Tag: accommodations

The Right Hotel for Your Wedding Guests

Many of your wedding guests will come a long way to celebrate your wedding, or the wedding you are planning. It is important to choose just the right hotel. In my previous article, we focused on the pros and cons of an historic hotel. This article will give you additional guidelines on choosing just the right hotel.

hotels, accommodations, registration, reservations, customer service, safety, food prep, Health Inspection Report, kitchen, rooms, Estes Park.
Toasting the Bride & Groom  – The Right Hotel – Courtesy of Laura Grace Photography
Cost
hotels, accommodations, registration, reservations, customer service, safety, food prep, Health Inspection Report, kitchen, rooms, Estes Park.
Army Medical

If your ceremony or reception is being held in a hotel, your first point of contact would be the event/wedding planner for the hotel. This is where you’ll get the group rates. If the bride, groom, or their parents are military or a veteran, ask if they provide a military discount. The hotel may also provide the bridal suite as part of the package. If this hotel is costly, you may want to check the surrounding hotels to provide an alternate hotel.

__ Are the group rates reasonable?
__ Is there a military discount?
__ Is breakfast included?

Reservations

Call the reservations desk and see how responsive they are. If it’s difficult for you to get a response, rest assured your guests will have the same problem. A friend of mine called 5 times to make a reservation at one hotel and left messages each time; no one called back. Although the 6th time was a charm, I would not recommend that hotel.

__ Is the reservation desk responsive?
__ Are they courteous?

Registration Desk
hotels, accommodations, registration, reservations, customer service, safety, food prep, Health Inspection Report, kitchen, rooms, Estes Park.
The Right Hotel

All registration desk personnel are supposed to be trained in customer service and security issues. The key word is “supposed.” It wouldn’t hurt to watch and listen for a while when you check out the hotel.

__ Are they courteous?
__ Do they inappropriately share guest names and room numbers?
__ Do they gossip to each other and other guests?

The Rooms

___ Are they clean?
___ Do the showers/bath tubs have:

safety bars?
Non-stick floors or a mat to put down?
Soap dishes and a place for the shampoo?

___ Is there a place to hang the wedding attire?
___ Are the walls paper thin or are they adequately soundproof?
___ If there are tours, will it affect your guests?

The Food
hotels, accommodations, registration, reservations, customer service, safety, food prep, Health Inspection Report, kitchen, rooms, Estes Park.
Enjoying the Dinner – The Right Hotel – Courtesy of Laura Grace Photography

If the hotel is the place for the reception, definitely check out the food and ask to see the kitchen. Often venues offer tasting opportunities where you can taste the dishes you’d like to serve. Keep in mind, they will be on their p’s and q’s for this, so you may want to just have an unannounced meal at their restaurant. Check out the kitchen and the Health Inspection Report done on their facility.

___ Is the food something you’d like to serve your guests?
___ Is the kitchen clean?
___ Are food prep safety standards met in the kitchen?
___ When was the last Health Inspection Report made? Did they pass?

Some of your most favorite family and friends will share this big day. You want them to be comfortable, safe, and secure with only positive memories to take back.

hotels, accommodations, registration, reservations, customer service, safety, food prep, Health Inspection Report, kitchen, rooms, Estes Park.
It’s Also About the Guests – The Right Hotel – Courtesy of Laura Grace Photography

What additional suggestions can you share?

(C) 2018 Karen Van Den Heuvel Fischer

The Wedding Hotel Accommodations — Historic vs. Contemporary

Don’t forget the wedding hotel accommodations for your guests. Block room discounts are quite helpful! If you’ve chosen an historic venue for the ceremony and/or reception, that doesn’t mean you would necessarily want an historic venue for your hotel accommodations. There are definite pros and cons.

Historic Hotel Accommodations
portrait F.O. Stanley, Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colorado
Portrait of F.O. Stanley
The Stanley Hotel

The main pro for using an historic hotel for your wedding guests’ hotel accommodations is the opportunity to become immersed in the beauty of the hotel’s history. Although I had stayed at the Stanley years before and had an interesting, if not sleep deprived stay (our sleep was regularly interrupted by guests who considered themselves “ghost busters”), the only consideration which prompted me to find an alternate hotel for our guests was the cost. I chose a more contemporary hotel as an alternate hotel very close to the Stanley — The Best Western Plus. Fortunately, it was one of the best decisions I made.

If an historic hotel is top on your list for hotel accommodations, I recommend you use the following checklist — you may want to provide an alternate or choose a contemporary hotel:

Room 217, Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colorado
Room 217 – Stanley Hotel Estes Park, CO
Historic Hotel Checklist

___ How soundproof are the rooms? Can you hear your neighbor’s regular speaking voices? If you can, it might not be the best place for the wedding party. Often the bridal party consists of friends and family who haven’t seen each other in a while and they want to catch up on each other’s lives. If the walls are like paper, you’ll have your neighbors complaining.

___ Check out the rooms carefully. The American with Disabilities Act was not around when the hotel was built. Although accommodations are supposed to meet ADA guidelines, only so much can be done with an historic hotel.

___ If your guests are tall, does the top floor of the hotel have dormers where your guest can crack his or her head?

Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colorado, Room 217, Bear-Clawed Tub
The Stanley Hotel
Room 217 Bear-Clawed Tub

___ Does the bathroom have a shower your guest can easily climb in and out of or is it a bear-clawed tub with a shower wand which may be fine for a younger guest, but could prove very dangerous for an older one?

___ Is there a closet or somewhere safe to hang the bridal gown or bridesmaids dresses?

___ If the shower was remodeled, was it properly finished with a

  • safety bar
  • soap tray
  • ledge for shampoo
  • non-slip floor?
bride, bridesmaids, jewelry, the Stanley, wedding planner, wedding, unique, original, rehearsal dinner, bridesmaids gifts, gifts, Swarovski Crystal, sterling silver, Christmas, bridesmaids dresses
Bride & Groom Courtesy of Laura Grace Photography

___ Will the wedding be held in the winter where it may snow? If it is

  • How safe is the ingress and egress to the hotel?
  • Are stairs the most likely option?
  • In a snowy/icy environment, shoveling may not be adequate and there may not be enough staff to keep the walkways and parking lot safe.

__ Are tours provided? (See last week’s article for other concerns where there are tours.)
__ Will the tours interfere with a restful night sleep for your guests?

This article focused on issues that could arise with with providing accommodations at an historic hotel. The next article will provide additional considerations is selecting just the right hotel regardless of whether it is historic or contemporary. Of course I’ll provide another checklist — I love them!

What were your experiences with an historic hotel?

(C) 2018, Karen Van Den Heuvel