mendy7511

As of last week, the lounge is a third floor meeting room.

mahasamatman

Wow, that's disappointing.

aviationp

The lounge is extremely disappointing at the hotel:

It is not cleaned between different people at breakfast. The same table cloth is used for everyone.

Nobody manning the "lounge" during non-breakfast or evening appetizers. So anybody can walk in without any problems and take whatever they want. Since it is not manned, nobody ever comes to clean the lounge either.

mendy7511

I was also surprised there was no staff. Anyone can walk in and help themselves. I guess they figure having a few people help themselves to some snacks is cheaper than paying someone to sit there.

acousticbiker

Going with family last week of June. Trying to decide between this Sheraton and Westin Bayshore. Prefer location of Bayshore but nice to have club lounge for family breakfast. Is the lounge expected to be back up and running for end June? Any other advice or factors to consider from those who've been to both would be appreciated. Thanks!

catgirl

Was here this past weekend for one night. Lounge is still on the third floor. Access is controlled by your room key which is (at least in theory) given to only people who are eligible to use the facility. We observed several large groups coming in at a time, mostly 2-4 adults with a large number (5-10) of teenagers. This may be because it was the weekend of the FIFA Women's World Cup game between Canada and England, and it is entirely possible that the entire groups were eligible to be there. The real issue with the large groups were that they were like locusts -- one group would descend and help themselves to an equivalent of 2-3 servings of whatever, and within minutes the fridge and tables would be bare. And even though there was a staff member there, replenishing the stocks seemed a thankless and never-ending task. And when there were more than two groups in the lounge, the volume was so high that you couldn't hear yourself speak.

I must admit it was not quite the lounge experience that I appreciate, but it could just be a function of the weekend. Would be interested in hearing about others experiences on weekdays.

mahasamatman

When we were there a couple of weeks ago, they said September at the earliest.

shawneve

Just found out you can book a family suite (1King+2DBls) for 11500 points.
Only 1500 more than a standard room.
Works out great for my family vacation to Hawaii.
We are taking a 1 night layover in Vancouver on our way from Toronto to break things up a bit and the kids have never been to Vancouver.
With 3 boys, having a hotel room with 3 beds is rare and welcome.
I wanted to stay at the Westin Bayshore but was forced to look elsewhere as it was sold out. Turns out for the best as I get a much more comfortable room, and although location is not quite as nice, its still in a good central downtown spot close to everything.

mahasamatman

We did this last month when some friends came to visit. Just note that the two double beds are in place of a living room, and there's still only one bathroom.

SkyTeam777

Will the south tower ever be renovated?

sfozrhfco

Had a nice stay at this hotel. The lounge is still on the 3rd floor and I did not get any upgrade as the hotel was fully booked over the Memorial Day weekend but the dinner time options in the lounge were very good. The south tower has been renovated and even the regular room there was fine. Given the amount and quality of the food offered in the lounge we didn't have to eat out for either breakfast or dinner which was nice. The location was great. The gym, pool, hot tubs were all nice. Wish Vancouver had Uber but there are some zipcars close by. Overall, it was a great value for an award stay.

Dreamflight

I checked into this property the other day. I can happily report that renovations to their club lounge are now complete (just in the past 5 days, I was told).

The club lounge is now on the 25th floor in the South Tower and is accessed using your room key. The lounge is spread across two levels (with a fancy spiral staircase leading to the second level) and also has a fair sized balcony with a great view of the city.

Like most lounges, there's also a washroom upstairs and workstation with a computer set up.

Although the lounge is multi-level, it's not overly huge, and can get crowded when the hotel is sold out. What I didn't particularly like was how the food area was designed. It's to the corner of the lounge and can feel like a tight squeeze when trying to get by people lining up, or waiting to fill up their cups with coffee. Not the best set up with traffic flow in mind. Food was good, however. They had pasta and calamari along with a good cold spread (including smoked salmon).

Along with the upgrade to the lounge, rooms in the South Tower have also been updated. Given the choice between the two towers, I would probably always opt for the South Tower now - it's where the club lounge is located and the bulk of the hotel's suites, so if you're a Plat member you'll probably want to end up here anyways.

The advantages I can think of for the North Tower are: It has more floors (if you want to be higher up), the standard rooms in this tower are slightly larger, and the restaurant/bar and fitness facilities are located here. It's also more integrated with the underground parking, if that matters to you.

Overall a great stay and Platinum recognition was very good for me. They must deal with many SPG Elites, as I was asked if I wanted to use the Make A Green Choice option without having to inquire or have anxiety over calling down and hoping that my request gets noted correctly. Also, I saw them personally deliver room keys to guests waiting in the lounge for their rooms to be cleaned, which is a nice touch.

mahasamatman

By your description, it sounds like the "new" lounge is exactly like it was before the renovation. I wonder why it took so long to do basically nothing?

Dreamflight

I had never visited the lounge pre-renovation, so I'm not entirely sure. But you're right - given the length of time the renovation took my impression when I walked in was that it was perhaps a whole new space with an additional floor and everything, but I guess that's not the case.

From some photos of I found of what the lounge looked like pre-renovation, it looks like it's mostly: new hardwood floors, carpeting, counters, furniture, and possibly the little artsy wall lighting thing that's displayed next to the staircase (or that may have been there before). I would also take a stab and guess that the washroom and kitchen were redone, but I'm speculating there

worldtraveller73

To compliment and present the contrarian view to this comment, I recently stayed about 7 days ago and tried out the renovated rooms in the South Tower. The renovation is a standard refurbish with nothing overly special or over the top.

Although the South Tower has more suites available, I missed out on the suite upgrade as SPG Platinum and ended up with the room booked. Even the occassion of staying for MrsWT73's birthday was not able to sway any love. Out of about three stays in the last year (weekdays and weeknights) I have not had a single suite upgrade here.

The rooms in the South Tower I find are generally smaller than the north tower. I would say that the days of easy upgrades at this property are over, based on my stay experiences. If you wanted to hedge your bets, you'd be better off with a larger room in the North Tower than playing lotto with a smaller room. This will be my next strategy as the corner rooms in the North Tower are pretty good.

The 25th floor lounge has a small outdoor deck. We were able to take in the Honda Symphony of Light fireworks display from here with a so so view (try it once). The hotel did provide two drink tickets per person during our stay. Lounge alcohol was typically for charge so this was a nice gesture on the part of the hotel.

My last comment is that there appears to be very high occupancy in Vancouver on the weekend these days. The lower Canadian dollar is attracting Europeans and Americans and with cruise ship season in full swing in the summer, rates are over $500 CAD ($380 US). I suspect this property will move up from its current Category 4 to a higher category next year.