Galiano Oceanfront Inn & Spa

My husband and I used to go to this oceanfront hotel over a couple of decades and absolutely loved the service, amenities and stay . I decided to take my niece and daughter for a girls getaway. Unbeknownst to me , the hotel is under new ownership. Not going into much details, but it was by far the worst stay ever for us and will never go back . The whole time I was there was so much regret on how I literally wasted over $1000 for this trip where I could have taken them somewhere else had I known . Sad to see how it’s changed .

I sadly must agree with the more recent negative reviews. My husband and I have been coming here for years, but it's just not worth the hefty price tag anymore. It's become apparent on our last few visits that not only is the property in need of face lift, but there is a serious lack of upkeep and maintenance. A few issues of note: The shower is rusted out with a moldy shower head, villa #25 has developed an ant problem in the bathroom, the screen door doesn't close properly and easily comes off the track, and the patio door lock has been broken for months (on windy days a broken lock means the door gets pushed open and creates a whistling noise). It's a beautiful location and the staff are wonderful, but it needs some work. We will check back in a couple years to see if there have been any improvements. If not, we won't be back.

The meal was excellent, and the service was top-notch as well. A big thank you to Autumn and Dean, who made the evening even more memorable. Every dish was perfectly prepared and beautifully presented. You made the family night even better. Thanks, guys. What a treat.

The new owners have run this once fabulous oceanfront get-away into the ground. Do not be misled by the website, it was put in place by the previous owners. The hot tub hasn’t worked in over two years, the spa is shut down, the rooms are grotty, dated and infested with silver fish, the grounds are overgrown and ill kept at best. The Atrevida restaurant is the only silver lining and the only reason to visit this inn and you can eat in the restaurant without wasting your money on staying here. Very disappointed.

acation ❘ Couple I went during Valentine’s Day which is also my wife’s birthday, I was really looking forward to it. I read that it had an outside tub, fireplace and grill. We got there the day before Valentines and on that first night I wanted to use the grill to make a very romantic grill lamb chops with veggies, with a great bottle of wine, but found out that our grill didn’t work. I was told that I had to use the grill at the next apartment because no one was staying there. Good thing I had a flashlight with me because it was needed. It took me awhile, but I did get dinner made. I was promised that the grill would be fixed the next day. The next day we left and return to make a grill lunch on the patio and found out that they wasn't able to fix the grill and that they would replace it on the day we were leaving. We we had cold cuts, cheese and wine. Next we also read that they had a shower with all these jets and felt that would be really cool as well, but that didn’t work as well. The knob on the shower which there are two seemed to be broken. I still had hopes for a nice stay after all it was my wife’s Valentine’s Birthday. I reserved way in advance for the Valentine’s Special four-course dinner in their restaurant. They over-cooked my steak (I’d ask for medium rare, it was well done), but it still was not that bad of a birthday dinner. I also, notice that when each table was paying their bill, they would bring a rose with the bill, I felt little weird because they didn’t offer me that at all. They were also serving us really fast. I order a cocktail and before I could take two sips they were bringing out our first course and you could just feel the kitchen was trying to rush and get the night over. My wife was in the restaurant industry and she felt they could have offered the ladies a glass of Prosecco and maybe a little tiny piece of chocolate. My wife really like the positive things like you can bring you pet and walks in the area were good. For me as the person trying to create a beautiful and rememberable Valentine’s birthday the Inn didn’t help my affords. The Inn also said that you could get Netflix you just had to use your account to log in, sound simple enough, but we couldn’t get that to work and when I called to get instructions, they didn’t know how to instruct me and told me that they would have the maintenance guy over the next day to explain, and he he never made it. TV area looked so unorganized with wire hanging out from the back. All is good, I don't think I will head back to this villa anytime soon. As well if you are a person of colour you might get the same treatment, please let me know.

I booked a 3 day stay here with my wife as a much needed getaway that was supposed to be relaxing and worry free but it turned into a nightmare before we even arrived. Right after I booked, I began getting inundated with redundant emails requesting the exact same information I had already provided at the time of booking. I called the front desk and was unable to reach them so I left a message. A couple of days passed and nobody had followed up so I called again with the same results so I emailed them and called again a couple of days later and finally reached someone. At this time, I tried to make a reservations at the restaurant but I was notified that the restaurant would be closed during our stay which was disappointing to say the least. They responded by upgrading us to a villa which has a fully equipped kitchenette. So I though, "No biggie, it's not ideal but that'll work", and we accepted the upgrade. At that time, I also booked a couples massage with my wife at 3:00 p.m. on the 21st of December. Shortly after I received a confusing email stating that it's 2023 and she was looking at 2024 when she booked it so it's not Saturday it's Thursday and it needs to be my wife at 1:30 p.m. and me at 3:00 p.m. Her email made no sense at all so I called back to sort out the confusion and spoke with the manager who, after a brief hold, got back to me and let me know that she had sorted it out and she had booked both my wife and I for 3:00 p.m. on the 21st. Fast forward a couple of weeks and we arrived at the inn and checked in on December 20th in the evening. The room looked great with a beautiful patio, hot tub, barbecue, comfy furniture, a great king sized bed, etc... we were impressed. But that was the only highlight of the whole stay. We had a late night and slept in til the afternoon the next day and, while we were making our late breakfast, received a call from the spa saying that we were late for our 1:30 p.m. appointment. I corrected the spa attendant, letting her know that after speaking with the manager, we had been confirmed for 3:00 p.m. for a couple's massage, but she decided to make it an argument and told me that the manager had never let her know that and that my only option was to either come right now or cancel. I decided to go speak to them in person at the spa and when I arrived there, the attendant was very rude, refused to try and work out any type of solution, and again reiterated that my only option was to either be seen at separate times or cancel the service because she was just an attendant with no power and couldn't do anything to solve this problem. She was so unhelpful that I requested a manager, but of course, conveniently, no manager was working that day. One of the RMTs came out from the back when he overheard our heated discussion and, while he was much more polite than the attendant, all he did was make excuses for the poor management and the resulting customer experience we were having. We ended up with no resolution

The townhouse units we stayed in were lovely; one could live there happily forever. They were one-bedroom apartments, spacious, clean and very modern. There is one unit below and one above; though they look like townhouses, they are really one-floor units. There is a washer and dryer in the bathroom, a capacious tub/shower combo, a large bedroom with comfortable bed, a complete kitchen and a large living/dining area. Coffee/tea are supplied, with sugar and whitener. The patio immediately out the patio door has a table and chairs, fireplace with wood provided and a jet-tub and towels. Lovely setting for a glass of wine of an evening! You look out into the bay beside the ferry, and it’s fun to watch them come and go. They are not noisy at all. Nice lawn running out to the seawall, and steps over by the restaurant to go down to the beach if you want. The slight downside is the distance you have to park from your vehicle, which means carrying your luggage from the parking lot to the units. The restaurant is very nice. Staff are very congenial. The usual spa amenities are available. The resort is walking distance to the bakery, convenience store/gas station, bookstore and restaurant, Babes in the Woods. The grounds are beautifully landscaped. Great place to stay!

We stayed in both the suites and the villas. The suites were nice, but the villas were much nicer. The location is amazing and the staff were very friendly and accommodating. A shout out to meia who helped with our booking, switching us from a suite to a villa mid stay due to a lack of availability as well as to Judy, the housekeeping supervisor who expedited the cleaning of our villa so that we could have early access on the switch over day as well as allowing us a late checkout even though they had a full house to accommodate my husband who became ill on the last night there. She was extremely friendly and helpful. The wood fire pizzas were also delicious and the lady making them was so nice, she made a special pizza to order for my son and when she accidentally forgot to use vegan cheese, made a fresh one in 5 minutes at no charge and was very gracious. I would definitely stay here again, the only downside was that the hot tub wasn’t working and the grounds could use a bit more TLC.

My wife and I stayed two nights at the Galiano Oceanfront Inn & Spa, as part of a cycling trip through the Gulf Islands. Given its’ name and hotel category, we were expecting a beautiful resort with various amenities, along with personable, friendly and helpful staff. Is the Inn beautiful: yes, it is. There is no denying that this hotel boasts the perfect location on the island and that the views from every room are spectacular. But that is where the awesomeness ends. From the moment we walked in, we were treated like we were an inconvenience and a nuisance to the staff at this hotel. We arrived early and our room wasn’t ready, so they said they could call us when it was ready. They never called. We were actually sitting right up in the lounge area reading and finally we went back down and found out, around check-in time, that yes, our room was ready. Like other reviewers noted, they basically threw an envelope at us, didn’t tell us where our room was or how to get there. We had also asked when we first arrived, if there were taxis on the island, because we came over with only bicycles. So of course we were wondering about visiting other dining places, etc We were abruptly told “no” there are no taxis. Later, this conversation has more meaning. We checked out the areas around the hotel, only to find the hot tub was out of service and the Yoga studio is not available for use to guests. Huh? We asked about the hot tub and they were very defensive about it being under regular maintenance right now. Upon reading other reviews, it seems their hot tub has been out of service a lot of the time in the past two years. Hhhmm, see a trend here? We left around 11:30am the next morning to go cycling on Mayne. One of the staff members had come to collect our wet towels (left outside our door as instructed) and had knocked to say she would return new towels by 5pm. This person was very friendly and talkative and actually assured us this would happen. We arrived back to our room at 6pm to find no towels there. Now, at another hotel, you would simply call down to Reception and ask for some towels. But at Galiano Oceanfront, they only have someone on Reception from 9am-5pm. At 5pm, they lock the door to the Reception/Dining Areas and leave. There is no one on the property unless you have an actual emergency. Even then, no number is left. You have to go to their website and listen to their message saying this. Dining: we did eat dinner at their restaurant the first night and it was actually very good. We had a very friendly and helpful Server – she was the main source of some answers for us, that others did not have the time or interest to spend. However, the dining room was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays (which was only conveyed to us when we called to make a reservation mid-day Monday) and given the lack of anything else open on the island at all during September, it didn’t make for the best impression. Luckily we had found this o