We booked two rooms, well in advance, little did we know that the person on the other end booked four rooms for us. We discovered this due to fact we phoned two days in advance of our scheduled arrival date, to check on two requests we made. We arrived, checked in, telephone in one room did not work and evening staff could not fix this for us. Second room the air conditioner was blowing hot air, the room was extremely warm. Even after being reset, it continued to blow hot and cold air, alternating, all night. Staff promised to move us to two new rooms first thing in the morning. Then the next day this changed to, we will move you by 12noon, then this changed to 2pm, no word from front desk by 2:30pm so we phoned front desk. We were told, housekeeping is just now going into the new rooms to clean them, they will be ready by 3pm and we will call you. 3:40pm, still no phone call from front desk, we called, yet again, gentleman at front desk said, oh yes they have been ready since 2 or 3pm. My husband replied, not since 2pm, cause housekeeping did not go into the rooms to begin cleaning them until 2:30pm and you were suppose to call me once the rooms were ready. This whole issue with the two rooms could have been handled more professionally by front desk staff. The challenge with checking in on the weekend, is there is no manager on shift. The manager that we finally got to speak to, Monday morning, spoke to us at the front desk, did not offer us a more private spot to speak. He apologized, yes and then offered us bonus points, did not specify an amount, that was his solution to these headaches. Via Twitter I was put in touch with customer care, who were also less than effective in providing an acceptable outcome for these headaches.
To top it off, one morning we went down for breakfast, a party of five, we were with one disabled person and two elders, dining room was full. Staff did not offer to open up the over flow dining room. There was also a party of 4 the came in behind us, who were also turned away. We left for about 4 minutes, returned to breakfast dining room, to see staff opened up the over flow dining room for staff to sit in to eat. Yet they turned away 9 paying guests.
Will we return to this Best Western, likely not. We visit St Albert at least once per year, we will return to the St Albert Inn, as the service there is much better (their only shortfall is they do not offer breakfast, I would rather have good customer care than a 'free' hot breakfast, which really is not free when you look at the room rates). less
Jarred L, General Manager at Best Western Plus The Inn at St. Albert, responded to this review
Dear 1217Liana,
I would like to thank you for taking the time to leave us a review on Trip Advisor. We believe that feedback is a gift, and we will be using it as a training opportunity for our team to improve for our future guests.
I apologize for the error in regards to your reservations. Although our team members are very well trained; mistakes do happen. This is why we always ensure that confirmations are sent via email upon finishing making the reservations.
I understand that having the phone not working properly, as well as the PTAC unit can be quite frustrating. The phone we were able to replace promptly, however the PTAC did require additional parts, which is why the room change was suggested. As we were running a high occupancy, we were unable to move you into your new room right away, as we did have to wait for our other guests to depart. With your request of having the rooms side by side, we did have to wait for two specific rooms to depart, in order for us to have our housekeeping team get the rooms cleaned for you to move into. Similar to how you mentioned above, we do receive guest requests such as early check ins, and late check out times. Due to these requests, we were unable to get your rooms cleaned right away, as you had said they needed to be side by side.
Speaking with yourself and your husband regarding a room change, I did not feel that there needed to be a more private space for us to discuss, as it was just ourselves in the lobby. If this had been a concern at the time of us talking, I would have been more than happy to provide a more private place to discuss.
In regards to your comments about our breakfast room; we do not have an overflow dining room. The rooms located off of our breakfast area are meeting rooms that were reserved, which is why we were unable to open them for additional seating. As mentioned above, we were at peak occupancy resulting in the breakfast area being fully occupied. Although offering our breakfast from 6:00AM-10:00AM, towards the end of our breakfast times becomes quite busy, which is why we offer food trays for our guests to have the option of bringing their breakfast back to their rooms.
I appreciate you taking the time to share your experience with us, however it is quite disheartening for myself as well as the rest of our team that you advised your stay was great upon checkout, and then we receive a negative review such as this.
We wish you and your family all the best in your future travels, and hope you're able to find accommodations that are able to succeed your expectations, as I feel we were unable to.
All the best,
Jarred Lusk
General Manager