The good: awesome location, it was clean.
The disappointing : very dated, stained walls thin walls, can hear the other rooms running water flushing toilet... no extra pillows or towels.

Room 110, view was the back of another building. It had two double beds. The window was very hard to open no air conditioning. There was no coffee in the room and the coffee machine was set up in the bathroom. ... I requested coffee the front desk said no problem...that was at 3:30...at 9:30 still no coffee so it had to go to front desk to get it myself and scrub up the mugs prior to use. I dont think that the bathroom is a good place for the coffee machine to be set up. Overall I was disappointed at how noisy it was and that it was becoming so run down. But if you want a place close to the harbour...it is great.

This hotel is truly Ghetto at its finest. We reserved the pet-friendly room on the first floor. Friendly? Not for my pet. I was scared to let my dog walk on the carpet, much less sleep on it. The walls were stained. The carpeting was stained. The bath fixtures were from the 70s, and when the heater was turned on it smelled of burning dust. They didn’t offer a Microwave in the room, and their coffee was undrinkable. They actually put a 33 gallon trash bag in the ice bucket, and there were no vending machines of any kind, i.e. soda/snacks.
We were suppose to stay 3 nights, but only stayed one and decided that taking a 100 dollar loss was worth it. (This was a $49 a night Expedia.com special) They should have paid us or at least someone to overhaul the room.
This is the third time we have stayed in a Canadian Hotel. Let me tell you from experience, that they care nothing of the rooms themselves only outside appearances. When I looked at the photos on Expedia.com, the outside was amazing, as it was in person, but when we got inside..Hmm..another story. This is our second canadian motel hell and will be our last.

I was a bit wary of this hotel from some of the reviews, but since there were also some good reviews as well, we decided to check it out. The price of the rooms was right ($130 for a queen suite with a view), and the location very good (3 blocks from the main harbour). We were not disappointed with the room - mostly clean, comfortable, well appointed, with comfy sitting area and a nice bed. We were pleasantly surprised at how quiet the suite was, especially being so close to the water - we didn't hear anything from traffic on the water nearby, or from the halls or neighbours. Also, the parking is secure underground and a bargain at $9. So two thumbs up for the rooms, and location.

Three cautions to be aware of: the loft, the wifi, and the restaurant. First the loft: our room featured a loft bedroom, which was very nice for us but would have been difficult if not impossible if we were not mobile. Second the wifi: this was sporadic enough to be non-existant; in today's day of cheap wireless routers, there is no reason to have such poor wifi coverage, and if I was staying here on business, I would have been livid that the internet connection was so unreliable (and no hardline connection in the room). Lastly, the restaurant: we only went for breakfast, but the service was terrible (understaffing is the problem - the people were as pleasant as possible under the circumstances) and the food mediocre at best. Thankfully, given the central location of the hotel, eating elsewhere was not a problem.

Overall, a not bad weekend getaway based on the price, the comfort and the location. One does get what one pays for, and certainly a higher priced hotel would require higher expectations. As a base for getting out and seeing stuff in the city, and being comfortable at night, this spot is very good. The problems are easily fixable and hopefully the management will consider doing just that and turning this spot into a real gem.

We read many reviews advising not to come to this hotel for differing reasons – mostly because of the need of renovations. We however had the worst customer service experience of our lives. The new owners will say ‘there is new management’ and the hotel will be improving, but we just stayed here this past weekend (April 12-14, 2012). The new management CANNOT POSSIBLY be an improvement on anything.

We decided that despite bad reviews we would be optimistic and enjoy the location and old ‘charm’ of the hotel and not let the bad reviews sway our decision (turns out we were wrong and wish we'd listened). I am easy to please when it comes to accommodations. It was our 3 yr anniversary and we just wanted to be together. The one thing I cannot stand however is RUDE and incompetent staff/management and FALSE ADVERTISING and BROKEN PROMISES along with ACCUSING guests of plotting and being criminals (read on!)

The following is a list of things that were going wrong from the moment we got there. The lady at the front desk was very impersonal upon our arrival. I was expecting more from a receptionist in one of the friendliest cities in BC – I tried to shrug it off and remain kind and positive. When asking her why the deposit they put on my card was so large ($300) I was not given a proper explanation – the room itself is 50 dollars – nothing in it is worth more than 20 dollars (minus the couch) – We are from Vancouver and stay in upscale hotels which have much smaller deposits ($100-150) or even no deposit – just a credit card number. So this was my first red flag.

First morning – we called and requested towels. Waited 20 mins – nothing. Called again. Waited another 10 minutes before my bf had to call in and ask if he should come down and get them – upon this, the rude woman said I will bring them myself. She came to the room and gives him attitude then when he asked whether there was enough staff working that morning – she replied, “It’s important that they clean the rooms in the morning”. He said “so cleaning the rooms is more important than taking care of the customers that are already staying here? So the non-existent customers are more important than the people that are already staying here?” – she then replied, “They do take care of guests in the afternoon sir” in the most rude tone ever. So apparently in the morning, guests don’t matter. Why even tell us the towels will be up then?! They kept us waiting 45 minutes for towels – what if I had meetings/appointments. I did actually miss out on some tourist things we wanted to see due to the inability to shower sooner.

King bed was falsely advertised/promised. It was two twins PUSHED TOGETHER – with a LINE/INDENT down the middle and not even connected at all at the bottom – I FELL PARTLY THROUGH THE CRACK – not even apologized to the next morning. And accused of ‘planning’ this. We felt discriminated against whether it was because of our age etc…In process of taking pics of the bed to show them in the morning – I found bugs in the bed sheet (took pics – attached with my review) – they called in pest control next moring, gave us a report – pic also attached) – they again, did NOT apologize. The manager and general manager both did not apologize and told us that the report showed they were carpet beetles (meaning they have a carpet beetle infestation) and that since they did not feed on human blood they are alright to have in your bed. I do not want to have any kind of bug in my bed – let alone PAY to have bugs in my bed). All I wanted was an apology, they accused us of planning this in order to get a free night. They didn’t seem to understand it was about principle (maybe because they don’t have any). I kindly told the GM that we are honest people and our only ‘plan’ was to sleep in the bed we were promised not a falsely advertised death trap and potential lawsuit. We wanted to ensure they would not do this to other people and he had nothing to say except for a smug look and asking ‘so was your plan to get your visit for free?” What kind of an insult is this? I already defended our honesty and he still accuses? My boyfriend had to walk away to keep calm due to some other things that were being said by management.

Other bothersome issues were: Peeling wallpaper, outdated furniture, patio rooms are SHARED patios with neighboring guests (sorry, but I don’t want people walking around outside my window and possibly being able to see in). The temperature in the room fluctuates. Dirty towel (looked like a small red speck of blood), No hellos when coming in and out during the day/evening – very impersonal staff, Thin walls – I could hear my neighbors clearly and the plumbing is very loud. They charge 70 cents for local calls (seriously?!)

The only good thing about this hotel was the young man named Cory who was working the night shift when I fell through the bed (and discovered the bugs). He was genuinely concerned and apologetic to us. He even checked on the room and made it a priority to accommodate us. This is more than I can say for his senior coworkers and management.

Victoria is a beautiful city and there are so many hotels to stay at in this great area – Be wise and choose one of them. We will be back to Victoria many times – but NEVER back to the Huntingdon Hotel!