Best Western Grand Victorian Inn — Hotel in Sayre

Summary: Double-booked the ballroom for our wedding vow renewal and reception :’(

My husband and I booked the ballroom of the hotel in October 2022 to have a vow renewal and wedding reception after our small March 2020 Covid wedding.

We booked the ballroom for Saturday, October 15, and were told we could arrive for our final appointment on the day before (Friday) at 3pm, then come back later to begin our decorating and setup.

On October 10, the Monday before our event, the event coordinator (Tracy) let us know that another event was happening in the ballroom the afternoon of our setup day, but since the ballroom has a room divider, we could begin decorating one half of the room while they finished up in the other.

So we willingly adapted. We arrived on Friday “setup day” at 5pm as we agreed upon Monday, but the other event ran long to the point that we were unable to access the ballroom to begin decorating until after 6pm. When we were able to begin, we were told by Tracy to not have more than 5 people in the room hanging decorations at a time as to not disturb the social dinner event happening in the other part of the ballroom.

Instead of being able to focus on directing the decoration setup, I had to half-focus my attention on receiving and diverting our family and wedding party AWAY from the ballroom as they kindly showed up to say hi and help us with setup. I was scolded repeatedly for us being too loud and having more than 5 people in our current half of the ballroom. We were doing the best we could.

I believe it was around 8pm before we had access to the other half (and the full) ballroom.

At one point, Tracy asked me when I thought we’d be done decorating. I was frazzled and unsure because our whole schedule had been totally uprooted! To which she replied “well, I can’t have my staff here all night.”

We hurriedly finished decorating by about 9pm. My husband and I had plans to have our “bachelor” and “bachelorette” parties that evening—time to spend with our wedding party family and friends who we missed at our Covid wedding and hadn’t seen in a long time—but these plans were cut short (and in some aspects, ruined) due to the double-booking. I know the night before the wedding event is not when bachelor(ette) parties typically are, but what if we had plans for a rehearsal dinner, as is typically done the evening before the wedding? Neither of those plans would have been possible because of the schedule change and double-booking of the ballroom.

Overall, we strongly recommend not booking your wedding and/or reception events here for your peace of mind. We...

I'm not a complainer, so that I am here says something. I do hope they figure out the staff issue, as it is convenient and has a decent breakfast bar with a great pool area. However, the dining room person last Sunday must have had a bad day. She began by selectively checking whether dogs were PTSD dogs and throwing them out of the breakfast area. Mine was one, which I simply asked what the qualifications were to be a PTSD dog and was told to "look it up." I returned to the cafeteria to get a waffle for my daughter and found the waffle batter dispenser was missing the plain side and the blueberry side did not work. There was no staff to be found. I took a look at the issue and was able to pour a cup out of the top of the blueberry container, thus helping calm my 3 yro who was consistently asking if she was getting a waffle. Suddenly, the cafeteria attendant showed up to tell me that I was not allowed to touch any of the devices. I just replied it was not working on the bottom, so I just.... She cut me off, "You know you can't touch the machines here. I can have you kicked out of my dining room." I felt like I had not stepped out of bounds, so remarked by saying, "Hey why don't you worrry about whether that dog over there has PTSD?" Well that did not go over well as it then took about 10 minutes of a barrage of threats, she wanted my room key (as I guess there are non guests who dine there), it must have been bad when she figured out this was the third time I have stayed there in as many months. She did this all while other children where there. In the midst of the threats to call the cops, she did manage to kick out the other person's dog as well. I have not been treated this rudely at a fast food establishment, and here I am the repeated guest of this hotel. The manager did little to address the issue beyond blaming it on being able to find good help. I currently have to visit the area and will provide an update on whether other hotels in the area are able to find someone who does not yell at, nor threaten to call the police on their guests who were trying to get some breakfast for their three year old daughter. I'm not sure that the manager even cared that the person he hired treated paying guests like pure garbage. That is unacceptable in the service...

On paper Best Western has it all: a large gym, a jacuzzi with pool, clean rooms, polite staff, and breakfast included with the stay, however there were plenty of improvements that could be made. Thank goodness I got a room with two beds because I had to swipe the 3 pillows from the 2nd bed to use as buffers between me and the hard mattress. There's firm, and then there was this. The sheets are paper thin also; I'm just glad you can adjust the thermostat in the room or I might have taken the blanket off the 2nd bed also just to get warm. The gym was confusing. When you first walk down to the basement it seems like there are a few ellipticals/treadmills and a cluttered weight room with tattered ropes and worn pullies for the resistance machines. It's actually a long corridor of rooms with different types of equipment. The variety is great, but the upkeep is severely lacking. No demudifier, no fans, no air purifiers. It's dusty, and the humidity is working to rust a lot of the machines. People with asthma beware. The jacuzzi and pool room is directly at the top of the stairs above the gym and in the back corridor of the building. The jacuzzi is warm and there's plenty of room to spread out. The cons- I'm not sure when the last time someone cleaned the pool was, but there was a wad of hair that kept floating around. Secondly, the jacuzzi finish on the seats probably hasn't been resealed properly in ages. It chips with every bump, step, touch, anything. So not only hair that I was swatting away, concrete flakes also. 15 minutes was good enough before i absolutely had to get out. Lastly, breakfast. The usual powdered egg selection and frozen sausages were there, along with Yoplait yogurt, mini muffins, coffee and juices. There were some decent selections of waffle toppings like shaved almonds, caramelized apple, cinnamon sugar, etc. What probably ruined my breakfast was whatever they were trying to pass off as Cranberry juice and orange juice. It didn't taste like anything I've ever had and nothing like it was supposed to. Honestly, it was insulting; cheap. The only drink I trusted was the Swiss hot chocolate packet; easily identifiable brand with an expected taste. Would I stop here again? I'm usually a Hilton person, so I may try somewhere else if I'm in...