The Portofino Hotel & Marina — Hotel in Redondo Beach

Where do I begin?!! The Portofino Hotel & Marina was INCREDIBLE!!!!!! We used this venue for our Wedding. From day one all the way to today, a few days after the wedding, all the staff we encountered has been excellent!! Specifically I want to give a shout out to Sierra, Rain, Luis, Paco, & Mac. Sierra was my main hotel wedding coordinator and contact. She was so responsive, attentive, organized, sweet, available, and amazing!! I couldn’t be happier with her and her services. The entire experience was seamless. We planned an entire wedding in under 2 months together as I was eager to marry my man this year. She was so helpful and explained any and all things when I had questions. Starting with booking the venue all the way to the day after the wedding. Everything was so organized, including the deadlines of decisions I needed to make, and payment info, and what to do if it rained. She had everything covered. THANK YOU THANK YOU SIERRA!! Rain was also another venue coordinator & catering sales manager who helped us too and he was amazing as well. He stepped in when/if Sierra was out of the office and he attended our tasting and answered so many questions as well. He was so nice, sweet and great to work with. Very organized and never missed a beat! Thank you Rain!! Luis, the director of Banquets, handled anything food and drink related and everything was perfect. He even placed two of each hors d’oeuvres at our sweetheart table (knowing we probably wouldn’t get a chance to eat them during cocktail hour as we were busy mingling) and he was right!! It was such a sweet, simple gesture that made a big impression on us. Paco was one of the Bartenders from the day of (I never got a chance to meet our other bartender) and he was so fun and cheerful and positive and an overall great spirit. Guests kept telling me how much they loved Paco and me too! Mac worked on the hotel side and we met him when we checked in and he handled ALL our luggage and he also golf carted me around on the actual wedding day so I didn’t have to walk too much. He was super sweet and was so helpful and had a great vibe! Also, my initial point of contact was Melanie who responded to my initial venue request. She was so great and helpful and responsive that right away we were sold and we booked the venue the next day without ever even seeing it in person. On top of all the AMAZING staff, the venue is just absolutely beautiful!! You can’t find a prettier ocean front venue in the So Cal. Just gorgeous. We chose a type of all-inclusive wedding package that included a sit down 3-course dinner, open bar, ceremony, hotel room, wedding cake, and many more perks such as white linen, candles on each table, arch on the ceremony grass, champagne toast, etc. It was perfect, efficient, organized and made my life so easy. I really didn’t have to do much except invite guests and show up!! many of my guests told me afterward they were so impressed with the staff, venue and the food!!! Seriously, the food was excellent. I know all of this sounds too good to be true but honestly it was. I had zero problems, no horror stories, nothing. It truly was a PERFECT day. I also found out afterward that a coworker of mine got married here too this past summer and she said the same thing. Her day was perfect as well and I am not surprised at all. Thank you to everyone at the Porotfino! We cant wait to come back just to enjoy the restaurant, the views and the...

Outstanding experience for a wedding weekend at the Portofino Hotel and Marina||My son selected the Portofino Hotel and Marina to have his wedding. Over 90% of our guests traveled from all over the world for the wedding. Therefore, we needed a got percentage of the available rooms at the Portofino Hotel and Marina. Akira Starks was our room coordinator and worked with us for almost a year making sure everything was perfect. Akira was always responsive, communicative and we always felt like we were in great hands. She sent regular updates to the bride’s side of the family and ours and we never had an issue. Akira went above and beyond at all times including adding last minute rooms. The most amazing customer experience from Akira was when we called to ask her a question about where we should store some of the items for the wedding. We were on our way down to LA and I had accidentally entered my reservation dates one day later than we were arriving. Akira jumped into action, found us a room, which was gorgeous and met us at the front desk when we arrived. Akira is truly a gem and her pride she takes in her job and her outstanding work ethic should be commended!||The Portofino Hotel and Marina is a gorgeous property. The rooms are beautifully styled, amenities are extra compared to other properties and it’s situated on a beautiful stretch of beach. We loved the ocean views and spent any spare time on the balcony. We were pleasantly surprised to receive a beautiful bottle of wine after the wedding was over, ||Our wedding weekend was flawless due to the excellent help we received from all of the staff at the Portofino Hotel and Marina. The customer experience was first rate. Mac and Yurali at the Valet who helped us several times a day shuttle wedding items from our car to our room and vica versa. They always went out of their way to help us load and unload and made many trips to our room. We so appreciated their friendliness, attentiveness and great attitude. We had exceptional help from Greg or Craig and Tiimmery at the front desk. From their greeting in the morning to see how everyone was doing, to questions, to welcome back greeting when we returned was so appreciated. Not only did the front desk team take excellent care of our guests they also greeted everyone with a welcome bag which is lots of work! Greg made sure we knew who still did not receive a bag and kept us up to date of the guests who checked in. Again, this was so above and beyond and exceeded all of our expectations. ||We had the opportunity to meet Drew, the general manager, and let him know how happy we are. Drew, I commend you for leading and running such an excellent property...

THIS IS A REVIEW ONLY ABOUT THEIR WEDDING EVENT OFFERINGS

My fiancee reached out to the hotel regarding having our wedding ceremony and reception there. We met with what I presume is their Event Planner person. Some of our family came along, so we could get their opinion as well. The Planner seemed to initially mislead us on the pricing, because all of us recalled her saying the per person price accounted for everything. No mention of separate ceremony and reception room fees (which makes sense to us now). So, when we received a price estimate for a wedding package, it was much higher than the approximate calculations we previously did during our visit. We brushed it off as a misunderstanding on our part.

A few weeks later we met with the Planner again, to try to bring the price down. She mentioned the possibility of doing a day time wedding, which would be about $3000 cheaper. We liked the idea, and provided updated information to the Planner. She calculated an approximate total cost and we liked what we saw. She said she would send us an official updated estimate in email. My fiancee said the Planner said she would send it over the weekend, but she never did. Finally, the following weekend my fiancee emailed the Planner asking for an update, to which the Planner replied that she was going to call my fiancee but realized she didn't have her number. She then asked for my fiancee to email her number to her. We called BS on this, because the Planner had a whole week to do as she said she would, and never emailed my fiancee asking for any additional contact information until she was contacted by my fiancee. My fiancee nevertheless gave her phone number, and the Planner didn't call her that day.

A week or so later, the Planner gets back to my fiancee, informing her that the Director said they won't allow us to do a day time wedding on the day we want (a weekday), because they have businesses at the hotel during the week days. This was not listed on the pamphlet for the wedding package offerings, and the Planner didn't mention such a restriction either.

Needless to say, we decided to not have our wedding at the Portofino Hotel. Their customer service was horrible and they were unprofessional in their lack of effective and timely communication. Such behavior is extremely disappointing, especially since it has to do with such a very important and special day, the planning of which is already stressful enough. Get your act together Portofino People, because you...