Room was great but we had issues with the valet parking and the food.
We decided that we would book a Fairmont Gold room since we had wonderful experiences with the Gold packages in the past. Upon our arrival, we dropped off our car for valet parking. We were instructed by the young man that we would receive a text message concerning our car and the valet parking. As we were checking in at the Gold reception desk, we told the female attending to us that we had not received such text message. She told us it would be forthcoming and that they were very busy. After partaking in the afternoon canapes, we enquired again about our car since we had still not received a text message. At this point, Robert from the Gold reception desk got involved with our situation and began to investigate. We went back to our room and Robert called shortly thereafter to tell us that he was looking into it. After nervously waiting for about 15 to 20+ minutes, I began to panic and went back to the Gold reception desk. Robert came out and told me that they had found our car and that I should have received a text message by that point. Unfortunately, that was not the case, which further heightened my anxiety. Robert then escorted me to the front entrance to speak with the valet parking attendant. I was very anxious because I was beginning to think that our car had been stolen. I had to “identify” my key fob from a basket of many keys in the valet office. Luckily, we found it and discovered that our car had not been “registered”. I then waited in the lobby for about 10 minutes for my car to be retrieved/found so that I could be assured that valet had it. Thankfully, that was the case and I finally received a text message and our car was taken away to be parked. Robert informed us the following day, that our parking fees had been waived. We were thankful that he recognized that we had been rattled by that experience and he did the right thing. However, there is unfortunately more to come on the car front…
Is it possible that the Gold lounge was short-staffed for the weekend? When we arrived for the evening canapés, we found that almost all of the tables had yet to be cleared and we needed to ask someone to clear a table for us. We then enjoyed our canapés. The following morning was a similar situation. We ended up asking the omelette bar cook to clear off a table for us and then the Gold reception desk employee came over to set the table for us. Although the omelette was good, we found that your other hot dishes were not very hot. The potatoes were actually quite cold and the eggs were barely warm. With no omelette option on the holiday Monday, we found that the “hot” dishes were not dissimilar to what a guest may find at many hotel chains with breakfast included. It didn’t seem up to what Fairmont advertises as your Gold standard. If I may make a suggestion, maybe your Gold guests could be given the option of going to the Wilfred restaurant and ordering what they wish from the menu. It seems that the lack of a dedicated kitchen for the lounge creates a problem for the hot breakfast dishes.
Let me take a moment here to say that our room was very comfortable and well appointed. Our only issue was a TV remote that needed to be replaced. Although not very promptly, it was dealt with by your staff that night.
Now back to our car saga…
Monday, while gathering our belongings in order to check-out, we received an unexpected text message from valet parking regarding our car. The message was informing us that “Your ticket number vehicle is being retrieved”. This was rather disconcerting because we had not made such a request! We then hurriedly gathered our belongings and proceeded to the Gold reception desk to check-out. We told the reception employee that we had received this text even though we had made no request for our vehicle. At this point, we were concerned that someone else was requesting our vehicle! Seconds after checking out, we received a second text informing us that “Your vehicle is now ready at the front entrance. If the car is not retrieved within 15 minutes it will be re-parked”. We then quickly made our way to the front entrance, not knowing if someone else had made this request and was about to drive away in our vehicle! Our car was indeed at the entrance and we made our way towards the valet attendant in charge. He asked us to wait while he attended to another guest. No problem. We waited patiently while keeping an eye on our car. Unfortunately, he served two other guests that had arrived after us while we were still waiting. We then walked towards our car and told the other valet worker closest to our car that this was indeed our car. He explained to us that apparently, the mix-up was that two red cars had been registered under the same CLH number so they had both been driven up to the main entrance to be retrieved. He then gave us our key and we got into our car. It is at that moment that we realized that he had never even asked for the CLH number to confirm who was in fact getting into our car! That’s when we came to the conclusion that it would have been rather easy for someone else to steal our car. We then drove away feeling rather disappointed and disillusioned with our experience at the Chateau Laurier.
We hope that this feedback will help the hotel improve the Chateau Laurier experience for future guests.