"Great hotel and very nostalgic, I always stay on gold floor at Fairmont’s all over the world and the only issue I have with Canadian based Fairmonts is that even though you pay premium prices for the gold floor you still really don’t get anything for it , sure you get a nice room and separate check in on the gold floor which is nice but the gold floor lounge here in Victoria is not the best , staff are great but food is basically finger food from 5 to 7 and bar is a paid bar? And really high end paid bar? Nothing free. I e stayed in manila Fairmont it’s all free and other parts of Asia all free and rooms half the price. I probably won’t say here again which is sad but what am I getting for 800 a night? The restaurant here is great and I enjoyed my time a dinner as my server Michael was exceptional, also have to say the front door guy Zach was an awesome guy to deal with too took total care of me from the time arrived until I left. Great staff. Not sure why they can’t provide free alcohol for 2 hours in their lounge it’s pretty lame to be honest."

"We absolutely loved our stay at the Empress. We splurged on the Gold Floor and found it to be worth the extra cost provided that you make use of the food and don’t eat out. We found the breakfast buffet had plenty of options. I enjoyed the fresh berries in my our meal. . The canapés and desserts in the evening were extravagant and fancy (picky eaters might have troubles). However I particularly enjoyed the scones during afternoon tea time. My only complaint would be that the rooms are very small."

"It is not often that a hotel with a stellar reputation exceeds expectations, but our recent 3 night stay at The Empress did just that. All elements of our stay were fabulous. The room was a delight, with a fantastic view of the Inner Harbour. Beautifully appointed and decorated, with ample room we could not have asked for more. The staff were exceptional, with a particular call out to Russell who attended to us with our afternoon drinks at Q. Engaging and informative, he made our time there most enjoyable. Overall, the staff are to be commended on their exceptional customer service, all are friendly and approachable, importantly they are not aloof which is often the case with hotels of this calibre. A great experience and one that I would highly recommend."

"This review is specifically to give a shoutout to hotel front desk manager Marcus Joo, who helped save what could’ve been a very horrendous anniversary experience at the hotel. After a full day of travel since 7am, we finally arrived at the hotel at 4pm, eagerly anticipating checking into our room to get some much-needed rest especially for my husband who feeling under the weather. However, due to a major computer glitch with housekeeping, our room ended up not being ready for over 3.5hrs and I was close to breaking down into tears in the lobby from both stress and exhaustion. None of the other front desk staff seemed to care and could not provide us any estimate on when the room would ever be available. The first concierge we talked to just told us to walk around the area, go get dinner and check in again when ready. We did all that, and 3.5hrs later it STILL wasn’t ready! Thankfully, the hotel manager Marcus came over to personally explain the situation with full transparency, did the best he could to improve our experience including walking us over and getting us situated at a private corner of the Q at Empress bar on a busy Friday night while we awaited the room and made sure we were well taken care of the entire rest of our stay. We would’ve all but lost faith in the Fairmont Empress Hotel entirely had Marcus not helped stepped in to make things right. He single-handedly saved what could have been a very terrible experience for us on our anniversary trip. Every hotel needs a human-centered, empathetic hotel manager who truly cares about guest wellbeing like Marcus. We will still return to the Empress in future only because we know the hotel is in good hands with Marcus at the helm to truly take care of guests."

"A team of staff that offer only the best in service and without feeling like it’s over the top. The bedrooms are well styled and the renovations look stunning and once open the bar a restaurant will be special. Breakfast was wonderful with great options."