This was the worst stay at a hotel I ever had. To start with, we had reserved a room with at least two full beds. All we got was a room with one full bed. The room was extremely noisy because of the traffic noise. When we complained, they gave us two pairs of cotton balls to stick in our ears. Finally, at 11:00 pm, we dragged the mattress to the bathroom and put it on the floor between the tub and the toilet. I had almost 200 miles of driving ahead of me the following day and I needed the sleep. I have pictures to show the sleeping arrangements.

I had an awesome stay, the front desk girl was so friendly and helpful. The continental breakfast was good, the free shuttle was great, the rooms very nice. All in all lovely place to stay.

We had a good stay at this hotel and whilst the immediate area around the hotel is ok, not too far away (maybe around a mile) is a homeless problem the like I have never seen before in any major city in the west. We drove through it on a few occasions on our way to see the sights and the scale of it was disturbing. This is the only reason I would not recommend this hotel to a friend - it is not the best introduction to a beautiful city, nor a great memory.

Our room was on the 4th floor with a good view of the mountains beyond. The king bed was excellent and the curtains and bedding were attractive. There was a desk and a sofa plus a coffee machine. The breakfast was typical of Holiday Inn Express with all the usual items of bagels, muffins, toast, fruit etc. It was served from 6.30 am and there were a few of us waiting to go in to the dining area at that time, I assume, mostly because of the time difference experienced by many of the guests.

A couple from the east coast of Canada in their eighties were having a 3 day stay here before embarking on an Alaskan cruise. I was full of admiration for anyone staying here without own transport but especially so at their age - although they did seem very active and had their transport arrangements sorted out.

The car parking arrangement suited us well, with your room key needed to enter the car park and again in the elevator to take you to any floor other than the lobby. The elevator was accessed from the underground parking area which was ideal.

We did lunch one day at Tom and Jerry's across the road, which was just okay but didn't nourish the soul! If you have a satnav or a good map, I could recommend a pretty tree-lined small town in well-heeled west Vancouver called Dundarave and a restaurant called Dundarave Fish Market. The town also had a couple of coffee shops and other places to eat which I should have liked to have tried. The sunset views over Vancouver from nearby Cypress Mount were spectacular.

We booked this hotel prior to leaving for a cruise. Our travel agent recommended it because the price was more reasonable than many downtown hotels and we, along with another couple, would have a car. We drove in from Seattle and had no trouble locating the hotel. Service at the front desk was excellent, and the free underground parking was fine. (I saw some earlier reviews complaining about the parking, but we had a fairly large car, and no trouble parking.) We liked the security and keyed elevator.

The hotel lobby was attractive and our room was perfectly adequate. The bathroom products were quite nice. The morning breakfast provided as part of the cost of the room was also good.

However, as earlier writers have indicated, you want to have a car to stay here. We traveled to Vancouver's lovely downtown and harbor twice, and took different routes to and from this area. In all cases we traveled through skidrow sections in what I believe are labeled Japantown and Chinatown. What they look like should be called "junkytown." Vancouver really needs to clean up this mess.

I consider this the city's problem, not the hotel's. The hotel offered good accomodations for a reasonable price.