I traveled to the Delta Bessborough from January 9-12, what a disappointment!! I knew that the hotel was older, so my expectations weren't overly high. I've stayed in a lot of Delta properties, so felt comfortable knowing I was going to a trusted chain.

We arrive to the Bess and I was immediately side-eyeing the hotel because of a lack of name on the building, even though we knew we were in the right place, there was nothing indicating such. There is no automatic doors, so trying to get in to the hotel with your luggage is difficult. Check in went some-what smoothly. I had 3 rooms reserved, 2 smoking rooms and one king non-smoking room. There were no smoking rooms available, and the other room was two doubles.

The hotel hallways have a dark, haunted feeling about them...scuffed paint, dirty, lifted carpeting. Got in to the room, and nothing was different. Layers and layers of peeing paint, awful old smell, DIRTY flooring...which was also stained, but my carpet hadn't been vacuumed in a while, that was obvious. There was a layer of dirt all around the baseboards. I went to the bathroom to find a scum ring around the bathtub, and something that looked like mud on the side of the tub, I assumed it was a stain, but upon further investigation, it was just that - mud. I called down to the front desk to request another room, to be told there were none available, and I requested a cleaning, seeing that we were going out for dinner anyway.

Came back to the room after dinner expecting it to be clean, and nothing had changed. So I decided to clean the bath tub myself with soap and water, and just dealt with the dirty floor. At least the bed was clean.

Did I mention that I had the window closed and the drapes flapped in the wind, that's how drafty the windows are. Also? The heating system in the room...clanked and banged all night, every night. At least I couldn't figure out how to use it, and calls to have maintenance come check it never resulted in anything.

Tried to show after, only to find there was no hot water. Tried to shower first thing the next morning? No hot water. 3:00 pm that afternoon? No hot water. 10 pm that evening, again. No hot water. Rinse, lather, repeat for the next two days.

I decided that I didn't want to have the maids clean my room afterall. I didn't feel comfortable with the staff in my room with my things. I left the do not disturb sign on the door and just left it at that. One morning I walked out of the room at the maid was there and asked if I wanted my room cleaned, I said, "no thank you". She asked if I wanted towels or anything and I said I didn't need any and thanked her again. Went to my meeting, came back that afternoon to find that the do not disturb sign wasn't on my door. Got in my room and it had been "cleaned" (I use the term loosely). All my clothes that were laying around (including dirty underwear) had all been folded and placed IN my suitcase. Dirty towels were taken (all of them), and not replenished. I felt very violated, and quickly went through everything to make sure nothing had been taken.

I called down to the front desk to inform them and they couldn't really do anything about it.

DO NOT STAY HERE. Do not waste your money. We spent $189/night on this COMPLETE dive. I've never felt so violated, ripped off, and dirty (because I couldn't bathe) in my life. And that's hardly exaggerating. I can't possibly fathom how this hotel is worth that price. And at that price, if all the rooms are sold out, why on earth is it such a dive?

Room was a disappointment for money. Ammenities not refilled, ie shampoo . No maps of where services are in hotel. No written report of extras we were entitled to use for free and times open, thus missed these opportunities both days. No counter space in bathroom for getting ready in the morning. Very little room to hang our coats and our clothes

The Bessborough is located in down town Saskatoona stones throw from some superb restaurants and shopping. She celebrated her 75 birthday just over a year ago so don't go there expecting brand spanking new ! At the mo she is under going renos so probably will have a few inconvenient days. But what the heck, when all the work is done she will be as beautiful as ever.
The hotel restaurants are great, so is room service, and the staff are the best ever.
Recently opened is a day spa...it is right in the lobby. It is simple to make an appointment and the Damara stays open in the evening.
The gym is one of the best around and ideal for hotel guests and anyone interested.
Would I stay anywhere else, highly inlikely. The Bessborough is a 'habit' and a darned good one, I might add.

We stayed at the Bessborough for 2 nights in November and the experience was disappointing to say the least. When we arrived, we were given a room on the 4th floor basically right beside the elevator. It was disgusting. The room smelled old, the carpet was disgusting (literally there was dirt all around the edges of the carpet as well as stains everywhere), paint scraped off around all the baseboards and corners (how hard is it to get your maintenance to do paint touch-ups) as well as one of the light switches were with a hole where it should have been. Seriously, I just stayed in a hotel in Cuba that was of a higher standard. We asked the front desk if we could see a few other rooms and found that pretty much all the rooms on the 4th floor looked the same but we settled for one that didn't have quite the musty old smell the others had.

The food in the restaurant was terrible. I had the 'homemade' fish and salad (instead of fries). The fish had obviously been cooked days earlier and warmed up when I order it since it was hard and dry and the salad tasted like it came from a bag (or was sitting around all day). NOT worth the money I paid for it. Also the espresso machine was not working the entire time we were there and staff said it hadn't been working for over a month. Wtf?

The one good thing about the hotel is the staff. They were all very helpful and friendly but you could tell that their job was basically them having to apologize to everyone about the condition of the hotel... I felt bad for them.

It's very sad to see what has happened to this hotel - my husband and I always felt it was a treat to stay here but now I will never stay here again until I hear things have changed.