Canada Toronto Renaissance Downtown

[MelP]

I won this hotel for $55/night on Priceline for a four-night stay the second week of March 2008. I was a little concerned that it looked a little out of the way on the map, but I needn't have as it is pretty well-located for experiencing what Toronto has to offer and may even be better located than many other hotels for dining and nightlife. I arrived at the hotel at around 2PM on a Sunday, the room they had for me was a one-bed king, but since a friend had decided to join me at the last minute, I asked to be switched to a two-bed room. At first the check-in clerk said that there were none available, but he checked further and was quickly able to locate a two-bed on the fourth floor. The hotel is literally built into the Rogers Centre (aka the Skydome) and the room looked into the stadium, where there was a school-break carnival set up. If you crave sunlight then the stadium view rooms may not be for you but it was a fun view for me with all the carnival lights (fortunately the carnival was 10-9 each day so it didn't interfere with sleep).

The room was a bit larger than average, it had a sitting area by the stadium window with two cushioned chairs and a side table facing the TV cabinet, which also had drawers and the ice bucket. The TV had an extensive selection of channels, both Canadian and American, I was able to keep up with the former Gov. Spitzer saga that broke while I was there on the Buffalo stations. The two beds in the room were queens, separated by a night stand. Mattress was quite firm but comfortable, the pillows a bit small and a little soft for my taste. On the other side of the bed was a desk with ample surface area to work on. The room also had a closet (with inside light) that also had drawers to store stuff in. The bathroom was average hotel size with granite surface around the sink and ample room to put the toiletries on top. Nice selection of toiletries (including a boot cleaner/buffer, which was very handy after trudging all day in the aftermath of a foot+ of snow) by Lather, although no shower cap. Housekeeping was good, everything was clean. The room could've used a picture or two hanging on the walls, it was a little stark without it, but otherwise the furnishings were in excellent condition and the decor was tasteful. One other critique was that the lighting was rather dark in the room, it could've used a bit more brightness, especially with the interior view.

The hallway corridor outside the room was modernly nice, although it can be a long and circuitous walk to some rooms, you can easily get lost on the way to the ice machine. :) Experienced little to no noise from the hall or adjoining rooms. The lobby was very modern and nice. You can access free wi-fi in the lobby so there were always people down there with their laptops, although I couldn't get connected on my wi-fi smartphone even though it did see the signal. There is a restaurant in the hotel that we didn't eat at although we did get Starbucks to go in the morning. I didn't order room service, I did check the menu though and it looked a bit pricey. There is also a small convenience store there. The staff there was nice and professional, albeit a bit laid-back. The clientele seemed to skew towards the young and trendy (although there were all kinds of people), saw several musician types while there.

Front Street and the Theater/Nightlife district are just a brief stroll across the train overpass. Right on the other side is a very handy 24 hour supermarket and a Tim Horton's. Another block or two up Blue Jays Way is a great breakfast place called Cora's which also has free wi-fi that did work for me, I ate breakfast there every morning. BTW, while the airport bus doesn't list the Renaissance as a stop, if you tell the driver you are going there he will drop you at the corner of Front and Blue Jays Way and you just walk over the overpass to the hotel (you do have to walk to either the Intercontinental on Front or the Holiday Inn on King to get the bus back to the airport).

In all, I had a great stay at the hotel...while it may be more of a 3.5* rather than a 4*, I was quite satisfied with it.

[cober6711]

Got this hotel for a night last year because of a party going on at home.

This is one of the few places I can say I actually got the dreaded 'Priceline room'.

The room itself, room 397, was great; with one of the biggest bathrooms I have ever seen in a hotel room, BUT it was right at the end of the looooooong hallway; it literally took 5 minutes to reach it from the elevator. This was probably a 'spare room' of sorts.

I was awakened by loud noises in the early morning, and I'm not sure what they were. As well, in the morning, a band had set up right below my window and made such an awful racket for hours. I wished the window opened so that I could drop rotten fruit onto them :)

All in all, not a bad place for $58/night

[TIM V]

Was meaning to write after I got back. Was a really nice hotel. Really convenient to the Rogers centre to see the Jays play the Yankees. Was pretty cool that even if you didn't have a ticket you could still watch the game from the bar in the hotel for free. The hotel wasnt convenient though to many of the places we went out to eat, though the CN Tower was right next door. Had to taxi it around some places, though you could take the subway. For the price I paid it was awesome though. Parking was a pain since the baseball game was going on, but we had them valet us for the same price for regular parking because of this.