Hotel Sofitel

Another venue we visited but didn't end up choosing (chose a DW). Hotel Sofitel RWC was definitely a contender. Having shopped around in the city for venues, everything was incredibly expensive w/facility fees + parking. Hotel Sofitel offers a clean, modern look inside, the main ballroom is pretty standard yet it does have nice light fixtures and a sizable cocktail area that is apart from the lobby. As far as location, the hotel is easily accessible from the 101, tucked within a business park (so no worries of getting lost or guests leaving per distraction), and free parking! I didn't have an opportunity to taste their food, but have been to a wedding here and their food was really good and visually appealing.

Sofitel in Redwood City is a nice place for a reception. Probably not for a Ceremony.
People there are reasonable and know to listen. Staff is fast, trained well and coordination is excellent.

I experienced many problems in the planning of my wedding. This is venue we chose for our wedding ceremony and room block for our guests and they were by far the most difficult vendors to work with. Comminucation was slow, I would have to leave multiple voicemails or wouldn't receive replies to my emails for weeks. I would be promised one thing and then would speak to someone else and it would receive a completely different story. We stuck with this venue though because it was beautiful.

I checked in around 3:30pm the Friday evening before the wedding and had to wait over an hour and a half for my room! We waited in the lobby for quite a while and it ultimately made us late for our rehearsal. Many of our guests received welcome baskets for another wedding. Honestly, they enjoyed the baskets but I'm guessing that the other couple's guests did not receive their welcome baskets.

There were a couple positives though, which is why I gave them 2 stars: Come wedding day, the ceremony set up was executed as planned and Friday night the hotel had a DJ playing in the lobby bar area, which was a pleasant suprise for us and our guests.