The Wilshire Grand Hotel — Hotel in West Orange

Unprofessional, incompetent, and filthy hotel! Avoid the best you can. I am a very understanding/give the benefit of the doubt type of person. I was more patient with this hotel than I should have been. Wanting to support smaller businesses and having a positive experience with this particular hotel at my brother’s wedding 10+ years ago, I chose them for my guests to stay during my January wedding. It has been nothing but a nightmare. Up until this day, I am still dealing with their incompetence. I booked a hotel block a year and a half prior to my wedding. I paid $500 to host an after party that I still have not been refunded for. In August, I had to track the hotel down to confirm all the needed information and confirm details. I asked Larry to send me direction cards for my invitations. A month went by and I still had no direction cards. I called the front desk requesting them and a week later they arrived. In October, three months before my wedding and after all invitations had been mailed with the direction cards, I tried to book a room using the information on the direction card. I was unable to for whatever reason. I called the front desk repeatedly for hours and no one answered. I emailed Larry and received no response. Giving the benefit of the doubt, I gave it two days and finally decided to call again. The front desk relayed a message from Larry, who would not speak to me directly, and informed me that the website was down and my discount code for guests would be regenerated and should be working that night. 1: why was I never informed of this 2: now all of my guests have the wrong website to access the discounted code! A wedding guest called to book their room the following day. No one at the front desk answered. I, once again, called repeatedly for three straight hours. I then proceeded to call every department until someone answered, finally in the kitchen. She was shocked when I explained no one’s been answering for three hours. She directed me to the front desk, where once again, no one answered. Around 9pm that night, i received a phone call from the front desk stating for the past three hours she was returning phone calls. She asked me if I wanted her to call my guest who was trying to book. I told her absolutely not being it was late at night. She went ahead and called even after me stating no. The final straw was when I was told there were no rooms left in the entire hotel! I was guaranteed 25 rooms, as per my contract with them. When I called I had 22 rooms booked. I spoke with Angela who at first appeared to lack any compassion and/or care in the matter. No one could explain to me where the remaining three rooms on my block were. In addition, in order for myself to get a comp’d bridal suite, I had to book 25 rooms. I didn’t even have the option to do that now. My husband and myself took a day off of work and went to the hotel to deal with this issue and explain we no longer wanted to use this business. The night before, we spoke with the general manager and informed him we would like to meet in person. He stated he would be there. When we arrived, he decided he was going to take the day off. First off, shame on us for not going to see the hotel. It was filthy and a complete embarrassment. The director had on leggings and was every ounce unprofessional. We had to fight tooth and nail to be refunded. Even when I expressed that it was a breach of contract on their behalf, they still refused to refund us. Finally, after explaining that I will be returning with a lawyer, they refunded and canceled everything. A few of my guests were still charged. This hotel is filled with unprofessional staff who have no concept of compassion and how to run and manage a hotel. It’s a shame. Stay away from this hotel. It’s a nightmare and I will be sure to inform many others of the...

Working in a hotel during college, I'm pretty aware of what it takes to put lipstick on a pig and the intricacies of getting people to think that they're staying at a nicer hotel then they actually are. A few pointers that may help the hotel moving forward (particularly considering this was during a weekday stay for a conference and the typical weekend rush was not in effect):

Make sure that wifi works at least in some capacity. Having absolutely no speed in rooms, the event center, or generally any place further than five feet from the lobby is not viable. It really cramps your style to engage in a training that focuses on using cloud-based software in classrooms. Let alone me trying to wreck havoc in red dead redemption 2 remotely.

Update the TV system from a 1980s satellite dish. It's super fun to sit in a conference all day and go to your room to watch every channel skip more than Netflix on a 56k modem. I know what you're thinking maybe they have some kind of service to sign into your streaming services. NEVER FEAR ...... it didn't work. But don't try contacting the front desk since they've apparently never heard of this service in their lives despite it being advertised non-stop on the home tv channel.

Make sure bathrooms are in working order in public places. It was super fun to be greeted by toilets overflowing with fecal matter during our breaks. You don't need to refill paper towels if you can't use the restroom though!

Cover up drywall anchors in rooms and the hallways where paintings used to hang. I'm not sure if this some avant grad approach to decorating that has come up since I left the game (shout out Bestwestern University inn) where I'm supposed to think of what art would go in that place, but the point still seems valid.

Similarly, invest in light fixtures/covering to mask the bare lightbulb in ceiling fixtures. Hear me out it costs a couple dollars, but it at least dampens the humming noise that tends to keep people up.

Move pizza boxes from the hallway to the trash can rather than leaving it in the stairwell for 3+ days (I checked out before the boxes met their final home). Maybe I should have peeped the boxes for some food after the dinner I received consisted of a whole four ravioli from the in-hotel restaurant.

Make sure that doors are heavy enough / mechanically operational to shut behind you so that pulling it with all your might isn't necessary to make sure that any old person can just stroll into your room. Ya know basic safety considerations the Red Roof Inn has figured out.

Train front desk workers to not announce your room publicly when checking in. No need to joke about this point because it was a real concern that was highlighted for me during my training (shout out number 2). Further, teach them to at least fake empathy if you raise a concern. The oh well or slight shrug of the shoulders is not a great way to interact with guests. I was a master of unplugging and plugging in the router to at least make it look like I was concerned / doing something. Shoot I would even WALK TO THE BATHROOM / ROOM to see if I could do anything for the guest.

Invest in another water heater so that you can take a warm shower (even after letting said shower run for 30 mins straight). I'm not asking for a sauna, just that the little drizzle that came out was not ice cold.

Last, I'd like to ask some cyber security firm to launch an investigation as to whether these other reviews, and subsequent trip advisor awards (from 2014-2017 that were prominently displayed everywhere) were generated by bots or paid for by the people that own this establishment. Oh well even if the hotel isn't the best you can walk to Dunkin Donuts or a Burger King because their sure as hell was no inkling of a shuttle available for...

As a current business owner, I understand the value and impact of a customer review. The purpose of this detailed review is to provide the venue with constructive feedback and the opportunity to make adjustments that could greatly improve their customer service.

On Saturday, September 20, I visited this venue for the second time. My sole purpose was to leave a deposit for an event I am planning in early 2026. The day prior, I was informed that the manager I had originally been in contact with was no longer employed there and that I would instead be meeting with his partner.

Upon arrival, I was immediately taken aback by the condition of the entryway. It had rained heavily in the days prior, and it appeared that water had soaked into the carpets, leaving a strong, unpleasant odor of moisture. After greeting me, the manager escorted us to his office and asked us to sit. We waited for some time as he completed work at his desk before joining us at the table.

From the beginning of our conversation, his tone was unprofessional and passive-aggressive. He made multiple comments about how my information had been entered incorrectly in the system, placing full blame on the previous manager. While I initially tried to make light of the situation and emphasized that I was still interested in booking because of how much I liked the space, he continued to criticize the former manager, even sharing inappropriate internal company details about that person’s termination.

The most concerning part of our interaction was when he implied that the original agreement I had made back in April 2025 might not be honored due to “cleaning up” the previous manager’s mistakes. When I expressed that I expected to rebuild trust and discuss the details of my upcoming event, he dismissed my concerns with, “I thought you’re here for a deposit—why is that necessary?” His dismissive and condescending tone made the interaction increasingly uncomfortable.

Ultimately, the manager’s lack of professionalism, his unwillingness to build rapport, and his suggestion to “get over it and leave the deposit” led me to end the meeting. I thanked him for his time and left the venue. My decision not to proceed with this location was based entirely on this interaction—if the initial meeting with management felt this hostile and dismissive, I could only imagine the frustrations that might arise during event planning or on the actual event day.

Thankfully, I was able to secure a much better venue nearby, one that provided a professional, welcoming, and respectful experience.

The purpose of this review is not to disparage the venue but to highlight an avoidable experience. I hope this feedback helps management recognize the importance of professionalism, customer rapport, and respect in ensuring future clients do not encounter the same...