My wife and I had our wedding here back in August. From the moment we booked our experience was plagued with issues. It started with very poor communication. We booked in September/October 22 and we were told that even though the hotel is closed for the winter, we would still have someone to communicate with via email during these months. This was a lie. We waited months to get responses to the most basic of questions and this had a major impact on our planning. In April, we arranged to visit the hotel for a menu tasting, when we mentioned that my wife’s parents would be joining us, they told us that there would be a massive charge involved for bringing additional people. We were shocked at this because every other hotel we’d spoken to said that it was common and almost standard that couples bring up to 4 to a tasting with no additional charge. They eventually agreed to not charge this, but only after several emails and calls from us. Back to communication. There were countless errors made by Jumeriah management in the lead up, but one that really stuck out was their apparent complete disregard for the safety of our guests. Very early on we told them that we had one guest with a severe nut allergy, and there were to be absolutely no nuts, nut traces, nut oils etc, in any dish, as this could be potentially life threatening for this guest. On two separate occasions they came back to us with menu alterations that contained nuts. The second of which was the most shocking as literally the first dish had pine nuts listed as one of the main ingredients. This left us in complete disbelief, a supposed 5 star kitchen in a 5 star hotel was not taking the safety of this guest seriously at all. This brings us to the weekend of the wedding. We arrived the day before the wedding as we had a welcome party planned in the port that evening. From the moment we attempted to check in, there was utter chaos. At the check in desk, we were sat with a lovely receptionist, but she seemed very inexperienced. We sat with her for around 25 minutes as she fumbled around trying to find our booking. We were not only quite shocked that they didn’t have the bride and grooms booking ready to go, but during this time we weren’t even offered a simple welcome drink or similar. It’s as if they didn’t even know we were coming. When they eventually found the booking we were brought to a room and we unpacked. Because of the issues we had checking in, I decided to go back to reception to double check that the other rooms I booked were all ready (I booked 3 additional rooms for my groomsmen). To my disbelief, they had no record of the bookings, even though I had confirmation emails. This led to a scramble for the staff to find 3 additional rooms. Eventually they came up with a plan to move my wife and I in the lighthouse suite, so that one of the groomsmen could take our old room. This involved us having to completely repack and move room when we were already stressed and running behind schedule. And to add to the stress, it took the staff nearly 2 hours to bring our luggage to the new room. We later found out that some small items were never brought to the new room, most of which were never located and returned to us. The management would later use this “room upgrade” as a way of glossing over our long list of complains, saying it was appropriate compensation, even though it was their way of patching their mistakes and it was something that we never asked for in the first place. We eventually made it to our welcome party, late, completely exhausted and stressed due to all the running around that had occurred that afternoon. Now the wedding day. Our ceremony was on the terrace, but originally we had planned to have an arrival drink for the guests in the ballroom so they would not have to wait around in near 40 degree heat for over an hour. At some point, the staff changed this plan. They brought our guests including children and elderly, directly to the terrace upon arrival, where they baked for nearly 2 hours total in the heat of the early afternoon. By the time my wife and I appeared for the ceremony, the guests were visibly uncomfortable. Later on in the evening, after dinner, everyone moved into the ballroom where we had a DJ. The staff were supposed to cut the wedding cake and serve it to people at this point, but this never happened. Many guests mentioned that they saw the wedding cake being wheeled out of the room, whole, never to be seen again. We later found out that the cake was disposed of. This was an expensive cake that had been meticulously picked out, being thrown away, untouched. We had also booked the “midnight snack”, which is essentially trays of food that would be served to the guests at the very end of the night. We booked this for the vast majority of guests as we knew some were leaving early, but what was served was around 3-4 small trays of food, for around 70 people. One member of the bridal party peered into the kitchen at the time and saw staff gathered around the remaining trays, eating the food that we payed for and which was not even served to the guest in the first place. The above represents only a tiny portion of the problems that occurred during our time here. Many of our family members and guests had their own issues with the hotel that are not listed here. The hotel management have since been incredibly blasé about our complaints and keep hiding behind the “room upgrade” saying it is appropriate compensation. Again this was something that we had never asked for and it was their way of covering one of their many mistakes. To sum up, if you’re thinking about having your wedding here, don’t. There are plenty of other nicer, more affordable venues on the island who will actually appreciate the business and take your special day seriously.…