My 83 year old aunt stayed there last night. A man broke into her 2nd floor room in the middle of the night, using the fire stairs to come through the window. There was no staff on site, no one answered her calls and when she went to the cafe for help at 7 am - when the paperwork in the room said they opened - there was still no one in sight. A chef in the kitchen called for assistance. The police were contacted when it happened at 4:30 am and again when my aunt finally found an employee. A report was taken. Motel staff was not helpful or supportive and demanded she pay for the room because she couldn’t prove the man broke in! The police didn’t question that it happened since the fire stairs made access very easy. The most staff would offer was a 15% discount. THIS PLACE IS NOT SAFE AND THE STAFF DOESN’T CARE!!! Thank goodness my aunt is safe!!! How sad that they would take advantage of a scared older woman traveling alone.

Huge thank you to the wonderful staff. We had a sllight issue in our first room but they were quick to fix it and move us to another room. Highly recommended the balcony room, it's big, clean and has a beautiful view of the river.

Room had hardly any light....needed a flashlight to make coffee. Noone gave us the Internt password and the front desk was closed. No connectivity. Simply not good enough for $200 a night.

Extremely satisfied stay! The location is convenient in the centre of town and close to food and services and even though the property is older, the rooms are clean and beds are the most comfortable I have ever slept in. Service - incredibly friendly and accommodating. Every employee we encountered in the hotel, pub and cafe were amazing. There was never a problem for them to drop everything to help us. We will be back!!

Fyi this is a very noisy location on the corner of what seems like the busiest intersection in town, next to the liquor store and the Tim Hortons guaranteeing late night and early morning traffic outside your windows. Do you like awaking to natural light like me? Well no such luck here as there are 5 bright street lights shining in your windows all night so it's bright as high noon all night. It's very disorienting because the bright light shines all around the curtains so you can't tell if it's day or night. On a more personal note, my husband and I attempted to enjoy a glass of wine during sunset in the unoccupied area of the hotel property patio. This part of the patio is fenced off from the other patio areas, is obviously unused and covered in cobwebs, so imagine our surprise when Julie from Riverside Inn Pub harassed us about breaking your unwritten rules regarding alcohol consumption and ordered us to dump our wine out, and then had the nerve to advise that we purchase new drinks from your bar. The only listed rule states no drinking alcohol in the lobby, (picture of Riverside's own sign included) but Julie repeatedly insisted no open containers were allowed thru the lobby or on the patio, except what was bought from her and acted like we should have known that. She repeatedly insisted that we dump our own wine and buy more from her bar, and that these rules were listed (they are not) and are in accordance with the local law (how many travelers you all see thru your hotel that are aware of all the local laws?). Overall horrible experience, rude staff, loud location, difficult to sleep with the noise and light issues, topped off with an emergency vehicle driving by with full sirens at 6am.

I stayed here over Christmas and had an abysmal stay. I expressed my concerns when we were finally able to get in touch with a staff member & have emailed and still have not been offered any resolution. My partner and I stayed at the riverside inn over Christmas. We are both extremely unhappy with our stay. We both phoned the hotel multiple times the day before Christmas eve and on Christmas eve to try and find out how late we could check in. It took someone until 5 pm Christmas eve to return the 2 voice-mail my partner and I had left. We get to our room at 9 pm and the window is open and the room is absolutely freezing. We had the heater set to 30 for the duration of our trip and the room did not warm up enough at any point. We had to lay towels on the bathroom floor just so we didn't have to endure the freezing tiles. Christmas day we came to grab something from our room and our key wouldn't open the front door. Luckily the beer store was open. The staff member was unable to help us until the end of her shift 20 mins later. We call the number on the front door of the hotel, and the gentleman told us to ask the beer store employee to give us another person's room key. We also mentioned the cold room and were offered no solutions. We went back to the beer store and the employee told us she couldn't just give us the other persons key and we had to wait for her to use her master key to let us in. Stood outside in the rain when we were supposed to be eating family dinner. We finally got into our room with the master key. Neither of our room keys would work. The lady finally gave us the other persons room key so we could at least get in the building. We had to use a towel to wedge our room door open to get back in later. On top of all of this because the room was so cold our towels never dried properly so we couldn't shower before we left the next morning. We also told the staff who were in the office before we left that we were unhappy and explained the above. I'm extremely surprised that no one from your business has bothered to reach out or offer any form of explanation or apology. It's absurd that we spent 300 dollars for this awful stay. I get it that it was Christmas break but am shocked at how unprepared riverside inn was. Why did no one double check the keys were properly activated? Why is it that we didn't get an email a few days before our trip with some instructions? Why on earth would you not make sure the room was at least a decent temperature? Stick out some extra towels for the guests. This wasn't my first stay at your location as my in laws live around the corner. If this isn't rectified it will be my last stay.

Awful food, we won’t be back. I had a salad, $25 with 6 small pieces of chicken, less than a handful of peppers, onion, & corn. And then enough lettuce for an entire week for a person. Really not good value. I could have bought 3 large clamshells of lettuce from country grocer for less than this one salad cost. My partner had meatloaf, which he said tasted like pressed cardboard. Son had Mac & cheese which he said was tasteless. In all, we will save our money next time, having learned just how truly awful the Riverside inn is. A sandwich or a scrambled egg at home is loads better than this place. Instant oatmeal is better. The service was good, yet slow. Thanks for trying. Not a single good restaurant in this town.

Haven't tried the Inn, just the pub. I really enjoy the food there, this was my 10th or 11th time visiting while doing the loop from Victoria to Lake Cowichan, to Port Renfrew and then back through Sooke to Victoria again. Great location on the water, you can watch the river tubers float by when you are dining on the deck. Convenient location, plenty of parking, no hassles to get there and enjoy yourself. Excellent service every time so far.

The pub is definitely a local favorite. Their chicken caesar wraps and logger burger are always a hit. Prices are reasonable and the atmosphere is great. Sometimes the chicken gets pretty backed up and wait times can be a bit long, but the food is always worth it. Thanks for being open

Good rating from me because management was kind and flexible, even letting us check-out late at no charge after a gravel ride fondo. On the other hand the place, which has been nicely renovated, could use more attention to detail. Our room's toilet had not been cleaned from previous occupants, and the bathtub drain was too slow, it needs to be unplugged or fixed. Overall I still recommend this hotel in Cowichan Lake.