DoubleTree by Hilton Utica — Hotel in City of Utica

I was in Utica for a funeral & booked Hilton on American Airlines website (AAdvantage Hotels) when I booked my flight. The hotel is a beautiful, historical landmark, meticulously restored & maintained. We stayed in a spacious & quiet suite on the 3rd floor. Our 1st day (a Saturday) we went to happy hour and received FANTASTIC service from Rachel. The wait staff in general were really attentive and helpful, but they are severely understaffed. Sunday morning when we went to breakfast, there was no waitstaff to seat us & since the restaurant was mostly empty, we couldn't tell if it was open. The one couple already eating told us to fill out paper menus on the unmanned Hostess podium & hand it to the cook in the kitchen. When we stood at the entry of the kitchen & got his attention to hand him our order, he was surprised no waitstaff was on duty. So he became our waiter, served us a hot delicious meal, and he also cleared the tables! ||If I hadn't had a frustrating experience with Jordan (customer service?) I would have given a 4-star rating, because we liked the hotel. However, two days after we checked out, the hotel charged us for breakfast, which we prepaid extra to include. The problem came when I tried to get a copy of my final bill. I had been told by the front desk lady at checkout that it would be emailed, but never received it. |So I called Hilton, and had the misfortune of speaking to Jordan. I asked for an itemized copy of the final hotel bill so I could dispute the charges. He said Hilton couldn't give me a final itemized bill because mine was a 3rd party reservation, and I had to contact AAdvantage Hotels for it. He also offered to transfer me to the hotel restaurant so I could dispute the charges...as if there would be anyone to take my call. ||AAdvantage Hotels then told me to contact Hilton for an itemized bill, because of course why would they know what extras the hotel charged for? In other words, the runaround.|But they did call Hilton to question the extra charges, then told me something I was hearing for the very 1st time: my prepaid breakfast only covered $15 per person/day. We were never told this at Hilton. We specifically asked during check-in how breakfast worked & were told to order from the a la carte menu & it would be deducted from our bill. Never did anyone say there was a $15 pp/day limit.||So the following day, I spoke to Jordan...again, explaining the booking site said Hilton must provide the final bill. After some back & forth (& me asking why it's so hard to get a final receipt of my bill), he said since I prepaid, he couldn't send a copy of the bill with the prepaid charges, but he could send a copy of what Hilton charged during my stay, which he sent immediately. It answered all of my questions. ||He further explained that there are 2 invoices: |1. my prepaid amount to AAdvantage Hotels when I booked the reservation|2. what Hilton charged during my stay for extras ||If he had simply explained this & sent my Hilton receipt when I first called, I would have been a happy customer & this would be the end of the story. ||Instead...adding insult to injury: Jordan fussed at & chastised me that, to avoid this in the future, don't book through a 3rd party. Then he hung up on me. I didn't book thru some rinky-dink website...it was thru American Airlines!||Despite how much we liked this property & most staff being really professional & helpful, I'm not sure I would stay again. Before our stay, another reviewer said they called about something and were told by the man who answered the phone that he was too busy to deal with their complaint, then hung up on the caller. I would bet my last dollar it was Jordan. The staffing shortage most likely factors into his short-temper, so I feel he deserves some grace, but is also in serious need of retraining. I hope Hilton can solve these issues because people read reviews. I chose Hilton because it had the highest rating and it's a beautiful hotel that deserves to be full all the time. While all other staff went above & beyond deserve high praise, there are other beautiful hotels with good staff. All other things being equal, customer service can make or break a business, so I will spend my hard earned...

I planned a wedding a Hotel Utica to occur on August 8th of this year. Our contract was for a minimum of 120 guest. Due to COVID I was concerned that Hotel Utica would not be able to accommodate.

So I contacted Hotel Utica on April 18th in reference to how Hotel Utica was handling their weddings. Rose at Hotel Utica advised that we should consider a back up date as they were unsure of how everything was going to proceed forward with the state. Based on everything other Vendor I had already paid no other dates were going to work for our wedding.

Again I had to reach out to Rose on May 4th to get another update on how they were moving forwards since we had 158 guest invited already and were 3 months way from the wedding with NO information from the venue. Rose advised that the state does not share anything information with them but continued to push that we select a back up date. I made it very clear that we were not rescheduling the wedding and I needed to know how they would refer to for re-opening.

Rose advised that the following "To the best of our knowledge the weddings will be considered Like a restaurant re-opening. The entertainment industry refers to concerts and festivals, etc. As far as we know August 8, 2020, is still a viable date. We are still scheduling events in that same time frame. Based on the news update today we will be opening in June."

Fast forward to 32 days before our wedding, July 6th with not other communication from Hotel Utica; Rose advises again that we should reschedule because "Should you wish to stick with your original date, we are now able to host larger groups, but not up to 150 yet."

At this point I still have 158 guest invited and no information on how many guest can actually come to the wedding. Just that they can not have up to 150 yet. So I spend several days attempting to get a quantity of guest that could attend from the Hotel Utica. Rose responded with "These mandates are publicly available on the NY Forward website".

I should not have to look up how many guest their establishment can hold, but I do based off what makes sense from prior communications that they would considered a restaurant. So they NY website says that they can run at 50% capacity. So I once again reach out to Rose to find out what their capacity is for the Lobby (Ceremony) and Crystal Ball Room (Reception).

Roses responds on July 12th with the following "The guest count restriction applies to businesses and private citizens. Neither of us are allowed to exceed the number specified by the mandate on gatherings. Our capacity does not influence the number allowed at a gathering."

I never heard from Hotel Utica again. I would never recommend the venue to anyone. Which is a shame because this historic building is gorgeous. But the individual that is running the events is so unprofessional. After July 12th I began looking for a different Venue and was still married...

This review is based on my wedding experience at the hotel and venue as a whole. I would recommend this venue to someone based solely on the beauty of the space. My husband and I fell in love with the ornate ceilings, chandeliers and beautiful renovations that were made to the building. However, from the very start, the management team and wedding coordination was definitely below average. There were many miscommunications with the food and beverage manager due to the fact that she is not on site most of the time and she's located out of Rochester. For example, we were told when we toured the ballroom that 225 people were the max capacity. After we had decided to choose the venue, they told us the max capacity was 225 without a dance floor in the room. After choosing the venue, my husband, myself and our parents coordinated a time to do our tasting for our dinner menu and when we arrived at the restaurant the wedding coordinator never showed up and when I texted him he said that he made a mistake and had the wrong weekend! So one of the bartenders Rob was nice enough to work with the kitchen and let us try a few dishes. Once again, this was really poor communication on the management/coordination side of things! We had a decent sized wedding with approximately 180 guests. We decided to do a plated menu as the wedding coordinator had mentioned it would be faster with a wedding our size. When it came to the day of our wedding reception, we planned on having dinner served between 6:30 - 7 PM while toast were being wrapped up. However, dinner did not get served to my husband and I until 7:30-7:45. The final tables did not get served until 8:30 PM. So some of my guests were still finishing their dinner at 9 PM at night! Mind you my reception planned on running until 10 PM. I also don't want to forget to mention that the venue forgot to serve the bride and groom champagne for the toasts! The venue was definitely short staffed as they only had four people serving the food for 180 guests. This huge lag in time for dinner pushed back everything! We still had to do our father/daughter dance, mother/son dance, cake cutting and bouquet/garter. Also, this caused us to have very little time for dancing. The one accommodation they did make was they allowed us to extend the reception an extra hour and a half. Which we really had to fight for! Overall, the venue is a beautiful place to have your reception. However, I had to share my experience with the overall management team, wedding coordinator and service, as there is much room for...