Eldorado Resort

We loved the rooftop venue for the ceremony. Lots of beautiful spots for photos

The location was wonderful… I will have to say planning our wedding there was not wonderful. The communication was absolutely horrific, we did not get a food voucher as we could not do a food sample for our actual wedding meal, prior to. We requested 4 drink tickets be given to each guest on arrival to our wedding… this was not provided until questions were asked by my father-in- law… these tickets were paid in full by my spouse and I. Once the tickets were given out, most didn’t use them as it was closer to the end of our night.
We did not receive a lot of time to set up the hall (noon day of the wedding, wedding was at 330 the same day).
The communication with the event coordinator for the hotel was lacking. It wasn’t until we sent an abrasive email requesting a call that we received that.
My spouse emailed them a month ago asked for a break down on the final bill and still has not heard anything back.
I will say the following about the hotel
Beautiful location, rooms are mediocre for what you pay.. the one good thing was the food.
When planning a wedding here just be aware of some of the issues we had. I truly hope this problem is rectified before others have their special day at this venue/hotel.

We had an incredible wedding reception at the Iconic Hotel Eldorado. The venue was perfect for our family and friends to experience the best location to have an intimate wedding reception.

Exceptional Staff. Gorgeous venue. Everything detail taken care of. Seamless event. What amazing staff, what an amazing venue. We cannot say enough about how the staff at the Eldorado Hotel handled our wedding having to be rescheduled. We had planned our wedding for a year and a half and then Covid hit. In our initial conversation with Erika, the Conference Services Manager, we were told that they would do anything to accommodate our wishes...plan a smaller wedding, reschedule our date... and oh man did they deliver! We moved forward with a smaller event, but the staff made our wedding feel like the most amazing wedding ever. Erika was with us every step of the way, guiding and supporting us, answering all of our concerns, big or small. On the day of our wedding everything came together without a hitch, the food was incredible, the venue set up was stunning and the staff again was the most amazing part. Thank you also to the General Manager who made this day one that will forever be in our hearts. We could not have asked for more.

With a beautiful venue, great location, and amazing food, the Eldorado was our first choice when looking for a wedding venue. It really is a dream venue and after a tour we knew we had to book it. We are so grateful for all that Erika did for us through the planning process. She was always available to answer all of our questions, updated us with any changes due to the pandemic, and met with us to go over all the little details, which made the day run so smoothly. The venue was set up perfectly, the food was amazing with great options for our vegetarian guests, and the staff were incredibly helpful. We highly recommend the Eldorado!

Everything at the Manteo was fabulous and I cannot recommend it enough. The team was responsive, flexible, and accommodating, the venue itself is incredible with beautiful scenery, and the food was amazing.

During a pandemic, a wedding planned on short notice, a day of biblical weather....the staff and management could not have been nicer or more helpful and attentive or more flexible. In the end it was perfect, the service was held outdoors as planned, totally stress free thanks to the wonderful management and staff. The wedding dinner exceeded all our expectations, everything was delicious. I can not rate the experience highly enough, thank you!

My husband and I got married here in September 2019. Our issues started shortly after the Eldorado’s long time wedding coordinator left her position. Over the months leading up to the wedding we were assigned 3 different coordinators (who subsequently would quit shortly after taking their position). Communication was slow and unorganized with the hotel as they were going through many staffing and booking system changes.

When we checked-in the night before the wedding, check-in was also chaotic and our guests later reported rooms were not ready for them on time. No one offered to help us with our luggage. We booked two rooms for that weekend- a suite and heritage room. The heritage room was comically small (I should note many of the same room types vary in size) and my husband and groomsmen ended up taking their getting ready photos on the room’s balcony as it was more spacious - not the end of the world but something to be aware of.

The food at the reception was very good and banquet staff were very friendly and professional no complaints there. Really what was most disappointing was the bar staff. We had a number of issues throughout the night:

1. Underage guests were served liquor (not borderline 19 year olds but one as young as 13). This guest was visibly underage, no question. Now considering the bar team was so adamant and very rude at times with regard to the no doubles, shots, always need a mixer rule (even towards the brides father and uncle and various family members when they asked for a scotch on the rocks which is a completely reasonable and legal drink request) we found this very alarming and in no way condone the serving of alcohol to minors. Now while we did agree to the no doubles and shots rule for the open bar for guests to keep things under control, we understand there was confusion for guests when the bar team would serve these types of drinks to certain guests (generally young and nice looking females) and then deny others. Again not our main concern but why bother enforcing this policy when you are willing to break the law.

2. Unbeknownst to the bartenders, about 45 of our guests are current and former hospitality managers, bartenders, and servers who are well informed with Liquor laws and standard service procedures, the bride included. There were countless complaints of the bartenders short pouring drinks very obviously (0.5 oz to 0.75 oz) and when guests noticed and asked to be poured a full drink it was met with snide and rude remarks such as ‘if you want a full drink I guess you better be nice to your bartender’. The bartenders had also been asking guests to tip on top of the 18% gratuity we had already paid as we have confirmed this with our guests. And last time I checked tipping staff extra was not a requirement to get a 1oz drink as advertised and paid for. It’s no question that we were stolen from as we were charged for more alcohol than was actually consumed (commonly known as ‘short-pouring’ this is a method a bar can use to increase profits by pouring under 1oz, and is a huge legal violation if caught). For the bartenders to be short pouring on a mass scale purposely is theft, plain and simple. The tracking system of the underage bar back marking down each drink is frankly inaccurate and the hotel does not have a legal and accurate way to count liquor inventory used as we found out after.

3. Overall service was extremely slow which we understand can happen during weddings but when people are paying tens of thousands of dollars for their wedding more than one bartender making drinks at a time is necessary. We understand the liability in overserving and the need to potentially slow down service however with no one driving, no one causing issues, and people generally just enjoying themselves it seems a bit excessive. We gave our coordinator full permission to cut off guests if needed as she mentioned the staff had noticed a couple people who might have been over served early in the night. Unfortunately these ‘mystery’ guests were unable to be identified by members of the Eldorado staff when asked and the night went on with no issues.

4. Members of the Groom’s family were charged for tap water. Not the bottled water as advertised but straight from the gun. Other guests were rudely told they must chug a glass of water in front of the bartender in order to get another drink (again, these guests were coherent and offended/embarrassed in front of other guests by the condescending remarks).

5. Lastly, the overall attitude from the bar staff was atrocious, entitled, and quite frankly disgusting. This was the most important day of our lives, our guests all travelled to Kelowna from elsewhere to celebrate with us. We had heard complaints from the majority of our guests - young, old, family, friends, drinkers, non-drinkers, pretty much everyone was offended and upset by the bartenders at some point during the evening. They were rude to everyone they served, including the groom (who they must not have realized was the groom).

Now, we did attempt to address this with the hotel and general manager, Brent, who was very condescending and dismissive of any concerns. He denied any wrong-doing of the bar staff that night and suggested that our guests were actually lying and/or causing issues which simply did not happen and was an attempt to deflect from the illegal actions of the staff. In the end, the hotel had agreed to reimburse us a good portion of the bar bill. However, we never received the refund.

It’s unfortunate that a couple of young staff members actions impacted our wedding night so negatively. While the planning process was slightly rocky, it wasn’t the end all be all for us as we loved the Eldorado and understand things don’t always go smoothly. We had no issues with any other vendors at any point during the planning or wedding, including our ceremony venue (Gallagher’s Canyon Golf Club) which I cannot recommend enough! I still love the Eldorado hotel’s history and think it’s beautiful, however I don’t think we will return at any point in the future as there are far better venues and hotels in the Kelowna area.

There was a few hiccups throughout the night, but the service was good and the food was amazing! We had a handful of vegetarians and they all loved the options they had!