4 years 11 months ago
We were looking at venues for my sister's wedding in Goa for the 31st Jan - 1st Feb,2020. My sister and her fiance live in the US and thus it was my parents and I that were given the responsibility to plan their wedding. We first hired our wedding planner, Devanshi from Shreem Events. Our requirement was 150 rooms for a guest list of 300-350 people. We were in talks with a couple of hotels along with Grand Hyatt and before we decided to visit the resort in Goa, we held a meeting with Ms. Vishakha at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Mumbai. She gave us a brief on what the resort is like and gave us a tentative package cost for the rooms and food for the two days that we were looking at. My parents and I along with our planner and my sister's in-laws took a trip to Goa only to visit the Grand Hyatt property since we were very impressed with the pictures. And rightly so, the property was gorgeous and it the venues of the property seemed perfect for the kind of events we were deciding to hold. There was a Mr. Utsav and Ms. Beverley for the Events Team that took us around the property. So impressed we were with the property that we returned the next day to have lunch so that we could get an idea of what the food is like. And again we were impressed. We returned back to Mumbai quite sure of Grand Hyatt to be the location for my sister's wedding. Meanwhile my sister informed us that a couple of her's and her fiance's friends might have an issue travelling to India for the wedding since their visas might be in process for the H1B visa and they will not be able to confirm until July - August. Immediately upon our arrival we set up another meeting with Vishakha to discuss all of our requirements and that we would confirm 130 rooms out of the 150 and that the remaining 20 rooms we would be able to confirm by July - August. At that time there was no problem voiced by Vishakha for the same and she went ahead and took down all of our requirements and promised to get back to us about various requirements along with the final price. Mind you - the price quoted was way over the budget that we had planned, however we had loved the property so much that we decided to push our budget by almost 30%. We did not hear from Vishakha for almost a week after our previous meeting. She kept delaying the meeting and we finally met yesterday 24th April, and she was accompanied by Mr. Utsav who we had met in Goa and a Ms. Rita. We sat and took up all the points that were last discussed and replied by them via email. We sat and discussed for nearly 3 hours after which Ms. Vishakha mentions that we have to give them a guarantee of 150 rooms since it was "hotel policy". Something that was never mentioned to us in any of the meetings that we have had earlier. We were shocked and bewildered at this statement. We had gone to this meeting with an agenda to lock it, we were infact carrying a cheque to write in the name of Grand Hyatt in order to block the venue and to our utter shock, this is the statement that was made to us. We couldn't believe what we had just heard and we just got up to which the three of them said that would ask their management and get back to us in the evening. We were so disappointed by this sort of behaviour from a "5 star luxury hotel" but were still hopeful that we would hear back from them. In the evening, our planner get's an email from Ms. Vishakha stating the below , "Dear Devanshi, With reference to our telecom, I sincerely regret informing you that, we are unable to offer availability, owing to confirmed event during the requested dates from 30th Janauary to 2nd February, 2020. Kindly advise if any alternative date options may be considered from your end. Should you require any further assistance, please feel free to get in touch with me. Kind Regards VISHAKHA TRIVEDI Sales Manager Grand Hyatt Goa Sales and Marketing Office, Grand Hyatt Plaza – F8 Level 1, Off Western Express Highway, Santacruz East, Mumbai 400 055, India" We were tipped off by a reliable source that there is no"hotel policy" of a minimum guarantee of 150 rooms. They had another inquiry of 220 rooms for the same dates and thus they were trying ways and means to say no to us. We have never felt more disappointed. It is a wedding we are talking about. We left conversations with other hotels because we were so set on Grand Hyatt, Goa and now those hotels have already gotten bookings for the same dates. Grand Hyatt, this was the most unprofessional behaviour I have seen.