Strathcona Hotel

Not as bad as some have portrayed it

The hotel was the cheapest I could find (after extensive research) in a "good" neighborhood of Victoria. Some of the cheaper ones were far from the center and/or had reviews which talked about drug deals outside in the street at night. I would recommend it with the caveats in my review. Ask for a quiet room. We stayed at the Strathcona on May 28 & 28, 2006. First the good: The hallway of the floor we were on had recently been wallpapered and painted and had a new carpet. Our room was recently painted and had two paintings on the wall. Our room had double pane glass (more later on that). Much of the bathroom had recently been redone (the tub enclosure and the floor). The price was $76 US. Now, the bad: The bathroom was tiny as was the room. We had twin beds. They were very soft and bouncy and need to be replaced. Ideally, we would have taken the mattresses off and put them on the floor, but the room was much too small to allow that. There was only one luggage rack, although the room was for two people. The distance between the end of the bed and the tv and luggage rack was about 2 1/2 feet. Our room overlooked the outdoor patio &volleyball area. The double paned glass helped some but we still heard quite a lot. However, the weather was bad so the outdoor patio closed early. The breakfast was juice (poor quality), poor quality bread, bagels and muffins and excellent coffee or hot chocolate. We ate on the patio one evening. Food was mediocre. However, the location was good. At the lower end of Douglas St. - but even there we had bums hanging out outside the hotel on a Sunday evening. By Monday, they were gone. It is located 1/2 block from the public bus stop, so it is very convenient if you are coming from the airport or going to the Swartz Bay ferry or to Butchart Gardens (which is very easy to do by public bus. You can leave your things there and then catch a bus right from the Gardens to the airport and Swartz Bay ferry.).

Unique Quality: Low price and good location.