The Westin Bear Mountain Golf Resort & Spa, Victoria — Hotel in Langford

I have stayed at many Starwood properties, and this one certainly was disappointing. I findi it difficult to call it a "resort". Here are the problems we encountered during our stay: When we arrived, there was a power outage. While not the fault of the hotel, the lighting in the garage and stairwell was inadequate and created a dangerous condition. The pool was also closed because of the power outage, which did not make sense. The staff wsa completely disoriented. I had called ahead of time to inquire as to the complimentary bike use, and I was assured that free bikes were included with the room. When my family of four attempted to go for a ride on the first morning, we received varying information about the number of bikes available, how to reserve them, whether they could be reserved, and whether there were two bikes for my 10 and 7 year-old children. When we arrived at the valet's station (they were responsible for the bikes), my wife's bike was broken. I was given a bike that pedaled about six yards and then stuck in gear. My wife and I were given two different bikes, and half-way through the ride, one of the spoke's came out of place on my wife's second bike, caught in the chain, and nearly caused her to crash. This occurred while on the paved path. The kids and I took the bikes back, while my wife walked her bike behind. The valet was quite embarassed and told us that they were still working out the kinks with the bikes, that they did not have a designated repair person, and that the off-site repair person would arrive the following day. The room was adequate, although, it had an odd layout and was sparsely decorated. The view was of the garbage dumpster across the street in back of the restaurant next door. I expected more as a SPG Gold member. The room had a kitchenette, but we only had one fork, an odd number of plates, and an odd number of glasses. We had to call several times and actually talk with management about getting additional cutlery and tableware before the problem was resolved. It was not until our third day that we had an adequate supply despite repeated requests. The room was very dusty when we arrived. We actually wrote "dust me" with a finger on the TV stand, and it was two days before it had been dusted off. We took a picture of it because we were in such disbelief. Our deck had a large, filtered cigarette butt sitting on it when we arrived, which was not removed, despite multiple requests, until about the fourth day of our stay. Additioanlly, housekeeping was inconsistent, coming early in the morning on some days, and not until almost 5:00 on others, which caused problems after arriving back to the room from a day out. The walls were thin. An occupant next to us who was there for only one night, thank goodness, was so loud just talking that they woke our entire room up around 6:00 a.m. Apparently, they had travel arrangements and needed to get out of the room early. I wanted to put my kids in private golf lessons as advertised on the website. When we went down to speak to the gentleman at the pro shop, he told us he was going out of town, there would be only one pro for the next couple days, and could not assure us that there would be anyone to give the lessons. Rather than get our name, he told us to check back the next day. I did check back, there was no one to give the private lessons, and we ended up enrolling our kids in one group lesson. The level of customer service was poor. The lack of availablity of golf services for a golf resort was shocking. The front desk seemed overwhelmed and was not very helpful with regard to suggestions for eating out for obtaining additional services. Finally, the food was average at best. We had two meals, one was a BBQ buffet, and the other was a sit down dinner. We actually had better dinner in town for half the price.

After spending a wonderful five days in Scottsdale at the resort there, with impeccable service and top-notch facilities, this experience was seriously lacking. Other than the newness of the faciliity and the nice pool, spa, and gym, we would not recommend...

I am very disappointed with my overall experience at this hotel. The staff had no manners, especially in the restaurant's located within the hotel, my room was located right next door to the housekeeping which was a disturbance throughout the the entire day, especially during early morning hours and had numerous incidents of disrespectful remarks and disappointments. Upon my arrival, staff at the front desk were not very inviting or friendly, seemed like even putting on a smile was too much effort. Proceeding, I acquire my keys and room number only to find out my room was located right next door to the housekeeping. This was much of a shock considering I had a in-house gift certificate for my stay and expected a room in a much private area not located so close to such a ruckus. After all the hotel was not busy, and a room located in such a area should be reserved as a last priority (when the hotel is absolutely full). My reservation was also done a week in advance to my arrival, meaning there was no reason for there not to be any other available rooms meeting the standard of room enlisted on my certificate. Huge disappointment. When it comes to the manners of the waitresses, it was absolutely unacceptable. I ordered a salad, which I received dry. When I had asked the waitress kindly for some dressing she walked away without a word came back and threw the dressing onto my table and walked away, again without saying a word. There were 2 tables filled at this time (myself and another 2 seater), the lounge was not busy, therefore asking for some dressing for my unappetizing dry salad should not only be obtained with enthusiasm but with a smile rather than a frown as if i was asking for a complicated order of a food non existent to the menu you provide. Another incident with one of your servers at your restaurants was during my breakfast. Upon check in I was re assured that my gift certificate included a complimentary breakfast. With this knowledge and common courtesy to inform the waitress, before taking my order I informed her. Her reaction was absolutely disrespectful and very unprofessional. She found it amusing, laughed in my face, giggled while she asked with great attitude " do you have a prestige card or something?", and also specified that she has never heard of the hotel giving out complimentary breakfast. She then excused herself and verbally explained that she needs to check with the reception if this is true. The most unfortunate fact about this situation is that at your hotel what you consider complementary, is not really complementary considering you automatically charge the tip percentage to my credit card. This waitress did not only offend me with her unprofessionalism and judgmental comment, but I also had to pay for her tip during my check out, when she clearly did not deserve one after her actions. Due to all these disappointing experiences I chose to leave the hotel 1 day before my check out date. Not only were staff disappointing and the issue of my room placement, but the lack of effort when it comes to transportation at this hotel just takes the cake. Not only is the resort at least a half an hour drive away from any tourist attraction areas and charges so much money for its facilities, there is no initiative taken to provide a simple shuttle service to ANYWHERE. I was shocked to find out that my only choice was to be stranded in a hotel with rude staff everywhere, or take a taxi that would cost me 50 dollars ( or more depending on traffic) each way in order to get to the city, quite frankly even to the nearest bus stop the ferry. Ridiculous.

This was by far the worst hotel experience of my life, and I definitely will never recommend this resort to anyone, nor will I choose to stay at any Westin Hotel's...

If You’re Considering Staying at The Westin Bear Mountain in Victoria—Don’t.

We booked a two-night stay at The Westin Bear Mountain, expecting a relaxing, high-end experience at $450 a night. What we got instead was more like an experience I would expect from a motel 6.

On our first night in room #350, we came back from a long day out, lay down to unwind, turned on the TV—and then suddenly, the power in more than half of our room cut out. No TV. No A/C. No ability to charge our phones. No lights. The only functioning light was in the bathroom.

We immediately called the front desk. A gentleman came up and informed us that the breaker panel for our room wasn’t even in our room—it was in the room next door, where the guests were already asleep. So, nothing could be done until morning. We were told the hotel was fully booked, so moving rooms wasn’t an option either. We were assured it would be fixed while we were out the next day.

When we returned the next evening, the power was back on—temporarily. But the fact that the issue was never actually addressed became clear when, early the next morning, the power cut out again. No lights, no A/C, no TV, no charging—again. Trying to pack up our things back into a suitcase in a hot, dark room using nearly dead phone flashlights is not what we had in mind when paying $900 for two nights. It was absurd and we expected better treatment or compensation for the inconvenience as it happened not once but twice.

During our stay, we received zero proactive compensation. We had to ask if anything could be done. The hotel gave us a $50 credit—but it could only be used on non-alcoholic purchases at the hotel (after the lady at the front desk told us we could go get drinks that night). That barely covers breakfast for one person. The breakfast itself was underwhelming. We had to cancel our plans with family just to use the credit, and even then had to spend another $50 out of pocket because the food prices were so high.

When we brought up the second power outage at checkout, the front desk agent was dismissive and defensive. No apology. No ownership. No offer of a partial refund or rate adjustment. Just an offhand comment that it was likely a problem in the neighboring room tripping the breaker—again, not our fault. We got the feeling that because we are young, they don’t feel the need to compensate us appropriately, and instead are taking advantage of us.

We expected so much more from a so-called “premium” resort. Instead, we paid premium prices for a room that only worked part of the time, with little to no accountability from staff. This was supposed to be a special getaway we’d saved up for to treat ourselves and visit family. It ended up being a stressful, disappointing, and frankly infuriating experience.

Bottom line: don’t waste your money here. If I wanted the electricity to completely shut off twice in two days and be met with indifference by staff, I would have stayed at a budget motel for $80 a night. You’re better off staying anywhere else in Victoria—The Westin Bear Mountain is absolutely not worth the price or the frustration. We will certainly not be staying here again, nor will any of our family or friends.

I can guarantee that zero accountability will be taken and it will be the typical “sorry to hear about your experience, we will pass the feedback along.” I would like a manager to reach out to me, however with the lack of customer service displayed during our stay it seems as though I will have to...