Spunkalishis S.
Yelp
Beds were fine, kitchenette was the first we saw with an actual dishwasher & full stove/oven, bathroom with shower wasn't bad - although they could do with a towel rack or two besides the hooks they have behind the door & on the wall, but that jetted tub sitting right next to the bed just inches away is just mental. Seriously? At least put a little more room between that monstrosity & the bed.
We had a room facing the village, decent view, but were absolutely befuddled by the front desk staff. Want late checkout? You CAN'T arrange it ahead. You've got to phone the front desk the morning you're checking out & ask then. WTF?? Want to change rooms because you'd prefer a balcony (our first time staying at this establishment so we didn't know)? Sorry, too bad. CAN'T be done, not even the next day when those rooms are available, even though it's not an upgrade. We phoned our reservation in, so they could've asked us if we wanted a balcony room seeing from their system that we were first-time guests. Don't bother asking them to waive parking or pet fees or even knock them down, regardless of how long you're staying, because they CAN'T do that either. We heard far too many CAN'Ts here & not enough SURE, NO PROBLEMs or even WE'LL SEE WHAT WE CAN DOs. That really put both of us off as we do a lot of traveling both locally & internationally & have experienced far better customer service almost everywhere else. This is a resort, so we expected resort-quality service. In addition, we arrived starving but there were no room service menus & the front desk had no idea why that was, although they seemed to know quite a bit more about things outside the actual hotel. It took about 30 minutes of US calling the front desk & the restaurant - not the front desk sorting it out - to get said menu. That really fried my backside. No luggage carts which we could see anywhere so we had to make several trips lugging our stuff up, no breakfast available (included or otherwise), no newspapers given to each room in the mornings either & the phone didn't work properly (their maintenance guy took care of it quickly, though). The food from the attached Italian restaurant which we eventually ordered for room service our first night wasn't terrible but it certainly wasn't spectacular Italian for the price we paid. Very small, lukewarm portions as well. And an 18% forced 'gratuity' on top of that. Pardon me?!? We didn't even bother going there to eat after that. Gratuities are given when & if deserved, not forced on customers. Later we saw that this 'gratuity' is supposed to be for large groups eating in the restaurant, not for room service. Keep in mind, this was all stuff we experienced during check-in & our first couple of hours there which I think would leave any guest far from pleased. By that point, we were pissed.
The good stuff: steps from Starbucks (if you take the shortcut) & the village, steps from the BG Grill (which has spectacular, well-priced, huge breakfasts til the afternoon & really nice, knowledgeable staff), pet friendly & our dog loved being there, the hotel's maintenance guy was really fast & quite pleasant & friendly & the rooms were quite clean other than the odd cup. Our room also had a gas (?) fireplace which heated the room up very quickly & parking ($18/night) and pet fees ($25/night) were charged at a lower rate than other places we had researched. Our room was $159/night plus taxes etc, if I remember correctly, in addition to pet & parking fees, and we were required to leave a $200 deposit in addition to all that. Yet another annoyance was that we were given a total over the phone & assumed that number included everything, so we weren't impressed when we found out otherwise upon arrival & were required to pay more. Have never had that happen at any other hotel we've stayed at. The total we are normally given is the REAL total, no surprises later.
Would we stay at this hotel again? Highly unlikely. The management of this place really needs serious improvement. They should train their staff in Victoria, where hotel/customer service far surpasses that of Whistler. I think the problem with Whistler is that the majority of the employees we spoke to there are on short-stay work visas & many know they're there for a very short time, so they don't have much invested in improving things. Others who work there longer are just riding on Whistler's bogus reputation as a world-class resort, with the attitude to match. Unfortunately, the customer service in many Whistler establishments suffers as a result. There was definitely nothing 'world class' about our stay. Can't even say we'd go back to Whistler due to our underwhelming, disappointing experience there. My other half has already sworn he'll never go back. Giving this hotel 2 stars is generous on our part, quite honestly, as those who made anything about our Whistler stay positive were people *not* working at this hotel.