam was no longer my coordinator & I had a new woman named Emmiline. Right from the start Emmiline was hard to get a hold of via email or phone calls. She couldn’t answer any questions I had & had no knowledge of any of the things I had discussed with Sam. When we received the bill about two weeks out & there was an additional $3k on our invoice! I tried that week to reach out to her & management with no resolution so I sent an email on 9/29 to Marriott’s customer care center about the issues. I received a response from their center on 10/28(two weeks after the wedding). My husband had to go down to the venue in person prior to the wedding to demand a meeting in which he received $1k taken off the bill. So, an extra $2k was our responsibility to come up with.

Week Before- we discover setup for the wedding couldn’t take place until 10am the day of the wedding (6pm that evening). Up until that point we were told we could setup during the day of Oct 12th (the day before). I lost confidence that the staff would be prepared to setup so I gathered family & friends to discuss a backup plan and it was a good thing I did! I also discovered many other things promised were not being upheld.

Thursday Oct 12th- we were scheduled to have our rehearsal at 6:30pm. Emmiline was supposed to be there to direct the rehearsal & despite emails as well as my husband confirming with her, she was not there. The front desk stated she went home for the day. They called her personal cell, but she never showed up. During this time, I talked with the venue’s staff to discover that despite sending 3 emails detailing the vendors we had coming there were not spots for them on the floor plan. So, we had to direct the staff to ensure the spots were setup correctly.

Friday October 13th (ceremony at 6pm & Reception at 6:30ish): We arrive at 10am for hair/makeup at the hotel. My personal “setup” crew went about setting up in the ballroom. They ensured everything was in place. As mentioned before the staff was easily directed by my “setup crew” & ensured requests were done right away. Emmiline was not seen by anyone until around 6:45pm, well after the ceremony. In our meeting prior she stated she would be with the bridal party from before the ceremony on to the start of the first dance to help us stay on course. This did not happen. When she was seen she couldn’t answer any questions at all. She mostly looked lost & clueless as to what to do. She hid behind staff members & it wasn’t long after being discovered that she disappeared again & was never seen again, which was before everyone even finished eating.

After the Wedding- We tried to address these issues with the management of the hotel & my mother finally got a chance to meet in person with the General Manager on Oct 24th (11 days after the wedding). She spoke with him for 45 minutes and at the end he stated he would issue a refund, but didn’t have a number to give us at the time. During this meeting he also stated that Emmiline is not a “Wedding Planner” however I would like to point out that her email signature states she is a “Certified Wedding Planner” and the promotional documents we received prior to booking also stated their staff is “certified” to plan weddings. Today is Oct 29th & he still hasn’t reached back out to us & has not returned phone calls.

On Oct 28th I finally received a response to the email I sent on Sept 29th about the invoicing issue. There is a member of Customer Care working the case as there are NO NOTES about any of these communications & no mention of a refund!!!

So, we are now a month exactly since all the complaints have been filed & two weeks AFTER my wedding and still no resolution! Hence why I am now breaking my silence as I will not stand for one more bride to have to deal with this place! I will be heard & I will...

We had our room confirmed from Friday to Sunday. During this time we were without fresh towels, the garbage was not emptied, and the Kuerig coffee pods were not provided. We emptied our trash bags in the bigger garbage cans located in the hall way and contacted the front desk for towels and coffee. A breakfast buffet was provided for $11.00 per plate. It consisted of scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, sausage links and patties. Coffee and a some orange juice was provided too. Needless to say, it was not worth the money. The food provided in the buffet was not provided through the time alloted for the buffet and some attendees ended up going elsewhere due to no food being available. The signboard stated lunch of a sandwich was also available yet the Bistro was closed at that time. We were attending a formal function. Taking place both on Friday and Saturday. We were charged different prices by the bartenders at the different bars both nights. Our bar costs were in excess of $140.00 during our stay. Waitresses were offering jello shots both evenings for $3.00. There were at least four servers each night offering trays of shots. The overlap of staff offering jello shots was intrusive to the point conversations were being interrupted. Extremely rude. Supper was part of the venue. It was a buffet line with salad, vegetables and two meats. We waited in line for the lettuce for the salad, mashed potatoes, the pork and the chicken from the menu. We waited for approximately 10 minutes, in line, for the food to be refilled. Once supper was concluded, we were to have a dance. The opening of the doors for the dance were 25 minute's delayed. Although the DJ, provided by our group, was set up and ready - our group was waiting for those 25 minutes in the exterior hallway. Once our group, consisting of 368 attendees, were in the ballroom, the temperature was not regulated. Being in formal wear, it was uncomfortably warm. We were informed that doors were going to be opened to help with air flow. Not one door was opened. To accommodate the smokers in our group, the patio closest to the ballroom was to be available. It was not. The smoking area was reserved to the front of the hotel . Not only an eye sore for the hotel, but the walk from the ballroom to the front of the hotel was lengthy. Our group provided clean up after each night of festivities - saving the staff the hassle. I would not recommend this hotel for any large group function. The upper level management was not on site for the weekend leaving junior staff members without knowledge as to how to handle a large crowd. The basic housekeeping tasks were not fulfilled. For the cost of our rooms we would hope to have coffee, towels, and empty trash...

We spent a week here in June & loved it. It was during the covid thing so there was no breakfast, no restaurant, no lounge, and limited pool access and they were charging the same rate...I would have thought the rate would be knocked down a bit seeing most of what they offered was closed. But it was a nice place, friendly staff, clean, and quiet. We did enjoy the pool but you had to sign up for hour time slots because of covid...but that was better than closing it down completely. The whirlpool was broken. When we first got there our room was pretty warm and the AC was not cooling it down ...so I called the desk and I guess he had to hit something to make it work in our room...high tech stuff. From that point it worked and almost got too cold but if you turned the temp to 72 the heat would turn on so it was either be cold or turn heat on...no happy medium. Our other issue was figuring out how to get the fridge cold. There wasn't a knob like most fridges to make it colder or warmer. There was a button to make it cold but that was only meant to stay on for 2 hours. We just got that once and a while and it kept our drinks pretty cold. They have free WiFi but if you want better Wi-Fi for streaming movies or something you have to pay for better Wi-Fi. We watched movies on Netflix but every time the lips would become out of sync with the voices because we didn't pay extra for better Wi-Fi. Lastly no one told us at check in that because of covid you had to ask for housekeeping. The first day we got back to the room no one had been there to make beds or empty garbage or bring towels...and when I asked it's because you have to request it. So I said tomorrow can they at least take our garbage and bring towels? They said no problem and that's what they did. So the next day I said the same thing to the guy at the desk. He said they can't do that and I would need to come down and get my own towels. But the next day when I asked for housekeeping to make our beds and the whole bit they did. Overall we did like our stay and would probably stay here again because it was a nice location and most of the staff was friendly. It was a little high but for a Marriott it wasn't too bad. The issues we had were minor and we had a nice time. I would...