Semiahmoo Resort Golf & Spa, Trademark Collection by Wyndham — Hotel in Blaine

A cascade of mishaps.

My family and I really wanted to love our stay at this resort; we’re locals finally taking advantage of our hometown hospitality and thought Easter would be the perfect time to do so.

Unfortunately, the experience has been lackluster, although, I can see the potential is there.

Firstly, while not a mistake on part of the resort ‘per-se’, it would have been nice to know that our reservation was randomly assigned to the south-facing side of the resort; we missed out on having direct access to the grounds/beach, Easter event, and amazing views. Instead we had the very ordinary two-chair, tiny concrete patio, parking-lot view. It would have been nice, when booking our Easter plans over the phone, if the representative had mentioned this as a possibility; we can’t be anything close to the first guest to realize we weren’t getting the view/location we thought we were paying for.

The second problem was the fire-pit situation. I asked about the nightly campfires - with amazing views of Whiterock - at check-in. The customer-service representative said that they light “seven fire-pits at seven if the wind is under seven miles an hour.” She also said they passed out smores kits for families. In actuality, they light three first-come first-serve fire-pits; the other four are reservation only at $150 a night and, by the time we asked, it was too late to get a lot of value from that as the campfires end at 10:30pm. Of course the three communal fire-pits already had families around that showed no signs of leaving after twenty minutes of waiting. I don’t blame them; I just wanted some of that magic too.

The third problem was breakfast. I could’ve sworn I read online reviews prior to our stay that indicated there was a daily buffet for $20 a person. Come to find out that, on most morning, there is no buffet; simply an a-la-carte normal sit-down restaurant; okay no worries there. On Easter, however, there is a buffet. Only a buffet. An $85 per adult $25 per child buffet. No other options other than a $300 breakfast - after tax and tip - for our family of five apparently. And, not to be overly negative but . . It was pretty bad. As in Dennys has better options bad. They started out by bringing dinner rolls, two pastries, and a bowl of spinach leaves with a few grapes, one piece of cantaloupe, and three pieces of honeydew melon to the table. Maybe it had other stuff in it because it was called “spicy farm greens.” Not something I’m generally looking for when I think “time for breakfast.”

The meager portions, and awkward food choices aside, there was no way to serve yourself this food other than a handsy free-for-all or everyone using their individual silverware to put it on the one buffet plate provided. Then there was the rest of the food . . .it was pretty terrible. There was the normal bacon, eggs, and potatoes in food-warmer style . . . and then there were fingerling carrots, roasted asparagus, and a weird macaroni and cheese called “Orecchiette.” No fruit. No additional pastries. Nothing in the way of waffles/pancakes/french toast. Just this weird Easter-dinner-breakfast.

There was an omelet station - thank god - and a carved ham and smoked prime rib station as well. The omelet was great -even if they forgot my mushrooms - but the ham was dry and flavorless and, while the rib was kind of okay, it just isn’t what I wanted for breakfast, on Easter, at a resort. For $85 I’m expecting options like smoked salmon/crab eggs benedict, croque madam, high-end French-toast/pancakes, or jeez at least some toast, bagels with cream cheese, English muffins, maybe normal muffins . . IDK.

I guess, in aggregate, I’m just really really disappointed at the value proposition here.

I think, if we’d had the right room, with a fire-pit experience, and a normal not-three-hundred-dollar-with-substandard-options breakfast it could’ve been really great.

Edit* The Easter event was over in minutes and, of course, the “face-painting and balloons” were an...

We have visited Semiahmoo since 2000 and for the most part have enjoyed going to the resort for over 20 years in the winter and the summer. My family arrived to find that the front desk staff failed to contact me about the fact that the 1st floor room reserved for my family was not available due to a flood that had taken place at a previous time. With a dog and 2 small children being located on the 2nd floor was not the best option. My family went upstairs to 2110. We checked into 1102 and found that the sofa bed was unmade, was dirty and the mattress had mold on it. The bathroom ceiling was in the process of being repaired perhaps due to a flood and the bathroom tile/grout had mold on each surface. The carpet was stained and the furniture was dirty. Three attempts were made to obtain the proper bed linens for the sofa bed from the front desk. During the night the HVAC system failed and was blowing out cold air causing our room to be very cold in the morning. The maintenance person advised me that the HVAC system was not properly prepared for the winter and was in summer operation. The coffee machine and the clock would not work properly. The water was coming out of the faucets very cold-not hot. We were offered an upgraded room or the front desk could provide blankets and just wear our winter coats inside the room. I was told in an unfriendly voice by the front desk person that we could just go back to our home on Whidbey Island. Since this was a family Christmas celebration, going home was not an option. We were moved to 4148. We discovered that the hot water was often cold, the coffee machine and the clock did not work. We have a very old dog and being on the 4th floor was very difficult to take her out 4 or 5 times each day. Some other guests (from India/Pakistan?) refused to ride in the elevator with her and made nasty comments to me about a dog being in the elevator. So, to avoid any more issues, she and I walked up and down 4 flights of stairs.

The sofa bed in 2110 was not made up and the front desk sent one sheet and two pillows. After 2 calls to the front desk, the proper linens were delivered to 2110 so the sofa bed could be made up for the children. On Sunday morning the heat and hot water in #2110 no longer were available for my family to use. They were leaving to go home as their stay was only for 2 nights.

The beach cafe ran out of food often and the the fire alarm on Monday morning went off due to smoke coming from an oven. I suspect the ventilation system in the cafe was not working properly or perhaps there is not a fan in the area.

Our meals and service by the staff in Packers was satisfactory. The staff was very attentive since we were dining in the private dining room. The area was cold and heat seemed not to be working properly. I had this same problem in previous years at Packers, so this heating issue is not a new problem.

When we were ready to check out on Monday, I contacted the manager (Micah Mullen) and we discussed the many issues/problems that we experienced in 1102, 2110, 4148. I explained to him that I was a retired asset/real estate manager and had operated executive suite rentals for many years and could understand the problems he faced with staffing and perhaps owners that did not provide enough funds to management to operate a first class resort hotel. The owner of this resort is the Wright Hotels that is involved with the Space Needle and other high profile properties in Washington state. Wright Hotels should be more attentive to maintaining Semiahmoo in a proper manner. He was very concerned about our visit and offered to waive all room charges for my family. Since the food service was satisfactory, I agreed to pay for the food items. If the resort is improved, we will return and enjoy the beautiful surroundings. If improvements are not made, our visits will NEVER happen again. Steve...

This is the first not great hotel review i have written. We attended a wedding here for 2 days/nights and paid $636.34 for a view room. The hotel is in a beautiful location but when we arrived the building had seen better days, missing shingles, bad paint, dirty exterior, fence/ gates broken, peeling paint, moss on the roof and piles on the ground that have blown off and havent been picked up, piles of stuff along the side that need to go to the dump. In general the exterior of the building is hammered and in disrepair.

Walking inside the lobby, main hallway on the ground level and restaurants were well maintained.

Checked in and headed to the room, the halls above the main floor had wear on walls and trim, carpet had seen better days. The rooms painted trim/ doors were massively chipped up, the desk chair had holes in both arms with stuffing popping out, the phone didn't work and the worst part, black mold in the tiled shower grout. (Unfortunately i cant add photos to this review)

We walked down the stairs to get to the restaurant, at the bottom there was an area at least 1.5 feet full of spider webs and all the dead bugs it had been eating. This had probably been there for months, i have never seen this big of a spider web and dead bug pile. Just outside the door is a pile of moss that has fallen off the roof and appears to have been there for long enough that the patio shows discoloration around it.

The restaurant and bar have great views! The clam chowder was great with huge chunks of salmon. Drinks were great and the bar tender hallarios with never ending jokes. There were people who he entertained for hours and they kept sitting there having a great time. Popped back in for more to go drinks and the same 6 or 8 people were there hours later. The restaurant could use a little help to dial it in, for example our mushroom pizza had 2 to 3 mushrooms per slice (veggie pizza), the side of marinara was watery and tasteless. Some small tweaks would really dial in the restaurant.

We had two catered meals, the reception dinner and the wedding dinner. Both were great! The plated dinner had steak and fish, veggies and a potato gratin. The steaks were cooked perfectly medium, all 8 people at our table had perfectly cooked steaks. The portions were generous and we were all full! Usually wedding food isn't consistent because its hard to serve 100 plus people at once. The kitchen did a wonderful job. The wedding event planner was great and everything I saw went perfectly as planned.

More than anything I was disappointed to see the facility in disrepair. Short of the wedding guests, it appeared from the 2 days there that we were close to half of the hotels guests.

The lady that checked me out asked how it was and i told her fine, she asked specifics and i just brought up the mold and lack of general maintenance. She said new owners bought it two years ago and haven't approved capital improvements. The building is waterfront and requires constant maintenance due to the salt water and weather.

I forgot to add the hot tub was broken and yellow taped off.

We made the best of our stay and our friends special day! All the stories we heard about how grand this "resort" was may have been true in the past, currently its a run down resort where the owners have let it go to whats currently a run down hotel. There were no resort qualities. We passed on spending money at the spa based on the lobby and general run down look there also.

I hope the owners get with the program on maintenance, service and the restaurant to make this a destination.

Based on our experience i don't think we would risk our time and money to give them another shot. We would go to Alderbrook Resort which is similar price point and we know they...