My friend and I stayed at the Best Western Plus Carlton Plaza Hotel in Victoria for 4 nights/5 days during exam season. We are both students and booked this trip entirely out of pocket as a way to make an intense week of classes and studying a little easier on ourselves. We specifically chose this hotel because of the downtown location and paid extra for valet parking so we would not have to deal with the stress of parking while balancing 8-9 hour school days and late-night studying.
Unfortunately, on the very first day of our stay, valet services damaged the front rim/tire area of my vehicle by hitting the curb while parking it. To their credit, the hotel and valet company took full responsibility for the incident from the beginning. The damage was witnessed by us directly and captured on both hotel security cameras and my vehicle cameras, so there was never any dispute regarding fault.
However, simply taking responsibility for damaging a guest’s vehicle is not enough. This situation should never have happened in the first place, especially when valet parking is a paid premium service that guests are specifically paying for to reduce stress and inconvenience.
Instead, during an already exhausting exam week, we had to spend our time arranging mechanic inspections, opening an ICBC claim, completing paperwork, communicating with insurance, and determining whether the vehicle was even safe to drive back home. Because of the damage and resulting complications, we also had to cab back and forth to school throughout parts of the trip.
To be fair, the hotel did reimburse taxi costs and offered to cover one meal delivery, which we appreciated. But the overall experience was still overwhelmingly negative because the issue itself completely disrupted our stay and added significant stress during an important academic period.
What left the worst impression was the response afterward. We requested a partial refund or compensation toward our stay given the extent to which this incident affected our trip. Instead, we were told compensation may only be considered toward a future stay. Respectfully, after having our vehicle damaged by valet services, returning to the same hotel is not something we would feel comfortable doing.
Overall, staff were polite, and responsibility was acknowledged, but accountability alone does not undo the inconvenience, stress, lost time, and disruption caused to paying guests. What was supposed to be a productive and relaxing exam-week stay became centered around vehicle damage, insurance claims, mechanics, and transportation issues instead.