Tamara

Review of The Fairmont Hotel Macdonald

Very hard to review this because my experience her...

Very hard to review this because my experience here is on a scale from terrible to excellent. I usually start my reviews with the positive if there is any, but I have explain how it went from terrible to excellent to ultimately not great again.
It started with a misunderstanding of the rate. They have a stay close promotion, a bogo rate of one night free. It shows the rate for a one bedroom suite at $350 per night. So I thought I would be paying the $350 for both nights on the bogo promotion. But It was actually $699 for one night with second night free. After that enitial shock , I thought okay, it must be a nice room, better than I could imagine, so I decided that it would be amazing to celebrate 10 years married in a suite I could never imagine... right? Anyway, we got our room, and even though the river view we requested was amazing the room was a basic room with one bathroom, old looking with a separate living area, not much different from the king suite you might get at Days Inn for $179. BUT, the hotel itself was really cool, with interesting history and beautiful fixtures throughout and the grounds were stunning so even though I felt disappointed I was still happy enough that we were able to stay there for our anniversary. We went down for supper in the confederation lounge, this room was equally beautiful and the service was great. The limited menu was disappointing and the price was above its quality. So, we decided that we would treat ourselves to the Famous 4 course Turkey Dinner offered the next night at $85 each as our anniversary supper. We headed to our 4th floor room. As we exited thr elevator, we were greeted by a not so friendly German Sheppard/Husky who was not accompanied by his human , he was just in the hallway guarding the door while his human was out ... I felt my body go numb , everything went slow motion until I was back in the elevator. We went to the front desk to notify them of the dog loose on the floor growing and barking so we could not get to our door.
They attempted to reach the owner but they were not even in the building and staff was having trouble containing dog so we had to wait in lobby for the all clear. While we waited, the Manager worked some magic and was able to get us moved to a 8th floor suite, not riverside view as we had requested originally, but a 2 level room with city views. We were not happy about losing the view but we definitely felt the new room was worth the money. So we accepted, and I have to say that room was so so much better even without the view.
This is when we felt it was excellent and felt like we were getting the weekend we hoped for after all. Such a nice room, top floor suite just down the hall from the Queen Elizabeth room.. we felt this was incredible. We enjoyed that room very much , with the minor exception of the noise and forced air blowing on us while we slept from the vents above the bed. It was too hot when it turned off and too cold while it was blowing directly on us but the room was still so so nice.
The next day we went down to the pool , it was nice, heated but hot tub closed due to covid and after the dog scare I could have used a nice jacuzzi to relax.. anyway, it was expected so not an issue. Once we got back to our room, slowing peeking around corners to make sure Cujo wasn't waiting, we got prepared for our anniversary supper. Had to wait till 8pm to eat because we didn't book ahead, so we went across the street to have light snack to keep us satisfied till supper. We were surprised to be approached by numerous homeless people asking for money and the half naked man yelling at himself. It did not feel safe to leave the hotel, I was feeling anxious thr entire time we stayed at this hotel. It was time for dinner, we were seated and it looked nice and festive for Thanksgiving, so far so good nope.. it was horrible.*Update..I never did hear from anyone as the reply stated. No follow up at all.