|
Hotel Review of the Fairmont Hotel Chateau Whistler
Mar 3, 2011
The most comfortable beds that I've encountered in a hotel in many
years, the room was spotless, had just the right amount of tea, coffee
and toiletries and everything else you'd expect. The level of service
throughout the hotel was exceptional, from housekeeping to front desk,
nothing was too much trouble and it was refreshing to encounter properly
trained staff who enjoyed thier job. If you're not an early riser, put a
Do Not Disturb sign on the door, otherwise the highly efficient
housekeeping will be knocking on your door at about 08.30 offering to
tidy up your room :-) We ate only at the Mallard lounge and the
Portobello cafe in the hotel - the food was very good.
Hotel Review of the Fairmont Hotel Chateau Whistler
Mar 2, 2011
Oh my, where to begin!
I have stayed at many Fairmont Hotels and enjoy the feel of the property
and expect a certain level of service. With that expectation I can be
easily disappointed if the hotel slips.
Not this trip.
We arrived at 11:00 AM and we had reservations in a gold room for 3
nights. Upon arriving at the hotel the valet/doorman took care of our
extensive luggage including skis, and we went up to the 8th floor to
check in. Our room was ready although we were early and we entered a
spacious room with an incredible bathroom. Bags arrived and we separated
the boots and skis that went to the "ski valet". We then received a tour
of the gold lounge - a great place for complementary breakfast,
appetizers in the afternoon, and complimentary soft drinks and honor
bar.
We pre-booked a snowmobile tour in Whistler Village and asked the
concierge if he could direct us as to where the place was so we could go
there. He promptly called the company and had us picked up at the
hotel...........see, I was not thinking about great service, but I got
it!
The hotel is slopeside, and the ski valet is in the lower level of the
hotel. The ski valet is where you take off your street boots and hand
them to the valet who stores them by room number, then hands you your
ski boots. After you put on your boots, a little further down you get
your stored skis and then it is off to the lift outside the door.
Incredibly easy and again, excellent service. There is also a rental
shop and ski store for warmers and forgotten clothing.
We frequented the pool area and did not note any service deficiencies as
previous posters have stated, so I am guessing the hotel has corrected
any issues in that area.
My only complaint is one that I have had in a couple of other Fairmont
Hotels, and I think I will be writing the President of the Chain about
it because it appears to be systemic and not related to this location.
My complaint came in the Mallard Restaurant. The food is very good,
drinks also good, and the service is good when the restaurant is not
busy. As soon as it gets busy the servers, despite their best efforts,
get overwhelmed and service slides in a hurry. This stems from the fact
that the restaurant staff do not work as a team through what appears to
be the system they employ, rather they work as individuals. It is the
system that is not effective when the restaurant gets busy and the hotel
needs to borrow some "pub style" service techniques where everyone pools
tips and takes care of the restaurant as a whole instead of just their
section.
Top to bottom (except the restaurant service above) was beyond my
expectations and we were truly taken care of for our entire trip. I
highly recommend that if you are contemplating a stay here, don't
hesitate to book it!
Hotel Review of the Fairmont Hotel Chateau Whistler
Feb 12, 2011
We stayed as a group of 10 sharing a mixture of queen / queen and king
rooms on the 8th floor, Fairmont Gold on a skiing holiday for 7 days. We
had booked with an early bird package that included 6 day lift passes.
Check in at The Gold reception desk on 8th floor was smooth and
efficient. The rooms were excellent with lovely comfortable beds and
pillows. Clean bathroom with twin wash basins, seperate shower and bath.
Housekeeping was fantastic with the room kept spotlessly clean and
welcoming every day of our stay. These rooms have a free safe, large
flat screen tv and bose cd sound systems. They also have a wonderful gas
fire with log flame effect.
The Gold lounge is lovely with comfortable arm chairs and tables to
relax around. There is an honour bar in the evening and various snacks
and nibbles for you to graze at your leisure. A continental breakfast
was available from 7am each morning with a wide choice of pastries,
juices, smoothies, muffins, cold meats and cheeses. Tea and coffee was
always available and you could ask for special coffees which was never
any trouble for the excellent staff on this floor. Gold reception were
very helpful organizing any trips and very knowledgeable about the
resort.
The rest of the hotel away from the 8th floor however was frustratingly
annoying for what aspires to be a five star hotel. Each day after skiing
we would come in, get changed, put on our towel robes and head down into
the spar area for a sauna and well earned hot tub soak. The service down
in this area ranged from lukewarm to diabolical. We had staff refusing
to serve draught beers outside, kicking open doors in temper fits and
hiding behind rules and regulations to avoid giving guests what they
want, which is good service?
The bar area is lovely with fire pits outside in a wonderful setting.
Pity then that the bar service was poor, you could stand and wait for
five minutes while watching four bar staff members chat between
themselves at the back of the serving area. Most nights you would have
to walk from the front of the bar to their chatting station to get their
attention. Some nights we were the only people in the bar and still
couldn't get served. We ate at the bar two or three times during our
stay, again patchy slow service, with some real attitude problems. The
ski shop and shared boot and ski storage downstairs was a complete
shambles, with boots getting lost, long queues, and endless extra
charges. Also be prepared to negotiate two tiers of icy steps in and out
of the hotel on your way to the chair lift every morning. As with other
reviews the free wifi is rubbish apart from the Fairmont Gold wifi in
the gold lounge which was good.
As with most hotels there are always exceptions, the free bus shuttle
into town was good.
We raised all these issues with various tiers of staff and management
during our stay, each time a manager would come over and offer to buy us
a beer to say sorry. Sorry Fairmont Chateau you miss the point. If we
can afford to stay at your Hotel we don't want free beer, we want five
star service! We don't want you to waste your time and ours telling us
why something can't be done? We just want and expect you to do it!
That's why we pay extra to stay in a five star hotel!
|
