Prince Of Wales Hotel — Hotel in Alberta

After an utter disappointment of a stay for two nights (my two stars are for food and service at the Royal Stewart Dining Room) I have decided to write a complete review of the hotel.

Pre arrival We wanted to go to their afternoon tea and for a stay in 2020 and had to cancel our booking because that was not offered due to covid. This time, I called before arrival to make sure everything was set but got a rude customer service representative who seemed not interested in talking to customers. Honestly I didn’t think much of it until I arrived and had similar experience.

Arrival We booked for afternoon tea at 1pm on a Friday, arrived there bit early. According to the email I received from the hotel, it said check in will be at 3pm. When you arrive the entrance, the car park attendant said the reception will look after our suitcases. So here I was carrying my suitcase to the reception. Extremely rude person with curly hair and glasses and without a name tag said, checking is after 3pm and he couldn’t look after our suitcases, which was totally different from parking lot attendant’s instructions. When I asked would we need to display any parking pass, as we intend to park our car ($12 a night), he rudely said no. And his English buddy was staying away from the conversation rather than offering support. Disheartened I dragged the suitcases back to the car and after couple of hours, time was 2.30pm at the time, went to check the password to the wifi. The rude one was there biting his nails but the young woman very kindly said our room was ready.

The Elevator The hotel has seven floors and the elevator was broken throughout the time we were there. Nobody offered help to drag our suitcases to the fourth floor where our rooms were. So here I was, doing my “core exercise” for the day, dragging the suitcases up. The policy of the hotel, if I read in the reviews was to treat its guests as they would treat their grandma. Well, I was extremely disappointed and disturbed when I read that because rudeness and no empathy we were expecting as paid guests was unheard of.

The Room If you read replies to all the customer reviews here by the management, they were saying their hotel was built in 1927 and they wanted to portray that era in everything they do. That is actually correct. The room had a bed and a table, oh and a modern telephone and an alarm clock and that was it. I stayed in a double bed and did not use the single bed that had stains on the duvet (must be squashed moths and mosquitos in the room that come from a hole in the window’s net. We were flabbergasted. Almost around 500 dollars for that? Unbelievable! To make the matters worse, the rooms were interconnected and had very very thin walls. Yes, it’s that era isn’t it? The glorious 1927. So we were unable to have a proper sleep on both nights due to the loud noises and constant switching on and off of the lights and extreme humidity and heat despite the fan, not from 1927. The front desk offers noise cancelling headphones but you have to go all the way down and then all the way up because they could not bother to answer the phone. There was no complimentary water in the room, just like any normal, not fancy hotel. The toilet papers were extremely coarse, I am not a toilet paper snob but that was not a great experience.

We flipped the note at the door for the turn down service, nothing was turned down except our towels were folded.

The food and service Service in the Royal Stewart Dining Room was the only saving grace to this hotel. Extremely tasty food, wonderful afternoon tea and a good breakfast. Even if you are not staying at the hotel, which will be simply a waste of your money and energy, check out their food. It’s top notch!

The dining room was so hot and nobody thought of opening the windows. Skirting boards were full of dust and, cob webs.

The view Breathtaking and fabulous. Once again, you don’t need to spend a thousand dollars to see the beautiful view. You can always stay somewhere else and hike up to the top and take a minute to...

We chose to celebrate a family milestone - delayed, due to the constraints on travel earlier this year - at the Prince of Wales. While they could only accommodate our choice of room for one night, booking online was simple (including the applicable discount) and efficient.

Checking in was a breeze. We arrived around noon and did not expect our room to be ready. A quick hello at the front desk and Katelyn had us checked in before we knew it - early, I might add - and apprised us that our request (made while booking) has been taken into account.

The room was delightful. Wooden wainscoting all through, comfortable bed and sitting chairs, great view, and a vintage feeling about the room - the updated bathroom is bright and just splendid (and adds to the feeling of health-and-safety that one experiences throughout the hotel). The balcony door sticks and can lock one out if it slams shut in a brisk breeze, do be aware of that. Wifi connectivity was pretty good in the room, for one to use their smartphones and such.

Afternoon tea in the Royal Stewart Dining Room was delightful. Service from Kathryn (Katie) was pleasant and the tri-level tray of baked goodies and sandwiches was gone before she and we knew it (we had skipped lunch driving down). She found us some nice English Breakfast Tea even though it was not part of the standard tray of offered tea options, and on our way out provided us recommendations for breakfast the next day (and reminded us to proffer our receipt in the gift shop for a sampler of their afternoon teas).

Drinks and supper was at the Windsor Lounge, both the bar and the dining room menus are offered and fulfilled. It felt like a good evening for gin-and-tonic and Bloody Marys’ and we did not look past the Trout Entree. Served with gooseberry chutney, asparagus perched on (scalloped?) potatoes, this was one of the best meals we have had. Perfectly cooked with crispy skin, the trout was a masterpiece. We returned later in the evening for dessert and a warm beverage, service from Shawn was effusive and efficient both times.

The 8:00 PM bellhop talk by Adrian was pretty good and he even took us on a tour of the hotel and the bell tower afterwards, not to be missed. One of the other bellhops took us down in the vintage elevator earlier in the day, have not seen one of these in decades.

Remember to turn in the breakfast form at the front desk before 9:00 PM and they will have it ready when one walks to the desk just outside the Royal Stewart Dining Room the next morning. The Quiche or the Breakfast Sandwich are good options paired with an Almond and Orange Scone, the gift shop opens at 8:00 AM and offers warm beverages of one’s choice at no additional charge.

Checkout was easy and again Katelyn had us taken care of before we knew it. We were in Waterton at other accommodations for a few more days and sure to be back to the Prince of Wales during the week to dine, and in the not-too-distant-future to stay again.

Staying at the Prince of Wales is a calming and a restful experience, including walking around the hotel and the paths (and running into deer who seem not one bit bothered by our presence and very willing to share the beauty around). It offers one the opportunity to step back in time and stay at a vintage heritage building steeped in history, experience genuine hospitality and good cuisine, and to appreciate the experience.

For all of the above and more, you have...

Good: Building and property are absolutely delightful! We knew what to expect and were still amazed by the architecture and commitment to keeping rooms maintained to be as original as possible while catering to a modern audience. It was a treat to put away our screens and enjoy the ambiance of a vintage lakeside hotel. The bellman (and bell-lady!) were truly wonderful and we really enjoyed their pleasant and positive character. We stayed on the fifth floor overlooking the lake and appreciated their help with luggage as it is a journey to get up there. The views are every bit as remarkable as the pictures make it seem. Walking up to the property after our hike knowing we would soon be in our stately room with a gorgeous view from the balcony really made us feel like royalty. The bed was comfortable and the renovated bathroom was wonderfully done.

Not good: Afternoon tea was meant to be the highlight of our stay and I can not possibly recommend this to anyone familiar with a high tea, or anyone at all really. Bless the staff for keeping a straight face while bringing out defrosted store-bought pastries, packaged marmalade which didn't pair with the food, packaged creamer, packaged milk, and single strawberry. The advertised "variety of delectable sandwich squares" never made an appearance. 0/10 AVOID the afternoon tea, you will be very very disappointed.

While we were spending a couple nights at the property and saw plenty of staff faces more than once we could not have felt more ignored and unattended. Not a single effort is made to ensure the stay is going well and no service will be offered in the centre seating area. We discovered one way to finally get some attention there is to bring your own bottle of wine to the open area and while we still weren't offered any service despite being there for over an hour we were scolded for attempting to serve ourselves. I'm not upset in the least about being reminded of a fairly obvious rule but was there really no curiosity as to why we resorted to that? I can appreciate that most folks gave in to fetching their own drinks from the bar but when a generic cocktail and bottle of suds took us 35 minutes to receive while waiting right in the lounge it became clear everyone in charge had more important things to attend to than helping their staff navigate the guests. We made an order to our room that never found it's way.

Conclusion: The stay will be exactly what you make of it. We enjoyed the character of the room and building so much and have a ton of pictures of the lake side balcony view that exceeded all expectations. It was a simple little walk to many stunning hiking trails and gorgeous scenery. We will forever have fond memories that we created while celebrating our anniversary in Waterton Park. Sadly management is not concerned in the least about your stay or giving their eager staff any direction. In the 2.5 days we were on the property we never once felt taken care of or noticed. Any feeling of welcome and attention initially given by the awesome bellman (and bell-lady!) evaporates and you will find yourself saying "well, the view is...