Black Rock Oceanfront Resort
The setting for this place is absolutely stunning. The views are just as good too. It is located on the west side of Vancouver Island in a town named Ucluelet. We stayed in a one bedroom Condo and the view was great there too. After you take everything in though things start going downhill from there. Everyone of the staff that we met seemed very good too but the place just didn’t seem to have its act together like it should. Let me explain our experience and you can be the judge.
Check-in:
We arrived about Noon and were told our place was almost ready. So we figured we would wait so we could check it out before we went into town to get anything we might need. Since it was lunch time we went into the restaurant to have lunch, (the restaurant is covered later). After a long lunch we went to the front desk and asked about our room, again it was almost ready. I should note that we did not receive any information about the resort when we arrived, or any of it’s facilities. We asked about WiFi and sat in the bar waiting for our room. It wasn’t until after we left that we found out that they had a Business Center, that would have been better for us. We arrived at Noon like I said and it was 3:30pm before we were given keys. Every time we checked – and I checked often, it was almost ready. Not a good way to start.
The Room:
The condo was great and had a nice balcony looking out over the water. We brought some movies and tried to use the player in the condo but couldn’t get it to work. We called the front desk and they sent someone down and sure enough it was broken. They would have someone look at it the next day they said. Ok, so much for watching the movie… The next day we got ready to leave and put some items into the safe, but it wouldn’t lock. We called the front desk and they said 20 minutes and someone would be there. An hour later, we called again and were told he was on his way. After a couple more calls and 2 and a half hours later a guy showed up and put new batteries in the safe. While he was there I asked him about the DVD player. He agreed it was broken and said he would take care of it. When we returned He DVD player was replaced and worked just fine. A couple days later we were about ready to go to the front desk and check out when the phone rang and it was someone saying they were going to come over and look at our DVD player. I said that it had been taken care of a couple days prior and we were checking out.
The Restaurant:
Lunch the first day took 45 minutes to get served from the time we ordered. The food was good, not over the top by any means, and was COLD. It seemed that it had been plated and then sat somewhere. Not to impressive and the place wasn’t busy. I had Mussels and Clams at room temperature with some grit. Patrice had Seafood Chowder that was at room temperature with skin on the surface from setting so long.
They had a breakfast item on the menu that I just had to try. It was Eggs Schroeder, now when a place has a dish named after you,(yeah right), you have to try it. So the second day we were there we went to breakfast. I ordered Eggs Schroeder of course and Patrice ordered their signature dish. Yes she ordered “Eggs Black Rock”. My Eggs were great but…the dish Patrice ordered had 5 ingredients total, and one of those was Sausage. There was no Sausage on her plate. We sent the dish back. Meanwhile I ate mine and we still waited for hers to arrive. They did apologize and didn’t charge us for her dish. But it took us exactly twice as long as it should have to complete breakfast. They were now 0 for 2 and we decided we would not eat there again. Besides I enjoy cooking and we have a kitchen in the Condo.
Summary:
To the credit of the staff, both the restaurant and the Maintenance man, it turns out that they went to the General Manager and told her that they thought we weren’t having a stay like we should. She sent us a bottle of Champagne and a personal note that included her contact information.
Before we checked out I sent an email to the resort Manager explaining what we had been through and even made some recommendations to her. Now it took me some time to write this up and explain things properly in an email, and I didn’t do it just because I am such a nice guy, (although I am). We did it to provide feedback, which is hard to get when you run a business, and…In the past, whether it be good or bad feedback, we have always either got a discount on a future stay, or a discount on our bill. It is always good to know you aren’t wasting your time and that what you said didn’t go into a black hole. We were happy to learn that our email was the topic of her Management meeting. It is good to know you didn’t waste your time and that actions were taken as a result of feedback. We also learned that that there were some changes in personnel at the restaurant that were underway prior to our email.
There are a number of places to stay in that general area and as beautiful as this place is, by no means is it a 5 star experience by any stretch. That is the downside. On the upside, they responded before we officially complained and took action when we went through official channels too.
For our next trip there we will check this place out for another stay.
