Renowned Empress Hotel on Victoria's waterfront to close for 3 months to complete major renovations

 

I recently stayed at the Empress (June 2021):

rooms:

On a positive note, the Empress has done an excellent job with the renovations. I really like the decor, updated furniture, modern bathrooms, conveniently located power outlets etc.

However, it's completely beyond me how the hotel decided to install ridiculously loud air conditioning units after investing $60 million into an extensive renovation a few years ago. I'm not exaggerating: I had a conference call and had to turn off the AC since people were complaining about my "background noise".

service:

I've probably stayed at this hotel ~ten times over the years and was unfortunately not particularly impressed this time.

• rather unfriendly agent checking me in
• no upgrade (even though the hotel was pretty empty)
• no welcome amenity
• no welcome drink vouchers provided at check-in, but were later provided upon request
• internet did not work; tried repeatedly to call the front desk / operator for 30min, but noone ever picked up the phone; eventually ended up calling in-house reservations from my cell phone -> hotel seems severely understaffed
• room did not have any soap or toiletries; front desk promised to send some up, but they never arrived
• service at the restaurant was rather slow (especially breakfast, where it took 20min for my order to be taken)
• no in-room dining available "due to covid" which is a ridiculous excuse IMO since it's arguably much safer than any other dining options
• on a positive note, the concierge was very friendly and he offered a 4p.m. late check-out, which was much appreciated (the concierge desk also did a great job correcting some issues with my folio)

So overall still a solid stay, but it seems like the hotel is using covid as an excuse for providing rather unimpressive service standards. Hopefully service standards will soon return to what one usually experiences at Fairmont hotels!

 

Booked a 1 night stay in a gold 2 queen spacious room.

as a all diamond

received exactly the room that i booked. In the room was a small 4 piece chocolate box. It was a bit under whelming.

About 30 mins after check out and driving away from the hotel i realized that i did not receive my welcome drink coupons. Was a bit disappointed and upset at myself for not remembering to ask.

no real service faults. Olny exceptional mention is the gold lounge terrace. Had a spectacular morning cup of coffee outside with the view.

was a good stay. Not great. Not exceptional.

 

Recently stayed there as well.

- What is your ALL status? Diamond

- Were you (or for multi-stayers were you generally) happy with the hotel/stay? Mostly yes

- Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive? Booked a Fairmont Gold Harbour View King, receive it.

- How are the rooms? Room was nice, a bit on the smaller size though.
There was a Nespresso Machine.
No slippers, didn't asked if I could get some.

There's a small desk on the left (not pictured), but no designated chair...




- What was good and what was bad?

Good:
The location is nice in the inner harbour, close to beacon hill park.
Had the afternoon tea which was quite nice.
The gold concierge pro-actively reached out to me about restaurants reservations.

Bad:
Luckily I doubled checked the check before signing it when I redeemed my drink voucher, because they initially attempted to charge me for my drink. When I pointed it out, they told me "Thank you for noticing"

- Did you get club lounge access? How was the lounge?
Had lounge access as I booked a room on the gold floor. Couldn't enjoy the patio due to the weather, but other than that the lounge was nice. Breakfast offering was ok
- What about welcome drinks, welcome amenities or any other special perks?
Drink voucher was pro-activetly handed over to me.

See below for the welcome gift


Later on the arrival day the following macarons where also brought to the room.



- Value for $ or Vouchers? Would you return?
Redeemed the voucher for a ~C$20 cocktail at the restaurant. Didn't attempt to redeem if for the C$399 (not a typo) cocktail that was on the menu.

 

SkyteamEP , Nov 14, 21 5:11 pm
Recently stayed there as well.

- Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive? Booked a Fairmont Gold Harbour View King, receive it


skyteamEP:

Did you feel the harbour view room worth the extra money?

Normally i would book a view room. But at this hotel the windows are small and to get a view you have to stoop your head down to purposely look. Wall of glass this is not.

i was booked for a quick in and out. So did not consider the view room on this trip. Was a bit hopeful i would be upgraded from the non view room. But that did not happen.

 

I don't remember exactly how much more expensive the harbor view room was. I had a corner room, with one window (the smallest one) facing the harbor and the other one facing the parliament building. I wasn't bothered by the size of the windows. The only thing that was a bit annoying is that none of the windows were in the direct line of sights from the bed or the chairs.
​​​​

 

I have a stay booked for early May and noticed under amenities that bikes are provided for guest use on a first come, first served basis but does anyone have any first-hand experience in securing a bike? I've found I can rent a bike for about CAD$40 from local vendors but thought if I spoke to the concierge early in the morning my chances of signing out a bike might be good.

Also as I don't plan on renting a car or cabbing it in from YYJ, does anyone have input on public transportation options?

 

Stayed at the Empress earlier this week.

- What is your ALL status? Classic

- Were you happy with the hotel/stay? Very much so, yes!

- Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive? Booked and received a Fairmont Room King

- How are the rooms? For a solo traveler, more than enough.
A view of the metal green roof of the conference center but as I was out exploring Victoria and area, the view was unimportant to me.
Kudos for the excellent shower stall with rainfall shower head as it's among the best I've encountered, especially in a lead-in room category





BTW I did hop BC Transit in from YYJ and the connection from the airport route #88 at McTavish Exchange is easily done and the #72 stops at one end of the Empress so for $5 one way (ask for an all-day pass as it's the same amount) it's far less than a taxi ride which will runs around CAD$80 one way. With a good connection the bus ride will last approx. 70 min. versus around 30 - 45 for a cab ride.

 

I stayed at the Empress recently and was told that there will 20 more Gold room and an extended gold lounge in April 2023

 

Just completed an excellent 2 night stay with my wife and dog. The renovation completed a couple years ago was done very well. The hotel is beautiful and the treatment I received due to my status (Diamond) was outstanding. I was upgraded without asking from a deluxe king to a junior suite. The amenity, which I have posted a picture of in the amenity thread, was a really nice cheese platter with nuts, olives, high end crackers and burrata and other cheeses. In addition, we were given a complimentary bottle of wine (a $25 plus tax bottle in the liquor store). They gave us 2 drink coupons which could be used at any food outlet in the hotel or room service. We used ours in the bar and the server told us they could each be used for drinks valued up to $80, including bottles of wine. That’s the most generous redemption offer I’ve been given at any Accor property. The Diamond breakfast was offered in the Q restaurant. They told us to just order whatever we wanted and it would all be complimentary. One more thing that was good news was that this hotel has no pet fee.

All staff I encountered, from the front desk through the servers and housekeepers, were friendly and helpful and seemed to take pride in their roles.

All of this was offered to us despite the fact that I was using a rate code for an association that I belong to which gave me a rate that was 40% less than the best available conventional rate. A really great property.

 

I recently completed a short visit to Victoria, and stayed at the Fairmont Empress for 5 nights. Everything about the stay was perfect. The suite was excellent. The Gold Lounge was one of the nicest I've seen. The service was spot on. The grounds are impeccable.

When we arrived at the hotel, we were immediately greeted by the bell staff, who took our bags and directed us up to the Fairmont Gold reception area on the 1st floor. The 1st floor is actually more like the 3rd floor, because there is a Lobby Level plus an Upper Lobby Level, and then the official First floor is the first floor of guest rooms.

I should also say this was one of my better value hotel stays. When we had planned to visit Victoria and Vancouver, way back last summer sometime, I checked rates and found there was actually pretty good SNU value here! Combining the SNU, with a website issue in my favour, along with an additional upgrade, and I was very happy with the result. While Accor has since closed the website loophole, there was a time last year, when the ALL website allowed you to combine discount codes, like the CAA rate, with SNUs. It didn't allow it on the App, and but the website did. Unfortunately, this no longer works, but I managed to stack a nice discount with a SNU. It's kind of nice when the legendary Accor IT mistakes are actually in your favour, instead of just a source of frustration.

There are a few SNU options here, and I ended up booking the Fairmont Gold City View Suite, for the price of a Fairmont Gold City View King Room. I was planning to book the Fairmont Gold Harbour View Suite, but it wasn't available with a SNU, but the SNU value on the city view was so good, I booked that instead.

The Gold Harbour View Suite in the summer is normally around $1,700 mid week and $2,300 on weekends, and the City View Suite only a couple hundred dollars less. By stacking a SNU and CAA discount, and booking nearly a year in advance, I got the suite for $640/night plus taxes. This essentially made one of my nicest hotel stays of the year, also my cheapest hotel stay of the year.

Already thinking I had a really great deal, when I checked in, they had upgraded us to the Harbour View that I wanted from the beginning. So, in the end, about a 60% to 70% discount off of what I was planning to pay. I certainly wasn't expecting that upgrade upon check-in. Even without the upgrade, and without the promo code stacking on top, this is still good SNU value here. If you're looking for a place to use up some SNUs, and have been wanting to visit Victoria, then you might consider burning them at the Empress.

I don't have an overall floorplan of the entire hotel, so I grabbed an image off of Google, and roughly traced the building in red below. Fairmont Gold consists of floors 1 through 4, in the two front hallways that I marked in yellow on the image. The Gold Lounge takes up the entire front hallway of the first floor (actually the 3rd floor from the ground).



We were given suite 374, which sits along the front hallway, overlooking the harbour. They have three Fairmont Gold One Bedroom Suites in the hotel, which are 274, 374 and 474. I'm not sure where the City View suite I had originally booked is located.

The first thing you notice about coming up to the suite, are the large hallways. Like some other grand hotels from this era, the guestroom hallways were designed so ladies in their fancy hoop dresses could easily pass in the hallways.



Our suite was located in the front of the hotel, just above the Gold Lounge terrace.




I made a short video tour of the suite.


You enter into the Living Room, which has a fireplace, desk and seating area.





The view out all windows was over the harbour. On the right side of the harbour, is the harbour airport, which also serves as a convenient way to come and go, as we ended up chartering a plane from here to take us to our next stop five days later in Vancouver.



The door in the corner of the salon, which I first thought was a closer, turned out to be a second bathroom, with a toilet with a view in the little turret section of the building. If you wanted to have 4 people in this suite, then your guests staying in the salon would have their own bathroom. It's not a large bathroom, but we weren't expecting it, and didn't need it.





Moving into the Bedroom, it was large, and with another sofa at the foot of the bed.






The main bathroom was good, with nice shower and water pressure.



Upon check-in, we were given this information sheet on the Fairmont Gold services.




While we didn't use the Willow Stream Spa, we were also given a voucher for a "Complimentary Spa Treatment Upgrade". I would assume this allows one to, perhaps, get a 90-minute massage for the price of a 60-minute? We often do use the spa facilities on our stays, but we did not this time.

The Fairmont Gold lounge was recently expanded and renovated, and they did a beautiful job. The decor was excellent, and it was large and never crowded. Lots of seating, and great space where they serve food. My favourite part of the lounge was probably the outdoor terrace overlooking the harbour. It was a lovely place to sit for a peaceful breakfast.









Inside, the lounge was broken up into several areas, so you could always find an area of privacy if you wanted some.










I love how they worked the structural steel supports into the design of the lounge. At first, I wondered if they were decorative, but they are part of the original building structure.









The food servery area was large and functional, and just as beautiful as the rest of the space.







Over on the other side of the hotel, is the main lobby, which was also a grand and beautiful space.











The common spaces around the hotel are in keeping with the period of the hotel, with lots of historic features like the old Cutler mailing system by the elevators, but also modern touches like water bottle filling stations around the place.









We enjoyed an excellent dinner at "Q" one evening. Below is the Q restaurant, and then the Q bar across the hall.




We used our drink vouchers at Q for dinner, as well as for champagne in the Gold Lounge. I don't know what the limit was on the drink vouchers. I did notice the vouchers said "DIAMOND" on them, so it's possible they make a distinction based on status? I'm not sure, because we never asked. We just ordered drinks from the menu, and they were complimentary with the voucher.




If there is one thing this place takes pride in, it is their gardens. The attention they paid every day to maintaining the gardens and the lawns, with crews inspecting the lawns every morning for any weeds or issues needing attention, which they literally flagged so crews could come back to quickly repair.








This is another Fairmont property that makes their own honey on site.



Even the entrance to the parking garage was beautiful. This is perhaps the nicest entrance to a hotel parking garage I've seen.




Here are a few more images of the hotel, taken from across the road by the harbour.





When we checked out, we walked across the road to the harbour airport, as our next stop was to the Fairmont Pacific Rim in Vancouver. As both hotels are only a 5-minute walk from their respective harbour airports, this was a most convenient option, and the first time I can say I've ever commuted directly from one hotel to the next, completely by private plane. That sure beat having to bother driving to YYJ/YVR or to the ferry terminal.

I can't fault this stay in any way, and I would highly recommend a stay here in a Fairmont Gold suite. And, if you have any Suite Night Upgrades to use, this is pretty good value!

 

Great write up. Love the classic but modern refresh of this gem, we haven't been since 2013ish.

Looking forward to your review of Pac Rim a totally different place (also sort of old now, opened 2010 in advance of the Olympics)

 

Yes, Pac Rim is a totally different place. I will post a review on that one too, but spoiler alert... I liked the Empress better. Not that there was anything really wrong with the Pacific Rim, because it's a really great hotel, but my personal style always gravitates toward the grand historic properties over a modern building.

If you haven't seen the Empress since pre-renovation, when it still didn't even have air conditioning, then perhaps a revisit is in order. They did a fabulous job at keeping all that is great about its historic charm, but yet making it modern. It's modern, without being modern, if that makes sense!

 

Thanks for the review. Do you know if the 2 bedroom harbour view gold suite is the same thing as the 1 bedroom, but they open up a connecting door, or is it a completely different product? What's weird is the website says this room category is all "first floor", which can't be right.

https://www.fairmont-empress.com/acc...ur-view-suite/

 

There was no connecting doors from our suite that could have turned it into a Two Bedroom Suite. Interesting that they say it's on the 1st floor, because I'm trying to place where it could possibly be. The Gold Lounge takes up the front of the floor in that main building. The only thing that really makes sense, is if it's in the corner behind the elevator bank. I think the lounge starts at that point, so there could be a suite in there. But, if that were the case, then I suspect one of the rooms would be on the side, and not all would have a harbour view. Perhaps the master bedroom and the salon view the harbour, and the second bedroom is a 'partial' harbour view, and toward the side gardens? There wouldn't be enough building width along the harbour side to put three rooms there with a full harbour view.

Pretend the floor plan below is for the 1st floor. This would be my guess...


The second bedroom would still have a view to the harbour, although the window is set further back from the two front rooms.