Update: I did recieve a refund for the total booking amount and an apology regarding the booking error that was made. While my review and experience are still true, I can acknowledge that the situation has been properly rectified.

I inquired on January 8th about booking my son’s birthday party for February 28th from 9-1300. I am told it’s available, and I sent the contract and payment almost immediately. I was told to email a screenshot of my e-transfer as proof of payment to the treasurer, which I did on January 9th. Follow up to the week of my event, and I inquire regarding the entrance instructions and am told that I have not yet paid. I resend the payment confirmation email, and was told that my event is now confirmed, and the time of 9-1300 was again confirmed by both myself and the hallrental booking email. February 26th my last correspondence was that I would be sent entry instructions Friday.

Friday comes around and I have not received anything, I email the hallrentals email multiple times, and every other email listed on the AWRA website to find out how to access my event space. I still did not hear back from them, so my husband and I decided to make separate FB page posts to see if we can get some information. Finally at 10:17PM Friday I received the entry instructions. This morning I attended the site to set up for my 9am booking time, and there is a bootcamp running in the space I have booked from 9-10. The individual facilitating the bootcamp showed me that I was booked in their events calendar for 10. At no time did I indicate that I wanted the space for 10am, it was always booked for 9am. The bootcamp person called an individual from AWRA and I was told to go into the main building and set up, as there was “no one there.”

We set up the party, everything goes fine in the end but at 12:00 another party comes in to set up saying they booked the hall for 12 and their event starts at 13:00. We paid for our rental until 13:00, but we had to rush to exit the premises to ensure these people’s event would not be delayed. On top of that, this party was also not warned that there would be another person overlapping their time. Ultimately both groups made the best out of a bad situation, but the blame lies fully with the AWRA booking process.

Communication is very poor, there are no names given for who you are communicating with, and their listed phone number is never answered. I am absolutely blown away that they choose to operate this way. On top of all of this, the main building we were sent to was filthy. The kitchen was coated in sticky residue, garbage and dirt all over the floor, bathroom garbage full of paper towels.
I have booked multiple different community centers for showers and parties in the past, and have never been met with such unprofessionalism.

I attended an event at this facility recently and observed that some areas, such as the bathrooms and kitchenette, appeared to require additional cleaning and maintenance. I have also tried to book their space in the past and my first attempt at reaching out was never responded to. It seems this facility has poor communication.

I really wish I could give a 5 star review, because we loved the facility itself, but unfortunately the communication completely ruined the experience.
I rented the new building for a wedding shower. I paid on August 10 (shower in Oct) and you are asked to send proof of payment, which I did, although I will take responsibility for the fact that I don’t think my email went through (I have this issue with pictures sometimes).

I received an email 2 days before my rental asking for proof of payment. I sent it immediately. No response.

We arrive 15 min before our rental time the day of, and my mother-in-law asks me if I’ve received lock box instructions for getting in. I haven’t. I go into the main building to ask those renters what instructions they received and they show me a whole email full of instructions. Now I’m panicking a bit because when I have rented community centers in the past, someone has always come to let us in, so I had no idea I needed these instructions. I email twice, no response. I try calling the number on Google, no answer. Finally I ask the other renters if I can try their instructions and thankfully that worked!!

I was expecting an email on Monday with an apology or some kind of explanation. It’s been a week and I have still received nothing from AWRA.

Our event went great, but had their not been other renters that day, we would have had 30 people show up and no way of entering the building we paid for.

I am beyond disappointed. I’d love to rent the physical space again, but definitely won’t be after this experience.

I honestly wish after living in the area for over 20 years that I had a better experience when reaching out to this community center to rent it for my daughter’s birthday. It took over a week to get an email back met with pure attitude. They are great for planning community events.
But not very personable, on a personal level.

Thank you AWRA! I’m happy to find a cozy and lovely place to celebrate our birthday party!