Watermark Beach Resort — Hotel in Osoyoos

On Saturday April 16th, my bachlorette dinner was held in the dining room at Watermark. My maid of honour meticulously planned the entire weekend in Osoyoos perfectly, from visiting each bar, and other restaurants in town, to the wine tour around the famous vinyards in Oliver. I was dressed by my friends in a wardrobe of entirely white with a tiara, as my friends adorned an all black attire, making it fairly obvious I was at the very least a guest of honour. At each of these locations we visited in celebration of my upcoming nuptials, I was treated like a queen, with excellent service, and if not matched excitement, at the very least an acknowledging 'congratulations' from staff.

This however was not the case at The Restaurant at Watermark. The waiter did not acknowledge me as a guest of honour, he did not make note of my presence being out of the ordinary. Instead of being asked a drink order, I had to interrupt him to order. I was not requested once whether or not I would like a second drink or perhaps a wine option with my dinner, my first drink was finished within 15 minutes of receiving it at the beginning of the meal and not once replaced. I know that we were served 'family style' as this was the most appropriate for the restaurant for a group of our size; however each dish was placed in front of me last or out of reach.

As friends were paying I overheard the waiter ask where we were headed next, after my friends informed him of our next event he proceeded to mention that our next venue was a poor choice; Something I found slightly inappropriate.

The most appalling of the night was what I had learned after I'd left. My maid of honour was in charge of transporting us to the next venue. After we had all settled the bills she needed to make multiple trips; and I'd travelled in the first group while some friends remained behind at the restaurant in waiting. After she had made her third and final trip, the guests that joined me let us know that they had proceeded to order a few more beverages while they waited; when they approached the waiter for the bill for these drinks, he told them that payment was unnecessary. If anyone should have had special treatment, and I'm not asking or expecting anything for free, but it should have been the bride if anyone. I felt very unimportant and in no way a guest of honour. If you want to feel special on your day, be it a birthday, grad event, or bachelorette; maybe try somewhere other than The Restaurant at Watermark. If you want the waiter to flirt with your attractive friend on your special day, by all means, this is your place.

The pity here really is that the food and the drink was delicious,my praise to the chef, I would have surely ordered more, and told my friends and family of the delicious meals. I would also have loved to have tried a bottle or two of the wine selection, however the opportunity for me to even request one was so vacant and the overall experience was so marred by the lack of service and respect to the type of event. I felt disregarded and disrespected. And, after making multiple attempts to contact the resort, with no response at all regarding my complaint, I feel it necessary to warn others before they are...

I like to think that my reviews provide an honest and as fair as possible opinion of a particular place I’ve visited and, if you have a look, at my other reviews I hope that you’ll see this. For this one, before I posted it, I thought long and hard about whether I was being fair minded and I came to the conclusion that I wouldn’t change anything.

We had booked a “One Bedroom Suite Lake View” and yes, there’s a view of the lake but the suite is right in the corner of what is effectively a “U” shaped building and the view is therefore obstructed by the rest of the building to your left or right dependent upon which corner you get. Straight ahead is fine though!

In addition, the patio is virtually open to next door so you might as well be conversing with the people next door to you - yes, you hear every word! And, remembering that you’re in a corner, you hear the people to your left or right in front of you as well!

And, keep your blinds shut because, unlike the view of the lake, the view into the suite isn’t obstructed at all! Speaking of blinds we had a broken one which wouldn’t open properly so I asked at Reception for someone to fix it - “No problem, we’ll send someone up right away!”. It took another day but they did replace it along with the coffee machine which also didn’t work.

The room itself is a time share so is well equipped with fridge/freezer and washer/dryer etc but is designed to be easy to clean and, as a result, is somewhat sterile and not in any way what could be termed “homely”. It’s well equipped adequate.

The good points for the hotel/time share is that they’re right on the lake and have easy access to the town and I’m sure that many people would be perfectly happy.

Did I like the suite? It’s ok. Would I recommend it as a high end suite? No.

The weirdest thing for me was that when we were checking in, the couple in front were querying that although they’d booked a lake view room they’d got a street view instead. And reception staff were trying to persuade them that it was because the system “has a drop down menu which shows that you’re booking a lake view option but really means street view”. What???!!!

So, overall, would I recommend staying at the Watermark Beach Resort, Osoyoos based upon our experience? Well, we wouldn’t come back but, if you have kids and are happy putting up with a bit of noise from the excellent pool area during the day and from other guests at night...

We have gone to watermark for the last two years with two other families and wanted to make it a yearly trip with our young kids. It's a great location close to stores and the lake. Last year all three families had a great time so booked again for this year for Canada Day long weekend. It didn't go as well as last year and have decided not to go back. Although front desk employees and pool staff were great and made us feel welcome the cleanliness wasn't up to par this time around. We were there for five days and all three families didn't receive any housekeeping. We didn't receive housekeeping until we requested it on day three . Which we understood as covid has made it hard so we cleaned most things on our own. However, when we checked out the manager Raj Bains was so cruel and didn't have any customer service skills. She wanted to charge us more then we should have. We didn't get what we paid for there wasn't much housekeeping, ant's in our suite and nothing much in terms of cleaning supplies to clean on our own. A front desk employee had quoted us a deal as it was our ten year anniversary and Raj Bains didn't believe us. She called the employee on her day off to verify this and realized we weren't lying. She also told us that the employee did something that she shouldn't have and will penalized because of the rate she gave us. This is not something you should be discussing with your guests, it was highly inappropriate. She didn't apologize and made us feel bad through this while process. We said we are reoccurring customers and wouldn't lie and she didn't care. She was rude to the front desk man and told him to process our check out and left. I told her this was bad customer service and she said it was okay if we didn't come again. She acted as though we owed her some type of gratitude for poor customer service. Due to this we would never stay there again. We understand everyone is going through hard times due to covid but I can spend my hard earn money at a different resort. I can deal with no room service and ant's in our room and clean on our own although we were paid a lot for this room but when the manager Raj Bains doesn't care to please her guest or take any ownership that's when I would spend my money some where else. Never again would I stay...