We booked this venue for our wedding reception so can write this review from first hand experience of Premier Banqueting in Harrow.
We went to visit the venue, which at the time had just been taken over by new management and was having renovation works done. We were told that by the time of our wedding reception, the works would be completed and the venue would be given a freshen up. This all sounded great.
We communicated with the management - a manager named Saurabh, who was extremely helpful and answered any of our questions before booking the venue.
Leading up to the reception, we visited the venue for mock table set up, food tasting and to see the venue set up for a venue.
On the food tasting, the food was not great, however we were assured that it would be better on the actual day - which in all honesty, it was.
On visiting the venue to view and event, I noted that the floor was very dirty, there was props etc in the smaller/canapé hall and there was unfinished electric work all over the venue, leaving exposed wiring out of the walls.
I spoke to the manager after my visit, and showed the photos, all to which I was assured that this would be sorted in time for our reception.
We decided to do our own centrepieces as we did not want the ones the venue provided, our own table numbers and our own menus too, as the one they were offering was just a A4 paper folded and was not very classy.
On the actual day of the reception and since, we had a lot of issues, hence the two star rating.
We had 500 people at our reception, however although we requested that the venue remove the props from the canapé hall, they did not do so. Our guests complained that the hall was tight due to there being décor from a previous set up still up and a false wall mid way through the hall.
It also took my father to have to go into the kitchen himself and complain that the canapés had run out, for them to make and bring out more.
We ordered our cake from a very reputable company and paid a substantial amount for it. On arriving I spoke to the cake vendor who spoke to the venue manager and explained that three tiers were real and the two bottom tiers were to be served to guests. The final tier was for us to take home.
We later found out that this was explicitly mentioned to the venue manager as during a reception the previous week, NO cake was served at all.
When the cake was served to our guests, only ONE bottom tier was served, with the other tier sat on a table by the dancefloor. We were told that staff were extremely rude to any guest, including close family, who asked for cake and stated that there was no cake left - which most definitely was not the case. This left us with a real tier which would cater for 250 people, to take home.
We were also told by numerous guests that desserts were not served to their table at all. This is very embarrassing for us as we ensured that there was ample amounts and types of desserts for our guests.
The worst part of the whole issue has been since our reception, we have contacted the management on numerous occasions to give us an explanation as to what happened. The venue manager has shifted the blame to other vendors etc and not taken responsibility for his mistake - although telling me on the day personally that he would "lose his job" if we complained.
We have also been in touch with the owners of the venue, who seem to ignore our emails and cannot even give us a simple apology and admit fault - A simple "sorry" would suffice.
Previously, I would have recommended this venue, however due to the way my partner and I have been ignored, I would not recommend this venue to anyone. There is no essence of customer service or fault admission even though these are things which happened on what should be the most memorable day of our lives.
I hope anyone who is thinking of booking this venue reads this prior to booking, or thinking about booking, this venue. read more
