Peninsula Motel

We arrived in the middle of the night, as we’d told the lady we would, and were told there were no rooms and nobody knew about our booking. I’d provided all the information and been assured we had a room with two queen beds. The owner was no help, and we were left without anywhere to stay. Communication was terrible, and the place looked very average for the $200 a night we were supposed to pay, though we never got a room.

The room was dim, the bathroom floor wasn’t clean, and an earwig crawling out of a towel on the rack was unpleasant. We had no wifi because we were told the modem was broken, though people seem to have been reporting wifi problems for a while without anything being done. We called ahead about arriving late and were told to get there before 10. We showed up at 9:45 to find reception shut and the lights off. The motel next door called the owner and got someone to come to the door. During check-in, he used his phone to photograph my credit card. I wasn’t comfortable with that and now need to replace it. It’s a cheap motel, and even with low expectations it was worse than expected. If you’re planning a volleyball tournament here, think again.

We booked weeks ahead and drove three and a half hours, only to be told by the landlord that there was no room for our first night. They tried to put us in a basement room that wasn’t clean or safe, with no lock on the door. Liu, the manager, urged us to accept, saying it was only one night and we’d manage, and that it had been their own room and they’d gone to trouble to make it available. Meanwhile, they wanted my card details for a security deposit even though I’d booked and paid in full through Airbnb. I’d never heard of a landlord asking for one outside Airbnb or without listing it clearly. They said they had to protect the room because sketchy people came and went and things went missing. What about our safety in that unlocked basement? We drove around Wiarton for three hours to find somewhere else for our vacation, and the landlord refused to compensate us for the trouble, frustration, and wasted time. Whenever I raised compensation, she started with, “You know, we are all Chinese people…” to pressure us to drop it. The whole place seemed unclean and sketchy, and the staff came across as unprofessional and insincere. I’ll post in Chinese media too.

We’re out more than $200 for a night we didn’t stay and towels we weren’t given. We’d originally booked two nights, then changed it to one more than a week before the trip. They confirmed the change and said we’d only be charged for one night, but still charged us for two, plus $15 per person per night for towels. There were five of us and only two towels. Dealing with the owner afterward was really frustrating. Stay somewhere else.