Hotel Halifax

Alex _{on Google}

May 20th, 2023

I booked a birthday party for my 11 year old step son and was extremely disappointed.
First red flag, it was $250 plus tax, but when I checked my credit card statement, I was charged an automatic 18% gratuity- which was not in my contract at all. Im not opposed to tipping, and Im usually a decent tipper, however this should of been added to my contract, especially if I was someone who was budgeting this.
The manager said this is for the staff, and assured me the staff would be at my disposal whenever I needed them, however no one checked up on us or asked how we were doing during the entire party.
Second, the party was advertised as a buffet. In my contract it says buffet. However we were giving 6 hot dogs, and 6 hamburgers for 10 hungry pre-teen boys. If parents wanted to eat, it was an additional 28$ plus HST per person. 28$ for a hotdog?!
When I asked the staff if more food would be coming, or if we had to call it in, they said thats it when I showed them my contract, they said, oh, you just misunderstood the term Buffet.. this is the buffet huh?! ONE hotdog OR one hamburger per kid is a buffet?!?
Also, the food came 40 minutes early. So once we got out of the pool everything was cold and tough.
The party was 1-2 swim- 2-3 food- 3-4 video games. The food came at 120. Im not going to tell 10 kids to get out of the pool to come eat, to go back in?
Lastly, we were giving the game room with 3 Xboxes for our party only. We were told only we would have access to it. After we had cake I found a bunch of other kids there that werent apart of our party I had to awkwardly tell these children to leave so my kids could come play.
We were also told that each Xbox is preloaded with a bunch of games and each Xbox is set up for 2 player also not the case. ONE Xbox is set up for 2 player, and the other 2 are set up for single player only. Most of the games were trial games (not full games) and have expired. Aka unplayable.
Kids left early because they werent having fun.
My step son cried on his birthday and was extremely embarrassed, as he hyped this birthday up for weeks.
Almost $400, for a dry hotdog, and an hour in a pool.
Thanks Hotel Halifax.