Hotel Review: Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Vancouver Downtown
By traveltripz on Apr 9, 2008 in Vancouver, Canada, Hotel Reviews
After our stay at the Holiday Inn Burnaby for the Stargate convention we moved to downtown Vancouver for a couple of days. Since we have had great stays at all of the Holiday Inns we have stayed in so far, we decided to stay at the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Vancouver Downtown at 1110 Howe St.
The cost for the 2 days was $104 for the first night and $137 for the second. We booked it a couple of days before we intended to leave Burnaby.
Trying to save on yet another taxi fare, we decide to catch the Skytrain from Burnaby to downtown Vancouver. Fortunately, the Skytrain leaves from right outside our hotel but we also have our luggage with us and we have to consider whether there will be a heap of stairs to contend with. We decide to take the risk and check out of our Burnaby hotel and head to the 2nd floor which has direct access to the Skytrain.
We find one set of stairs before we even get to the Skytrain station but we manage and head through the overpass to get to the ticket machines. It will be 2 zones to get us to downtown Vancouver so it will cost us $3.75 each.
We head to the station and since the signs are well posted we are easily able to determine which side of the platform to catch the train from.
The trains arrive every few minutes so we don’t have to wait long before we are on our way.
We had checked Google Maps the day before and found that Granville station was the closest stop to the Holiday Inn Downtown Vancouver. The trip takes about 15 minutes and once on arrival we drag our luggage off the train and start the trek to our hotel.
Of course the directions from Google Maps are no real help since we get out of the station at a totally different exit and we are already disorientated. After going into a store to ask someone for directions to Howe St ,we are once again on our way.
Unfortunately, it is raining and cold and after walking close to a mile with our luggage we arrive at the hotel feeling a little sad and sorry for ourselves. Fortunately, however, we are given a room straight away, even though we are a little early for check-in. The young lady behind the counter is friendly and helpful and provides us with a map of Vancouver.
As we are Priority Club members we are given a few extra benefits including designated parking closest to the main entrance, complimentary appetizers in Medleys Lounge (on the lobby level) between 4-6pm on weekdays, a daily newspaper delivered to our door and complimentary local phone calls.
It is well worth becoming a Priority Club member. It’s free and you can rack up points to use for free accommodation.
We head up to our room on the 5th floor (#529). The lift is not very big and with us and our luggage it is just about full.
Our room is not particularly close to the lift but we do pass another lift before we get to our room. We do end up trying this lift at another time but find it is just as easy to walk the extra distance to use the main lift.
The room looks like a typical Holiday Inn room. This is a good thing as so far we have loved our time at each of the Holiday Inns we have stayed at.
The room is a double with two double beds that are very comfortable. Both have clean fresh linen and a padded mattress. There are four pillows on each bed. Two are labelled ’soft’ and the other two ‘firm’.
In the room is a tv cabinet with a 26in tv, a desk and chair, a padded lounging chair with foot rest and a mini-bar fridge hidden in a wood cabinet. On top of the cabinet is a 4 cup coffee maker with coffee and tea bags. There is also a bottle of water but at a cost of $3.50 per bottle, we decide to give this a miss.
The mini-bar is sealed but has a key to open it. Since the contents of most hotel mini-bars is way overpriced we don’t bother opening it.
Next to the lounging chair is a small table with an ice bucket and 3 glasses. We later find the ice machine near the lift. There is also a Coke machine with drinks at $1.25 each. This seems really cheap to us but when we have lunch the next day at a Food Court we buy a bottle of water and a can of Coke for $1.05 each. Not sure why Vancouver has such cheap drinks but we aren’t complaining.
The bathroom is relatively small with only a bathtub with shower and a toilet. The sink is separate from the bathroom, which I personally don’t like but we have seen this sort of set up in a number of hotels we have stayed at. The bathroom has a lockable door but the sink area is open.
In the alcove where the sink is situated is a hair dryer, a kettle for boiling water, an ironing board and iron and open hanging space. There is also a metal folding luggage rack.
Lighting in the room is okay - we are yet to find a hotel room with really good lighting. The bathroom, entryway and sink area have ceiling lighting while the rest of the room is lit by lamps.
Noise wasn’t too much of a problem. Street noise wasn’t too bad and we couldn’t hear people in the rooms on either side of us. The main noise came from doors shutting and people talking as they walked past the rooms. When other guests closed their doors they would often bang loudly and reverberate through the room.
This Holiday Inn provides free wireless internet. We were hoping for wired internet as it is much more stable. We didn’t have a problem connecting initially. It was just a matter of opening up a browser window and the Holiday Inn connection page opened up. We needed a code to get access and had to ring the front desk for this as it wasn’t anywhere to be seen in the room. We found the connection wasn’t good at all - it was slow and would constantly drop out.
This hotel has a coin operated laundry on level CD which must be accessed with a room key. There are 2 washing machines in the room and 2 dryers. We went to the front desk for change and they were happy to provide it. Both the washer and the dryer cost $1.50 each to use and soap powder is also available for 75c per load. We found that the dryer didn’t dry our clothes enough so we had to put in another $1.50.
We found the room to be clean and well maintained. Housekeepking did a thorough job of cleaning the room each day.
One thing we don’t like is the lack of safe in the room. We carry a laptop with us so we like to lock this up when we leave the room. Leaving it with the front desk to lock up in the hotel safe is possible but not very convenient.
The view isn’t terribly spectacular. Just a city street and plenty of buildings. There is a small balcony but it was too cold for us to be out there.
The hotel is in a convenient position but it isn’t right in the city centre. It took us about 15 minutes to walk from the main shopping street back to our hotel however, it was an easy walk. We are just around the corner from the entertainment area which includes a large number of adults only shops.
There are plenty of places to eat near the hotel. We ate across the road for breakfast one morning and for dinner we ate in the hotel restaurant downstairs. The food was absolutely delicious and reasonably priced.
We took advantage of the hop-on, hop-off bus which has a stop across the road from the hotel. It cost us $35 for two days. This takes you to the main sites around Vancouver and you can get on and off at the various stops on the way. It was a shame that it was too cold and wet for us to get off the bus to look around.
