Over the holidays last year, I surprised my wife with a weekend trip to Victoria, British Columbia. The goal was to see the famous Christmas lights at Butchart Gardens, soak up Victoria’s seasonal spirit…and check out the historic Fairmont Empress.
This iconic property has watched over Victoria’s Inner Harbour and is instantly recognizable to anyone who’s ever visited the city. Luckily, armed with two Fine Hotels + Resorts® (FHR) credits that we received from our American Express Platinum® cards, we were able to spend the weekend, sample the hotel’s famous high tea, and escape with some cash still in our wallets. And most importantly, we had a great time doing it.
Fairmont Empress Bottom Line Review
We loved our time at the Fairmont Empress, and it’s just the sort of place that makes for a great FHR redemption. The midweek and low-season rates are ideally suited, and we paid almost the same cost as we would have if we’d booked direct. Nearly everything about the property was delightful, oozing historical charm. The service was stellar, the food and drinks excellent, and the room spacious and comfortable. The location is superb. Victoria is one of our favorite Pacific Northwest cities, and this was easily our favorite stay there (so far). Thumbs up
- Price: FHR cash prices were ~$420/night for a deluxe room during our stay, so we ended up paying about $120 out of pocket after receiving the $300 Amex credit per night. It’s worth noting that the regular City View rooms were about $75/night cheaper, but I reserved the higher-category room to get upgraded to a harbor view. The FHR rate was almost exactly the same as the direct rate.
- Value: As a Fine Hotels + Resorts credit redemption, it can be terrific. The FHR rate is usually quite similar to the property’s close-in cash rate; during midweek/shoulder season, it can often be covered (or nearly so) by the $300 credit.
- Location: Doesn’t get much better in downtown Victoria. This is quite literally the landmark that the city center revolves around, including many of the city’s main bus routes and those throughout the surrounding area. Everything downtown is within a 5-10-minute walk, and the buses to Butchart Gardens leave from right outside. The inner harbour and sunset views are also quite good because of the location. One thing to be aware of is that during high season, the combination of people, planes, boats, and horse-drawn carriages right outside can create quite a cacophony.
- Room: We booked a Deluxe City View Room and were proactively upgraded to a Harbor View Junior Suite, which I believe was a 4-category upgrade. The ~450 sq ft room was very comfortable, with a sunken living room area that contained a loveseat, chair + desk, wet bar, and (inactive) fireplace. The only downside is that the windows, while having a lovely harbor view, were quite small.
- Parking: Valet parking is CA$53/night, while self-parking is CA$39. There are also numerous public lots within fairly close walking distance that cost half that if you care to make the effort.
- Resort/Destination Fee: Incredibly (for this US-based traveler), none.
- Internet: Very good throughout the hotel.
- Service: Stellar, better than I’ve experienced in a North American hotel in some time. This property appears to be staffed with professionals who take their jobs seriously. Across the board, from the front desk to the restaurants to housekeeping, these are confident, friendly, inquisitive folks who care about what they’re doing and how you experience it. Really, a delightful surprise for such a large property.
- Turndown service: Nightly. Includes fresh filtered water and ice.
- Dining:
- The Bengal: The Bengal is the hotel’s recently renovated breakfast and dinner outlet. It is simply beautiful inside, with period fans, wood paneling, and a massive, brick fireplace. Huge windows let in good views of the surrounding garden. Both the service and food are excellent. Open for breakfast daily from 6:30 to 11:00 am and dinner from 5:30 to 9:30 pm.
- The Veranda: Seasonal patio/restaurant/bar with a stellar view of the inner harbor and a fun chocolate fondue service. Despite officially being open only Spring-Fall, while we were there in early-January, they were happily serving folks outside under the heaters.
- Lobby Lounge: This sumptuously decorated lounge serves the Empress’ famous High Tea daily from 11 am- 4 pm, accompanied by a live pianist. The room, views, fireplaces, tea, and service are all exemplary. That said, the eye-watering price will likely make it a one-time experience for most guests. Reservations are recommended, and essential during peak times.
- Q at the Fairmont Empress: The hotel’s primary restaurant is located between the Lobby Lounge and The Bengal. The lively, U-shaped bar has good harbor views and tasty cocktails. Currently closed for renovations until mid-April 2026, then open from 11 am – 12 pm daily, with dinner from 5:30 pm – 9:30 pm.
- Spa: There is a massive, ornate spa occupying a good chunk of the building’s “lobby” level (which no longer houses the front desk). All the standard treatments are on offer. Open daily from 9:30 am to 6:00 on, 7 pm on weekends.
- Fitness Room: There is a modest fitness club and pool area located on the ground level. The pool, while fairly small, has a fun ambiance due to the large windows that give the impression that it’s surrounded by gardens.
- Fine Hotel and Resorts Benefits:
- Room Upgrade: We booked a Deluxe City View Room and were given a 4-category upgrade to a Harbor View Junior Suite.
- Free Breakfast: Served at The Bengal. FHR benefits are CA$80 per day for two people, which is reasonable given the menu prices. Once we added the tip, we went over by a couple of dollars.
- Property Credit: US$100 property. It can be used for valet parking, room service, restaurant charges, etc. We had two FHR stays back-to-back and, as expected, received one property credit to use over both nights.
- Early Check-in: We didn’t arrive until ~5 pm, so we didn’t find out.
- Free WiFi
- Late Checkout: Proactively offered a 4 pm checkout.
- Welcome Amenity: House-made macarons were left for us inside the room.
- Accor Points: At the front desk and in the app, I was told I would only earn Accor points on incidental spend while on property. That turned out to be correct. However, the one bright spot is that the ~100 points I earned from the overage at high tea and breakfast served to extend the expiration of the rest of my Accor points.
- Would I stay again? Absolutely. This is a marvelous, historic property that serves as a delightful home base for a visit to Victoria.
Pros
- Historic property that oozes vintage charm both inside and outside
- Can be an excellent value on Fine Hotels and Resorts stays, with rates near the direct booking price
- Excellent breakfast included in FHR rates
- Food and beverage quality, in general, is very high
- Terrific location overlooking Victoria’s Inner Harbour, an easy walk from just about anything in the city center
- Marvelous service across the board
Cons
- The historic nature of the building leads to smaller rooms that can have odd proportions
- The location is great, as it’s in the center of everything, but during high season, that means a LOT of activity
- Fitness and pool areas, like many of the rooms, are quite small
Image Gallery
Fairmont Empress Junior Suite
The Bengal (breakfast room)
Lobby Lounge (high tea)
Q Restaurant and Bar
Grounds, Fitness Area and Pool
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Ah the Grand Empress. It’s been a while. Time to resurrect the stuff of legend –
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43632914
We have fallen in love with Fairmont’s after P2 had a schedule change on an incoming flight from Asia that required an overnight last March.
She arrived after last flight to PDX – so I didn’t bother to call. So I decided to drive up from Portland.
I took advantage of the Stay Vancouver that included a $C250 MC GC that could be applied to room cost – booked a waterfront Gold room (lounge access) for two days – about $300.
It was perfect for helping her get over Jetlag – since we spent three days exploring Vancouver and hit the Capilano suspension bridge park (free shuttle pick up in front of Fairmont Waterfront) and a few other things, whereas at home she probably would have slept to much.
We didn’t have to eat in the restaurant our out because of Gold lounge access.
Now I have booked/booking many of the iconic Fairmont’s (Empress included this fall). We did Fairmont Whistler for P2s bday using UA Quest card Renowned Hotels (FHR lite $150 statement credit and everything else but guaranteed 4PM).
Last October we did an Autumn foilage road trip- Providence, Berkshires, Newport, Boston, Maine, Québec City, Vermont and NH over two weeks – amazing (last times I had made the New England foilage trips was in the 90s when I was at StonyBrook on LI.
In Québec we stayed at the Iconic Queen on the hill – Chateau Le Frontenac for two nights (FHR) amazing upgrade to an Epic center suite overlooking the St. Charles river on the16th floor (has the wrap around balcony – no public access). The rooms I booked were Gold rooms – we ate most of our meals there, used one $100 credit on Lunch and the other one for Valet. *Note below
FWIW the back to back $100 credit is up to the hotel ymmv – for points – I’m Accor Silver and we have gotten full credit – I added my loyalty at check-out and added the Accor booking number to my app and it popped up under stays (not sure if that makes a difference – but the welcome drink for Silver is only good on first night). .
We have Fairmont Banff and Fairmont Lake Louise (3 nights total two Gold rooms (FHR) one standard (Renowned Hotel). For P2s Bday this May. Used C1 to book one other night in Banff and and used 23k Bonvoy to stay at the Delta in the YYC airport. As we get in after midnight. AC changed or flight from a 10:55AM arrival to almost 4PM (1.5~2hr drive to Banff from YYC).
We spent two nights at Chicago Fairmont at Millennium park (EDIT) for my Bday in January we had a nice corner suite overlooking Millennium park and I could zoom (S22 Ultra) in on the scoreboard in Solider stadium before the GB Game (we watched two games in Chicago during our trip: Lions and GB Go Bears).
We have two nights booked at the Fairmont Princess (FHR) later this year and a night a Four Seasons Scottsdale at Troon North.
Its crazy the Chateau Le Frontenac and Frontenac Banff both had been on my wish/dream list about 30 years ago had them on a calendar.
Honestly for years the Fairmont’s were never even on my radar much more than reading Dan’s Deals – they used to have a killer deal for Fairmont CC (I think pre-accquistion by Accor).
We have gotten a ton of great mileage out of the FHR after Plats refresh (3 cards) and CSR EDIT (2 cards) and UA Quest (2 cards) Renowned Hotel’s lots of great deals can be had if you travel shoulder/off-peak. It makes all these 4☆/5☆ properties reasonable.
@Tim Steinke
Thanks for the great review- I’m looking forward to our stay –
Did you take the Pax Ferry from Seattle or drive and take the Tsawwassen BC Ferry ? (Because you mentioned valet/self parking). It looks like it 7.5hrs from PDX by car/ferry.
*Fairmont Chateau Le Frontenac -had the same refillable glass bottles and a filtered water dispenser next to the Ice machine – I have wondering why more hotels don’t go this route – it’s a super easy install, they already have power and water for the Ice machine it’s a super simple and fairly cheap to plumb water to the filter and simply plug in to electical outlet.
FWIW FHR Fairmont Chateau Le Frontenac as low as $189 (not sure about snow situation in QC or NH/VT Eastern Seaboard with recent Bomb Cyclone).
I was closing tabs on my old laptop (got a new Dell XPS13 last May – but I have done our Taxes on a ±5 year old Dell) and a tab had FHR Chateau Frontenac 3.8.2026 for $189 and $255 for much of March/April.
I highly recommend getting a Gold room (even with city view – you should get an easy upgrade to a river view). You also check-in at the Gold lounge instead of.dowmstairs lobby.
The Gold lounge had epic Sushi one evening with Salmon and Tuna, as well as higher end offerings the 2nd night more akin to food in Int’l First and F lounges. I was honestly a litlle shocked – it was more like the Executive lounges in Asia.
I earned Silver last year simply from FHR/RH and Stay Vancouver.
Was already planning to book with FHR credits for our trip in April. Thanks for the great write up!
The Empress is my absolute favorite FHR redemption. The breakfast is fantastic, as is the service overall.
We did have one sleepless night on the 6th floor, though. “Someone” kept turning on the lights in our room, all night long. Our next two nights, on the 7th floor, were perfect. If you spook easily, maybe avoid the 6th floor. 😉
Looks just a slight bit more elegant than the DoubleTree up the street. Not that the DoubleTree was bad–the suites actually had a lot of room and the staff was quite friendly–but it was . . . a DoubleTree.
How did you manage back to back fhr which is prohibited..??
It’s not prohibited. I have two Platinums and booked back-to-back nights as recently as this January at the Fairmont Quebec City. I’ve also done it in past years at other properties. You only get one $100 credit, not one for each night. Perhaps that’s what you were thinking of?
It’s truly YMMV it’s at the discretion of the property – we have received it about 75% on 2-3 nights stays – we don’t expect it – if we get the 2nd/3rd night its just gravy. Its similar with double dipping elite perks, Elite nights, and Points (were Bonvoy Plat (true) and Hilton Diamond (card) Accor Silver (from FHR stays) and Radission Hotels non North America brand VIP.
Have even earned points, EQN and gotten Elite status benefits and upgrades on Delta Stays/United Hotels/Chase portal bookings, even Airline booked rooms (misconnect -delayed flight in EU). It pays great dividends to be nice, kind and greet the front desk as a human – I always start with how is your xxxx going? and then start with a little small talk unless there is a line.
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On fhr you are allowed all those hotel benefirs as well..
Allowed, absolutely–but definitely YMMV.
From my experience Accor doesn’t always show as upcoming “Stay” in app – I have had to manually search for it either by name and date (and it actually show’s the day before you enter I.e. 2.28 shows as 2.27 in the search – when it can’t be found that way I add the Accor confirmation number (typically in the email or Amex Travel when you go to manage booking on the date line at the opposite end “HOTEL CONFIRMATION #: 906XXXXX” then I cut search for that – this sometimes also works for Cap1 VenX Premier Collection bookings( C1’s FHR).
I find that probably 90% when it shows in the app – then at check-in they also thank me for my loyalty – then go over the FHR benefits. I think that this also helps with better upgrades when dovetailing status with FHR – unless hotel is at capacity.
Prohibited by whom?
Just by amex
Ditto, YMMV. If you have a P2 with Amex Platinum, it is worth doing alternate nights in each name. That has worked for us.
Again they cant be back to back
…
It’s not prohibited. You can make as many back-to-back one night reservations as you want, but you often won’t get multiple property credits.
That’s kind of the point…yes you can make them but you dont get all the benefits…the original article pointed out using multiple amex cards for back to back…trying to understand the benefit or point of that.
To be clear, the only benefit that you sometimes don’t get more than once is the property credit. You still have daily breakfast for two, upgraded room, late checkout, etc.
Most importantly, it allows you to use multiple $300 credits.
Actually it does not…that is the point im making…amex specifically has put an end to that a few years ago…
The Amex $300 benefit, twice per year, is the benefit, that most cardholders are trying to use. The cardholder will get the credit, even for back to back reservations. Many in this hobby have multiple Amex Platinums. The only benefit one may lose is the $100 on-property credit. Which is solely the determination of the property to grant or not.
There is also another way to do back to back reservations. One can use CSR’s The Edit to make a reservation back to back with an Amex reservation. All the other benefits will apply to back to back reservations. The early check-in, late check-out, breakfast, room upgrade, all still apply.
Yes I know that..my point is in the post mentioning multiple amex cards will not get multiple 300 credit on back to back reservations….it makes it sound like a loophole that does not exist..
Not true! Many of us have done this multiple times. The $300 is for each 6 months of the year. One can make a back to back booking and receive $300 credit just by doing it in the previous 6 months or even in the previous year. Do you have an Amex Platinum card? Because it sounds like you don’t really know the benefits. I have both the personal and business. I can make a back to back one night reservation with each card and I definitely receive the $300 credit on each reservation.
Totally have the card I can not use two platinum cards for two b2b reservations and get 300 for each night.
Of course we all can make two separate reservation not attached and get the 300 off with each card.
I’m not sure what the disconnect is here. You absolutely CAN use two Platinum cards to make 2 reservations for back to back nights in the same name and get $300 from each card. I do it all the time and so do the other people commenting on this thread.
You can also do it using credits from the same card over two different six-month periods as JohnB says.
I feel like I must be misunderstanding what you say you can’t do. Are you using the Pay Now rate when you book?
According to amex you can not use a card and book fhr for Tuesday night and get 300 off and rhen book another reservation for Wednesday night at same hotel and get another 300 back from another platinum
..its explicitly listed as being forbidden to do…
Not sure why a blogger would even insinuate it is allowable
Ah, I see. You’re trolling. My bad.
No..hardly…..trying to understand how you used two cards for b2b when prohibited. Very easy question