Strathcona in Victoria?
 

Should've asked before making the reservation, but any travelers/locals have opinions on staying at the Strathcona Hotel in Victoria, B.C.?
I picked it out for my girlfriend and I to stay at (Memorial Day weekend). It's our first trip together, and I don't want a really bad experience. It sounds like they have small rooms, but reviews at other sites say its unclean, unfriendly, etc. She's not high maintenence, and if it's really bad we'll have a funny story to laugh about later, but I'd like to know what experiences people have had.
Thanks

~Tyler

Because I live in Victoria I haven't had any reason to see the rooms in the Strathcona. I do not recommend it though. It is an older hotel and in a very noisy area. Also the pub and nightclub there would probably be very noisy as well. There are a lot of hotels in Victoria that would be much better. Did you choose it because of price? If so what price range are you looking at and I could recommend something a little better.

It was $85 CAD and I did it through Orbitz. The location was ideal, as we are arriving by ferry from Port Angeles. Even though we're not big nightlife people, we are planning to have some late nights out, so I'm not worried about the club, but that info is definitely helpful so there is less of a surprise. If it's really bad the first night, we can choose to stay elsewhere (we're there two nights)
~T

Hello again. Again - just so you know most of the hotels are in the inner harbour area and are just a short distance from the ferry. I would use Priceline and bid on a downtown hotel. You will get something a lot nicer for that price. (I guess you can tell I don not recommend the Strathcona)

Well if you don't mind old and rather rustic, you could try the Crystal Court Motel, while it's still there. It's in a better location than the Strathcona (by the museum, parliament buildings, inner harbour, with a restaurant across the street) and should be quieter. You could easily walk to it from the ferry dock even with luggage.

http://www.victoriabc.com/accom/crystal.htm

The 'strath' is to us Victorians a series of bars with a small hotel on top. It has curb appeal as an old building.
It will have street noise until approx 4:00 am.
As to unclean, unfriendly etc. I cannot comment. I can belive that if a guest was imbibing until 4:00 in a smash your head bar and then demanded their room key, unfriendly might occur.

Search on 'Legends', 'Sticky Wicket' to see what is happening on your dates.

Twenty odd years ago, I did see acts like Nirvanah perform there before they had recording contracts.

Ehh? what was that? Speak up, I can't hear you.

"we are planning to have some late nights out"

Don't count on being out too late! I took my boyfriend to Victoria for a weekend in June last year. I had been there before many times, but he had not. Victoria is not exactly a hub of nightlife - the city quiets right down at night.

What's your budget, tja98? Icithecat is absolutely right -- the Strathcona barely qualifies as a "hotel". In fact, it's one of the great mysteries of B.C. liquor licensing as to how 20+ years ago they got permission to build what amounts to 3 floors of bars keeping a few token hotel rooms on top (near the rooftop volleyball courts!). Your neighbours, quite possibly, may be a visiting rugby team looking for a short roll to bed after the bars close.

In short -- the Strath may be a nice place to visit, but you probably don't want to sleep there.

Alternatives in the same price range in the same central area you might wish to consider are the Quality Inn Downtown (http://www.victoriaqualityinn.com) or, if the price is right, the Executive House Hotel (www.executivehouse.com). The Executive House's rates vary a lot but (if you plug your dates into the online booking engine) are almost always less than what they post in the "Rates" section of their website. Bad marketing on their part.

Thanks for everyone's comments. Sounds like the Strath reservation is getting cancelled. As I think about it, having two nights there could ruin the last half of the trip if we're both miserable after the first night.
Thankfully the reservation is held and not paid for ahead of time on those booking sites.
I'll look at a few more options and let everyone know the modifications.

~T

Oh, yeah icithecat. Twenty some odd years ago I stayed at the Empress with my parents, but that's not happening either!

When is the Memorial Day weekend? The Swiftsure races will be on May 27-29.

That's the weekend, April. What are the Swiftsure races? Should I just keep the Strath Res because of booking difficulties?

~T

The Swiftsure is an International level sailboat race. It is one of the busiest tourist weekends in town.
Definately hang on to what you have until you get better reservations.

tja - I suggested in an earlier post that you use Priceline. Don't take the hotels they offer at their prices but do the bidding thing. There are plenty of available rooms that weekend.

We had no trouble booking a room for relatives on Swiftsure weekend one year and it sounds like tourism is down this year.

Expect either dead-calm air that day or hurricane force winds. ;-)

More likely, hurricane force winds with rain on LAND and dead calm out in the straits.

The big issue here, is what are the alternatives for accomodation. Is the Royal Scot still viable?
I hesitate to mention the Travellers Inns after some of the posts here.

Well, the girlfriend and I are gearing up for our trip. She wants to stay at the Strath, and will accept partial responsibility if its horrible, but I did call to confirm the reservation (as National Geo Traveller recommends) and the man on the phone seemed nice. I'll post after our trip!

~T

I don't think you understand what you are getting into. Based on what others have told me about the Strathcona, it is not for me.

Well for those of you who are interested in our stay at the hotel, we had a good time. The stay at the Strath went just fine, although I attribute much of that to our being on the 5th floor and facing away from the bars. Most of the guests we saw were in our age bracket (mid-twenties) and I think its a great place for people our age to stay. I didn't like a few minor features (the main lighting was dim), and although the room was small, we weren't needing a lot of space. We thought we'd go to the club downstairs, but when we came back one evening and saw all the people dressed the way they were, we realized we wouldn't have as much fun.
So I'd stay there again if: I didn't have a family, and I got a room in the same general direction. But I agree with the consensus: if I were local, I wouldn't reccomend it for out of towners. Thanks again for everyone's input.

~T

Good to hear a report and that your stay was alright.