Le Meridien Arlington, Starwood Hotels & Resorts

My husband and I stumbled onto the Hotel Palomar during a wedding open house and immediately knew we had found the PERFECT spot for our upcoming nuptials. The space itself is gorgeous, very modern, and has an amazing view of DC. Sandy (the event manager) was just very down to earth, not pushy at all and was very receptive to our multiple inquiries. Chef Paul the amazing head chef, Borris and Eileen were all invaluable too! My husband and I are both foodies and I have to say that food and beverages services were spot on, probably better than we both had anticipated. We're still getting compliments 3 months later. We ended up getting married during hurricane Irene and the Palomar staff adjusted everything quickly and gracefully. We had the ceremony indoors and that worked out really well. The Palomar also accommodated most of our out of town guests at a very reasonable rate. Plus everyone got free wine at the Palomar happy hour! It was also very convenient to hop over to Georgetown where we had our rehearsal dinner. And to top it all off we got quite the room upgrade. We couldn't have been happier with our entire experience:) Thanks Sandy!!!! - Erica & Craig <3

An absolutely perfect venue for a wedding and reception... the food was excellent although my only complaint is that the presentation of the dishes was different than at the tasting. The cake was SPECTACULAR and was delicious to boot. The Director of Catering and Event Manager waited on us hand and foot, although we should have been more specific about particular details (but if you have an outside wedding planner they could have watched over some of these for you). All in all, a wonderful event which we'll remember forever.

Hotel Palomar in Arlington is a beautiful hotel with the worst management that I've ever encountered. We chose Hotel Palomar for our after-party location and as our recommended hotel for out-of-town guests to stay in during the wedding weekend. First, the hotel dropped our room reservation 5 times (5 times!) and I am the bride! I had to keep calling back and emailing in order to finally get it right, and even then, they checked us out and locked us out of our room a night early. They also charged our guests multiple incorrect rates, charging some over $300 for a room that was supposed to be at the block rate at half that price. They also couldn't seem to figure out how to charge guests the block rate for some nights and for guests who arrived early or stayed later, a different rate on other nights. They kept checking our guests out early and giving them bills, which was very frustrating and disruptive. The after party experience was even worse. We were promised that the hotel would set up a satellite bar in the lobby/living room that would be open to our 100+ guests until at least 1 AM, if not later. (There was another wedding going on in the main restaurant/bar.) The satellite bar was set up as promised, but then closed up and wheeled away at about 11:15! We were shocked. When we told the management about the mistake we were told many different stories and had to get our wedding planner to try to call the hotel management to fix the situation. She was told a different lie and as it turned out hours later, the hotel had RUN OUT OF ALCOHOL. On a Saturday night. With two wedding parties at the hotel. Unbelievable! I spent my wedding night on the phone and talking to hotel management, as, with no drinks in sight, our guests slowly slipped away. My husband and uncles ran out at 12:45 AM to buy beer from a 7-11 and bring it back to the hotel so our remaining guests would have something to drink. What a nightmare! None of the event managers were anywhere around to help out until the following afternoon. We were furious. The hotel attempted to compensate us for the mistakes, but there really is no way of getting back hours of your wedding night that were totally wasted and guests who had traveled across the country and around the world who you didn't get to talk to because you were dealing with terrible hotel management. Hotel Palomar was the one black spot on our otherwise sterling wedding weekend. Brides, beware -- don't rely on Hotel Palomar for your special event.