Century Plaza Hotel & Spa

Excellent location, but tired hotel. I was here 9 years ago with family, and in many ways and areas it looks like no maintenance or care has been carried out. The carpet on 20th floor where our room was is threadbare and worn out. The room had just 2 glasses for a family room and the counter top was damaged in many places. The oven/hob seems like it is out of the 90s. A real shame as it was a top hotel before. The location is great, and the coffee shop on the Lobby floor was ideal.

Great central location and easy walk to everything Vancouver city has to offer. Buffet breakfast (included in our room rate - which was, for us, incredibly expensive - but it was World Cup time and we’re told Vancouver is expensive anyway) Lots to choose from but you do have to book a time. They seem to have lots of tour groups for cruises and the train for the Rockies. I’m not a fan of showers over baths and we had trouble getting consistent temperature. The sink has a huge crack in it. There are lots of light bulbs but weirdly the lighting isn’t great? Two lamps in the lounge & only side table lamps in the bedroom - why do North American hotels have an aversion to decent lighting? GREAT scheme for no housekeeping days - you can get a $10 voucher to use in their coffee shop - or donate to a charity. However, it is next to a major hospital with an ED dept. so unless you sleep the sleep of the dead ask for a room on the other side of the building. I was woken by sirens every night. We had a room with kitchen as I have allergies and we often cook for ourselves. We couldn’t open the oven door more than about 45° as it hit the fridge! We asked for a tray to use - the one provided was bigger than the oven! We improvised with foil!

The Century Plaza Hotel has very comfortable rooms. Good breakfasts. There is a very useful IGA supermarket close by. It is an easy walk to all of the main attractions. There is a giant TV in the room which has a good variety of channels and access to all of your apps. WiFi in the room is excellent, in the lobby it is poor. The hotel is next-door to a hospital with an ER department. Consequently, there are sirens day and night. The downtown fire station is close by as well. There are a lot of fire trucks up and down Burrard St often. If you are a light sleeper it might be best to ask for a room on the north side. The biggest irritation we faced was the kitchen. My wife has allergies so we like to cook in our room. We booked at the Century Plaza because it has a full kitchen. The fridge freezer was excellent. The microwave was fine, As was the kettle. The oven was the weak point. There was no baking tray and all of the shelves were wrapped in foil that interfered with the heat circulation. We asked for a tray but when it arrived it was too big for the oven. Worse still the oven door didn't open properly because it hit the fridge. As a result I burned my hands twice trying to us it. We enjoyed the breakfast and it was plentiful. Ours was complementary but I was surprised at how expensive it would have been to pay for. Saying that, most people did seem to get their money's worth. The other little niggle was the elevators. They were very slow and two of the four didn't seem to function for our whole stay.