Poets Cove Resort & Spa — Hotel in Southern Gulf Islands Electoral Area

I came to Poet's Cove the last weekend of March with four other friends. We were celebrating a birthday, which we let the front desk know. They didn't offer any extras, not that this was necessarily expected - just so you know. I was not the one who made the booking but we all stayed in the same cottage for the duration of the weekend.

We booked through Groupon for a private cottage for two nights. The cottage was advertised as having Wifi, cable, a "fully stocked" kitchen, and a private hot tub. The photos on the website looked beautiful, the décor looked modern.

The first thing I noticed upon arrival was that the photos on the website looked nothing like the cottage we booked. It seemed much smaller, much less modern. For the price of the hotel, I expected soft, poofy bedding. Instead, the bedding was cheap, scratchy, and old. The sheets were yellowed and literally had holes in them, the duvet was thin and cheap feeling. With hard, embroidered pillows, it felt like staying at my great-great-aunt's house.

When we arrived, the WiFi did not work. We were told to use a neighbouring cabin's WiFi, which did not reach our cottage. After a day of using our data and another call to complain, they realized they had not even put a router in our cottage, and they had to come install one. The couch sofa bed was covered in crumbs and had not been cleaned - our guest sleeping on the sofa bed was told to "sleep on top of it" couch-style. We did not pay to couch surf.

The hot tub became cold after a few hours, and did not warm up for the entire rest of the weekend. We were told by a maintenance man that the neighbouring cottage's hot tub had been prepared for our enjoyment. Well, it turns out there was someone STAYING in the neighbouring cabin that was none too happy about that. And, additionally, it was so dirty that I wasn't able to stomach staying in it - dirt, bugs and HAIR floated up all around me.

The "fully stocked" kitchen included one pot, one pan, three wine glasses, two robes, only two towels in the main bathroom (this cabin is supposed to house six).

Over the course of the weekend we had to make so many calls to the front desk (not all of which were even answered, or were answered rudely and unhelpfully) that it put a damper on the entire trip.

At the end of the trip we were so upset with the service that we waited around to speak with a manger. She said that because we were Groupon customers, they would not offer any form of compensation on our current stay - she offered us a discount if we came back during peak season. Given our stay, we were not comfortable coming back. We ended up being offered $20 each off brunch at the restaurant. At the restaurant, our bill still ended up being exorbitantly expensive, and they would not show us our bills - they wrote down our totals on one piece of paper. I should say that the manager was very nice, but the compensation offered in my eyes was unacceptable, given the circumstances.

I understood before arriving that not all the facilities would be open, but I was not expecting that the facilities that were open would have maintenance coming and going. Because our own hot tub didn't work and the neighbour's hot tub was surprisingly occupied, we went to use the resort hot tub. We found this was, as well, quite cool, the jets didn't appear to properly work, and there were maintenance people loudly talking and installing a camera directly next to us, a ladder not in use directly in the way of the view. All in all, the resort was simply not ready for people to be there.

I understand that we came during the off season, and that we got a discount, but it was still very expensive and we were still paying to stay at what was supposed to be a four star resort. It was embarrassing, disappointing, and I will not be coming back. If you're going to come here, absolutely do not come on a Groupon, where you will apparently be treated like a second class guest, and don't bother coming in the off season.

The views and the resort in general were still...

I recently spent 4 days at the resort with my family and we had a fantastic time. This was my second stay at Poets Cove and it was similar to the first, except we were with children this time. Pros: the location is absolutely amazing, the views are incredible from the marina. We don’t have a boat but the marina itself is spotless and had nothing but beautiful boats docked there. Pender island itself is such a special gem, there is so much to do and Poets Cove is a perfect place to stay as opposed to other accommodations on the island. the service is very friendly at Poets cove, both the reception and the restaurant the rooms with the hot tub are an absolute must, worth every extra penny. The hot tub is in the perfect location to enjoy the view and is a fantastic hot tub, tons of jets and seats. the pool and public hot tub are lovely, the pool is heated and was never busy the whole time we were there

Now for the bad. Cons: This place needs a serious overhaul, it is very outdated at this point and everything needs to be fixed or replaced it this place will continue to go downhill without some money and love. our cottage was lovely but much smaller than expected, the photos are deceiving. the bathrooms all had toiletries but nothing was refilled, we used the conditioner within 2 days. we had 3 towels for 6 people for 4 days, we requested more towels and had to wait quite a while for them due to laundry not being done. Considering the resort was mostly empty, this seems like it shouldn’t be an issue. The gym - most of the machines are broken, there was equipment laying around everywhere and not cleaned the entire time I was there. phone in the room didn’t work both doors in our unit were broken, which is scary because we had 4 children and both exits to the place broken, this is a serious safety issue. we had 4 kids and all of them worked sometimes and sometimes not, very frustrating. very limited supplies in the kitchen. we were given shampoo to use for dish soap the restaurant is very so-so, service is fine but the food is average the soap dishes - absolutely disgusting. Both bathrooms had them and they were encased in old soap from previous guests, yuck.

All in all, poets cove is an amazing place but there are SO many things that they need to improve on to make it a 5 star. As a base to travel around Pender, it’s great and comfortable. We went off season so it was a reasonable price, however, we looked into summer rates and I would be VERY disappointed to pay that much money in the summer and have the lack of quality we experienced...

Please note this review is for the spa only - we did not stay at the resort, only came for a spa appointment. We were very much looking forward to our spa experience as a part of our stay on Pender, but unfortunately visit left us feeling somewhat disappointed.

The biggest issue is that we were not informed at the time of booking that the massage therapists would not be Registered Massage Therapists (RMTs). We only learned this when it came time to make payment and we inquired about insurance billing. It is standard practice for spas to notify clients if services are being provided by non-RMTs, particularly for the rate being charged ($185 for 60min!!). Discovering this at the end of our visit soured the experience for us and we do wish we had been informed at time of booking so we could weigh appropriately.

Additionally, when we originally booked our appointments, we were told that a couples massage was not possible and we had to schedule our services one after the other, which was not convenient. However, the day prior to our appointment, we were informed that we could both have our massages at 10 AM, which we appreciated. Despite this, the massages still took place in separate rooms, even though my room had two beds to accommodate a couples massage. This oversight in service detail was disappointing.

Also, we were not asked about our pressure preferences before the massage. My spouse prefers a light touch, but his therapist mentioned she has a heavy hand, which would have been more suitable for me as I prefer firm pressure. This lack of communication affected our overall experience.

There were also some smaller issues that, while not significant on their own, contributed to our less-than-ideal experience. These included a dirty and clogged toilet in the ladies' change room, an unclean hot tub, no access to the sauna, and no key offered to secure lockers for our valuables.

I did reach out privately to spa management to discuss our experience and concerns, but only received back a canned response that felt insincere. My follow up email asking to more specific rectification or compensation was...