We recently stayed at this hotel for five nights and were very pleased with our room, which contained very modern and well maintained facilities. The hotel is in a good location, in the city yet close to the beach, so an ideal location for exploring on foot.

The kitchen contained an oven/hobs, microwave, full-size fridge/freezer, dishwasher, kettle, coffee maker, cutlery, crockery, pots and pans, dish cloths, dishwashing liquid and dishwashing powder. There was also a washer/dryer which enabled us to wash some clothes in the privacy of our own room (although you will have to provide your own laundry liquid). There was a breakfast bar, with chairs which separated the kitchen from the living room.

The living room contained a sofa, coffee table and television. There was also a balcony connected to the living room, offering views of the city and the mountains.

The bedroom was small, although it contained another television and a decent sized wardrobe (in addition to the wardrobe in the kitchen/living room).

The bathroom contained a bath and a shower attached to the wall (not hand-held).

The concierge was very helpful and he booked us an excellent tour to Grouse Mountain and Capilano Suspension Bridge, and he was even reluctant to accept a tip!

Although overall we were pleased with our stay, there are a couple of minor criticisms.

The housekeeping staff were not very thorough, for example, they did not empty the bins in the bathroom and did not clean the bath daily. They would also remove towels and dish cloths without replacing them. However, reception were very quick to replace the towels on request.

The lifts were extremely slow, and staff also using these lifts further slowed down the system. There were occasions when a lift stopped, and we could not enter the lift because there was a member of staff inside with several bags of dirty laundry or similar, and there was no room for us inside the lift because of this. So we would have to wait several minutes for another lift to arrive and hope that there was room for us inside. However, the lifts also offer a security system in that a guest must insert their key card before pressing the floor number, in order to prevent those who are not guests at the hotel from gaining access.

On arrival at the hotel our room was not ready (we arrived at 2pm), and although the receptionist was doing her best, we had to wait one hour before our room was available, which is not an ideal situation after a long journey. I find it hard to believe that they could not find one room available to us considering the size of the hotel.

The bakery over the road (Sweet Success) offers a large selection of tempting goods. However, I purchased a sweet pastry and after eating half of the pastry, I discovered a live insect crawling underneath. I returned to the bakery two days later and the person behind the counter asked me to point out what I had purchased, and she was surprised herself to find several insects crawling around on the pastries and inside the tray. I was not expecting to find any insects there two days later!

The drugmart opposite the hotel is a good place to do your food shopping, and here you can obtain maple syrup and maple cream cookies for less than you would expect to pay for these items in a tourist/gift shop.

The farmers market a couple of doors away from the hotel, offers a wide selection of fresh, organic produce at reasonable prices.

Granville Island is a good place to visit for souvenirs and gifts, if you want to get away from the typical tacky tourist shops! The Public Market contained several stands including, fresh meat, groceries, bakeries, gifts, as well as take-away food. There was a very nice Chinese take-away and the prices were reasonable.