We loved this place! The pictures are exactly what the property looks like. It's clean, modern, open and a perfect size for two people. We normally stay at the Oswego but thought we would try something that is not a hotel and found this amazing place. Here is a review of the things that are important to us when we travel.
Booking
We booked through the VRBO site and immediately got a response from Doug. He made the process quick and straight forward. We've booked other properties through VRBO and wait days for any type of response. I knew right away that Doug valued us as guests and his property.
Property
We arrived at the airport at 12:30 pm and we were able to do an earlier check-in as no other guests were booked before us. Very clear directions were provided on how to access the secured property and were given cell number just in case we needed something. We got a quick overview of the rental and a walk through. There were fresh flowers on the table and fruit in the bowl as a welcome. We immediately knew that we had made the right choice. It's open and welcoming with fantastic floor to ceiling windows (yes there are blinds for them). We love to people watch and this could easily be done from the leather lounging chairs. Yup, there is a place called Lucky Bar across the street, however, there was a large line up only on the Monday night and it was great to watch everyone in the hustle and bustle, excited to check out whatever was going on in there that night. We knew it was going to last for a bit but when we went to bed we closed the bedroom door and it shut out a lot of noise. We found it to be a lively area with lots of people walking, talking, etc. which we are totally fine with. There is a full binder of all you need to know about the WIFI, watching TV, taxis, where to buy groceries, etc. and we also found manuals in the closet for all of the appliances just in case something went wrong. There is a very comfortable king sized bed in a separate room that closes off with a pocket door and closet space that we moved all of our items into. The huge bathroom includes a tub with shower, laundry and heated towel rack which we did not use. The kitchen is fully equipped with dishes, cutlery, Tassimo machine, kettle, including coffee, tea, sugar, salt and pepper. We didn't use the microwave, oven or dishwasher. Any dishes we used we hand washed and all of the necessities to clean up were provided. We walked up to the large, shared rooftop deck and it had really great views. We were able to have a little bit of a later check out as there was no one scheduled and we had a flight to catch. Doug was very accommodating with this.
Location
Located downtown and easy to walk to everything that we needed. This happens to be next to one of our favourite Victoria restaurants, Ferris Oyster Bar, and an amazing little food space is just down the block at the waterfront, Red Fish Blue Fish. It's a 10 minute walk to the Empress if you want to check out High Tea (which we love to do). You can take a water taxi at the waterfront to Fisherman's Wharf which has quite a few little eateries such as Barb's Fish & Chips or you can walk, which we did, in about 30 or 40 minutes at a leisurely pace with stops along the way. We also bought tickets for the Big Bus Victoria (hop on, hop off) with Groupon which included entry to the Robert Bateman centre and to walk to one of the pick up spots was a less than 10 minute walk.
We will no longer be staying in a hotel for our Victoria visits. This is going to always be our first place to book. We love it and can't wait to return.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC