Fairmont Empress Hotel

Absolutely the BEST place to stay in Victoria, B.C. In the tradition of timeless beautiful & elegant 'grande dame' hotels, THE EMPRESS STILL RULES - located on her own huge expanse of gorgeously gardened manicured grounds (the entire block), presiding over the picturesque small city in a perfect location at wide end of charming boat & float plane harbor and within easy walking distance to everywhere you'd want to see, visit & eat in Victoria. The Empress has no competition on the entire island of Vancouver that even compares (probably not in all of Canada - but cannot confirm that). Stunning spacious & perfectly maintained interiors, with finely appointed, recently updated & spotlessly clean rooms, helpful, hardworking & nice staff and a stylish & beautiful restaurant (that has lovely outside seating with perfect view), stunningly chic, fun & busy bar, and great food throughout hotel. Absolute PERFECTION -- every aspect of The Empress is OUTSTANDING!

I booked two nights for my daughter and her new husband. They camped across country from Ottawa with their dog Maple. As avid campers and wild life enthusiasts - this trip was also their honeymoon . I thought what a wonderful memory a stay at The Empress would be for them , not mentioning how nice sleeping in a bed would be after week of camping in a tent. When they arrived in their room they called me with such excitement seeing a dog bed available for their love Maple . They were so impressed with the room , their view of the harbour and parliament building thrilled my son in law. Thank you for making this possible because I had called in advance letting you know that the kids were on their honeymoon and I would appreciate if they could have a great view . Again thank you for providing this . They also loved the breakfast. My son in law talked about the delicious bacon and my daughter loved everything. They were so impressed and asked me what type of room I booked for them because everything was amazing . They were also lucky to see orcas in their whale watching excursion and as they said” came back to The Empress to complete a perfect day “ This will be a lifetime memory for them and as as their mom , I couldn’t be happier that they enjoyed this experience as much as they did ! Thank you. Bonnie Mullin

They didn’t say anything

Quiet, comfortable. Loved the large walk-in closet, a great place to put our things and keep the room tidy and neat. Also the nesprersso coffee maker was the Bomb! The best in room coffee we have ever had! Bought one when we got home. Although our room did not have a great view, the elevator lobby looked right over the harbor so weather coming or going we had a great view looking out the windows, also a great picture spot.

The ventilation system up grades ( box coming through floor) made a tight squeeze around the bed. Although a tight fit it did make the air flow quiet and nice. I work for a custom home builder and understand those things and the reason for the way they are done in existing structures.

We stayed in a Gold level room, and it is TOTALLY worth it! The balcony overlooking the harbor that is the Gold Lounge is fabulous! We arrived during the dinner snacks time but didn't make it out till they had reset it with sweets. I was little disappointed, just talking to m y husband about it, and a staff member overheard me and offered to get me a plate of some of the savory options she had just put away. She came out with 2 plates full of salmon and pork belly and tofu. It really made our evening. Her customer service was above and beyond. I don't remember her name but she was an Asian woman in her 20's or 30's, so nice! The room was fabulous. I love the smell of the lotion and I took my slippers home for my daughter. This place has been on my bucket list and did not disappoint.

The gold check in was kind of complicated. I would have preferred to check in at the regular place, its hard to figure out where the check in is for gold and I was wandering around different floors. Also the man who checked us in said that our guest could not join us in the gold lounge, we had friends staying in a different hotel. But we ignored him and no one in the gold lounge said anything, and they were just sitting in chairs with us while we enjoyed the view. Our room did not have a bath tub, which was kind of a bummer as I had bought a bath bomb at Lush thinking i could take a bath that evening, but that's not a big problem, just something to be aware of some of the rooms have only showers.

The room was indeed very quiet, and the bed was incredibly comfortable. The rainfall showerhead was really nice. Not much time was spent in the room, other than to sleep, and some occasional relaxation between activities around town. The exercise room isn't very large, but we simply used the treadmills. The main lobby was decorated nicely for Christmas. There were always greeters at the front door who were really nice. The restaurant has great architecture and artwork, mostly of Queen Victoria, of course. The location is impeccable. We only used our car once for going out to The Butchart Gardens and Craigdorrach Castle. Otherwise, downtown is right there for eating and shopping, as well as a carriage ride tour we did, the BC Museum (we only did the IMAX) right across the street, walking to and around the Parliament Building to see the lights at night, and other sightseeing adventures. The price was quite good, too, for such a hotel.

The hot tub jets were out-of-service, so that was a bummer. It would be nice to have a child curfew in the pool area. Even at 11:30 at night, there was a group of rather loud kids, and no adults with them. There was a towel oven in the exercise room, but they were cold towels, instead of hot ones. That was okay, though, as the cold ones did feel nice after exercising. It was a shame that the Verandah closed at 9pm. We didn't realize that, so when we showed up at 8:30pm for hot chocolate and hoping to have S'mores at a fire table, we had to settle for a standard table and just hot chocolate, which there were only two flavors: regular and salted caramel. (It had been recommended to us, before we went, to get toasted marshmallow hot chocolate).

Beautiful iconic hotel with awesome grounds and impressive service.

A hotel of this importance with only one small substantial restaurant is a real pain. The other two or three are great bars but bar type food. The Veranda restaurant is outside and not always weather comfortable. Another disappointment was watching and trying to assist a lady locked in the bathroom toilet stall and find out this was not a single occurrence but a repeated one. No warning sign or blocked access.

PERFECT LOCATION, GOOD OVERALL SERVICE, PET FRIENDLY, WE LOVED WINSTON

VERY (EXTREMELY) SMALL BATHROOM, NO BREAKFAST BUFFET, PARKING TOO EXPENSIVE, NOT ENOUGH SEATING AVAILABLE IN THE SWIMMING POOL. AS A FAIRMONT LOYAL CUSTOMER I CAN SAY THAT THE EMPRESS IS NOT AT THE SAME LEVEL AS THE FAIRMONT WHISTLER FOR INSTANCE. SINCE IN VICTORIA THERE ARE WAY MORE COMPETITION, I BELIEVE FAIRMONT SHOULD STEP UP THE GAME BECAUSE WE KNOW THERE IS POTENTIAL AND CAPACITY TO DO SO.

The food and drinks were phenomenal. We also ordered breakfast twice for in room dining. Pricy but everything was fresh, seasoned well and very tasty.

It’s a huge hotel and it required a lot of walking. I had some back problems and it wasn’t easy to get down to the lobby. There is no elevator that goes down to parking level 2. I don’t know how anyone who has trouble with stairs could make the long trek toward the parking garage and then go downstairs one level. The tv is not a smart tv. In order to watch Netflix or another streaming app, we had to drive to an electronics store where my husband bought an HDMI cable for $50 that he ran to his laptop.

We loved the location and the beautiful grounds of the property. We also loved the service in bar as well as the window view.

At check in, we were given a handicap room which we did not request and the water in the shower drained out into the bathroom area. I called the front desk and we were moved to a different room. Also, the bell desk directed us to the wrong elevators to get to floor 2 and we walked around several hallways to finally reach our room.

For a standard regular bedroom ( 1queen bed), the room overall is very clean. Comfy bed, clean bathroom. Very Friendly and professional staff. I didnt really use their amenities but had breakfast at Q at the Empress and food was very good. Very big hotel but easy to find the room. Greatly appreciated the early check-in, made it so much easier for us. Close to everything in downtown. Walkable distance from tourist areas.

Was kinda hard to draw the curtains. Unfortunately, the underground parking was a bit pricey ($33.00) but area was decent.