I just returned from a one night stay at this hotel.

The location of this hotel is superb. It is located on Bay street. It is across from stairs leading down to the river. On the back side of the hotel, there is the city market. It was about a 20 minute walk to the Cathedral of St John the Baptist. Most importantly, my favorite soap store (Nourish) was very nearby as well.

I book a reward night on points & cash. Because there is a points & cash sale currently going on, I was able to buy 20,000 points for $110. I will be receiving a 8,000 point rebate (10% IHG card, 10% ambassador membership). I also received a 600 point amenity and 550 points for paying the points & cash with my IHG credit card. I thought that was a pretty good deal for rooms that cost about $325.

I was given the option of 2 queen beds or a standard room. I opted for a standard room as I was hoping for a King bed. Unfortunately, the hotel was fairly occupied and no upgrade was provided.

The entrance to the hotel is on the back side of the property and valet parking is the only option. This is $25/day. I am sure that there are opportunities for self parking, but for one day I was fine with the valet. From the lobby, exiting onto bay street is easy as there are several doors with exits to the street. However, upon returning to the hotel, those doors do not have handles to get into the lobby and you must go into the attached restaurant, The Five Oaks Taproom. The restaurant is closed between 11:00am and 4:30pm on the weekends. Therefore, you must walk around to the back of the building to enter the hotel. I think that there is an key controlled entrance at the end of the hotel, but did not test this theory.

The room itself was nice. The bed, pillows and sheets were comfortable. The bathroom was not huge, but had a spacious walk-in shower. The sink sits out in the room - not an issue for me, but could be for some.

It appears that there are two sets of rooms - an old mansion converted to a hotel and a modern addition. The new addition has 6 levels, it appears that the mansion has 4 levels. There are two separate elevators for each section.

I initially received a bill for room charges of $284 + taxes. After bringing this bill to the front desk, they reversed the charges leaving me with only the valet charges.

We asked for a late check out. The normal check out time is 11:00 AM and they could only give me a late check out for 12:30 PM. However, they were able to hold our luggage until we left.

We did go to breakfast at Goose Feather's Cafe - about 2 blocks away from the hotel. It had a huge line out the door and I can't recommend the cafe enough.