The hotel that takes up a whole block (Sheraton Centre Hotel (Toronto))

Member Name: pmcds

Product:	Sheraton Centre Hotel (Toronto)
Date:	25/10/09 (22 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very professional, clean and comfy

Disadvantages: Expensive

I suppose no matter which way you look at it, 1400 bedrooms is a lot! This is what we were faced with when we arrived at our final hotel when we visited Canada recently. We had stayed in a small hotel in Niagara, a medium sized one in Hamilton, and now a huge one in Toronto. Booking through Canadian Affair seems to be a common occurrence, but this is no surprise, as they can get your good deals.

We booked in at the same time as a couple of our friends were getting a room without having prebooked. Ours costed around £80 for the night, while theirs ended up costing about £130, and that was after they haggled and downgraded to a limited room. Otherwise, it would have been well over £150 for them.

The room itself was lovely. They have a few different sets of elevators, depending on how high you are in the building. We were just over a third of the way up, which was high enough anyway, and the view from our room was lovely. Vast expanses of bright, shiny buildings, most of which we could look over and see past towards further off destinations in Toronto itself. We could see the Town Hall, a glorious building, but couldn't see the CN Tower, our destination for the following afternoon.

The room was lovely. Huge, comfy beds. Very soft, and while it definitely wasn't a bed I would have at home unless I wanted a bad back, it was glorious for one night. The TV was widescreen, HD and huge, and there was a full array of channels. Hot drinks available, a lovely hot shower, bath, and selection of towels and shampoos and soaps, etc. Hairdryer, ironing board and iron, huge lovely wooden desk, well presented (and expensive) room service menu, and a comfy reclining chair. The room basically did what you would expect of a good room, and did it in luxury as well. We were extremely comfy, and found the room to be extremely clean.

The hotel itself has an impressive ground floor. A huge open space, with escalators in the middle leading down to a shopping concourse where there are a few select shops and a food hall. There was a salsa evening on while we were there, and there were lots of people visiting various function rooms downstairs and upstairs as well, so it's a good venue for functions, too, apparently.

They have internet access, with about 7 or 8 computers set in a slightly enclosed are where there are also some comfy seats and a TV. You get half an hour in one session on one computer, and the internet speed is decent enough, considering there must be a lot of people using it at the same time. There are also a few tables littered around with chess boards attached to them, and our son took a liking to the game, and now wants to learn how to play!

The staff were all very smartly dressed, in proper jackets with coloured stripes across the cuffs, almost as if they were airline pilots! They were all very curteous, and the whole experience with them was pleasant. They were very helpful, very polite, and very professional. The lady at checkin was efficient, the gent in control of the luggage storage equally so, and the guy who found us a cab the next morning was even better. I felt a bit sorry for the guy on the info desk. It's a great idea, as you can ask about various events and sightseeing things, and a shuttle to the airport, etc, and they can organise it for you, or tell you where the nearest place to eat is, and all kinds of things, but the same guy was there when we went to bed late on the Saturday, and first thing on the Sunday he was there again, answering what must be the same old questions. I hope he gets paid well!

There are a few entrances to the hotel. It is well located quite centrally at 123 Queen St West, and within about 10 minutes' walk to the CN Tower, or the Eaton Shopping Centre. There is a big taxi rank outside, and transport to the airport is likely to cost you the same whichever way you get it if you are in a small family, so we got someone in the hotel to organise a taxi for us, which was an executive limo (not stretch, though!) and a very comfy ride indeed. The airport shuttle bus is around $29 Canadian dollars per person for a return trip, but with the three of us, we got the cab, knowing it was going to work out cheaper.

There is another Sheraton at the airport, but this is quite a way out, so don't confuse the two if you're heading to Toronto and want to see the sights. If you accidentally book the airport one, you'll have a hell of an expensive time doing anything centrally!

Overall, we were thoroughly impressed. The underground shopping concourse, it turns out, stretches for miles under the city, and is called PATH. It is fairly priced down there, but if you go for a walk, you'll find plenty of places where food is relatively cheap. The only criticism I have of the hotel is the price of the food. Breakfast was not included in our stay, and to order breakfast from their room service or even to go into one of their own restaurants on the ground floor would have been almost twice as much as outside the hotel. However, we had a marvellous stay, and would happily use this hotel again if we went back to Toronto.

Summary: The Sheraton Centre Hotel: easy access to Toronto highlights