Gainesville Banquet & Meeting Testimonials

I want to commend your staff on the ACMS Product Show and Dinner. It was a very successful event for us. Your staff went out of their way to accommodate us and I appreciate it.

Michael Bonn did a great job with setup, etc.. He is a pleasure to work with. The vendors were very happy with the layout. The appetizers were excellent. My thanks to Chris. The dinner was very good too. Freddie was a great bartender, as always. Matt, the waiter was exceptionally helpful. The IT man (another Matt I believe) was also helpful. I recognized Megan, the waitress, from Rotary. Your staff certainly work some long hours. Again, I appreciate the efforts of everyone to make it a great event.

Sally J. Lawrence, Ph.D.
Executive Vice President
Alachua County Medical Society

The Department of Physics would like to express its appreciation and recognize the excellent level of service provided by the Paramount Plaza when hosting our prospective student visitors for the last two years (March 2010 and 2011). We have always found the front desk representatives to be helpful and have appreciated their timely and reliable response when called upon to make reservations and provide receipts. Also, the reasonable room rates you charge allow us to better compensate our students for their air travel (which is expensive to Gainesville). The shuttle service has always been dependable and is a great benefit to our visiting students. Thanks again for making our student stays more relaxing in a sometimes stressful situation.

Sincerely,

John Yelton
Professor and Chairman
Department of Physics

Dear Mr. Berben:

When an event such as the 2009 University of Florida Joint Civic dub Luncheon is a success, the accolade should go to the dependable members who assisted in that accomplishment.

Mr. Michael Bonn and the accompanying Paramount Plaza staff delivered on superior customer service, excellent hospitality and overall professional quality. Many thanks to Mike, Mark McClain, and Jock Rankin and his staff, for expert detail, professionalism and unflappable sunny personalities during the planning and culmination of the 39th annual UF Jee Luncheon. While we may have changed directors during the year with the departure of Robin Frey and Susanna Blythe, Mike never missed an opportunity to respond positively to our needs.

We hosted more than 400 community, campus and state elected leaders, and I have received a great deal of positive feedback about this annual community-building event.

In addition to taking the time to confirm our needs beforehand, Mike's assistance in ensuring that everything was in place and our guests were comfortable on the day of the event was reassuring. While I can list the various tasks that were completed by Mike and your staff, (room setup, room decor, palm placements, delicious meal, etc.) to make the 2009 UF JCC Luncheon a fantastic event, I rather recommend your impeccable facility and service to others without question.

Mike and the Paramount staff have greatly enhanced the university's image as we hosted the audience of Gator Nation supporters. We look forward to working with you again.

Warm regards,

Florida Bridgewater-Alford
Director, Community Relations

Hi Susanna,

I just wanted to let you know that thanks to Justin and all the other people that worked the party for Linda Bell on Saturday, the party went off smoothly and my Mom was sooooo surprised. It was all very wonderful and everyone at the hotel was attentive, we could not have asked for better service. There were many compliments on the food. Thank you so very much for all the help with planning this.

If I ever hear of anyone planning an event in Gainesville, Paramount Plaza will certainly be a place I refer them to.

Thanks again and take care,

Lynda d'Espaignet

Hey Susanna!

Everyone had a FABULOUS time. You and your staff's service was phenomenal. Nobody waited in line for the bar ever, which was the key to the success in this event. Other than the food being a little late to be served we did not hear not one single complaint and everyone is talking about how great the event was. A-Train was also an amazing DJ. I have never seen the dance floor so continuously packed and we will definitely be using him again. We really appreciate all that you did for us and hope that you enjoy that well deserved spa gift. We will definitely be in touch. In the meantime, we were wondering if you can send us a print out of how many meals were consumed and how much alcohol was consumed (maybe a per bottle count of each), so we have an idea of our numbers and leave a paper trail for our predecessors. Also, I think we left some of our votives which Justin was looking for so we will come by to get them when they are located.

Thank you so much for all your help!
Anastasia Protopapadakis

It is just the truth. We have been at Paramount for longer than I have been a member of this club and you are the first to respond as effectively to our suggestions. You are very service oriented and we all appreciate it. Our Board has intermittently explored other meeting sites before working with you and I strongly suspect there will be no suggestions to move under the current conditions. It would be surprising if this level of service did not generate more business for you and Paramount from this group of >300 business leaders in Gainesville, either directly or indirectly. I will be glad to pass this along to your supervisor anytime as well; in fact, I am asking you to forward this email to him/her. By the way, I am copying the Board.

Eleanor Green, President
Rotary Club of Gainesville

Holly,

I would like to thank you, and the staff at the Paramount Plaza for all that you did to make our stay pleasant and comfortable. Our stay went off without a hitch, the kids really liked the hotel, and your staff was extremely friendly and service-oriented. We could not have asked for better treatment at home!

I have passed on the "secret" of your hotel to the other Model UN advisors. I know that several will book with you for next year's Gator Model UN competition, as I definitely will.

Again, thank you for all that you and the staff did. You have a nice hotel and a great staff.

Sincerely,
Colin M. Ramsay, Lemon Bay High School

Englewood, FL

Hi Holly,

I'm not kidding in the least when I say.... You are the best, the most efficient, the most accommodating person I've dealt with as far as getting anything done in a timely friendly fashion. I really am going to try and get you and Paramount Plaza as the main hotel we do our conference business with here in the Industrial and Systems Engineering dept. I hope your company realizes how fortunate they are to have you on board!

Thanks again and again,

Cindy, Assistant to the Director, Center for Applied Optimization, Dept. of Industrial and Systems Engineering

Hey Justin,

Well let me begin by thanking you and your staff for a wonderful party, food was terrific, everything was done just the way I bragged about it would be.

It went over so well that they (Dept of Radiology) will be having a meeting about moving their hot seats over to your hotel. I'm sure just like everyone they will get quotes and such, but a lot of the faculty really commented on the party and how well organized it was. I would personally like to thank you for your time and expertise and thank you very much for the drinks. We all had such a wonderful time. I do know that we will be having our Christmas Party there next year as well.

Justin you are such an asset to the Paramount and I wish you nothing but the best.

Shell

P.S. Please tell Susanna thank you as well.

Shelly Burleson, Resident Coordinator, University of Florida, Dept of Radiology / College of Medicine

”Justin and his Team were Absolutely terrific” - Kelly Kunz, GHS Reunion Chair (Gainesville High)

"Thank you for making our Coastal Engineering Conference held at the Paramount Conference center an “Outstanding Success” “The Staff was helpful, polite, professional and made the guests feel very welcome” “The Banquet itself was Super; the food and set up were elegant” - Bill McDougal, Coastal Engineering, University of Florida

“I would like to thank you and everyone at the Paramount for helping to make our conference a great success”. “We give you 5 stars”. “You bet I will come back to the Paramount” - Peter L Rudnytsky, University of Florida, Department of English