The Westin St. Francis

I finally get a chance to write a review to express my dissatisfaction with Westin St. Francis. Life has been busy, so I didn't get a chance to write this review until now. Every now and then when I recall my experience with picking a wedding venue, I get so upset that I decided I must inform others of this terrible experience I've had with Westin St. Francis. I approached Westin St. Francis in the first week of May 2010 for a wedding in March 2011. Leslie Wong showed us the venue, and both my fiance and I fell in love with the Italian Room (for cocktail hour) and Colonial Ballroom (for ceremony and reception). By mid-May, Leslie and I had agreed on a package price and details with only one uncertainty - start time for our event as there was a corporate event in the Italian Room the afternoon of our wedding. The availability of the Italian Room dictated a 6:30pm start time for our wedding, whereas we wanted the event to start earlier. Leslie said she would work with the other event manager to let us start earlier and meanwhile helped us put a courtesy hold on both rooms for our date. Weeks went by, and after leaving her multiple voice messages and emails, Leslie finally got back to me in early June. She gave some excuses about not finding the other client and said we should just plan for the wedding to start at 6:30pm, and she would continue trying to help us get the room earlier. Even though that was not ideal, we were still planning to go ahead with having our event at the Westin St Francis even if we had to start at 6:30pm. This was communicated with Leslie and I confirmed with her that the rooms were still on hold for us and that we would be ready to sign the contract once the start time was confirmed. Another couple of weeks went by, and by mid-June, Leslie suddenly told me we could not hold our event at the Italian Room. She said the corporate event has been cancelled, and now the hotel wanted to leave the Italian room open for any other potential customers who might use that room for the entire day. I was furious as I thought I was going to be able to use the room that night, but might just need to wait till later to use the room. A hold on the rooms means we should have first priority to use the rooms as agreed unless we decided to cancel the right? I understand the hotel is trying to maximize their business, but shouldn't they consider customer satisfaction too? Leslie came up with a couple of solutions which we weren't too happy with: 1) use a different room (that we did not like) or 2) have the event at a sister property (Palace Hotel) for the same wedding package at the same price. So we checked out the Palace Hotel, and even though we did not like it as much as the Westin St Francis, we felt like that was a better alternative than using a different room. When we were ready to sign a contract with the Palace Hotel, we asked the Palace Hotel to confirm the package price. The event manager there quoted us a price that was about 26% higher than the price that was quoted to us at the Westin. It turns out Leslie had sent the wrong quote to the Palace Hotel event manager and that's why they said they were able to match the package . I understand different hotels have different pricing systems and do not blame Palace Hotel for it, but I was very disappointed that Leslie had made another huge mistake and disappointed us again. After that incident, Leslie did not call me to check up on me. I guess she figured there was not much she could do and decided to hide from me instead. I did not care since even if she offers us the room we wanted, we would not be able to trust her to coordinate our wedding day. I would not want to risk showing up at the hotel on my wedding day and realizing the room I booked was not available! We have found another property that we love, but I just want to share my horrible experience with all of you out there that might be considering this property for your wedding. It's a lovely site and supposedly a reputable company, but I'm extremely unhappy with my experience there and it added on extra stress to what should be a very happy day!

I had my New Year's Eve Wedding at the Westin St. Francis in Victor's and Alexandra's rooms a the top floor of the hotel. I have so many wonderful things to say I dont know where to start! Natasha served as the event coordinator and she was absolutely AMAZING!!! She made our whole event truly magical. She is extremely organized and prompt, she knows her buisness and understands weddings both from a logistics as well as personal, emotional standpoint. She allowed us to incorporate personal aspects of our lives into the reception and gracefully guided us to the rest of the process. She handled evey detail with perfection and remembered every detail of what we told her whether via email, or even just in passing. The thoughful attention to this and to making sure we had fun and no stress on our big day was truly remarkable. She was always present making sure things were done properly and the event ran smooth guests had a great time. The westin itself offered exception service, any need was taken care of promply and the event was flawless. I think what most impressed me was that having our event here was a bit of a stretch for us but they worked to meet our budget. I was worried we'd have to cut alot of corners in order to make it feasible but once we contracted for the event the service and quality of every detail was 5 star all the way. The decor, food, service, promptness, friendliness of staff, was on par with event that could have easily cost 3 or 4x the price. The rooms at the St. Francis are beautiful which helped with flower and decorations....they didnt need much at all. I can't reccomend the St. Francis enough, for service, value, attention to detail and overall beauty of their event spaces! It was the most amazing day of my life and my guests where shocked at the splendor of it when they got off the elevator to our event space! Gorgeous!!

I had a wonderful experience with the St. Francis. We held both our ceremony and reception in Victor's Palace on the 32nd floor. I can't even begin to desribe the amazing views of the City or the outstanding ambiance of the room. It was beyond my wildest dreams for my wedding day and it even rained that morning. I did ding them a bit on responsiveness because I had to deal with 4 different wedding coordinators along the way. But we finally ended up with Neil who was very understanding and went out of his day to ensure we were happy which we were. It is a bit pricey but well worth every penny. All of my guests could not and have not stopped talking about the venue which can make the wedding!

This hotel has some wonderful rooms, and amazing views from the top ballrooms. It also works directly with Kosher caterers, which is a major boon. Unfortunately, when I arrived, ready to change and start taking pictures, our room wasn't available. Our Coordinator, Mr Bacon, did find a room for me to change, but I would love to have received the treatment my husband did - they had the room ready for him with champagne and strawberries!! I can't speak for the rest of the staff, but Mr Bacon was an absolute delight to work with.

This was a good place. I love the hotel itself. The food was alright too.