Everything good about this hotel is seen in the ostentatious lobby and the two attached restaurants, considered some of Calgary's best. It all comes crashing to a halt once you get to your room.
We booked a "superior" room. Inferior might be better. I'll list the problems in bullet point form:
- not a single drawer in the entire room - not even the bathrooms. No clothes drawers, no desk drawers, no nightside table drawers, no storage at all, save for a tiny front closet.
- 2 adults booked; one of their vaunted "bathrobes". A call to reception when we checked in (11pm) didn't yield a second one.
- no tourism literature for Calgary either in the rooms, or the front lobby (ie, no "What's On" magazines, or anything).
- Night staff do not seem to know what's going on at all with the hotel. For eg - I asked if the hotel had concierge services, and they didn't know what the word meant.
- Room furniture. Bed itself is amazing. The rest? Think stupid-artsy slabs of wood, paired with horrible chairs (one armchair, one uncomfortable blocky wood "desk" chair). No writing areas, No side / eating tables. Just a buffet table under the plasma tv, and blocky night table.
- Before arrival, I called to specifically ask if there was WiFi in the rooms. Told yes and Told free. I get there, and no wifi (while I was able to see HotelArts8, HotelArts9 etc available, they could not be connected to. Calls to desk during stay said "use ethernet connection in room". We did, and the "free" wifi turned into $10 per day wired connections.
- no room fridge, or safe. Literally no place to stow any valuables in room.
I handwrote a letter the first night, to the hotel manager, raising some of these issues, expecting a response. There was none at all.
On the positive side, they have way cool plasma tvs in the room, and the lobby is gorgeous. The beds are seriously comfortable. By far and away the most friendly staff are the valet parking people. Desk staff was pretty much useless.
I'll never use this hotel again. Overpriced, in a noisy, bad part of town. Go to use the restaurants, or lounge in the showpiece lobby. Stay somewhere else.