Start with the room itself. Many Victoria homes were built decades ago, and bathrooms in Fairfield, Oak Bay, and Fernwood tend to be snug, with older plumbing and sometimes cast-iron drain lines. A good installer will measure the doorway, check whether the floor can carry a full tub, and confirm the hot water tank can fill it without leaving your parent cold and waiting. In condos near downtown or along the Gorge, ask early about strata rules and how water shut-offs are handled on your floor.
Look for someone who installs for older adults regularly, not a general renovator taking a one-off job. Ask about the details that matter for safety: a low or zero-threshold step-in, a comfortable seat height, a quick-drain time so no one sits shivering, and an anti-scald valve with built-in grab bars. Confirm the company is licensed and insured in BC, and get the warranty in writing, both on the tub and on the labour. Because the coast is damp, ask how they seal the door and floor to keep moisture out.
Service response is easy to overlook until a door seal fails on a rainy February morning. Choose a local Victoria installer over a mainland outfit that has to ferry across on the ferry for every callback. Our advisors lean toward the walk-in tub with a proper soak-and-jet option over the bare-bones models, because a warm soak is often what keeps a hesitant parent using it at all. The trade-off is honest: the fuller-featured tubs cost more and take longer to fill and drain, so if your parent bathes quickly or dislikes long soaks, a simpler model may serve just as well.