Victoria Marriott Inner Harbour — Hotel in Victoria

My wife and I have stayed in the Marriott Inner Harbour several times over the past twenty years, often no more than two or three days. However, it had been eight years since our last visit and we decided to stay week this time. The hotel is well located to many tourist attractions near the marina. The staff is still extremely welcoming and fun to talk with. We stayed in a mid-tower, corner, balcony unit, with a king size bed. At first glance the facilities appeared the same as in past visits, with perhaps some redecoration, but upon closer look we noticed quite a few issues.||||We wanted to go all out for our 35th wedding anniversary and decided on a corner balcony unit. We were anxious to see the balcony, however the door that opens onto the balcony had to be a part of some sort of magic act in its past life, as it was quite a challenge to open the door and later close and lock it. The first thing we noticed about this corner balcony was that it was on one side only. It didn’t wrap the corner unit. It was about 17 feet long, about 3.5 feet wide and narrowed to about a foot wide. It was pretty much unusable as there were no chairs or tables; nor chairs inside the room that could be easily moved outside. ||||There was a seven or eight foot couch/bed in the room, which was of no use to us because there was no place to put luggage, containers, etc, except on that couch/bed. The desk had no light (later rectified). The room was very dark at night. A free standing (small) refrigerator was in the corner of the room because it was too large for the cabinet. Initially, we couldn’t access it because of the location of the large couch and end table. Eventually, I lifted it onto the end table so we could get some use out of it. We pulled the couch much closer to the king size bed so we could get around the refrigerator and the couch to open the curtains and see some of the view we were paying for. I would suggest that with all the new construction over the past several years if you want a view don’t go mid tower…go higher and hope for the best. Our room looked to the southeast and other mid tower rooms may be different, but we didn’t consider ours as having a view, unless you like looking into the rooms of condominiums next to you.||||The tile floor is always very cold, so be sure to bring slippers or socks to wear if you’re not wearing shoes all the time. In the shower there’s some sort of crazy wand that blows water everywhere when you try to pre-heat the shower. So, beware. Make sure it’s not pointed at you. There was inadequate hooks and shelving in the public area and the bathroom. There were no shelves in the shower! If you’re over 50 years old it’s probably uncomfortable or it hurts to bend over and pick things up off a shower floor, especially three weeks into an active vacation. The lack of hooks in the bathroom is different than you might imagine. For instance, we had to take from the closet a coat hanger, the one with clamps, and hang it from a picture frame in the bathroom so we had a place to hang a hand towel. And the picture frame was caked in that kind of bathroom dust. The bathroom is great to look at, but functionally it’s not a room that will “save” the planet, if you know what I mean. We had to exchange our damp towels every day for lack of a way to dry them overnight.||||Unlike less expensive facilities, where you pay less and get more, there was no microwave and other small incidentals you'd expect in the room or in the hotel. In past visits we’d stay only two or three days and never had to wash our clothes. Consequently, we were quite surprised that there was no washer and drier in the hotel. We didn’t want to use our daylight hours to do laundry somewhere downtown, and given the changes we saw in town we didn’t feel safe doing it at night. And why should we have to go to a Laundromat? We were on vacation after all. So you can imagine the damp socks and t-shirts that were always hanging in various areas of the room. ||||This room is tighter and smaller than what appears in their photographs. It’s redecorated for looks, but it isn’t at all functional for more than one person with a bag or a small suitcase. Yet, I believe they would have you put three and maybe four people in this room. The long work station made it difficult to access plugs for a computer, etc. Thought should have been given to placing plugs on the desktop. In our room there was a foggy gray, glass top on the computer work station. If you use a mouse with your computer, you may need a mouse pad. My mouse doesn’t need a pad to work…but it did with this glass top. TV selections were awful. Fortunately, we didn’t have time to watch TV and that may be true for almost everyone, which may explain the awful selections.||||Every time we opened the privacy curtains dust would lightly shower that part of the room. It was enough to make you sneeze, but not for very long. ||||Inside the elevator, its door and side panels used to have a clean golden shine. It evoked a sense of pride, style, and opulence you did not expect. It prepared you for a relaxing say. On our recent visit, the golden shine in the elevators was gone and the metal dripped with dark, filthy stains. ||||There’s more, but what I’ve described isn’t a reason not to stay at the Marriott. These are small inconsequential things that add up. They mean something only when you don’t expect them. And, they mean something when you do expect them and they are not there. If you think about it another way, it’s like buying a car. You don’t really pay attention to whether the things you expect to be in a car are there or not. You are only disappointed and/or surprised when you experience a flat tire, in a remote area and the jack isn't there. Nevertheless, we probably won’t be back, not because of the Marriott but because, over the past few years, the island has changed too...

I’m sure many other Marriott Elite members of varying tiers who have been around for a while are aware of the general apathy that seems to be emanating from the Marriott brand in general over the last few years. Fewer perks, a watered down point system and a general feeling that your loyalty status is not as appreciated as it once was. Nowhere is this more evident than at the Marriott Victoria Inner Harbour. I very recently booked a room here on points to attend a BC High School provincial athletic event with my wife and son. Unfortunately, two days prior to the stay, I was called out of town for work, so I called the hotel to make sure my wife’s name was also on the reservation. I also asked and was assured by the person at the front desk that my wife and son would have access to the M club lounge and elite benefits due to my lifetime Titanium Elite status.

When my family arrived at the hotel, they were told they would not have the benefits I was told they would enjoy. My wife called me in some consternation, as I had previously explained to her that the front desk had assured me it would not be a problem. I subsequently attempted to call the manager on duty to clear up the confusion, but after explaining the reason for my call to the front desk associate, I was told the manager was “too busy” to speak with me.

It would be nice knowing that although I am two thousand miles away from my family, I could rest assured that they were being well taken care of in my absence. It was with a sense of frustration and embarrassment that I had to call my wife back and explain that the hotel would not honour the commitment I had received from them several days prior, and I could not give them a reason why. Although I travel very frequently for work (hence the status level) my wife does not get the chance to get away nearly as often, and was really looking forward to some time away. If I had known there was going to be an issue, I would have just paid for an off-Marriott brand hotel where my family could sleep in, and enjoy a complimentary breakfast in the hotel prior to leaving for their event.

In fairness, after doing some digging in frustration into Marriott’s fine print of legalese, I did discover that member benefits apparently only apply if the member is present during the stay, even though I was told otherwise by the front desk. (I have had several other elite members I work with tell me they have set up family members on point stays at many other Marriott properties, and they always receive the benefits of their Elite level)

It seems to me that the Marriott Victoria Inner Harbour will grant you the benefits they are contractually obligated to give you, and not a water bottle more. I would suggest to Marriott Elite members that they spend their hard earned cash or points at any other hotel than this one. I can assure you that this is one Titanium member who won’t be staying here again for work...

We checked in just before 6pm on March 19. When we went into our room, we found the room next 2 doors had dogs barking continuously for 10 minutes and that's when we decided to request a room move. We went down to the front desk immediately to ask for room move concerning the noise that might kept my 8 year old and 5 year old up all night if this doesn’t stop. When I went down to the front desk expressing my concern and request a room move, all I got from the agent was “We can’t move you, we are sold out tonight”. The agent did not make any effort at all. I reiterated our concern with the dogs barking continuously, the agent’s reply was “what’s the room number? We will ask the owner to rectify this”. I, for the third time expressed my concern for the dogs barking all night, the agent simply said “it won’t happen, I promise”. Next thing you know the dog barked until 11pm because that's when the owners came back. The dogs still barked every once a while even after the owners went back to their rooms. The last thing I remembered was I got woken up again by dogs barking at 3am in the morning for about 30 minutes.

I have worked in the hotel industry for 20 years (Hampton Inn, Radisson Hotel & River Rock Casino Resort). I know that there is always rooms to joggle or move around to accommodate room move request when it was only 6pm, the only time that I remembered we couldn't do any room move that early is during the winter Olympics as all the rooms were booked solid every single day during that 2 weeks. I am sure there are other 2 queen bed rooms available that's not checked in yet by other guests) at 6pm, not to mention we only spent 10 minutes in the room and needed room move because of the noise. I just felt that your front desk agent did not make any effort or at least try to do something for us to accommodate the room move request (he didn't even look into the computer to see if there is any possibility of joggling rooms, instead, he went on promising us something that he had no control over with? This is the very first time and the last time I will be staying at a Marriott (although I know you are the biggest hotel chain in the world). The pool and the hut tub was not very clean either, felt that there were no filters used as you see things floating in both the pool and the hot tub. The only reason I still rated your hotel a 2 is because of the location and the friendliness of your bellmen, they were very courteous...