Clarion Hotel & Conference Centre — Hotel in Sherwood Park

UPON CHECK-IN No pool, & no offer of compensation, even though we booked this location as it advertised a pool. Upon check in we were told it was closed for the last month for annual mtce. No hotel in their right mind would do annual mtce in the height of tourism season. Asked about chemicals & fragrances in the room & the possibility of an ozone machine. The room still smelled. Even though the bedding appeared to be clean, they had a strong bleach smell & caused respiratory issues while we were in the room.
Used tissue & water bottle between the bed & bedside table. Crumpled brown paper towel on the fridge. Stained bedspread Toenail clippings on the bathroom floor Bathtub was very soft & spongy, as well as not safe to have a bath in as the ceramic finish was very rough & had ridges on it. Actual dirt chunks in one of the drawers. Clock radio did not work. The chair & ottoman were stained so we did not even get to use them.

NOTICED DURING OUR STAY - in our room: A universal sign is that when wet towels are in the bathtub, that is asking to have new ones, BUT apparently, not here. WIFI was the slowest I have ever experienced anywhere. Checking simple emails was painfully slow & streaming anything was broken every 10-20 seconds, so not functionable. I cannot imagine working people staying here & working on their computers in the evening. Dripping bath tub There really should be a washroom in the breakfast area Garbage outside the front door the whole 2 days we were there. Even though there was a maid’s cart sitting in the hallway all day, until approx. 8:00 pm, I only saw a maid once when I went to find someone to provide some clean towels.
Missing & broken baseboards in our room Cracked floor tiles in the bathroom Tile grout was black, even though it was a light grey around the edges – this means DIRT!!! Dirty curtains. Walls are paper thin & sounds even carry from the down the hall.
Our neighbours had stained sheets & a toilet that flushed by itself all night.

LACK OF GENERAL CLEANING STANDARDS THROUGHOUT: Exercise Room: o Spider webs on the baseboard o Dust on all the exercise machines o Candy on the window sill o It looked like it hadn’t been cleaned properly in weeks, or even months o Dirty floor o There was also a beeping that sounded exactly like a smoke detector asking to have it’s battery changed. Fire department would have been all over that & written you up for violation. Main Floor Hallway by Ball Room: o Floors were generally filthy.
o Leaves & bigger pieces of dirt between the double doors to the outside. o It almost appears to have been abandoned. o The majority of the washroom stalls were either “out of order”, or filthy & unusable. One sprayed water everywhere when flushed. o General lack of cleanliness Hallway to breakfast area: o Cobwebs between the double doors to the outside o Dirt floor o Stained ceiling tiles - Vending Machine Nook: o Wet & stained ceiling tiles over the vending machines o Filthy floor in front of the machines o Filthy floor in back/side of the machines. o Dirty walls o Didn’t feel safe buying anything out of the them as they could have been expired years ago.

Upon checkout, we would normally be asked, “How was your stay?” NOBODY asked! Maybe they knew they would have gotten an ear full.

Are the ceiling tiles stained from long ago? Or fresh & full of mold? Not healthy. General cleaning is horrible. Perhaps hiring more cleaning & maintenance staff would help. This is not a place I would recommend under any circumstances to anyone. This is unfortunate as this location was short listed for a future bus trip, which is obviously not going to happen here. I am sure this property was once a very elegant hotel & conference centre, but as it stands today is on its way to ruin. Cleanliness & general maintenance are pretty important for a lot of travellers.

We were not looking for problems. All of these points jumped out at us & made us want to leave, but we were stuck there. This is one of our worst hotel...

At first glance, as you walk in the front door, you are surrounded by what once was a grand entrance way. However, after you check in and make your way to your room, that grandeur fades away. Over the course of our 2 night stay, we observed : | - Used tissue & water bottle between the bed & bedside table.|- Crumpled brown paper towel on the fridge.|- Stained bedspread |- Toenail clippings on the bathroom floor|- Bathtub was very soft & spongy, as well as not safe to have a bath in as the ceramic finish was very rough & had ridges on it.|- Actual dirt chunks in one of the drawers.|- Clock radio did not work.|- The chair & ottoman were stained so we did not even get to use them. |- A universal sign is that when wet towels are in the bathtub, that is asking to have new ones, BUT apparently, not here.|- WIFI was the slowest I have ever experienced anywhere. Checking simple emails was painfully slow & streaming anything was broken every 10-20 seconds, so not functionable. |- Dripping bath tub|- There really should be a washroom in the breakfast area|- Garbage outside the front door the whole 2 days we were there.|- Even though there was a maid’s cart sitting in the hallway all day, until approx. 8:00 pm, I only saw a maid once. |- Missing & broken baseboards in our room|- Crack floor tiles in the bathroom|- Tile grout was black, even though it was a light grey around the edges – this means DIRT!!!|- Dirty curtains.|- Walls are paper thin & sounds even carry from the down the hall. |- Our neighbours had stained sheets & a toilet that flushed by itself all night.|LACK OF GENERAL CLEANING STANDARDS THROUGHOUT:|- Exercise Room:|o Spider webs on the baseboard|o Dust on all the exercise machines|o Candy on the window sill|o It looked like it hadn’t been cleaned properly in weeks, or even months|o Dirty floor|o There was also a beeping that sounded exactly like a smoke detector asking to have it’s battery changed.|- Main Floor Hallway by Ball Room:|o Floors were generally filthy. |o Leaves & bigger pieces of dirt between the double doors to the outside.|o It almost appears to have been abandoned.|o The majority of the washroom stalls were either “out of order”, or filthy & unusable. One sprayed water everywhere when flushed.|o General lack of cleanliness|- Hallway to breakfast area:|o Cobwebs between the double doors to the outside|o Dirt floor|o Stained ceiling tiles - |- Vending Machine Nook:|o Wet & stained ceiling tiles over the vending machines|o Filthy floor in front of the machines|o Filthy floor in back/side of the machines.|o Dirty walls|o Didn’t feel safe buying anything out of the them as they could have been expired years ago.||We did complete their post-stay survey, indicating the above items. However, they only argued a couple of things that they were not responsible for such as advertising having a pool when we booked, but only found out the day of checkin, that the pool was closed due to maintenance for the past month, over a busy tourism summer month. It would have been nice if they would have told us that at booking time. Due to the short notice, all of our other hotel options were no longer available. Even though they said they had used an ozone machine in the room prior to our arrival, we weren't able to to figure out until the 2nd morning that the sheets/bed were degassing a somewhat bleach/cleaning agent smell. ||This is NOT a place I would recommend to anyone under any circumstance. When we checked in, we expected a standard level of cleanliness, but this would be challenged to even reach minimum expectations when there were so many infractions. After going through this experience, it reinforces the need to read & evaluate all the reviews BEFORE actually booking a place to stay. ||Aside from staying here, our biggest regret was not...

In general, not a great stay. There were a couple of highlights, but more negatives than positives.

NEGATIVES Supplies in the room were sparse at best. Two bath towels and two hand towels when we arrived. No facecloths at all. This remained the norm throughout our 5 day stay. We had a coffee maker and coffee supplied when we arrived, along with only 2 paper cups. Coffee was terrible, not even drinkable. The paper coffee cups were removed from the room without replacements being left. After 3 days I had to ask for more cups and coffee at the front desk. While I did get some there, none was provided daily in the room. The room TV could barely be used. The speaker in the TV must have been blown - it rattled so badly at times you could barely make out what was being said on the programs. The room itself was sparsely furnished, just a bucket chair and desk/chair besides the beds even though there was plenty of room for more chairs or a couch. Breakfast was always the same. Hot food was luke warm at best with very limited choices (cheese omletes, french toast, sausages). This never changed for our 5 day stay. Some cold options available to, cereal and muffins. Coffee was undrinkable. It was so weak it tasted like the coffee beans had been reused. The juice - apple first 3 days, orange last 2 - was so watered down it had no flavor. Staff were few and far between. It seemed every time I needed to speak to someone the front desk clerk was gone and I had to wait for them to return. Some staff seemed inconvenienced by requests (room supplies, pool towels), almost like they needed to pay for these items out of their own salaries. One of the worst things was a lack of vehicle plug ins for hotel guests. There was only a single plug for the entire hotel, ridiculous (this was according to the front desk clerk). They were needed to as the average overnight temperature during our visit was -30C. The shower was very difficult to use. The pressure from the shower head was so high it caused significant discomfort on your skin, and the temperature was either too cold or too hot. Unfortunately there was no hot tub.

HIGHLIGHTS The hotel is cheap, easily one of the cheapest in Sherwood Park (remember, you get what you pay for). The room was large, even though underfurnished. Beds were adequate. The beds were remade daily and fresh towels provided (although nothing else was). Staff were mostly friendly and helpful when they could be found. The pool was nice, warm water so you could enjoy it. The shortcoming was an apparent lack of pool towels. Hotel did allow us to bring our grandkids for a swim in their pool.

CONCLUSION In general we got the feeling the hotel was being 'cheap' by not providing basics for an enjoyable stay. We will not return as there are other, much better hotels...