Lobby sitting area

Reviews of Best Western Dorchester Hotel

2.5 out of 5
Best Western Dorchester Hotel
70 Church St, Nanaimo, BC

Reviews

8.0

Very Good

Rating 10 - Excellent. 335 out of 1006 reviews" "
Rating 8 - Good. 414 out of 1006 reviews" "
Rating 6 - Okay. 143 out of 1006 reviews" "
Rating 4 - Poor. 83 out of 1006 reviews" "
Rating 2 - Terrible. 31 out of 1006 reviews" "

8.4/10

Cleanliness

8.6/10

Staff & service

7.6/10

Amenities

7.8/10

Property conditions & facilities

8.0/10

Eco-friendliness

Reviews

10/10 Excellent

Taishina

Traveled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
The staff were extremely helpful and very great attitude! Rooms were clean and spacious, beds were very comfortable! I love that it was in walking distance to the places I wanted to go! Definitely would stay again!
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2024

10/10 Excellent

R

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Quiet and clean room with a beautiful view. Staff were friendly, welcoming and helpful.
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2024

10/10 Excellent

Karen

Traveled with partner, Traveled with pets
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Room was small but it was very clean, comfy bed and a great place to lay your head in the heart of Nanaimo. Dog friendly, plus, they supplied a dog bed and dog food bowls which was great!
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2024

8/10 Good

Len

Traveled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities
Great location. The interior is great but the building is older so there are noises during the day, like some beeping alarm in the hallway. A night, there was no issues about getting some good sleep. Staff were friendly and professional.
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2024

8/10 Good

Duane

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2024

8/10 Good

Sherryl, Edmonton

It was old but clean.
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2024

10/10 Excellent

kisu

Business traveler
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
I was impressed by the staff there, they're so kind.
Stayed 1 night in Feb 2024
Response from Vani Sharma on Feb 27, 2024
Dear Kisu,Thank you for this great review. We are glad to hear that you found our staff to be kind and helpful. We wish to welcome you back for another great stay in future.

8/10 Good

Carly

Stayed 1 night in Feb 2024

10/10 Excellent

Kristy

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
The staff here are fabulous!
Stayed 1 night in Feb 2024
Response from Vani Sharma on Feb 11, 2024
Dear Kristy,Thank you for taking out time to write this review. We are delighted to know that you found our staff fabulous. We look forward to welcoming you back to the hotel.

8/10 Good

Paulette

Business traveler, Traveled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Very convenient to my medical appointment. Great restaurants. Competitive prices.
Stayed 1 night in Feb 2024
Response from Vani on Feb 9, 2024
Dear Paulette, Thank you for your feedback! We are delighted to hear that our location was convenient for your medical appointment and that you enjoyed the nearby restaurants. We strive to offer competitive prices to ensure our guests receive great value. We hope to welcome you back soon!

8/10 Good

Matt

Traveled with partner, Traveled with pets
Liked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities
Very clean and liked the pet bed and pet food bowl in room. Was very unimpressed that the price booked online was not the price that the hotel tried to charge at check in. It took at least 15 minutes to sort out and I had to show the front desk person the online booking a couple of times, he had to calll his supervisor, he helped another guest while I waited to get the error sorted out. The issue was rectified and it was a good thing I was paying attention or would have been grossly overcharged. Checking out the next morning there was another guest dealing with the same issue. Otherwise it was a good experience, however the attempt to overcharge me and not initially charge the amount I booked the room for online has left a sour taste in my mouth.
Stayed 1 night in Dec 2023

8/10 Good

Elaine

Traveled with partner
Liked: Staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
We were pleasantly surprised by a free upgrade to a suite, which was spacious and comfortable with great views. We found the heater in the bedroom to be quite noisy. Staff were very friendly and helpful.
Stayed 1 night in Dec 2023
Response from Vani on Jan 7, 2024
Hello Elaine,Thank you for taking out time to write this feedback. We are delighted to hear that you found the upgraded suite to be spacious and comfortable and our staff friendly. We appreciate your feedback regarding the noisy heater in the bedroom. Our sincere apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused during your stay. We will certainly look into this matter to ensure that it is addressed promptly. Your input is invaluable to us as we continually strive to improve the overall experience for our guests. Once again, thank you for choosing to stay with us, and we hope to have the opportunity to welcome you back for another enjoyable experience.

10/10 Excellent

Paulette

Business traveler, Traveled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
We like to stay at the Dorchester when we come to Nanaimo for medical appointments. It's convenient to the clinic and very comfortable. The View restaurant is outstanding.
Stayed 1 night in Dec 2023

8/10 Good

Colin

Traveled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Love the classical downtown hotels.
Stayed 1 night in Dec 2023

8/10 Good

Pat

Stayed 3 nights in Nov 2023

6/10 Okay

Mark

Stayed 2 nights in Nov 2023

8/10 Good

Linda

Stayed 1 night in Nov 2023

10/10 Excellent

Patricia

Traveled with family and small children, Traveled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
family suite was spacious and and very clean comfortable beds
Stayed 1 night in Nov 2023

10/10 Excellent

Danielle

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Thank you kindly for upgrading my room.
Stayed 1 night in Sep 2023

6/10 Okay

Diogenes

Business traveler
Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service
Location
Stayed 1 night in Nov 2023

2/10 Terrible

Gregory

Business traveler, Traveled with partner
Disliked: Amenities
Booked the hotel room and wouldnt accept my credit card left me stranded. Ive been dealing with my koho master card for4 years and never told me anywhere they didnt accept them. Every other hotel does.
Stayed 1 night in Nov 2023

10/10 Excellent

PINGZAI

Traveled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 2 nights in Oct 2023

8/10 Good

Tanvir

Business traveler
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
The stay was comfortable
Stayed 2 nights in Oct 2023

10/10 Excellent

Lindsey

Stayed 1 night in Oct 2023

10/10 Excellent

Deepa

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Spacious, clean, friendly
Stayed 2 nights in Oct 2023

10/10 Excellent

Albert

Traveled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 1 night in Oct 2023

10/10 Excellent

Diogenes

Stayed 1 night in Oct 2023

10/10 Excellent

Kathy

Traveled with group
Liked: Staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Staff was very friendly. Would go out if their way. Rooms are a little dated and chairs need to be vacuumed. Microwave and ice on different floors, REALLY? I haven’t experienced this at a Best Western! Rugs and carpeting dirty. Most Best Westerns I’ve been to have breakfast included.
Stayed 1 night in Oct 2023

8/10 Good

Kevin

Business traveler
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Room was not ready when arrived.
Stayed 3 nights in Sep 2023

8/10 Good

Tracey

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Great location for the ferry
Stayed 1 night in Sep 2023

6/10 Okay

Arlene

Traveled with group
No hot water, bathtub didn’t drain and the desk gave another customer our room number when they checked in. They were trying to get in our room. Very upsetting. The restaurant had no eggs for breakfast one day and the next day no staff. We went to the hotel across the street for breakfast.
Stayed 3 nights in Sep 2023

6/10 Okay

Rick

Stayed 3 nights in Sep 2023

10/10 Excellent

DengMing

Liked: Staff & service
Stayed 1 night in Sep 2023

4/10 Poor

Brian

Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service
Stayed 3 nights in Sep 2023
Response from Chris on Sep 20, 2023
Thank you Brian for staying with us. We would love to learn how we could have done better.

8/10 Good

Barry

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service
Intereting fact. The building was the second stru ture in Nanaimo. It dates back to 1890's
Stayed 1 night in Sep 2023

2/10 Terrible

Ching Yee

Traveled with family and small children
Disliked: Cleanliness, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Very old property and not worth the money ($300 per night). Should just go to coast which is opposite and much newer / cleaner)
Stayed 3 nights in Aug 2023
Response from Chris on Sep 16, 2023
Thank you Ching Yee and very sorry your experience fell below our standards. We are wonderfully located right in the heart of Nanaimo. We are working diligently to make improvements at the property each and every day.

6/10 Okay

Anita

Liked: Staff & service, property conditions & facilities
The room was nice. The front desk staffs was polite. It’s questionable regarding housekeeping. We booked two rooms. In one of the rooms, when we lifted the toilet seat, there was a urine stain which we had to clean ourselves. I have a sensitive sense of smell. I was able to smell urine as soon as we walked into the room and at night time when the fan was turned off, the smell became quite unbearable for me. It became better once the bathroom door was closed. Probably the bathroom floor needed mopping? A very disappointing thing to see were two q tips and dirt in front of the neighbor’s door that we would walk by. We were there for two nights and that dirt was still there the morning we checked out. It was clearly visible for any housekeeping staffs to notice it.
Stayed 2 nights in Sep 2023

10/10 Excellent

Caroline

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
I appreciated the upgrade, the hotel renovations are great and the front desk staff were super friendly and helpful.
Stayed 2 nights in Sep 2023

2/10 Terrible

Alex

Stayed 1 night in Sep 2023

8/10 Good

Walter

Business traveler, Traveled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service
The waterfront attractions
Stayed 1 night in Sep 2023

8/10 Good

Brandi

Traveled with pets, Traveled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Great location, quiet and clean!
Stayed 1 night in Sep 2023

10/10 Excellent

Noel

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Excellent renovation on a 130 year plus property very interesting architecture. Quiet
Stayed 1 night in Sep 2023

10/10 Excellent

Stephanie

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Good
Stayed 1 night in Sep 2023

10/10 Excellent

susan, Cobble Hill

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Right down town with the harbour great shopping on the older downtown streets.
Stayed 1 night in Sep 2023

8/10 Good

Erica

Traveled with group
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Parking is very limited, but there are a few local parking areas you can walk and park and the hotel reimbursed us one night when parking lot was full. Restaurant is excellent. Great location.
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2023

10/10 Excellent

Mallory

Traveled with pets, Traveled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Stayed for the weekend and we were very pleased with how accommodating the staff was at this hotel. We were placed in a room with a really loud air conditioner that would not turn off. We mentioned it to the front desk staff and they were so understanding, and made sure we were comfortable, even when we only mentioned on our last night. They upgraded us to another room for free. Parking was really easy to find on the street even when the lots were full. There are so many nearby food places and shopping mall. Overall, we enjoyed our stay!
Stayed 2 nights in Aug 2023

10/10 Excellent

Dennis

Stayed 2 nights in Aug 2023

10/10 Excellent

Rabia

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Stayed 2 nights in Aug 2023

8/10 Good

David

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2023

8/10 Good

C P

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
The hotel is an older building that has been kept up Nanaimo. Unfortunately, downtown Nanaimo is in a bit of a slump and there are many unhoused people on the surrounding streets.
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2023