Guest reviews Digby Pines Golf Resort & Spa, Nova Scotia

by shanepesson

Shane Esson

Our group of 12 guys who have been friends since High School (over 40 years) booked on the $179 special which included ferry, cabins, breakfast, and golf. The Pines staff went out of their way to make our brief stay excellent. Our good friend is the Exec Chef and he was able to break away for a few hours during this busy time to see us. A great time and hats off to the front desk staff, shuttle drivers and restaurant team. We’ll be back.

by Kareyspady Toronto, Canada

Impressive

This historic hotel is so wonderful to wander with many board games littered around the luxurious sitting room. The rooms are naturally small but modernized and comfy. At the time of our visit, the restaurant was in a temporary location (due to renovation) but it didn’t effect the quality of the food. Yum! I’m not a golfer, but did visit the cafe and the grounds were beautiful. The Aveda spa treatments we received were delightful, & the staff there were very friendly and caring. Due to the times we are now in, we had to make a reservation for the pool. Being an adult, the privacy actually made it more enjoyable.

by 537suea

Disappointed, Not worth the price

Paid almost 200 for a basin view, king bed room that barely fit the furniture. There was enough space to walk into the room and around the bed, that was about it. The window was also small and the only place to sit was on the bed. The bathroom was extremely compact with no fan and the water temp in the shower took forever to regulate. We could hear the ppl talking in the next room and woke the next morning to the roar of their shower. I literally heard the person turn the light switch on in their bathroom. Not a place to go if you want privacy or space to relax. Paint job in the room was sloppy, door hinges half painted and brush marks of paint on the floor. On a positive note...the bed and bedding was very nice. Will not be returning as it’s waaay over priced for what you get. Would much rather have stayed at a traditional hotel. Stayed right on the water front in Lunenburg the following night for half the price in a room 4x the size!

by karencN5585LP

Bucket List Bust

As long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to stay at Digby Pines Golf Resort & Spa; it has been a bucket list item of mine. The cost of staying there was a bit out of my price range, but we had saved enough to stay for two nights! I read reviews beforehand; therefore, I knew that it was an older hotel (with charm) and small rooms, but I was okay with this. I booked for two nights; king size bed with water view, and made sure the room had air conditioning due to health reasons. Check in went smoothly and we had a wonderful gentleman at guest services (Dylan C) answer any questions we had, and he provided valuable information as we had booked a whale watching excursion for the next day and were unfamiliar with the area. We asked if there was a luggage cart we could use and were directed to where they were. We went up to the third floor first to check out our room and realized we wouldn’t be able to take the cart right to our room, because once you get off the elevator, there are three steps to get down to another landing and then an additional three steps to the hallway where our room was (at the end of the hallway). Okay, not the greatest layout for ease of transporting luggage, so we had to adjust our expectations to having to make multiple trips, and having to ascend and descend several stairs while carrying our luggage, in order to load and unload from car to room, and vice versa. We get to the room and it’s small - barely any room around the bed, tiny bathroom, no mini fridge but again, we knew this prior to booking. Cleanliness-Well we found multiple glossette raisins under the bed. We turned on the air conditioning for the night, it was comfortable. The next day, we left the air conditioner running so when we got back, our room would be nice, cool and comfortable. We booked the pool for 6pm (due to COVID, had to book time), and went to our whale watching excursion. When we got back around 5pm, we opened the door to our room and received a warm wave of air in our face. That was strange; since we made sure we left the air conditioner on when we left. We checked the thermostat to notice that it was on the heat symbol and blowing hot air. Our room was between 27-30 degrees Celsius! We were told that housekeeping would not enter our room due to COVID until after we checked out, so we could not understand how it had switched from air conditioning to heat setting on its own. So we turned it back to the air conditioning symbol and nothing happened, except the air conditioning symbol blinking on and off, but no air whatsoever coming from the vent. We switched to fan setting, which caused the vent to blow a slight breeze for a few minutes then it would shut off for several minutes before coming back on again. So we turned the unit off and waited a few minutes and turned it back on...same thing happened. My Hubby called down to front desk. No answer so he left a message. About 10 minutes later, after still not getting a call back, my hubby calls again. This time a guest service lady answers. My hubby tells her what is going on. Her response is that they shut down the central air conditioning to the hotel because it’s now their ‘fall season’ and the vent system is central to each room, and that the heat was turned on today as a result. My hubby informed her that the temperature in our room was reading 27 degrees, and he asked her how we were to go about remedying this, as this was far too hot to be comfortable during a night’s sleep. The guest services representative does not apologize for our inconvenience, but instead suggests that we “Open a Window”--Unacceptable. We paid a lot of money to stay here, we had made sure that it would have air conditioning before booking, and were not told during either booking or check in that the A/C would be shut off during our stay. We cannot sleep in 27-30 degree Celsius room especially with our health conditions. We were so frustrated and upset, we went down to guest services to complain, which is something we are not in the custom of doing. We spoke with a lovely older lady at guest services that was very sympathetic. She went to speak with the younger lady and I could hear the younger lady repeating what she had said to us. The older lady at guest services mentioned that she didn’t want us to leave, so she offered us another room...how would that make a difference? It would be the same thing, no A/C. She offered us a fan for our room... so we can blow the hot air even more? We asked for a refund and said we would pack our things and be down for the refund. When we returned to the desk, the young gentleman (Dylan C.) that checked us in the night before was there with the older lady. He apologized profusely, was very sympathetic and offered us a cottage that had its own independent air conditioning that we could control ourselves. I had told him at check in that staying here was on my bucket list and was so excited to stay, he said he remembered this and wanted to make things right. We were appreciative that they wanted to try to make it right but at that point, we had already packed our stuff in the car and just wanted to leave due to frustration. We did receive our refund for the night. He mentioned that we would be receiving a call from the manager to discuss what happened and to apologize. We still have not received a call, nor do we want one at this point. This review is to make others aware that they shut off the air conditioning to the hotel in September, so if you are okay with paying high dollar to stay in a small room on the top floor where you have limited control on the temperature, that’s your prerogative. I will also say two out of three of the guest services attendants were wonderful. The hotel is old but quaint. Beautiful view of the harbor. The pool looked nice but unfortunately we didn’t get to experience it. We will not be staying there again.

by Douglassanchez Saint John, Canada

Friendly but Gross Hotel

Forget this review. Just see my pics. This is my first hotel review ever. I'm in my forties and have been travelling for business and pleasure for a number of years now. I'm comfortable in Best Westerns and other bottom rung chains. As long as the bed sheets are clean, I'm happy. We stayed in the hotel itself last night (not a cabin). I asked the front desk staff this morning if all the rooms were the same or if some parts of the hotel have been upgraded lately. He said they were all the same. We paid about $200 for this room (off-season) because we wanted a king size bed and upgraded further for a view of the water. They shoved a desk, floor lamp, two chairs, and two night tables in this tiny room which leaves us about 18" to 24" around the bed. They should not have put a king size bed in this tiny room. Don't trust the professional pictures they took. I've included a picture of the CBC article that came out 10 months ago where they mention the overdue structural and maintenance problems. What they do not mention is that this place has been painted, caulked, carpeted, and maintained by a drunk person and the flooring has more stains then the greenroom of a punk club. I'm not a germaphobe, and so am not really worried about catching anything but I feel like I'm really slumming it right now. I've only ever seen one hotel room this bad before: It was a truckers motel off the highway near Sussex, NB. The hallways, main lobby and hotel exterior is beautiful, the food is great, and the staff are top knotch though. It's a shame someone couldn't throw a hand grenade into each of the rooms to clear-out the gross.