Best Western Plus Chateau Inn Sylvan Lake — Hotel in Town of Sylvan Lake

Our stay at this property began at 4pm Sunday July 21, 2024. And rapidly deteriorated due to the deplorable state of the hotel facilities and the subsequent disgraceful treatment we received from the staff.

Prior to checking in, my son was eager to swim. To our horror, the hot tub was covered with a thick layer of grime, clearly composed of bacteria, shed skin, and other unsanitary substances. The pool was similarly filthy, with visible mold and sediment at the bottom, indicating a severe lack of proper water treatment and maintenance. Additionally, the pool stair railing was dangerously loose and wobbled violently.

We booked this hotel specifically for these facilities offered, and we were disappointed at the unkempt state. I simply wanted to bring this to the managers attention, seeking an apology or assurance that these facilities would be cleaned and maintained appropriately. However, our encounter with the front desk staff member Kevin was deeply unsettling.

Kevin, who appeared to be quite young, displayed an extremely poor attitude and seemed overwhelmed by the number of guests checking in. When I asked to speak to someone in charge, he repeatedly stated that he did not know when she would be available, which I found highly unprofessional. Later in the evening the manager Zona arrived and called my room asking if I wanted to come down and chat with her. I said yes and she hung up the phone on me. Upon meeting her, it was immediately clear that she was not interested in addressing our concerns. She was rude and defensive, dismissing the cleanliness issues by stating that it wasn’t her problem given the high volume of guests. Regarding the dangerous pool railing, she shockingly claimed that guests use the pool "at their own risk." At this point my partner piped up - “you wouldn’t be saying that when someone splits their head open and files a law suit” this enraged Zona. She asks if we want a refund. I said yes that would be ideal. She says okay- but but insisted that we leave the hotel immediately, despite it being 8 PM and all other hotels in the area being fully booked. We expressed our intention to stay and hoped for some acknowledgment of our dissatisfaction. Instead, Zona escalated the situation, threatening us with eviction and calling the police. From there we were harassed, abused and had the police called on us. She continued to call our room throughout the evening threatening us saying “you have 30 minutes to leave” The police show up to our room at 11:30pm. A male and female officer. The police officers, upon hearing our side and seeing the condition of the hot tub, were equally appalled by not only the actions of Zona and Kevin and how our family has been treated here but the photos of the filthy hot tub as well. The female officer said she’s never had a call of this nature before, and could very well see we are a quiet family in our room enjoying some snacks and a movie. They negotiated with Zona, ensuring we could stay the night and receive a refund, but this did little to salvage our ruined vacation. In summary, our experience at the Best Western Plus Chateau Inn Hotel was nothing short of egregious. The unsanitary conditions of the facilities and the reprehensible behavior of the staff, particularly Zona and Kevin, have left us deeply distressed. We were treated as criminals for merely requesting basic cleanliness and safety. I will be contacting the regional director for Best Western, Alberta Health Services, the Better Business Bureau, and any other relevant authorities to report this unacceptable conduct.

This experience has entirely marred our family vacation, and we strongly advise others to avoid this...

OK, warning, long post but if you make it to the end there is another recommendation for a hotel that does BETTER customer service. We stayed at the BestWestern Sylvan Lake as it was the chosen venue for our niece‘s on wedding on July 12th. I guess I should’ve done my research bad on me. Don’t assume you’re gonna get good service because it’s Best Western. Check in was ridiculous being told your card is declined twice & asked us for another card because she doesn’t know how to use their system to check us in. We just used that card not 1/2 hr. Ago at a restaurant in Red Deer. I told her try it again then it was accepted. We had to use our truck for this trip as we needed to tow a trailer in SK. But left the trailer in SK. If possible, try not to use a truck as the parking spaces are very small. We had to take our Luggage out of the truck before parking it literally we had 1 foot on side due to a truck & not much more on the other side And there was a smaller SUV on that side. Luckily, the next day we moved our truck to the end of one row. Our concern was our truck being dented and there is no free parking on the street. It is all paid parking they Need to do better on the parking issue. Apologies are unacceptable They do not solve the problem. You’ll read this in many reviews of this hotel. We waited over 10 minutes for towels which were behind the counter, standing in bathing suits pretty obvious what we needed. So after the check of one couple in she turns to another couple to assist them. This lady wanted to know the room rate what the rooms were like And starts complaining about how each hotel around here is a dive and they used to stay across the street but now it’s condos. She wasn’t even a registered guest and that’s when I interrupted her and said well we’re staying here. Can I have some towels please? We’re in the hot tub for only 10 minutes and then had to be ushered out as it was 10 PM. I told my concerns to the desk staff the next day Natalia she did her upmost to try and help me. She even ran up two bottles of water and two rice crispy treats to our door. She was trying to get a hold of her manager Zola all day. Just my opinion, but one would think on the busiest hotel day Saturday with full capacity a manager would be accessible NOT. I spoke again to Natalia on Sunday as we were checking out still no response from the manager. So Monday, I directly contacted her on her personal cell. Told her everything that had happened and could she possibly consider giving us our hotel room at the venue rate for Friday and Saturday not just Saturday. She said she would look into it and she was very busy driving her grandchildren around. To date July 25 no Compensation on the room for our inconvenience or parking or lack of service. On the rooms, it would be nice if you could open a window to get fresh air stale smell in the room not a lot of water pressure on the shower. Even though the third floor is supposed to be no pets, we saw a pet in the hallway. Beds were comfortable not a lot of toiletries in the bathroom for the price you’re paying. Breakfast can be hit and miss the eggs were always hot, but the tater tots and sausages for me were cold hubby ate early & they were hot. Ugg on the coffee to strong bitter taste.

Family members stayed at the raccoon Lodge about a block away. The check-in person gave my sister-in-law $50 off each night two nights because they had to use the second floor walk up & she has Limited mobility. That for sure is customer service!!! Next time I will do my reviews as I do on Amazon there are many other options...

The supervisor is lovely! I had such a great chat with her on the phone when I booked 2 rooms for lastnight - an impromptu trip to Sylvan to bond with my family.

We decided to go to the pool lastnight (you've got to book a 30 min time slot due to covid regulations). Upon arriving, we saw that we were the only ones there and were excited! The pool was warm and both the pool and hot tub appeared clean.

Unfortunately, when my 13 year old son took a step into the pool - he slipped on the first step down and fell flat on his lower back, narrowly missing his head smashing on the step. In the process, he twisted his ankle and knee.. both of which are swollen and bruised today. He was holding on to the railing.

The stairs are EXTREMELY slippery and dangerous!!!!

We brought this to the front desks attention upon leaving the pool and she was very nonchalant about it. Didnt ask if he was okay or anything, just said thanks for letting her know. Meanwhile, she was eating and barely looked up at us. This morning, when we checked out, we brought it up to Trevor's (front desk) attention - not looking for anything in return, simply to let them know it is dangerous and 100% a liability. He told us its not the first time this has happened and that they "should maybe get some textured stuff put down there". My son is limping and again, not even a "is he ok?" From any of the staff.

Other than this incident, the stay was alright. A very basic hotel with basic amenities. Breakfast is a bagged meal in the morning with a breakfast sandwich, muffin, yogurt and apple. Nothing fancy, but it filled the bellies!

Lots of spiders surrounding this hotel - the outside windows, signs & walls are absolutely covered in webs, eggsacs and big fat spiders everywhere - definitely gave us thr heebs on more than one occasion.

The location is very convenient to the lake which we enjoyed walking to.

Props for being a dog...