My family and I stayed in two connecting rooms on the 8th floor for two nights. One of the toilets didn't work and it took several calls to the maintenance department to get somebody to fix it. In the other room, one of the air conditioning vents made a loud whistling sound that never seemed to go away. (We wound up covering it with a pillow to block out the noise.) Some of the upholstery and drapes looked a little old and out of date. Having said that, our stay here was a pretty positive experience. The doormen's hospitality is legendary and has been noted here by a previous reviewer. For a Fairmont, the lobby is a little plain but it was certainly nice. We hired a car and driver through the concierge and that worked flawlessly. Several things that really stood out: all of the hotel staff are super friendly and very polite. They remember your name and refer to you personally, which is a very nice touch. Also, when you have room service delivered you don't have to go through the motions of signing the check. It's folded in an envelope on the room service tray. The workout area is first class. I think every machine had a TV screen. The pool though, was way too shallow. If you're going to offer a lap pool, make it deeper than 3 feet! The hot tub was nice but a few more jets would have made it better. We invited a guest for Sunday brunch and wound up being seated at a table for five stuffed in a corner right next to the door where the waiters kept coming and going through. The Georgian room is a spectacular restaurant visually and we would have preferred being in the middle of it instead of being stuck off in a corner. The restaurant manager comped us some fruit trays the next morning after we complained. But other than a few wrinkles, our stay was pleasant and pleasurable. If you stay here, remember to bring your wallet because it's expensive. But after all, it is a luxury hotel in the middle of downtown Seattle.

We booked in for a one-night stay at the Olympic after I had minor surgery in Seattle.

Full disclosure here- I work in a hotel myself (not a Fairmont), so I am inclined to be forgiving of little things that go wrong; and we are low-maintenance travellers anyway so our needs are quite basic.

That said, we greatly enjoyed every minute of our stay at the Olympic. Danny, the doorman went way, way out of his way to welcome us. I mean literally went out of his way - he walked me all the way to the escalators leading up to the lobby. From Adam on the front desk, we received a gracious welcome and keys to room 1007.

This suite doesn't have what most people would consider a "view", but given the very good rate we received, and knowing that you can't have stunning views in 100% of your rooms, I loved it. It's a long rectangle with three windows on the long side, so the late-afternoon light was beautiful. Boom - I'm sold right there. But I actually liked the view out over the rooftops into the city, especially the modern pre-fab house on exhibit on the roof of the building across the street.Two comfy armchairs, two side chairs, king bed, vast bathroom.
Robert, the houseman, arrived shortly after we entered with our requested pillows - enough for our little dog to build herself a fine little nest while we were out. Speaking of which, they brought silver dishes on a silver tray with a linen cover for her to eat from.

Since I couldn't really go out after my operation, we decided to order in from room service and enjoy a movie. I'm maybe the only person on the planet who doesn't really like room service; I like eating at a table with other people to watch, and room service food, it seems, is never at the right temperature. But that night we had the best room-service meal ever - a beautiful piece of salmon, buttermilk-fried chicken with biscuits, all of it piping hot. It was easily as good as a restaurant meal, with the added perk of getting to eat in a comfy hotel bathrobe and slippers.

The bed was gorgeously comfortable with sparklingly-clean linens and a thick duvet.

We decided to get an early start back in the morning and were pleased when the remote check-out service via TV presented an accurate, up-to-date folio and was easy to use.

When we arrived at the arcade level to retrieve our car from valet parking, we found it waiting, doors and trunk open, with a bag containing milk and cookies for the trip home - nice touch. The doorman on duty, They(sp?) also brought some chilled bottled water.

Given that the door/bell staff are both the first and the last contact with the hotel that guests will have, they have a lot of power to create a favourable impression and it's quite obvious that John, They and their team take that responsibility very seriously. We truly felt like highly-valued repeat guests whom they knew well, and they couldn't have been more helpful.

Between the room, the food, and the kind service, we absolutely felt we got the perfect Fairmont experience from this stay. We certainly will go back.

I had extremely high hopes of this "Landmark" hotel and its reputed five diamond status
but unfortunately
All of the 5 diamond image fell apart in a 24 hrs:
Some of the main problems that we had were:
- the room was very dusty. Under the cooling unit, you could see layers of dust
-the bathroom phone was so dirty you could see it from a distance
-the tap/faucet was leaking
- our registration/payment was done through our conference agent and was never received.
-The room was VERY small
- If we asked for anything it look HOURS to arrive
- I asked for slippers and they arrived the next day and after 4 phone calls
- Restaurant in town recommended by Concierge was a bad one

Good Stuff:
-Friendly staff
-Nice House Car
-Excellent location and lobby
-Amazing fitness centre

The rooms are fabulous...very "Fairmont" great beds, big bathrooms and large sleeping rooms.