Hotel Macdonald is officially a huge disappointment

For us anyway. So here's the deal. Two years ago Darlene decided to book us at the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald in Edmonton while visiting that fair city. The room had a huge issue with climate control and the noise level from the street made for a restless night. Darlene wrote about her experience to the manager and we received a free upgrade to use the next time we were in town. That next time would be yesterday. We were put on the 8th (top) floor in a Turret Room.

Time for some back story. Fairmont, for those of you who don't know, is a luxury Canadian hotel brand. Among the properties that Fairmont own are the world famous Banff Springs Hotel, Chateau Lake Louise, The Savoy in London and many, many more. The brand exudes class, refinement and luxury. So we have high expectations.

Back to the hotel. I will state up front that this is an old establishment and as such, I am totally cognisant of the issues surrounding the updating of very old buildings. On the plus side, the room had the longest jetted tub I've ever slipped into. It was long enough not to have to bend your knees and still be submerged up to your neck. Odd. But nice. Now for the bad news. For one thing, the angled turret windows had no curtains. They did have blinds, but these blinds were opaque. As in, they did let light in - lots of light. No room darkening ability. So much for sleeping in. Although the hotel was nice enough to put out free fancy coffee and one of those Keurig machines for guests, you had to break the seal of the bar fridge to get any creamer. It was bad enough to have to bust the seal on the bar fridge when you had no intention of buying anything just to get a creamer, but the fridge wasn't even working. Its contents were room temperature.

But the worst thing about the room were the beds. I've slept on bad beds in my day and these rank right up there with the worst of them. The beds were so bad that Darlene actually made herself a more comfortable place to sleep by taking the sofa bed mattress and putting it on the floor. I'm not joking. We both woke up with sore shoulders and backs. We have stayed at a lot of hotels over the years and this was below par for a Holiday Inn, never mind a Fairmont hotel. The room is actually worth $350+ per night. We didn't pay that much (not even close), but even for what we did pay, we feel very underwhelmed and this is definitely the last time we'll ever stay there.