Jacqueline G.
Yelp
I have very mixed feelings about the Westin after hosting my wedding dinner there and using them for all of our guest's lodging in early August 2015. We didn't actually have our nuptials here. We got married in the next door Halifax VIA railway, which is just a hallway away. Since the VIA rail doesn't have a kitchen or a hotel, we decided to book the Westin for lodging (about 80 guests) and our wedding dinner.
The lodging aspect was great! I stayed in a suite with my bridesmaids and then groom and it was spacious, connected to a HUGE outdoor patio, and had a full bathroom and a half bath which was really exceptional. Since there were more than the typical 2 guests in the room, we did require extra bath towels, etc which guest services provided without hesitation. Interestingly, there was a pull out couch in the room with no blankets and when we called guest services the first night to request a blanket they told us the hotel did not have extra. Two of my bridesmaids thus spent the night freezing, sleeping with the hotel robes and multiple layers of clothes. The next night we tried guest services again and they brought a comforter right up. Why?
We also had issues with the parking. Part of our group rate was supposed to include complementary parking for all wedding guests. They doled this advantage out very intermittently and many of our guests ended up paying for parking even though we were promised that they would not.
I have nothing negative to say about the front desk staff or the bell boys. They were all lovely to interact with and helped us more than was required.
Finally, the wedding dinner portion. We got paired with the wedding coordinator for the Westin named Jackie Collins. Her service/planning/etc was very mediocre. We had multiple miscommunications with her that could have easily been avoided, except she was very disorganized. We even had more than one instance where we had written "proof" of something she had earlier told us, but then she changed her mind and did not uphold her end of the bargain despite the fact that we had her previous promise in writing (via email). And she never apologizes.
To her credit, she runs a busy service (there were 3 weddings the night of ours). However, seeing as this is her only job and she does it frequently, she really should be better at it. She even complained to my hubby and I when she came to check on us in the middle of our appetizers that she was stressed out and busy because of all the weddings. Call me bridezilla, but I didn't really care about her busyness.
The food was very mediocre. My husband's uncle found a plastic bottle cap in his seafood chowder and the desserts were served cold which was not very tasty. Additionally, we were promised a tasting as part of our contract with the Westin, but she later told us she could not accommodate this. The service of the food was very nicely done and the servers were all excellent.
The set up staff was also very good and we ended up getting extra time to set up the room the night before due to their efficiency. This was a very nice surprise and made a big difference in our stress level on the day of.