The Royal Anne Hotel — Hotel in Kelowna

.. So! I'm going to break a few things down here because the hotel on it's own does not deserve 2 stars, but a few things contributed to that.

We dealt with 3 staff at the front desk during our stay, the lady who checked us in was a delight, the overnight person belonged in a disney movie as the villain, and the morning person was also lovely.

Upon checking in, and being from out of town, the front desk lady informed us that outdoor parking behind the hotel was available, but not to leave any valuables in the car as there are 2 shelters within a 10 second walk, and car theft/break ins are common in the area. We informed her that we physically could not remove everything from our car as we were in the process of moving. She checked the cameras and said she had 1 underground parking spot left and that she would issue a parking pass for us. This gave us the impression that if we chose to go out for dinner we could leave and come back as we had a pass.

Upon arriving back at the hotel we looked for our spot but the lot was full! So we drove back to the front of the hotel to see if there had been a miscommunication, or if maybe a staff member had parked in our spot. Fun fact, the door to the front of the hotel LOCKS at 11pm and you need a keycard to get in. Would have been nice to know when we checked in. So I get inside to ask the front desk, and she was so unhelpful. Her response was well if the lots full park out back. I asked about the parking pass that had been issued and she said it's Saturday night, what do you expect? There's nothing I can do and it's not my problem. I was completely taken aback! I literally could not eveb muster a response I was so shocked. So we did end up parking out back, looks super sketch.

Also, if you book a room on the front side of the hotel - you wont hear very much room to room noise, but there is a night club directly across the street - so enjoy the music until about 2 or 3 AM.

Onwards to the next morning, the continental breakfast is actually quite tasty. They have several cereals, yogurts, fruits, pastries, 2 types of eggs, hard boiled and a cheese quiche type of thing but it didn't have enough cheese to actually taste it. You also have to microwave it because nothing is served hot. They also have standard tea and coffee.

I let the front desk lady in the morning know about what happened the night before and she was able to clarify that all guests are issued a pass to display in their car so that they won't be towed, but the underground parking is a first come first serve basis. Also incase you are wondering it has 15 for underground.

The second day and night were without incident, we did find another spot underground so we opted to order in so we wouldn't have to leave. In the morning we checked out and as we were getting ready to leave, the sensor for the garage door stopped working. It took 30 mins to get the door open and ended up 2 guests and the handyman physically lifting it up.

Would I book here again?...

Our family stayed at the Royal Anne for 4 nights. Location is great because it is right in downtown Kelowna, a couple of blocks from the public beach. The facility is in good shape and remains fairly clean throughout the day. The staff is friendly and mostly helpful. I would have given the hotel five stars if I had had a better experience with parking and the cold breakfast (included in the amenities offered by the hotel). The hotel has limited parking and it operates as first come, first served. We were lucky enough that we were able to find a parking spot available every day except the last day. All the stalls were full. I went to the front desk and I was given the names of two city parkades a few blocks from the hotel. I explained my vehicle had a Thule box on top and that it would need extra clearance. I was still asked to double-check since there were no other options. I spent about 30 minutes navigating downtown looking for these two parkades to eventually confirm my vehicle would not fit through the entrances. I went back to the hotel hoping they would offer a solution to my problem. Ah, I forgot to mention there were few vehicles parked at the hotel without parking passes. When I brought this up to the front desk clerk, I was told all of them belonged to the hotel (even though passes were supposed to be displayed on the dashboard). I was getting frustrated and wasting my free/leisure time in finding were to park my car, therefore I asked to speak with the manager. She was not at the hotel, but the clerk called her and explained the situation to her. Her solution: another parkade that would cost me $21 for the night and that the hotel would not reimburse me. Not precisely the customer service I was expecting from the hotel manager. I decided to leave the car at the back of the hotel (not in a parking stall) and move it to the street after 9pm, when street parking is free until 9am, although all the street signs warn you that vehicles need to be removed by 3am. I was lucky once again to occupy a space that became available around 11pm. After my disappointing conversation with the hotel manager the next morning and after reflecting on the parking situation, I suspect the hotel has been assigning spots to hotel employees and employees from an Irish bar that is advertised by the hotel. Bottom line is that I wasted about one hour dealing with the parking situation, plus the unpleasant conversation with the hotel management and this could have/should have avoided if their parking system were better managed. The second reason for the 3 stars is the continental breakfast that has now turned into a paper bag with a little muffin, a yogurt, an apple, a juice box and a granola bar (the same “menu” every single day). I understand the restrictions of operating in the middle of a pandemic, but if restaurants are open to business, why cannot they offer a better service? To me, this is just easy and way more cost...

When we arrived to the hotel the bathroom was quite dirty. There was a lot of hair in the bathtub and was obviously not cleaned. The head housekeeper came to the room, and let her know that we were in a rush to get out but that she was welcome to clean it once we left - but ultimately didn’t do anything about it. So we cleaned someone else’s dirty hair out of the bathtub ourselves. The following day when we were leaving I asked the front desk to make sure our room was cleaned. However, it never was. Over the course of the weekend we called down and requested, and talked to the housekeeper on our floor and it never was cleaned. The response to this is they claim our room had been set to do not disturb, which is impossible for us to confirm because they have an uncommon light system that we have never seen before. But regardless of the color of a light, If a guest is drawing frequent attention to an uncleanly room then the housekeeping should be talking to the guests about the color of the light on their door, shouldn’t they? And perhaps asking if they can come in. Finally, on the last day of our weekend we noticed blood stains on the duvet. The color of stained blood is very recognizable and this very clearly was, and the manager claimed that it could have been any kind of stain. It is very clearly blood. The royal anne is not a cheap hotel so I would assume that they can afford to retire a duvet and purchase a new one when it gets contaminated by blood. Finally, when I talked to the manager on the phone after returning home her response to the uncleaned bathtub was that “leftover hair in a bath tub does not mean it is unclean” and they blamed us for the room not getting cleaned despite our frequent requests. She offered $50 off the stay for the weekend, which equates to about to 5.5% of the total I paid when we arrived. I found this very insulting to have had to do our own housekeeping and had to sleep in blood stained linens. The only thing this hotel has going for it is the location, but I desperately advise against staying there if you value cleanliness and good customer service. I have also read quite a few reviews with similar stories so this is clearly a...