Charged a private room fee, but private room was not available for event?

[Anonymous]

I recently had a group dinner where we had signed a contract to reserve a private room at a restaurant, and was charged a fee to hold the space a couple of months ago. A few days before the event, I was informed that the space was not available due to some incomplete renovations. It was too late to find another venue, and we ended up having the dinner in a space with other diners.

The restaurant is ignoring my questions about the fee. Does this seem unusual that they did not refund it? Would you keep pushing? The dinner was nice but I'm exhausted by how poorly handled the event coordination has been.

[Anonymous]

That is absolutely not okay. I'm usually a fan of letting things go, but you should not even have to ask for a refund in this case. How far up have you escalated?

[Anonymous]

When they called to tell you the room was not available would have been the best time to request a refund of the fee for the unavailable room.

[Anonymous]

I would absolutely get my money back since they didn’t hold up their end of the bargain. Don’t be a push over. Keep pushing them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When they called to tell you the room was not available would have been the best time to request a refund of the fee for the unavailable room.

It's difficult to explain how poorly they communicated this, but basically I had emailed with some questions about what the current wine list was and was trying to get some attention to all the details that needed to be finalized, and the coordinator mentioned offhand in the email various "spaces" that would be available for the dinner - all of which were parts of the main dining areas. It was not acknowledged that they were not holding up their end of the contract.

It seems like an issue with the event person, as the other staff at the restaurant were good to work with. Maybe someone in the industry reads this board and has a reaction as to how weird this is?

[Anonymous]

Was the fee credited toward the food cost? I would take my signed contract and show up in person to meet with the manager.

[Anonymous]

Is this in the DMV? Might be a good question for Sietsema’s weekly WaPo chat.

[Anonymous]

Now is the time to show up in person. Start with the event person and move up to the manager. I wouldn’t leave until I had my money. Bring all your receipts and print out the emails. Don’t ignore this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Now is the time to show up in person. Start with the event person and move up to the manager. I wouldn’t leave until I had my money. Bring all your receipts and print out the emails. Don’t ignore this.

Yes, this.
How much was the holding fee?

[Anonymous]

Deal with it threw your credit card co.

[Anonymous]

Email the event person and put the General Manager of the restaurant on the email and politely explain what you've told us here. Attach what you paid for the private space and ask that it be refunded.

If it's a wider chain restaurant, than move on to their corporate office. If it's not a chain, you'll just have to continue to request this from the GM. They should take care of it. Events people at restaurants are sometimes terrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Deal with it threw your credit card co.

Yes, that's the way to do it.

[Anonymous]

Yeah I'll just go through the CC company. They responded that the private room fee is "nonrefundable" - for the private room that was not provided. It's disappointing because I like the restaurant and was otherwise just going to accept how botched the entire process has been. Avoid the H2 Collective group for events/special occasion dinners.

If anyone has had a good experience at other DC restaurants I'd be interested to know as my husband has a significant birthday coming up. We had a group dinner at the Smith a few years ago and they had a seamless process and event coordinator.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah I'll just go through the CC company. They responded that the private room fee is "nonrefundable" - for the private room that was not provided. It's disappointing because I like the restaurant and was otherwise just going to accept how botched the entire process has been. Avoid the H2 Collective group for events/special occasion dinners.

If anyone has had a good experience at other DC restaurants I'd be interested to know as my husband has a significant birthday coming up. We had a group dinner at the Smith a few years ago and they had a seamless process and event coordinator.

That's terrible! "Nonrefundable" doesn't apply when the restaurant cancels on you, it doesn't supply the thing you paid for!

Definitely take up with CC company.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah I'll just go through the CC company. They responded that the private room fee is "nonrefundable" - for the private room that was not provided. It's disappointing because I like the restaurant and was otherwise just going to accept how botched the entire process has been. Avoid the H2 Collective group for events/special occasion dinners.

If anyone has had a good experience at other DC restaurants I'd be interested to know as my husband has a significant birthday coming up. We had a group dinner at the Smith a few years ago and they had a seamless process and event coordinator.

No, F the credit card thing-how is it non refundable if they didn't provide it? I would be livid!!! Did you speak to the GM, or the owner?