Surf Hotel

the surf hotel was footing my bill apparently

Here’s your text with profanity and harsh phrasing removed, while keeping the critical tone and detail intact: --- While the Surf Hotel offers a setting and venue unlike any other in the state of Colorado, they make you feel like you are the ones footing the \65k bill. I'd like to make it clear this in no way reflects the great job our event coordinator, Melissa, did. She was fantastic — but there are arbitrary rules that she has to follow, which became red tape for us as guests and clients of the hotel. As some background, all of our guests were not local and they stayed at the Surf for 2–4 nights, in addition to spending money at their restaurant. Here are a few of the issues we had: * Our package came with a choice of 2 craft cocktails to add to their sign above the bar. Everything else was open bar. I wanted to add a "Tanqueray and tonic" to honor my dad. Melissa informed us that, because it was a third drink, even though part of our open bar, they couldn't add it to the sign above the bar, or they would charge us an additional \10 per person. * No bridal suite, or place for either of us to get ready without seeing each other. As a solution, they offered to sell us another room for the night for \200. This made us feel nickel and dimed, given how much we were spending in addition to all of our guests. Out of \65k, an extra \200 felt unnecessary. * Disco ball rental costs an additional \500. Now we are in pricing strategies. Add \700 to our total package cost, and we wouldn’t have been upset at the \200 bridal suite room and \500 disco ball rental. * Help installing ceiling installations for the florist was \100/hr. * Would not accommodate any sense of overflow when we were anticipating an extra 10 people, even though they have a private dining room in the restaurant. Instead, the solution was to rent out the entire building. * Would not store our cake for 1 night (baker was leaving town and needed to drop the cake off on the Friday before). * Told us they require us to get enough cake for every single guest because they did not want our guests getting upset with their staff. * Most concerning: we had 10 people for our rehearsal dinner, which we wanted to keep casual at their restaurant. Our wedding was in the shoulder season (Nov.). When I asked if they could prepare a table for 10 in their dining room at 5 pm, they said they don't take reservations, but we could check in with the host once it opens at 5 pm. At this point, my husband (who never gets angry) threw up his hands in frustration at the lack of hospitality. Coming from the restaurant industry, we were shocked. * Whoever designed the rooms should reconsider functionality. In many of the rooms there is nowhere for guests to hang dresses or suits, or put clothes in general. Bathroom counters have no space to place make-up/toiletries. Cleaning services do not pick up anything or move items around to wipe surfaces down. In the Chateau, there is no ice machine so you have to travel over to the main building and go up some flights to get ice. Overall, we regretted going with the Surf because of how stressful it was to plan and how transactional it felt. Our next wedding (Ha) will take place at the Sonnenalp — where we are treated like guests and clients.