HOTEL DU PONT — Hotel in Wilmington

My wife Alycia and I had an Indian/Chinese/Western wedding on a Saturday at the Hotel du Pont. It was the perfect wedding venue for us and here’s why:

1. Location: The hotel is located in downtown Wilmington, DE. A very corporate town, which ends up empty on weekends. But that means there’s plenty of free/inexpensive parking nearby for guests. A beautiful field is right next to it, ideal for photos. The space was perfect for a large Indian groom’s procession around the block with people dancing in the streets behind my car.

2. Value: First, the hotel is absolutely beautiful, with authentic décor. The total price we paid was more than fair, especially compared to similar venues in Philadelphia and New Jersey. More generally, it also really helped to have a hotel as a venue, particularly since we had many family and friends from abroad who wanted to easily interact with themselves and with us on the night before the wedding and the morning after. When we were finished dancing on your special day, it was a relief to just take the elevator up to our room. Another advantage was the bundled catering from excellently trained chefs, which also saved money compared to other venues in the area. Having an in-house chef allowed for excellent timing in terms of food preparation and serving. I don’t think a single guest had a wait a long time to get food. Which brings us to the:

3. Food: The sheer number of options spanning diverse cuisine is dizzying. I really appreciated the ability to work with the executive chef to incorporate custom home recipes for Indian dishes native to the northeastern state of Assam (which you don’t find represented in Indian restaurants in the US). The dishes ended up quite tasty and pretty authentic! The house wines were also surprisingly good. The appetizers and dessert spreads were my favorite! Rest assured, guests will fondly remember the food at the Hotel du Pont.

4. Excellent Service: The staff maintained the utmost professionalism when interacting with my guests and family. The front desk was always courteous and happy to help. Whenever I visited to tour the different rooms we planned to use, staff were more than happy to show me around. And of course, the final and most IMPORTANT reason for selecting this hotel was for one person, and one person only:

5. Martha Barnes (Markie), catering sales manager and in-house day-of coordinator. She organized and managed the logistical nightmare that was our tri-cultural wedding, and she did it with poise. She handled our incessant emails asking for details regarding the planning process. She deftly answers the litany of questions hurled at her from multiple excited family members during our final meeting prior to the wedding. When we needed to make immediate adjustments to the schedule on the wedding day, Markie facilitated the changes immediately and without fuss. She ushered all of our guests into each of the rooms so that each of our events started on time. She was always present and always reachable. Despite how busy she was, she always served as a source of comfort with her warm and calm demeanor. My wife and I are so incredibly thankful to have worked with Markie. We will not be surprised in the least if she continues her meteoric rise to upper management sooner rather than later.

6. The only frustrating aspect of working with the hotel was that they recently switched computer systems, and as a result, our wedding reservation did not show up on the computer when friends/family tried calling in to make hotel reservations using our group rate. However, they promptly rectified the situation when I brought it to the attention of management. Hopefully, the issue is resolved by now. And in all seriousness, the advantages of using this hotel as a venue far, far outweighed the disadvantages. I have no regrets!

*Summary: The Hotel du Pont is a fantastic wedding venue that truly works with you to create your custom wedding. Martha Barnes, the catering sales manager, is their...

Great Place but I will never stay there again even if they did finally apologize. How cruel can you be? One day you might end up just as these individuals and praying for a warm place to say for just one nite.

Homeless people will be staying at the Hotel du Pont after all.

The hotel's cancellation of a reservation for a group of homeless people to stay there Christmas night, which became public Thursday, sparked outrage and outreach from another hotel's management.

Where Wilmington's most prominent lodging refused a $639 reservation for one room for one night, the general manager of a Stanton-area hotel is responding by offering 10 of them – free – for Thursday night.

And Thursday evening, Lisa Bolten, director of DuPont Hospitality, apologized for the misunderstanding and said the homeless people now have been invited to stay there this weekend – without charge.

The Christmas night plan began with Newark-area residents Deb Bennett and her husband Matthew Scott Senge, who are co-founders of the gospel-focused Road to Redemption Ministries in Wilmington.

They wanted to do something special for Christmas for one particular group of homeless people in Wilmington, Bennett.

"I used to be one of them," she said, adding she lived with them under a city bridge for quite awhile after her house burned down in 2012. Initially, she thought of booking them rooms at the Fairview Inn on South Market Street just south of the city. But her husband suggested they splurge on the Hotel du Pont in Wilmington, where he explained their plan and reserved a room at the nightly rate of $639.

The couple then visited the homeless people – including a family member of Bennett's – and told them about the hotel room, she said.

"They were blown away," she said. "One woman, she cried."

But as the couple began to assemble gift baskets and food for the intended guests, a Hotel du Pont representative called Senge three hours before check-in and canceled the reservation.

The benefactors – who say the Hotel du Pont should be ashamed – say the man said, "What if one of these people rapes or robs one of our guests?"

They were shocked, Bennett said, adding she pressed the caller to explain just what he meant by "those people," but he had no answer.

"People who have their nice cars and 8-to-5 jobs and houses to go home to, they don't understand," Bennett said. "They don't realize that, at any given moment, they could become one of 'those people.' I know, because I did."

Du Pont representative Brendan McEvoy told The News Journal the reservation was declined under standard hospitality operating practice of requiring photo identification at check-in. He said Senge had told management, when making the reservation, that the homeless people they intended to house at the hotel did not have IDs.

McEvoy said he doesn't know if the hotel representative said what Senge and Bennett claim he did, but said the lack of IDs was conveyed to them as the reason for the refusal.

"Our primary concern is for the safety of all of our guests," he said.

If they do have ID – as Senge said Thursday they do – "they would be welcome," McEvoy said.

Meanwhile, what McEvoy said was "a misunderstanding," prompted a strong reaction at the Hilton Wilmington Christiana off Churchmans Road near Stanton.

General Manager Brad A. Wenger was distressed to learn about the Hotel du Pont's refusal, calling it "a very disturbing scar on the hospitality community."

He decided to offer 10 rooms at the hotel Thursday night for homeless people – free.

Wenger was in contact Thursday afternoon with Code Purple shelter coordinators to make the arrangements, including an offer to pick up the guests with a hotel van.

Bennett called his offer...

My experience at Hotel Du Pont was abysmal to say the least. While the architecture and design of the hotel is quite elaborate, the same cannot be said for the atrocious service received. I booked a block of hotel rooms for my wedding in September about a year in advance. We dropped off gift bags individually labeled for each guest as the bags contained specific directions for them. The representative we dropped the bags off to was visibly frustrated with it but did not say anything. We learned the next day that the hotel was not giving out bags to specific guests as requested, causing much confusion. When I called them to discuss the representative said they would fix it. But, they continued to just hand out bags without looking at names. When the mother of the bride called again to discuss, they once again said they would fix it. But still, they did not, as evidenced by the fact that we witnessed no more than 10 minutes after that call the Hotel Du Pont representative telling a guest “they are all the same:. It’s not the fact that they handed out gift bags to the wrong individuals, it’s the fact that they blatantly lied to our family multiple times and did nothing to mention the issues it may cause when we dropped off the bags. This was only the beginning of our troubles.

I also stayed at the hotel the night before my wedding and was to be moved to the honeymoon suite the next night. I called multiple times to the front desk and they assured me they would move my bags for me and have a room card ready. Alas, when I came back to the hotel after my wedding, it took 20 minutes to “find” my reservation, even though everything should have been arranged. My new wife and I had to stand at the front desk, in our full wedding attire, while the woman behind the counter struggled to even figure out how to check us in, something you’d think she’d know how to do since that’s a large portion of her job. Again, another example of the lies and deceit by the hotel.

As I stated before, the rooms were elaborate but absolutely needed updating. In both rooms I stayed in the showers did not drain. And in the honeymoon suite the bathtub’s drain stopper did not work and the sink leaked. For a 5 star hotel this shows the lack of attention to detail in what should be one of their finer rooms.

When I talked to family and friends, they all noted similar issues with staff. Multiple guests were charged the full room rate and not the agreed upon block rate causing more confusion. Also, some guests were charged for valet parking even though the block included complimentary valet. But I think more guests would have been better on their own as it took some 20-30 minutes to receive their cars.

We arranged to have my mother pick up the best man’s suit rental from behind the front desk. She picked it up, only to realize when she was over 30 minutes away that she received someone else’s suit. She requested the suit by name but they couldn’t manage that. Then they told the owner of the mystery suit that his suit had been requested by name and picked up. It’s worth it to note that the best man at my wedding and the mystery suit owner do not have even remotely the same name so there’s no excuse.

The lack of attention to detail, atrocious customer service, and lies by the Hotel’s Representatives were experienced not only by myself but also by multiple guests. While this hotel is historic, it is nowhere close to the value...