Best Western Plus City Centre/Centre-Ville — Hotel in Quebec

A series of details added up to an unpleasant stay. To be clear, I am a loyal Best Western member who has had only positive experiences with the hotel chain – until I stayed at this hotel in Quebec City. This one hotel made me question why they are even part of the chain, given that what is established as a ‘BW standard of hospitality’ is lacking here. Some staff were sort of ok, some staff were not, but I would not go as far as saying that any were actually friendly, in terms of welcome or follow-up with reported issues. As I said, it was a bunch of details which, taken together, made the overall experience negative. Not one smile when you arrive at the hotel or at any point for that matter (ok, not a huge issue), and then No they do not have a bottle of water for guests (also not a huge issue), No there is no free parking (I was stunned to find out that it was an additional $32 for parking in a crowded gravel lot, outside, which is not even monitored – I feel that the staff could at least have mentioned the underground lot across the street given that the majority of guests are not locals and would not know about this option), and again No there is not a cup of tea in the lobby (but there is a Keurig machine in the room – if you enjoy the taste of the pod of tea…well congratulations). The location of the hotel is passable, but it is on the edge of being sketchy. If you are fit and can walk uphill to get to the old part (ie the beautiful part) of the city, it is a 20 minute walk. The room was clean but as has been reported by other guests, there was definitely a musty odor. Another annoying detail: there was only one bath towel and one facecloth per guest in the bathroom. No hand towel? No extra set? I have very long hair and use an additional towel after I was my hair – of course the hotel customer service agent will jump on this feedback and argue that I could have called reception – but I just didn’t feel like it, ok? Why isn’t there an additional towel like in every other hotel? Another issue: 5 or 6 (I did not count) of the cable tv channels listed as being on offer had a message stating no signal (ie TV5, among others), or at times the content would appear and disappear. Basic channels were ok. This I DID report - the staff said he would take note of it. We were going out that evening, so it was not an issue I wanted to wait around for. However, the channels were still not available the next morning. When I mentioned it to the super bored morning reception agent (in person this time) he told me that no other guests had mentioned anything about the channels, but that he would take note of it. So if it was only me that was affected then I should get a tiny discount (I didn’t ask but I assumed he would offer something). He did not. Whatever, it was too late by then, and he really did not care. Then, the kicker: at 6:30 am the next morning, as I was waiting for breakfast (starts at 7am) I asked if I could get a cup of coffee while I waited. Again, NO! I had to wait for breakfast hours. I sat in the lobby but then, given all the negative little things about this hotel, I asked, who knows why because it has never been in question at other BW hotels, ‘breakfast in included in the rate right’. Well, what do you think I was told: NO! He checked my rate and said it was NOT included. I was surprised and asked him to double check because the cost of my one night was $229 Cdn. I mean, really? That rate can’t even get me a cup of coffee and a toast? I blurted ‘what kind of a Best Western is this’? He told me that every BW is run independently. On the long drive back home I wondered why they are even part of the BW brand since they don’t offer the basics that all the other BW hotels offer. And finally, dear customer service agent, PLEASE do not make my experience at this hotel even more frustrating by attaching one of your dismissive feedback responses (ie we strive to make each customer feel valued…) because if you actually cared you would have addressed the repeated similar complaints made by...

I am beyond frustrated with the Valet Parking Service we had. I arrived at the hotel on Tuesday (March 7, 2017) afternoon leaving my vehicle in front of the hotel entrance with the doors locked. I gave my keys to the valet and went upstairs to my room until the next day. The next morning (Wednesday, March 8, 2017) before checking out, I called for my vehicle. At the same time, my parents were waiting for me in the lobby (at around 11 am) and they saw the valet park my jeep in front of their vehicle. They had eyes on my Jeep the whole time from when the Valet parked it until I got in the Jeep. As I went to open the door to my Jeep, everything was taking out of my console. I then realized someone has been in my Jeep. My prescribed glasses were stolen, as well as my Swell (thermos) bottle and the only key to our truck that was back home in NB. My boyfriend went back inside to advise the Assistant Manager of the valet that someone has stolen in our Jeep. Only two things could have happened: 1) The valet forgot to lock the doors or 2) Someone from the Staff (Valet) took my things. The Assistant Manager gave us the business card of the Director of Parking Services and told us they would check all the cameras, and if they found nothing, they would replace our stuff. This was on Wednesday morning (March 8, 2017). Friday morning (March 10, 2017), when we didn’t hear anything from them, my boyfriend called and no one was available. We called again on Saturday (March 11, 2017), the Assistant Manager and Manager weren’t working, so they told us to call on Monday Morning.

When we called on Monday (which is today – March 13, 2017), they told us they had our Jeep on the camera at all time. They saw the valet locking the doors and they saw no one going in the Jeep, which leads to the one thing that could have happened, the Valet took our things. We had stuff in the Jeep that was much more valuable, but they only grab the stuff that was in the console and that could obviously fit in their pockets/jackets. What is even more frustrating, the value of the glasses, the bottle and the truck key, which is a chip key, is about 800$. The Director of Parking Services said they cannot do anything because they don’t see no one going in the Jeep. They only waved the valet parking fee which was 24$.We told them it only leads to their Staff taking our stuff and they kept saying it’s not possible since no one was seen on camera going in the Jeep. They said they would call the police to tell them we reported to them that stuff was taking from our Jeep in their valet parking. Once we will have a police report, we will need to contact our insurance, which we have a 1000$ deductible. I will now need to pay this stuff out of my pocket, because of their mistake or their dishonesty. I’m very pissed off because if I would have parked my vehicle, I would have locked the doors. The Director of Parking Services also told us that on camera they see the Valet locking the doors. That being said, they are the only ones who had access to my vehicle. On top of that, we went to the Dodge dealership this morning in order to have a key for our truck as soon as possible, they told us because it is a chip key, they need the truck at their dealership to program it, so we obviously needed to tow it there, which is another 100$ cost. I’m very disappointed that the hotel can’t take responsibility for what they have done, I wish there would have been something other than valet parking that way everything would have stayed in the Jeep once I would have...

A disappointed Stay. When we arrived the hotel, the parking was full, so we had to park in the garage cross street. However due one way and nearby road constructions, it took me 15 minutes to find the parking entrance. When I called hotel and was told it would have enough parking available on site for the date we arrive. The lobby area looks newly renovated, but the room is out of date with odor. The cleaning of the room is a big concern, we found 2 flying bugs in the room and had to start killing them. We also found leftover fries underneath the small table. The pillow was too soft. The tub faucet was leaking when showerhead was on and 1/3 water just leaked away. We stayed 4 nights and there was no room cleaning service on the first day. We came back during late night and found out there was no clean work done, so we had to call front desk to have someone to come to collect garbage bags and give us clean towels. I asked the front desk “Do you provide room service”, they said yes and were sorry for missing the room cleaning. On second day, they came to clean the room. On the third day, they didn’t come to clean room again. After returning the hotel at 10pm, I had to call the front desk to come to collect garbage bags, to give us toilet paper and towels. We stayed total 4 nights, but only got one time room cleaning. The second day (Friday morning, August 26th) we waited over an hour before having the breakfast. The young waiter didn’t put our orders in the system at all. We found something was wrong after 45 minutes waiting and I went to ask the young waiter what happened to our orders, he didn’t have any response, then I had to ask another senior waiter, he found out something was wrong and replaced our orders. Then finally we got the food in about another 15 minutes, but the egg was cooked in wrong way, they had to take back the food and recook the eggs. After over 1 hour waiting, we finally had our breakfast. So just for the breakfast, we had to spend over 1.5 hours. At the beginning of ordering, we asked for Soy milk, the young waiter said no soy milk, which was a lie, as we had soy milk on the first day. After the initial ordering, he said “no problem, my friend”. Then there was a big problem, he didn’t put our order in the system at all. I asked the senior waiter what was wrong with our orders, he said the young waiter is a new employee and didn’t know how to input orders properly. Our family (3 persons) were very unhappy with this kind of breakfast service. On the third day (Saturday morning), it took 35 minutes before we had food. The overall waiting time for breakfast is long. About service charge for breakfast, the hotel should tell us there will be service charges on breakfast. As the breakfast was included, I didn’t know there will be service charges after I asked the waiter for bill. The waiter brought me a bill with 1 cent of charge, then told me there would be $15 for the tips (the service charge). Then I paid for it, I am sure not all hotel guests know about service charge, some guests might leave without knowing paying for breakfast service charges. The only thing good about this hotel is the location, it is not far from old Quebec city, it was easy to call Uber...