voco Saranac Lake NY - Waterfront by IHG — Hotel in Town of North Elba

Poorly run wedding venue. We had our wedding in the summer this year, and as much as it was an amazing day, it was entirely due to the people we chose to share it with, and not the venue, which turned out to be a nightmare. I’m struggling to think of where to start.

I’ll start with bullet points for those with little time, and explain in further detail below:

Rude and very disorganised staff.

Promised a lot ahead of time and many promises were not kept.

Senior Sales Manager who was meant to be running the day, left at the beginning.

Cold food, food different than our tasting months before. Also waiters came out and asked our guests what they had ordered. Even though we supplied this information on multiple occasions. They even tried to get my order during the best man speech.

Incorrectly charged with our instalment plan on multiple occasions, much more than was agreed, and no genuine effort to rectify.

Complete avoidance from the management after we had left, even though we were promised they’d make up for their shortcomings. Took months to resolve. This is including the financial issues and being overcharged, which only got resolved by us having to involve our credit card company.

Details:

We had gift bags to hand out, not uncommon for a wedding. We were told by the senior sales manager that reception would take care of it. On the day reception were clearly frustrated by this and we’re openly rude to our guests. They even handed out gift bags from what seemed like a completely separate wedding to our guests. Simple organisation and communication between staff members would have prevented this happening.

We were told by the senior sales manager that the ceremony area would be arranged the night before, if not first thing in the morning, so our family members sorting flowers could set up. They started setting up at 1pm, so the flowers had to be rushed.

The senior sales manager told us she’d be around all day to run things, yet left instantly after the ceremony. Leaving the DJ to run things and inform us of set backs.

Food was a big issue. Even though we had already given all the information regarding food choices in advance, waiters still came out to ask what people had chosen. I was even disturbed during the best man speech to ask what I had chosen. We paid extra for lobster bisque, which ended up being cold so no one ate it. The rest of the food was below satisfactory. Also frustratingly the food didn’t match our tasting - what’s the point of a tasting if the food will be different on the day?

We admittedly noticed red flags early on when we were charged incorrectly with one of the instalments (much more than agreed). This happened again when we were charged again the wrong amount (much more than agreed) literally on the day of the wedding, without warning. This also in the end didn’t get resolved so we had to defer to our credit card company to resolve.

Avoidance is a common theme with this venue. As soon as you’re out of the door, they’re very difficult to get hold of. We were promised our room would be comped as compensation the next day. We spoke to the customer service rep who seemed to listen, and was very apologetic. Yet it took over a month to get this money back. We were avoided by this rep, to the point where she literally answered the phone in one instance, put us on hold, then a reception staff took us off hold and told us she wasn’t in that day. A shameless lie and they clearly didn’t even care that we knew it.

These were the most important points I wanted to make, but there were countless other issues.

I would say the venue looks great as it’s just on the lake, so if you were running things yourself you may be fine, but the venue is run so poorly I would...

Here I am, to rewrite my experience after they got me and my wife take our reviews down offering a free weekend, “to make it right”. We accepted, and I was willing to pay an extra day to spend a long weekend for our annual ski trip. Our date of travel didn't match with their tentative to make it right (we go every year for the winter carnival), but of course, I agreed to travel the weekend after.

Once our revisions were off the web, they disappeared. I was waiting for confirmation of travel and package, but nothing came in.

Here below is my experience at the hotel. I warmly recommend everyone intentioned to experience the Adirondacks not to pick this hotel! Especially on the weekends.

breakfast at the boathouse; my eggs benedict arrived boiled, changed with freshly poached, but came back without hollandaise sauce; tired to ask something I did eat them as they were. boat rent; we booked first thing in the morning (Saturday at 9:00 am) a pontoon boat; they gave us open time and boat selection telling us we were the very first that day, we picked 12:45 pm and the blue boat. When we arrived at 12:35, the boat was not available because some guys had arrived before us and just taken it; they were boarding at that moment. They didn't have the keys for the second boat, so they told us to wait until 1:30 pm, but not sure, could be more! They gave us the option to get a fishing boat, we refused. we arrived at the parking spot around 8:35 pm on Saturday and waited until 8:50 to find a free site because they were all taken by wedding guests, I asked the reception explanations, and they told me to go to park further away and then come down at 10:00 pm when the wedding would have been ended. we then went for a drink at the boathouse; at 8:56, it was already with locked access doors because they close at 9:00 pm... We asked the front desk to get in just for a drink; at least 20 people were still inside, they told us to go to town. we asked the cleaning service in the room, they told us okay, but because of lack of staff due to covid the service never happened, I had to go after a maid at the floor hallway to beg some fresh towels, some coffee, toilet paper and paper cups.

We usually stay at the Saranac Hotel, and we will go back there.

Again, don't go here; you deserve better. It's your happiness they...

If you are a person who doesn’t care about the value of money, or a person who doesn’t understand the difference between a good service and an extremely questionable one, if you are a person who deliberately accepts to be lied to with fake advertising or a person who accepts exactly what is served no matter the quality of it, if you’re a person who wants to pretend that just because you are spending a good bag of money(probably at least half of a hotel’s employee salary for only 3 nights) is going to receive a good accommodation too, come stay at this “hotel”. What an experience. I will never come back to this place again. This “hotel” together with the whole rusty area was by far the worst choice for spending time and money. If I knew more from those reviews that I have read before our arrival there… The pretty little things like a single robe for the 3 of us(for a double queen room), a single tiny bottle of shampoo+conditioner, the incredibly “ quiet “and “serene” street-parking view (they were out of rooms with a view), the smell of chlorine that could catch your nostrils through your Halo mask and the closed door at the same time. Room service?? That’s not a thing either. Restaurant? That’s a joke. Valet? That’s just an option for hotels not for “hotels”. Bell-hop? Haha That’s a good one. You’ll have the chance to prove yourself that next to the $500 that you pay for 1 single night(plus taxes) you can actually do more. Not them, but you. Because they trust you,they believe in you. They believe that you are so gullible that you will do anything, for this incredible experience that you planned ahead especially after all this time when(because of the pandemic) you responsibly chose to stay at home. The only almost insignificant (in this horrible situation) but pertinent point goes to the cleanness of the room and for a few succinct smiling faces at the reception. Besides this ZERO is my uncountable review. As I said before I will never go back there again. Nor choosing the hotel or any other one in that specific area. It is an overrated place. Whoever chooses this area twice as a vacation destination probably doesn’t have too many places to compare them with. NEVER...