Best Western Fireside Inn — Hotel in Ontario

The Good, The Bug and The Ugly

COMMENTARY We reserved a "Fantasy Suite" for 3 nights, to the tune of $1700. What should have been a trip to a rustic-looking getaway with a full suite and beautiful layout ended up being a nightmare. The greeting and speed to get into our room was great, and the staff were polite. We quickly dumped our luggage and headed out to scout the area around the hotel. When we returned a few hours later, we were met by a chilled bottle of local champagne in our room. This is where the issues began. Why was someone in our room without notice or permission? Stand-up shower was extremely dirty including hair from various parts of someone else's body, spiders making webs IN the shower stall, and black mold in places. Black mold found inside a ceiling vent in the bedroom area Numerous types of debris (including what looked like a leaf - but no plants in the room?!), many bugs (alive and dead) including spiders, stinkbugs and some I couldn't even identify, found in both the sleeping side and bathing side of the suite, behind large furniture and along the wall edges (and this was only in obviously-viewable spaces, I can just imagine what is in the deeper, darker spots) Extremely outdated television offerings (think basic cable) Hair (from someone else) in the bathroom, the bed and the shower Body hair and foot-lint found in the bed (yes, we stripped the blankets down to the feet to check if the bed had actually been changed, and we firmly believe it had not, based on this. An in-suite refrigerator that was so laughably small (think the size of a microwave), poorly maintained and poorly placed (INSIDE a TV cabinet where no ventilation would allow the heat to escape) that the creamers - unintentionally-left? - inside were curdled. A beautiful hot tub that was extremely uninviting (a giant cover half-pulled off that you couldn't really put anywhere because the edges of the tub are too small). The tiled areas around the tub were NOT cleaned, there were handprints all over the walls in various places. A gap so large under the room door that I could put my hand under it Zero windows (presumably for privacy, but in an age where most of us live in cities, this just makes the room extremely unwelcome for a suite that is supposed to be a step closer to a rustic retreat. The fireplace / hot tub controls looked original (based on the extremely-aged plastic fade colour) Rugs that are probably original to the hotel, large gaps between the rug edges and the walls Finally, the overall cleanliness of the room was an absolute zero in my opinion Upon first view it's obvious that the high traffic areas were swept and vacuumed, but that is absolutely minimum. There was caked on dirt and debris under tables and all along the perimeter of the room (including behind furniture that doesn't appear to have been moved in months, if not years and behind the bed, under the nightstands and TV stands, on the chair rails) Some of the trim was falling off Vents were absolutely filthy inside Behind garbage cans, behind doors had clearly NOT been cleaned, showing dead spiders or bugs, or hair Although the pillows were fluffed and the sheets in the body-area looked clean, pulling the blankets down further yielded foot/sock lint and personal body hair

FINAL WORD I'm writing this review hopefully so this hotel Owner will update their rooms and also truly follow-up with how their cleaning staff operates and basic maintenance/updating. I had stayed at this hotel over 20 years ago, and had a memorable-enough stay to warrant a return consideration, but I'm desperately sorry that our entire trip was dulled by this experience. There is a "Suzie Wong Suite" that we didn't get a chance to review, but hopefully it was a better experience than ours. The hotel itself seems to have decent reviews overall, so perhaps your experience will be better than mine.

Thanks...

Over this past weekend, we had a planned Caribbean trip that unfortunately got cancelled last minute by our airline. Upon this disappointment, we decided to make the most of it and take a trip out to Kingston to explore eastern Ontario. It was a cold drizzly day, but we wanted to turn things around stumbled upon this hotel which had good ratings.

One of the sole purposes of choosing your lodging over others was the description that your rooms had working fireplaces. With plenty of other hotels in the area that had modern atmospheres with competitive or cheaper price ranges, we decided to choose this hotel due to its perceived cozy nature, ambiance, and atmosphere.

Upon first entering the, we were greeted with an unpleasant and unwelcoming reception at the front desk, quickly putting a damper on our stay.

Yet, we let it go and pushed on, just wanting to settle in and get out from the cold drizzle. We were looking forward to heating up by the fireplace and cozying up to watch TV. However, it was only revealed to us once we settled in that our fireplace was fake (and not even one of the nice fake ones). The working gas or electric fireplace that once was looked to have been replaced and exchanged for a lightbulb behind some plastic and a poorly retro-fitted twist timer. It DID NOT give off any form of heat whatsoever. We quickly felt bated and scammed as this was the main reason and selling feature for selecting the hotel in the first place.

Yet, while we decided to even let this go, we couldn’t even relax when using the TV. When switching it on, it was old, outdated, and had a fading picture. The in-room entertainment had no TV feature options like other hotels usually offer, had no smart options like Netflix or on-demand services, and did not even a channel guide or TV listing information to know what exactly was playing on the channels. The TVs in the hallways advertising the restaurant were better than what we had.

The only GOOD thing we did appreciate from our stay was the hotels cleanliness, bedding, waitstaff attentiveness, and lodge-style charm of the 1980s/1990s. I am greatly pleased they stuck with the original theme of the hotel to this day without trying to modernize the rooms with trendy new furniture or mismatching interior design styles like other hotels have made the mistake of doing. However, the amenities and service the hotel provided was subpar. We paid for an extremely overpriced stay yet got poor value in comparison to what we could have gotten somewhere else. Having experienced these issues, I will not visit again.

This hotel could be greatly enhanced if management simply shifted its focus. Things like the upkeep of the hotels theme by keeping up with the maintenance of its interior/exterior appearance, offering modernized amenities such as working fireplaces or smart TV features, and providing a warm and welcoming reception upon arrival. If these issues were all addressed, I would be enticed in...

Poor service, poor rooms, poor breakfast... Avoid!

The worst was the woman in her fifties with white hair who was at the front desk when we arrived on July 11th around 1 PM: never received such bad service from any hotel I ever went to! Took a few minutes to arrive at her desk, then no greetings at all. We wanted to check-in if possible, but she immediately said there would be no rooms available before 3 PM (on a Monday??) without even checking in their system to see if any room was already prepared. Did not ask for our names. No excuses, no suggestion to call us back our rooms would be ready. We requested to leave our luggage in storage (4 small carry-ons, not even 1 large suitcase!), and she said they have no space for that... 1st time I see that in any standard hotel. Finally, she just ignored our unsatisfaction, did not provide any alternative, and we just had to leave. Fortunately, we came by car, but what would we have done with our carry-ons until 3 PM if we had arrived by train? On the opposite, the young lady (who checked-us in) on July 11th evening was very nice and helpful! She noticed by herself my Gold Rewards status and provided the water bottles.

Breakfast: Electrical problems caused the toaster and reheaters to stop working. Staff was not prompt to correct the problem either... we had to insist for them to check the breakers which resolved the issue after quite some time! Waffles not fresh. Potatoes very greasy. Overall, poor breakfast quality in comparison to many other Best Western and other brands elsewhere.

Hotel rooms in dire need of major renovations! I'm wondering why Best Western still keeps this hotel under their brand name, certainly not up to their usual standards... would never be accepted under Fairfield Inn or Hampton Inn brands, and far from Best Western Plus/Premier. Walls and carpeting in a bad state. Space quite limited to put anything down in the bathroom. Very poor sleep quality: noisy from the corridor (noise coming through the door) and from the AC. The mattress is...