Toronto Hotels

[ToroTO]

Hotels don't choose or stick to one ratings agency, they have no control over it, they can be and are reviewed by many. It is no different than a Toronto Life restaurant review compared to The Now, a restaurant doesn't choose to be reviewed only by Toronto Life. Pick a hotel in Toronto and you will see they have been rated by many different agencies and they may not have the same level for each one (could be a 3* with one or a 4* with another), the hotel didn't choose, the agency did.

Ratings systems do vary by region even within the same agency doing the rating, European hotels generally have a different set of standards to meet than their Caribbean or Asian counterparts. As long as you know the requirements, the system still works. I would never compare a Michelin rated Cuban 3* with a Swiss 3* hotel.

I used to work in the travel business and had to deal with ratings systems all the time.

[rbt]

Originally Posted by Taller, Better

All good in theory, but there is no such thing as hotels sticking to one rating agency. Doesn't happen and doesn't exist. It seems to me to be pretty much a free-for-all nowadays in the ratings game.

Most hotel chains do a decent job of star rating their hotels relative to their other hotels.

I.e. A 3 star hilton (as rated by hilton) is almost always better than a 2 star hilton.

A 5 star Starwood (W, Westin, Sheraton, Four Points, etc.) is almost always better than a 4-star Starwood. It gets a little wonky because location is taken into consideration (4 stars in New York are 3 stars plus a bonus star for being in New York) but it works most of the time.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by Taller, Better

You poor thing! I live in a 10 Star apartment building. My unit has a 24 hour kitchen if required, and 24 hour around the clock butler service.

I'm the butler.

Word is that there's good service to be had in your unit.

[isaidso]

Honestly, I never pay any attention to ratings. It's just someone's opinion and they're mostly self serving (to the people doing the rating). Customer feedback sites aren't reliable either. I'd rather go find out for myself. I'm fully capable of forming my own opinion. If I don't like something, I'll go somewhere else.

[Taller, Better]

Originally Posted by isaidso

Word is that there's good service to be had in your unit.

Only the best!!


hehe....

[Epi]

Originally Posted by isaidso

Word is that there's good service to be had in your unit.

That can be read so many ways

[Taller, Better]

I know the way isaidso's mind works, and it can only be read in one way!

[current]

Now here is a weekend hotel package! - yahoo news article:
Got $200,000? This Toronto Hotel Wants Your Stay

By Jennifer Kwan | Insight – 22 hours ago
November 30 1012

This brings luxury to a whole new level: A swank boutique hotel in downtown Toronto wants you to have a holiday to remember. All it's going to cost is C$199,000, plus tax. In an over-the-top, but tantalizingly luxurious marketing draw, The Hazelton Hotel is offering its "Bespoke Holiday Season Shopping Package," complete with a private jet ride from your home to Toronto and two nights' stay in the hotel's 1,860 square-feet Bellair Suite. Sleeping on a C$99,000 bed, eating catered meals in your suite's private dining room, a driver at your disposal? Why not.

At the heart of the package is three shopping trips: for him, for her and for both. A part of the shopping experience includes exclusive access to the hotel's art concierge. One can't help but wonder how such an idea is even conceivable at a time when the economy is sputtering along and consumer debt is skyrocketing. "It's not really a question of timing. It's a question of what people are looking for these days. People are looking for unique experiences," said David Mounteer, the hotel's general manager. Mounteer is unaware of any other Canadian hotel offering a similar package at a similar price. "Toronto is coming of age. It's becoming an international city," he added. Mounteer said since the hotel announced the holiday special on Thursday there have been several inquiries, but no bookings just yet.

Travelers looking for options? Another flashy Toronto option for spend thrifts is Trump International Hotel & Tower's ode to James Bond. Trump's "Shaken not Stirred: Bond on Bay - 007 Package" is only C$17,007 (get it, 007). That's also a two nights' stay and includes access to a Bentley during the stay. This package was coincided with the opening of "Designing 007: Fifty Years of Bond Style" that is showing at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. John Bullock, director of marketing for Trump Toronto, said the package was also aimed at establishing the hotel as the only destination for such over-the-top lifestyle packages. "It was launched the same week as the Skyfall movie launch, to celebrate Bond culture and to give people the opportunity to live that fantastic lifestyle experience," Bullock said in an e-mail. Again numerous inquiries, but nobody has opened their wallet for such exclusivity.

http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/blogs/in...195348440.html

[Taller, Better]

Well, it cost nothing for the Hazelton to dream up the promotion and already it got them free advertising. The chances of anyone actually taking them up on it are slim. This is sort of like announcing that you have listed your penthouse condo for a $100,000,000 selling price. Ain't a gonna happen of course, but it always gets free advertising.....

[Epi]

Originally Posted by Taller, Better

Well, it cost nothing for the Hazelton to dream up the promotion and already it got them free advertising. The chances of anyone actually taking them up on it are slim. This is sort of like announcing that you have listed your penthouse condo for a $100,000,000 selling price. Ain't a gonna happen of course, but it always gets free advertising.....

Actually the penthouse condo at One57 in NYC went for $90 million pre-construction, so $100,000,000 amazingly isn't as ludicrous as you think! Well it's ludicrous for Toronto I guess

http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/18/real...ouse/index.htm

[Taller, Better]

Originally Posted by Epi

Actually the penthouse condo at One57 in NYC went for $90 million pre-construction, so $100,000,000 amazingly isn't as ludicrous as you think! Well it's ludicrous for Toronto I guess

http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/18/real...ouse/index.htm

Yeah, I was referring to Toronto. They have crazy prices in London, too....
It is a pretty easy way to get free advertising though. If anyone in Canada puts their house on the market for a massively bloated fantasy
price, pretty much every news agency in the country will dutifully pick up the news release and print it like it is "Canada's Most Expensive House", etc......
Makes no difference that the house would never sell for anywhere close to what it is listed.

Especially lame-o news services like Yahoo.

[ACT7]

Some exciting times ahead for the Chelsea...

http://www.thestar.com/business/arti...-chelsea-hotel

Delta Hotels to abandon management of Toronto’s Chelsea hotel

Published on Wednesday December 19, 2012

By Susan Pigg Business Reporter

Delta Hotels and Resorts is giving up management of Canada’s biggest hotel, Toronto’s downtown Chelsea, June 30 next year as part of its national effort to rebuild and rebrand itself as a “next-generation premium four-star hotel” chain.

The 1,590-room hotel at Gerrard and Yonge Sts. will be renamed The Chelsea Toronto and become the first Canadian hotel to be managed by the Langham Hospitality Group, which includes luxury brands such as London’s famed Langham, opened in 1865 as Europe’s first grand hotel.

...

Toronto has ranked among the top five cities in the world over the last five years in terms of adding new and more upscale hotel rooms, says Terry Mundell, president and CEO of the Greater Toronto Hotel Association.

The timing is ideal, he says, because arrivals at Pearson Airport are up about 6 per cent this year over last and the building boom has created a buzz around the world that is attracting the attention of a new generation of sophisticated travellers looking to check out what’s happening in Toronto.

[Taller, Better]

Well, I hardly know what to say.... I'm no fan of the Chelsea, but it has been a wildly successful formula. To my mind it is such a huge old concrete monster I am unsure of how it could be made posh.

[ACT7]

Originally Posted by Taller, Better

Well, I hardly know what to say.... I'm no fan of the Chelsea, but it has been a wildly successful formula. To my mind it is such a huge old concrete monster I am unsure of how it could be made posh.

There are some renderings on UT as to what the renovation might look like. Not mind-blowing or anything but much better than it looks now. It's definitely an eyesore right now, so frankly anything new would be better.

[ToroTO]

There are few large hotels in Toronto that I think are less suited to a luxury make-over by Langham, than the Delta Chelsea. More likely it would be given the lower market Eaton Hotels brand rather than a Langham.

[ACT7]

Originally Posted by ToroTO

There are few large hotels in Toronto that I think are less suited to a luxury make-over by Langham, than the Delta Chelsea. More likely it would be given the lower market Eaton Hotels brand rather than a Langham.

You may be right about that - the article didn't specify that it would be Langham branded. But maybe with a nice makeover, it could justify the higher market branding. Plus if the World's Biggest Bookstore site develops into something decent, that neighbourhood could become a nice enclave of mid to higher end shops, etc.

[Taller, Better]

Well, Delta has the new hotel going up downtown so perhaps it wants to focus on that one. It indicated they are dropping the Chelsea because they want to rebrand themselves as more upscale. Hard to imagine Deltas as being more upscale.

I wonder if it is a folly for all of these hotels to be chasing the same upscale market.

[isaidso]

Delta is re-positioning the company as a 4 star hotel chain. They've already revamped 20 of their 40 properties. They're moving into the same space as Sheraton, Hilton, and Fairmont. Perhaps there's wisdom in going up against these brands rather than companies like Holiday Inn, Marriott, and Best Western.

[Taller, Better]

Well, if this results in the Chelsea getting a facelift, I am ALL in favour of it. It is one tired looking hotel. 1980 is on the phone and they want their hotel back!

[ACT7]

I've recently stayed in some revamped Delta's in Montreal and Calgary and they are quite nice. I would easily put them on par with a Hilton or Sheraton. Hell, I'd even go so so far as to say they were nicer then some Fairmonts.