Totem Motel

Reviewer: Not provided on Sun 24 Jul 2011 rated 1 out of 10.

We booked a 36 foot trailer at Totem from Sun Jul 24 to Thur Jul 28, 2011.

We checked into trailer #8. It was very old and dated with some lights not working but relatively clean and the fridge seemed to work, so overall, things seemed ok.
Later on noticed that some electrical outlets (both inside and out) were not covered and had exposed wiring coming out. We have a 1.5 year old so this was concerning. When we told the owner, I was told to "put something in front of them". Not exactly the answer I wanted to hear...

On Monday afternoon, it started raining. Not great when you're camping but that is why we booked a trailer. Or so we thought ...

Our trailer had a covered area with picnik table and barbeque. However, the "cover" consisted of an old tarp with hundreds of holes in it. As soon as it started raining, water started dripping everywhere. On the table, on the chairs, on the barbeque, on all of our stuff that we had in the "covered" area. This meant we had no place to cook or eat without getting soaked.

When we reported this and the fact that the trailer we were in did not have a table inside (removed to add extra mattresses), they came with a fold up table to put in trailer. This took up the entire floor space of trailer meaning there was barely enough room to move and you could not have access to kitchen counter, stove top or sink. Basically unusable.
After waiting an hour or so for the rain to stop, we gave up and went to a restaurant to eat.

By the time we got back, the rain had stopped but everything outside was still wet so we decided on any early night and went to bed.

In middle of night, our son woke up crying. We took him out of his cot and his clothes were wet. We assumed he had pee'd through his diaper (even though he rarely does this). After changing him, he kept crying when we put him back in his cot so we ended up bringing him into bed with us. At the time we figured it was because he was not used to the new environment.

In the morning, when we moved his cot, we found a big puddle on the floor and then realized that the trailer roof had been leaking during the night (it was raining off and on) and that water was dripping from trailer ceiling. This was the reason my son was all wet!!!

We went back to the office and complained that not only was the tarp outside leaking but the inside of trailer was also leaking. The response I got was "We can't control the weather." I could not believe my ears.

I then decided that we were going to check out right then. The owner said fine but that we had to pay for the full 4 nights as we had pre-booked. I argues that this was not acceptable as the accomodation was not up to standard. She refused to waive the remaining 2 nights charges and just kept repeating that "you booked it so you have to pay for it". As she already had our credit card imprint, we were stuck.

Needless to say, we will be taking this up with VISA to try and get any charges reversed.

Positives: Nothing.
Place was not great to beging with but anything that may have been considered ok about the place is long forgotten as I have never been so angry and frustrated when checking out of a hotel/motel/campground in my life.

Negatives: See above.
The woman that runs the campground is the most unaccomodating person I have ever dealt with in the hospitality industry. Does not care one bit about customer experience. Will put on a "nice" act until she has your credit card imprint. After that, you are on your own.

I also noticed that there is a "For Sale" sign on the place. It seems that the owners have made a concious decision to spend no more money on maintenance and therefore the place is completely falling apart. They also seem to have decided they don't care about repeate business as they probably figure they will be long gone before anyone comes back anyways.

If you are planning to stay here, beware!!!
If you are thinking about buying, better be prepared to do some serious marketing as no telling how many customers they have pissed off prior to us.

Reviewer: Not provided on Tue 21 Jun 2011 rated 2 out of 10.

We thought Christina Lake would be very busy so booked for 4 nights on our way home from Kimberley. When talking to the owner she was wonderful, helpful and friendly. Once arriving we were very disappointed. Barely fit our 27 foot 5th wheel into the spot and out my back kitchen window I looked at a run down motorhome complete with tarps over it ... totally disappointing. Pool wasn't ready, no internet, not what was expected but we were expected to pay what we had booked for .... thankfully with no internet as promised we stayed one night and got the other 3 nights back ... moved to Skands .... $20 a night compared to $36 and right on the lake and $5 more for internet that they had ... ended up being a wonderful experience. We will go back to Skands.

Positives: Owner when we arrived ...

Negatives: Owner when we said we were leaving early as they didn't have internet as promised