Blanche L.
Yelp
The 'Great George' is a glorified bed and breakfast arrangement that has become a small institution in Charlottetown. It poses as a "boutique hotel", but anyone who has been to a successful boutique hotel in another destination will soon recognize that this term does not accurately apply to the 'Great George'.
However, the 'Great George' is well kept and lovely when the vacuum cleaner is not parked all day in the foyer of the building, as it was on our second day there.
The buildings are charming, and judging by their web site, the 'George' has some amazing rooms. The location itself could not be better, on George Street in Charlottetown, near the water and almost every restaurant, shop and theatre production you might wish to visit.
We were welcomed by young professionals who went out of their way to help with challenges like parking. (Actually we were led to three parking lots before we found a place that permitted parking.) Eventually we went up a steep staircase to our room,the Havilland. The first impression was quite favourable. In fact it was a tidy, pretty room and the bed was quite comfortable.
But because travellers who pay as the 'Great George' asks you to pay usually look for special details, it is to the details that I will next go in my description of my experience in this newly built, old style accommodation.
The room itself had no light fixture. The lighting could be called 'romantic', but romantic lighting is practical only as long as you don't drop anything small on the floor.
Speaking of seeing, the faux drapes of this room do not close at all, and the arrangement in place makes it easy for others to see you unless you shut out the view of the street entirely. With a white vinyl roller blind and no privacy sheer or lace panel in front of the only window that serves to provide light to the room, it's hard to enjoy the room during the day or at night if you want the window open for air while you have a light on. Unfortunately this arrangement allows others to see you rather well while in bed, as discovered when people looked up and made eye contact once or twice, and standing at the foot of the bed by the window one was on full display in the daylight, unless you decided to block out the light entirely by rolling down the shade to hide the world and darken the room.
Now, central air has been installed in a number of lovely historic homes that serve guests in the hospitality industry, but the 'Great George' cooled us down by means of a stand alone window air conditioning unit that stood in front of a closed window. It worked well enough, but denied us access to the window. The room was consequently more crowded than it needed to be, and a chair that blocked access to the closet further limited our freedom to move comfortably about the room.
But most of all, I really need to talk about the bathroom. It was big and bright and rather beautiful, and yet though the bathroom of the Havilland room was spacious, it lacked any counter space. Without a counter or a corner table, objects could only be placed upon a corner of the sink or on the back of the toilet or on the floor (rather poor for a top hotel).
At first the bathtub and shower appeared clean and unremarkable, apart from the fact that the curved shower curtain rod usually seen in hotels these days was missing. In its place was a straight rod, a tub and a ceiling that cut sharply down into the shower space, so that any guests with a height surpassing 5'4" or so (163 cm) are forced to duck awkwardly as they get wet, or bang their head on the ceiling that juts down precipitously a few feet from the shower head. We did both, and could not believe it! That was our chief complaint because it was one about fundamental safety.
In fairness to the 'Great George', a partial refund for part of one night's stay was issued when the complaint was presented at checkout, and the refund was appreciated as an acknowledgment that this unsafe situation is most unsatisfactory. However, more to the point, how and why does a place of public accommodation, such as the 'Great George', leave a mess of a building code catastrophe like this one in place without being forced to fix it by the local authorities?
To be certain, the Aveda bath products were appreciated, but there's nothing better to start off your day properly than climbing out of a shower without a cramp from bending over or a nasty head injury.
These are the main concerns I have as I remember my recent experience at the 'Great George'. I understand why many would say that it is a nice establishment. Indeed it is. The houses are pretty and they have a lot of character. The people who feature most prominently behind the desk are very helpful, extremely thoughtful and eager to please or remedy a situation not quite right.
However, I can not say that my experience in the room given to me by the 'Great George' was a testimony to fine hospitality.
