Every in-person interaction I've had at this property has been incredibly friendly and professional. However, my stay at the Four Seasons did not meet expectations. As a frequent business traveler who has spent more nights in hotels than at home over the years, I'm no stranger to hotel stays. I typically stay at Marriottsโin fact, I had the opportunity for a complimentary suite upgrade at the Westin but chose the Four Seasons instead, primarily because I wanted to experience the luxury many of my friends have spoken highly of and to treat myself for my birthday. Unfortunately, this trip was disappointing. There were several issues, some of which I did bring up to Ioto, the assistant manager.
1. Housekeeping
During check-in, I was told that hotel policy does not allow housekeepers to service rooms while animals are inside. If I wished to receive service, I needed to remove my dog and notify the front desk. The day after I checked in, I did exactly that. Around 11:15 AM, I took my dog to walk around Whistler Village and stopped by the front desk to let them know. I returned at 1:30 PMโthe room hadn't been cleaned. I went to the group activity at 2 PM (another issue in itself, see below) and asked them to clean my room while I was out again and they confirmed that they'll clean the room. I came back at 2:45 PMโstill not cleaned. I called down, and they finally sent someone immediately. I had to wait in the lobby for half an hour while they cleaned my room around 3 PM.
The overall housekeeping standard was not what I expected. Amenities weren't fully replenished each night (e.g., cotton swabs). Additionally, items weren't placed neatly. From my understanding, Four Seasons has incredibly rigorous housekeeping standardsโcups should always be centered on coasters, for example. However, you could tell the housekeeper was rushed to flip the room; attention to detail was missed. This was the first thing that caught my eye when I checked in. It's less surprising that the housekeeper was rushed, but more surprising that the room passed inspection and was flipped from vacant clean to vacant ready.
2. Follow-Through
Again, all my interactions were incredibly pleasant. However, almost every staff member I worked with lacked the empowerment and ownership to see tasks through to completion. There needs to be a process change and a cultural/mentality shift.
After checking in, I went directly to the concierge desk to book activities. I tried to book the steak rub class on the first day, spa on the second, and snowshoe walk on the third. I was told she could book me into the steak rub class and snowshoe walk, but I was waitlisted for the spa. No big dealโI accepted the arrangement verbally (note this for later) and went about my day.
After returning from Whistler Village and noticing my room still wasn't cleaned, I went to the concierge and asked if I could bring my dog to the class. I totally understand if the answer was no since food was present, but I figured I'd askโI either had to skip the class so my room could get cleaned while I watched my dog, or bring my dog to class while the room was cleaned. The concierge said they weren't sure and would ask. Keep in mind, this was 1:30 PM and class starts at 2 PM. They said they'd call my room and let me know. By 1:50 PM, I hadn't received a call, so I called down. They said the restaurant hadn't gotten back to them yet, but they'd follow up. (Would they have followed up if I hadn't called?) At 1:58 PM, I got a call saying it was okay to bring my dog and I asked again if they'll send housekeeping to my room and received a verbal confirmation.
I went straight to the restaurant and was about to enter when I was stopped at the door. They asked whether my dog was a pet or service animal. I said she's a pet. They said they don't allow dogs. I told them I'd literally just gotten off the phone with the concierge, who said it was allowed. We went back and forth, and they said they couldn't let my dog in but could watch her for me during class. Amazing. I gave them my dog and went to class.
The instructor asked for my name and told me I was waitlisted. I was very confused and, quite frankly, embarrassed. This conversation happened in front of all the other guests, and in that moment, I felt like a Karen who couldn't get a spot in class and was pretending to have one. I stood in the corner texting the Four Seasons number and received a reply: "Allow us a moment to connect with our Concierge team." Uncomfortable with the glances, I walked back to the hostess stand and explained the situation. She asked if I had written confirmationโI didn't. The hostess immediately spoke with the instructor, and I was able to take the class since there were two no-shows.
At 2:19 PM, 10-15 minutes into class, I got a text from the hotel: "Thank you for your patience, Ms. Hill, we can confirm we have signed you up for this activity under Ms. Hill, 1 person." My first thought was, "Gee, thanks, this came in a timely manner" (note the sarcasm). Then I got a text from a number ending in 5355 apologizing about the confusion regarding my dog attending class. Okay. But where was the apology regarding the attendance confusion? None. It also didn't feel like the hotel ever addressed this during the service recovery. This incident felt like it was swept under the rug.
The text also clarified that I had a confirmed guided walk and was waitlisted for the spa scrub class. This is where I felt a bit gaslit. Maybe because I still hadn't received an apology or acknowledgment of the scheduling mishap, but this confirmation felt like a slap in the faceโlike I was supposed to know I was waitlisted for the steak rub class? There were three opportunities to communicate this: when I signed up the night I checked in, at 1:30 PM when I asked if my dog could attend, or at 1:58 PM when they confirmed my dog could attend. Any of those times would have been appropriate to tell me I was on the waitlist. Yet I get a confirmation text afterward and no apology.
Knowing I was waitlisted for the spa scrub class, I arrived 10 minutes early to the restaurant and told the hostess I knew I was on the waitlist but wanted to wait and see if anyone no-showed. I asked her to please let me know after class started whether it was full so I wouldn't keep waiting. She sat me down on the couch and got me some water. I kept waiting, and nine minutes after the class start time, I finally went up to her and asked if there were any open slots. "Oh yeah, let me go check." Sigh. There were, and I was able to take the class. The miss here was the lack of follow-through on her part.
The night before I checked out, at 5 PM, I requested via text that my husband's snowboard be brought up from the ski concierge. Obviously, I didn't need it immediatelyโ5 PM is still prime check-in time, I understood guest services are busy. However, when I came back from dinner, the crowd in the lobby was gone at 8:45pm I was expecting my snowboard to be in my room - it was not so I followed up. It was brought up 10 minutes later. If I hadn't followed up, I doubt this request would have been completed. Again, another incident of lack of follow-through.
3. Service Recovery
I complained around 4-5 PM on 11/27 about the cleaning and steak rub class confusion. While the staff was understanding and empathetic, a human child's toy was initially offered to my dog as service recovery. I've personally been offered more from Marriott for lesser offenses, so I was shocked. The actual service recovery didn't come until the next day, after I returned to the hotel late at night following dinner. In my opinion, service recovery should be offered the day of the complaint, or at least verbally mentioned that something is in the works. I understand that depending on the level of compensation, higher-level approval may be needed. In this case, while I appreciate there were further service recovery offered, but it should not have taken over 24 hours. This is disastrous from a customer experience standpoint.
This property has incredibly talented and friendly people who are amazing at hospitality. One of the great things I applaud throughout this entire experience is that your staff is incredibly agile in problem solving. This was proven by the hostessโ offer to take care of my dog during the steak rub class and the room getting cleaned while my husband and I were at breakfast the day after. However, it lacks the mechanisms and processes to ensure guest requests are followed through completely and rooms meet the housekeeping standards of a five-star hotel. The failure of the concierge to register me for the steak rub class, the failure of the hostess to follow through on checking for no-shows at the spa rub class, and the failure of guest services to ensure my snowboard was deliveredโall of this shows a lack of accountability from your staff to ensure requests are completed. Requests are NOT completed when the front desk forwards them to other departments; they're only completed when the task is actually done. As a guest, when tasks aren't completed, I don't think about the bell staff who didn't deliver my snowboardโI put the fault on whoever read and acknowledged my initial text. At a 5 star resort, I'd expect every staff that the guest had dedicated the request to to follow up with corresponding department to completion. Check every 15 minutes for urgent requests and every 30 minutes on non urgent requests. This should be minimum standard- especially for the four seasons. Write sticky notes of individual requests and stick them to your monitors if you have to, don't rip them off until they've been confirmed to be completed.
Having the most disappointing day of my stay being my birthday is truly unfortunate and I didnโt even think it could happened at a prestigious resort. Although this isn't the most positive feedback youโll receive but Iโm sharing this experience in hopes of providing feedback for areas of improvement. I urge corporate Four Seasons to send auditors to conduct a thorough audit of every aspect of this property to ensure it's operating up to brand standards for guest experience - because if an auditor has had my exact experience and still passed the audit, I don't think the Four Seasons brand should be calling themselves a luxury hotel/resort. Guests pay a premium at the Four Seasons to have a superior experienceโremember, if they wanted a mediocre experience, they could stay at any other property in Whistler at a fraction of the cost.
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