Holiday Inn Rochester Downtown

The previous hotel, Rochester Plaza, has been hosting our association’s annual Christmas party for years — it’s a BIG group, but they somehow always managed to provide good food (better than average buffet, with plenty of options for those of us who don’t eat red meat), and usually more than enough for the several hundred guests. The Holiday Inn bought the facility (while still retaining the old management group) and dropped the ball BIG TIME last night — about 60 people had to wait for nearly 20 minutes while the kitchen staff scrambled to find more food — they ran out of salad, roasted vegetables, mashed potatoes, pasta in marinara… and ended up using cooked corn and hash browns to refill the buffet. Chicken breasts were over-​cooked (some almost burned) and would have been tasty, except for their dry texture — tough to even cut them. Can’t say anything one way or the other about the prime rib, as I didn’t try it. As a former waitress, I understand what it’s like to be working a party of that size, but it seemed the wait staff (at least the ones near us) couldn’t smile even once.
On the PLUS side, instead of using the drink service in the ballroom, we went to the lobby instead — better beer selection, friendly staff, and cheaper prices. My friend’s wine was the same price, but she got about ¹⁄₃ more from the downstairs servers — bigger glass.
To top it off, our CEO was being honored for 40 years of service, and instead of being able to enjoy the moment, he was forced to have to deal with the situation, and make sure his employees were fed properly. Very disappointing, and unprofessional, given past performances from this venue.

ABSOUTLEY awful. We had a 3 day conference there and nothing went right. People who were staying at the hotel had problem after problem (no hot water, employees taking a break and eating in their room upon them checking in, room doors not locking, maid service barging into their room without knocking, toilets not flushing, employees stealing beverages from the patrons fridge and many more). And then the conference room, we were first set up in the wrong conference room, which was 80+ degrees, then we switched rooms to the correct conference room which again fluctuated in temp from 80 – 60 degrees throughout the day. There was NO hand soap the women’s rest room and when we called they were very rude to us about even attempting to get soap in the bathrooms. The food was absolutely horrible. The bagels for breakfast were still frozen, the toaster did not work, the rolls for sandwiches were not cut. We were told they wouldn’t refill our water pitchers until lunchtime, with a room being 80 degrees by 9am all of our tables had finished the water pitchers and the employee was extremely rude when we asked for refills. I would never ever again do business here. There was nothing professional about this place.