The Sundial bills itself as a luxury property but doesn't quite live up to that billing. We booked Sundial for a getaway after reading all the glowing Trip Advisor reviews. We came away a bit disappointed.

Overall, it is a nice enough place -- spacious units, well outfitted, well-equipped kitchens, decent furnishings and trims. The location is excellent if you are there to ski -- it's right at the base of the gondola and chair lifts, and an easy walk to all the shops and restaurants in the villages. (but beware the noise from the Whistler party set on Friday nights as there are restaurants and bars close by). The mountainview room we were in had a tiny slit of a deck, barely even a balcony (about the width of one chair) with a couple of dirty plastic chairs outside. There were two TVs but no DVD player, only a VCR on one of the TVs (and it's a bit hard to find a place that rents VHS tapes anymore!). And although this might seem like a minor quibble, the first thing I noticed was how banged up the elevators were -- chipped, scuffed, and ratty looking. The bathtub was also a bit ratty looking - not something you'd want to sit down in. It just all doesn't add up to "luxury" to me.

We'd requested a room with a hot tub in advance, and nobody even replied to our request. It appeared that hot tub rooms were available, but not being offered. On top of that, in the 3 days we were there, the rooftop hot tub that's open to all guests was closed for maintenance. The day it was supposed to be reopened, the door became jammed and nobody could get in with guest key cards. Phone calls down to the front desk were met with indifference. They just said the maintenance people had gone and they didn't know when they'd come back to fix the door. No apologies from any of the staff ever. It felt like Sundial was in off-season shutdown mode. The one hotel amenity they had was closed. Certain rooms were clearly empty but not being made available.

Whistler itself is only half-operating in early October too -- the gondola to the top of the mountain only operates on weekends, and many of the activities listed on Sundial's welcome information sheet were no longer operating because summer season had ended. This made the lack of hotel amenities even more glaring. For about the same price we could have stayed at the Westin Resort, either of the Pan Pacific properties, or the Fairmont Chateau Whistler, but we chose Sundial based on the Trip Advisor reviews. In hindsight, we should have stayed at one of the major properties which had more to offer and probably don't need to skimp or go into shutdown during the off-season.

Upon arrival, we were informed that our confirmed reservations for 9/11 and 12 had been entered into the computer as 11/9 and 12/9!! After some anxious moments, however, we were upgraded to a larger room and given free parking. The next day the manager informed us that one night's charge would be reversed because of the mixup. Extremely generous. The hotel is beautiful, well maintained and in a perfect location. The room was spacious and well equiped. The staff was exceptional. All in all, this is a great choice for Whistler and highly recommended.

Delighted with everything, definitely one of the best value-for-money hotels I've ever stayed! My congratulations to its management and staff.

This is a nice hotel in a terrific location (within 50 yards of the lifts). We had a two bedroom - fully equiped kitchen, nice sized master bedroom and bathroom. The second bedroom, however, was little more then a bed in a closet - it made European hotel bedrooms look huge. The staff was helpful but, then again, so was everybody else in Whistler. My biggest problem was that the walls were paper thin, so if there was somebody next door you know about it. You expect the noise from outside (heck, you are right in the middle of a village!) but not next door. If you don't mind hearing everything around you then this is the place for you.