The Guinea Pig Group

Having attended multiple events hosted by this company, I can say without a doubt that this organization is a poorly structured and extremely disorganized group with a very limited and frankly low end beverage selection (i.e. romanov vodka) and a very low standard of service. I have waited over 20 minutes for a drink at most of their events despite the bar being scarcely populated. When promised grey goose, I was served what could have been a diluted version of rubbing alcohol and was still charged $ 14! I will never attend another of their events as they are unprofessional and clearly are only interested in serving people they already know. Also the lack of beer at every event (other than one event which served coors which may as well be watered down piss) was extremely disappointing. I guess the Kim Kardashian wannabes are the only people dumb enough to consider this to be a high class event company. I have had better parties in my bathroom.

Studio M+ worked with GPG at WantedDesign 2014 during New York Design Week. They catered an open bar at our opening event with 3000+ visitors. We were very happy with their services. Two weeks before the event, their staff did a scout tour with us at the venue, examined our booth layouts in order to best prepare their service strategy. At the day of the event, they arrived promptly to setup their bar and prepare the cocktails. The bar was up and running in minutes. They created custom cocktails for the design show and received really good compliments. They had adequate number of staff at the event and although it was such a big production, there were no problems with the service. We received top notch service and our guests complimented the drinks all night long. Once the party was over, they packed the bar and cleaned the booth area quickly. We couldn’t be happier working with them.

Through event-​up, I enlisted the help of Guinea Pig Group to assist me with the booking of my birthday. They had some really cool spaces that fit just what I had in mind. Full disclosure, I am an event and corporate meeting planner myself, so I do think I may have judged them harsher than others would.
The first space I found was in Soho, with painted white brick walls, and hardwood flooring. I was satisfied enough with the space, and agreed to sign the contract. Between accepting the contract, and waiting for my signature, the space was taken by another client. I can understand that since I had a delay in returning the contract because I was travelling. I didn’t appreciate not being told that the space was shown to another client with the same event date. Those are just poor business skills. A courtesy text or email before the other client was about to sign would have sufficed.
GPG showed me another space, which lucky for me, did end up working out better. It fit more in line with my vision because the walls were flat. Everything was signed, and we did the walk through the week of without issues.
On the day of, I wasn’t fully pleased. I had ordered high boys that never showed up. The rental company, last minute, decided to text GPG an hour before to state they wouldn’t be coming. When I was setting up two hours before, I was told they were stuck in traffic. Yes, that is out of the control of GPG, but I would expect them to have reliable vendors at all times. I ended up having the additional servers waived, so that was a nice gesture on their part.
Load in of the bar took an INCREDIBLY long time. I had one craft cocktail bar and a regular bar set up. There was at least 4 – 5 people at load in during the first hour, then 6 the second hour. I have never seen a bar take that long to be set, and I’ve overseen bar set ups for 500+ people before. The event was supposed to start at 8, but their setup finished closer to 830. We sent individuals away because the servers were moving around and getting glassware in place. At one point, I overheard their manager tell the staff that load in should not be taking this long. Because it shouldn’t…
By the end of the night, the venue had completely run out of beer. I was extremely upset about this because in my communications, I had asked for a few things: craft beers (nothingI had a heavy craft beer drinking crowd), no Coronas and Heinekins, and Jameson & Black to be stocked. None of that was done. I was assured this would be done. I was extremely displeased because our crowd typically drinks dark liquor on the rocks. Our attendees opted not to drink because their preferences weren’t there. In my follow up email, I was told this didn’t happen because their liquor supplier didn’t have it. Telling me in an email after I addressed the fact was highly unprofessional. If they had trouble securing this from their alcohol vendor, I should have been notified right away. Again, irresponsible suppliers, or the more likely scenario that the order wasn’t put in.
A lot of the servers were aloft, but a couple did stand out. Their service wasn’t horrendous, but the 1 star is because all the very simple details didn’t come together. I couldn’t, in good faith, recommend them to anyone else if they can’t conduct a load in on time, have good vendors, and get together the right alcohol. Should this have been a freelancing event I contracted with them on, and not my birthday, I would have enraged. After bringing up my complaints, I was offered 10 free tickets to their next event. Would I want to attend one of their future events? No.