Guest User
September 13, 2023
My wife and I stayed two nights at the Galiano Oceanfront Inn & Spa, as part of a cycling trip through the Gulf Islands. Given its’ name and hotel category, we were expecting a beautiful resort with various amenities, along with personable, friendly and helpful staff. Is the Inn beautiful: yes, it is. There is no denying that this hotel boasts the perfect location on the island and that the views from every room are spectacular. But that is where the awesomeness ends. From the moment we walked in, we were treated like we were an inconvenience and a nuisance to the staff at this hotel. We arrived early and our room wasn’t ready, so they said they could call us when it was ready. They never called. We were actually sitting right up in the lounge area reading and finally we went back down and found out, around check-in time, that yes, our room was ready. Like other reviewers noted, they basically threw an envelope at us, didn’t tell us where our room was or how to get there. We had also asked when we first arrived, if there were taxis on the island, because we came over with only bicycles. So of course we were wondering about visiting other dining places, etc We were abruptly told “no” there are no taxis. Later, this conversation has more meaning. We checked out the areas around the hotel, only to find the hot tub was out of service and the Yoga studio is not available for use to guests. Huh? We asked about the hot tub and they were very defensive about it being under regular maintenance right now. Upon reading other reviews, it seems their hot tub has been out of service a lot of the time in the past two years. Hhhmm, see a trend here? We left around 11:30am the next morning to go cycling on Mayne. One of the staff members had come to collect our wet towels (left outside our door as instructed) and had knocked to say she would return new towels by 5pm. This person was very friendly and talkative and actually assured us this would happen. We arrived back to our room at 6pm to find no towels there. Now, at another hotel, you would simply call down to Reception and ask for some towels. But at Galiano Oceanfront, they only have someone on Reception from 9am-5pm. At 5pm, they lock the door to the Reception/Dining Areas and leave. There is no one on the property unless you have an actual emergency. Even then, no number is left. You have to go to their website and listen to their message saying this. Dining: we did eat dinner at their restaurant the first night and it was actually very good. We had a very friendly and helpful Server – she was the main source of some answers for us, that others did not have the time or interest to spend. However, the dining room was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays (which was only conveyed to us when we called to make a reservation mid-day Monday) and given the lack of anything else open on the island at all during September, it didn’t make for the best impression. Luckily we had found this o