Hotel X Toronto - a hotel with an identity crisis

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Corner Room
April 6, 2019 by

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Hotel X - Library Collection
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Corner Room

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Corner Room

Was in Toronto for a work conference, and my boss thought it would be fun to host the conference at the relatively new Hotel X by Library Collection. 

The idea of this hotel, according to the check in staff, is that it is supposed to be an urban retreat, with a lot of amenities under one roof. 

Check In

I was greeted by the doorman as soon as I got off my Uber, while the doorman offered to help me with my luggage, when I said that I'll be fine, he responded with "cool bro"......which I felt was a little weird. 

The check in staff was fast and efficient, but very corporate, there was no feeling of a "luxury" hotel here, just the basic ask of ID and Credit card, and then they handed me my room key.

However, as soon as I turned around, another staff was in the lobby ready to walk me to the elevator, and she showed me how to use the key card system for the elevator.

Overall, there was a lot of staff in the lobby, however I don't know what they are trying to go for, because if it is a luxury hotel enviroment, they easily could've equipped the lobby staff with iPads for a more personable check in experience, except the check in experience felt very sterile/corporate. 

 

Room

The room had a decent view, my room had a view of the water/lake along with BMO Feild and the Budwiser stadium, I would've prefered a view of DT Toronto with CN tower as the back drop, but I'm sure those room come a more of a premium.

The room continued the trend of this hotel's identity crisis, there are elements of the room that resembles that of a luxury hotel, such as the L'occitane bathroom amenities, the nice comfy slippers, the soft close drawers on all the furniture.

But there are also elements that reminded me of lower end limited service hotels. For example, this room (which is 2 levels above the lead in catagory) did not have a bathtub, there was no master light switch, so you have to run around the room to turn off/on the lights. No automated Blinds etc.

The fit/finish of the room was also not very good, the hotel is less than 1 years old and you can already see the paint on the walls chipping, and some heavy wear on the furniture. 

I did enjoy the large 65inch TV that is mounted to the wall of the room though, I often find a lot of hotels are still using 55 or smaller for TVs, which seem really small by today's standards. 

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Service

The service of this hotel is nothing fancy, nobody greets you by name, the doorman sometimes opens the door for you, but other times they are busy just talking amongst themselves. 

I used the laundry service in room for some garments to be pressed, the hotel offers 1 hour pressing 24 hours of the day which is nice, however I had to call 3 times to get my pressing back, when I noticed that it was not in my room after I came back after dinner (3 hours from when I dropped it off). Turns out the laundry team did not know that I needed the garment within the hour, though I did check off the 1 hour press box on the laundry sheet. 

There was very little personalization in terms of service in this hotel, all calls were answered by the standard "front desk how may I help you", without mentioning your name.

The hotel does have some great amenities, such as a huge onsite gym, indoor squash court, 2 indoor tennis courts, and the hotel will lend you proper tennis shoes and racquets. I did not partake, but I can see this appealing to some. 

 

Dining

The highlight of the hotel is the view from the resturant on the 28th floor. The food was however just okay. 

The bar on the 27th floor had a great view also, but the drinks were expensive, but also watered down. The servers were not exactly friendly here either. 

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Location

The hotel is in the middle of nowhere.....it is about ~8KM west of downtown Toronto, on Lakeshore.

There is really nothing near by. The hotel does offer a complimentry house car (BMW X5) to Union Station, and to Billy Bishop Airport, however, both times I tried to use the service to Union, the car was not available. The hotel also offers complimentry rides within 5KMs, however there really is nothing that is within 5KMs. 

Not sure why I would choose to stay here if it was not for the work conference. 

Overall

Overall I feel like the hotel has an identity crisis, the hotel is self claiming to be a luxury property when it fact it is far from it.

I would not even call it a good business hotel, but instead more like a limited service hotel, with elements taken from a luxury hotel, and pretty good fitness amenities if that is your thing.

No way I would ever choose to stay here if I am in Toronto for leisure, or even for business (unless of course the meetings that I have to attend is in the hotel). 

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