Wedding nightmare

We got married at the Royal Hotel in Riebeek Kasteel in October this year. Something that should have been an exciting and memorable experince leading up to and post wedding ended up being infuriating and very stressful. From the word go I was either ignored via e-mail, or given immense amounts of attitude from the staff and owner.

As the paying client a hotel that claims to be a 5 star establishment should have given us 5 star service, but we did not receive that at all!

At one point I broke down in tears because the staff at the hotel would not respond to my e-mails and after asking why they did not reply they sent an e-mail dripping with sarcasm. It cost my fiancé to stop what he was busy with at work to phone them. When he asked what the problem was the reply came, no no problem!

After giving them a detailed list of responsibilities, order of events and a detailed seating plan my wedding co-ordinator told me post wedding that they did not have anything ready. There weren't enough tables, chairs or table clothes and during the wedding they ran out of glasses, brandy and shooters. Drinks were served in incorrect glasses and the service of the staff was very slow. My one family member who paid for a round of drinks the evening before the wedding waited so long for her bill and once she received it and wrote the tip amount gave the cash, never received her change.

My co-ordinator was constantly having to run the hotel as the "management" was not taking control.

Two chefs walked out before my wedding, which left me with no head chef. The food I must commend was brilliant though, and my guests enjoyed that.

The morning after the wedding upon checking out we received an additional bill which was rediculous. We were charged corckage for ALL alcohol brought onto the premises wheather opened or Unopened, and an additional 10% service fee was charged on top of the corckage!? This was apparently their policy which I have not seen in any package or correspondence from them.

When we received our final bill before the wedding, additional service fees were charged which we never knew about and was never part of their wedding package info pack.

So in short, bad attitude, bad service, over charging at astronomical rates, that is what you must expect when you go to the Royal Hotel in Riebeek Kasteel.

I had a lovely wedding day, because I was blissfully unaware of the utter chaos behind the scenes being kept from me by my friends and wedding co-ordinator.

The list goes on, and I can continue for quite some time, but I'm sure I have more than made my point.

So sad, because it's such a beautiful hotel.