When I’m staying at a hotel for the first time I consider it a bit of an adventure. You can get recommendations and read reviews, but you never know what your actual experience will be. That is half the fun of visiting a city for the first time. Recently I was in Victoria and discovered a hotel I wanted to try, the Oswego. The difference this time being that I was traveling with a bunch of extended family and they put their trust in me to find decent accommodations.
I had a few rumblings about the Oswego and decided to give them a try. I would be underplaying it immensely if I said they delivered. The overall experience we had from walking in the door, to checking out was nothing less than superb.
The rooms are quite spacious and designed with very refined detail. The extra attention to detail made it that much more special. I rely on a cup of coffee each morning to get going and the coffee in the room and Bistro was the best O have had in quite some time. It comes from Milano Boutique roasters. The Oswego and their sister hotels are the only hotel group to carry this product.
The strata hotel concept is now very common amongst new build hotels. There are many variations but our model involves whole ownership of a unit with a mandatory rental pool. This means that the owner gets a share of the revenue pool each day. Owners can use their units up to 14 days in the summer and 90 days in the winter making these units a real estate investment with the benefit of usage.
Little tidbit about the name -Oswego is an aboriginal word for the coming together of water as in 2 rivers meeting, a natural place for people to gather. This was the inspiration for the flavored water station and the name “O” Bistro.
The Oswego Victoria BC Hotel
500 Oswego Street
Victoria, BC, V8V 5C1
Information & Reservations: 1-877-7OSWEGO (767-9346)
Phone: (250) 294-7500
Website
I stayed at the Oswego for 4 days in Victoria last week.
You give the place a glowing recommendation. I am not sure that it glows exactly, but it does shine and the rooms are very tastefully decorated with modern furniture, the bathrooms are great and the suites have all you need to prepare a quick meal of your own. I do have two complaints, which I think are fairly significant:
1. They advertise “free high speed internet in all rooms.” Not exactly true. The rooms are wired up with the Bell DataTel service, with an ethernet connection on the desk. In my case, the connection did not work and when I phoned the desk, they admitted they had no clue and suggested I come down to the lobby with my laptop to access their wi-fi zone. I told them no, I want to use my computer in my room, which seemed to leave the desk lady somewhat puzzled. A few minutes later, someone called me back with an 800 number for Bell in Montreal. I called the number, waited on hold for 15 minutes and then spent another 20 with the technician troubleshooting the problem. It turns out the wired ethernet only supports 10mpbs half duplex connections, which is technically not “high speed” but it did work. They certainly had none of this information anywhere in the desk or room and the steps the Bell technican asked me to perform would surely have left the average user completely confused.
2. When I checked in, they asked me if I had a car to park, which I did, and they gave me a card for the underground lot. At no point did they inform me of a parking fee, which was also not advertised or displayed anywhere. Upon checkout, they dinged me nearly $50 for the parking fee, which I thought was awfully cheesy. The last two hotels I stayed at in Victoria (the Harbour View and the Marriott) also have underground parking, but they did not charge me an extra fee.
Anyway, my two cents…
Stayed here in May.
Loved it. My internet worked like a charm if I remember and staff was pretty helpful too.