Moon Water Lodge — Hotel in Area A (Mill Bay / Malahat)

My wife and I stayed in the "Luxury Plus King Room" at the Moon Water Lodge for 2 nights for an anniversary getaway and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The view and the incredible tub that went with it were worth every cent.

The view was as majestic as all heck. We simply couldn't get enough of it. I chose the Luxury Plus King Room because it was one of the South-facing locations with views in front and on the side; allowing even more awe-inspiring water views. I was a bit concerned that it would be noisy since the South side was exposed to the busy highway, but we rarely heard a single vehicle and the extra side view was definitely worthwhile.

Seasonal note: I suppose the noise could be an issue, however, in the Summer when a window needs to be open and/or should you need to use the roll-about air conditioner that requires manual setup in an open window.

The room itself featured a pillow-top bed that was mostly comfortable, but both my wife and I did feel it had some sag in our sides of the bed from years of use; something we haven't experienced in a pricey hotel room before. That said, I have a bad back and it was firm enough that I didn't have too much issue.

Despite some issues I note later, this place was still worth the expense for a special occasion. Here are a few reasons:

1. The tub + the view... yup I said it again. Wow! The pictures I posted will add some context, but it is still far better in person.
2. Right next door is the Malahat Chalet which had very decent dinners and fantastic breakfasts.
3. The TV is a smart TV so it featured Netflix and a number of other apps you could use; we like to watch a bit of comedy on our time out, and enjoyed this feature while we lounged on our bed.
4. Back to the view: we enjoyed watching (what I believe was) a Red-tailed Hawk hunting regularly in the breezes outside our windows and landing in the tree-tops that were at eye level. We saw countless other birds like Steller's jays, hummingbirds, and song birds.
5. The wi-fi connection was strong and mostly solid. Better than 90% of the hotels I had been in the past.
6. Parking is free and conveniently close.
7. The staff was kind and met our minimal needs.
8. Our main view was comprised of nothing but nature! There were no buildings or homes anywhere but in the greatest distance which made me feel like we were in the middle of nowhere enjoying valuable time together. The other options that were anywhere close to this value didn't necessarily have the same unbroken view (from what I could see) and cost significantly more.

Some issues that require attention from the owners:

The room was ill-appointed for relaxing anywhere other than the bed because there was only one small plush arm chair that faced a ceiling-high flat screen. I suppose there was a hard pull-out desk chair at the desk nearby, but it was definitely not for relaxing in. As a result, we couldn't sit anywhere and enjoy the view other than on our bed or (if it were warmer) outside on the small deck in the two chairs out there.

In fact, we sat in the still dry tub with our clothes on and had our meal there. It was cute and memorable, but far from preferable.

There were small issues that stood out as well and pointed to a need for some TLC: the screen door on our South-facing sliding door was gunked up and extremely hard to move (I was afraid I'd break it!). The main (East) deck was quite filthy with droppings and wear and appeared not to have been cleaned in a long time. The coffee mugs in the cabinet were still dirty when I tried to use them. The thermostat that runs the gas fireplace (the main heat source) had a broken control tip, so I had to remove the thermostat cover every time to change the temperature.

All-in-all, none of the issues we encountered were deal-breakers and with a small investment from the owners they could all be remedied. I hope they see this and make an effort to do so. I imagine the fixes would provide even greater loyalty and profits in short order. As it is, I expect we will be...

SCAM ALERT NO REFUND PROVIDED Nice on the outside, gross on the inside.

We stayed at the moon water lodge on Aug.6th for the last day of our trip to the island. We were excited to stay here for the views. When arriving the exterior looked nice and the view was great. It was about 5-6pm and the place is self check in which we typically prefer, however in this case it turned out to be a bad thing.

Once we came into the room, we put our belongings down, removed our shoes and walked over to see the view. Right after, as we began to unpack we noticed the top of the fireplace where the remotes were looked dirty. There were clumps of gunk, what looked like boogers (they likely weren’t that but it’s the best description I can come up with). The remotes on top were completely covered in dust and more gunk as if they’ve not been cleaned in months.

My husband went into the bathroom lifted the toilet seat and found a long hard at the base of the seat hanging over the side of the toilet. As he went back out of the bathroom he stepped in a clump of long hair in the ground.

At that point we were disgusted and reached out via booking.com and text to management. They were quick to respond stating they would have cleaners come by to clean the mess. They then came back to us and said that the cleaners were at dinner and it would be about a hour. Feeling dirty at this point we put our shoes back on and exhausted from our long day of enjoying the island we went to eat our take out on the table, trying not to touch too much while waiting for the cleaners.

About 45min later we received a message from management that the cleaners had some sort of emergency and weren’t able to come to clean. At that point it was nearly 7pm. They said we were welcome to find other lodging for the night and that they would refund us our stay. We called one place near by which was full and were too tired to start searching at the time. Management said they were willing to discount our stay by $100 (spoiler they did NOT provide it). We accepted. That is when the grossness really started…

We did not unpack but tried to settle in as best we could. The main soaker tub was the one thing that, I won’t say was clean, but didn’t seem to be dirty, so my daughter and I went in the tub. At which point there was a knock on the door. It was the cleaning woman. She was not happy to be there and telling my husband she had to come in our her day off. He told her, we were told no one was coming and we are using the tub so we didn’t want anyone to come in at that point. My husband did take the vacuum she brought to do a quick vacuum himself so at least we felt a bit more clean. She then left and we informed management of the situation.

After that, my husband went to take a shower. He found hair in the drawers, what appeared to be shaving cream on the floor, rolled up wrapper on the ground, hair in the shower floor, and a long fake eyelash stuck to the soap dispenser. We pulled up the sheets and they had several different stains on them. The whole place was clearly not cleaned. We foolishly didn’t look around after we were told the cleaner was coming down but if we had we would have took the full refund and left. We spent the evening avoid touching as much as possible and couldn’t wait for morning.

Upon checkout my husband went to the office to make sure we would get our refund. The receptionist said they didn’t have any information about the incident and would reach out to the person we spoke to. There looked to be a refund sent however it was retracted and we never received one (take documentation of every conversation with these people and dispute the charges). We told them we have pictures of the mess which they asked to see. We sent them and received a respond of “thank you, have a good day.” If it wasn’t clear already we do not recommend staying here. There are others with similar complaints posted. They don’t care about the customer and will make false promises of providing a refund until you leave and never get...

My wife bought me a night in a premium room as a birthday present and a special experience.

Both my wife and myself were super excited for a great night away and an opportunity to really enjoy the amenities and the view.

If your sole focus is the location and the view you will not be disappointed as the view is spectacular and the location is amazing.

It's on the more basic points that the experience was really a let down. When we arrived at our room we were exited to have a soak in the large tub and enjoy the fireplace - this is where things went downhill fast. Despite following the instructions provided for the fireplace it did not work at all although we could see what appeared to be a pilot light in the fireplace.

The biggest disappointment in the room had to be one of the most important - the bed. While it would seem to be such a basic part of the guest experience the bed was HORRIBLE. It reminded me of a cottage bed that is about 20 years past prime - sitting on the edge of the bed caused the entire mattress to sag noticeably.

The bed was poor enough that neither of us slept well at all and in fact I wasn't able to get to sleep until around 5am. Both of us woke up sore and tired and very disappointed in the experience minus the views. This is definitely NOT the experience I would hope or expect to have in a room that costs $350 / night.

I contacted the management through the website with guest comments / feedback in the hopes that maybe we might hear back - crickets.

Communication with the Lodge is VERY hit and miss and this is another red flag for me as calls are forwarded to a voicemail that is not configured, emails are not answered and and communication appears very sporadic. This was an issue for us as we had to cancel our initial booking due to a medical emergency and needed to rebook at a later date.

06/26 Update: I want to address a couple factual issues in the owners response:

At no time did we have any personal interaction or in person conversation with either staff or management. We unfortunately arrived late (about 10pm) and the lodge office is not staffed off hours for assistance Phone contact - we get phone get busy at a tourist resort but having the phone forward to a voicemail that is not configured to take voicemail messages is a bit of a headscratcher The bed was not uncomfortable it was in poor repair (Rm 8) go check it - sit on the bed in the middle of the mattress on the edge and the mattress noticeably sags. We appreciate the help with the rebooking to to circumstances way beyond our control

Our only hope had been some communication from management following our private feedback submitted via the website form. We did not post the review immediately as we were hoping to be able to discuss...