Best Western Primrose Hotel-Downtown

This hotel is now permanently closed, and will be converted into a student residence. The staff was suddenly told in May, and all future bookings had to be transferred to nearby hotels.

The fact that this hotel is open right now is bonkers! You can’t sleep in past 7am because they are doing gnarly construction on the hotel that is so disruptive. Hammering and drilling alllllll day long. Almost $ 200 a night is too expensive for such an unpleasant stay. This hotel should be closed for renovation while they «spend $ 25 million in order to serve me better»… And on top of that they can’t even spring for a free breakfast for those who were woken up too early due to the construction– they still want to charge you $ 15. I think after badgering the staff enough we will be getting a discount, but I would have much rather stayed somewhere else than get a discount at this construction site.
Not to mention when I was finally able to get some sleep, a false fire alarm woke me up at 10pm. Epic.

I usually don’t write reviews but couldn’t help myself this time. I travel A LOT for my particular occupation and have stayed in places all across North America and Europe from motel 6 to hiltons. This place charged us $ 200 a night while they were doing renovations to the hotel. Relentless drilling and construction noises of all kinds from 7a to 6p. We asked for different rooms but they declined and on top of that the staff was rude (as I’m sure we weren’t the first ones to complain) and seemingly beaten down by what was going on. I don’t blame them or the workers by any means. But the management should all be reprimanded by the parent company or whomever for charging this much per room and the restaurant and bar were not operating even though they were not being renovated. Basically just a lack of customer care (putting up a sign by the elevator that reads ‘please pardon our appearance while we make our 25 million dollar renovation’ doesn’t count) and taking money from people to be miserable. If you’re looking to stay in this area go a block down to the holiday inn, we’ve stayed there before and it’s great. Sorry for the bad review but this place is not worth it. Good luck!

Overall, I found this to be a nice hotel.
The price was what you should expect for the heart of Toronto. My room was kept clean (and included a refrigerator, microwave, and stove). The beds were comfortable. I had a beautiful view from my 16^th floor room. The staff was very friendly and willing to answer any questions I had.
My only complaint is that there were renovations going on in the building (so during the hours of 9am-​5pm, I heard drilling from my hotel room) and I was not warned of this in advance.

This is a pretty typical city hotel. I stayed here on a deal from Best Western that included a free night. I did comparably look up what my stay would cost and have to say it is priced accordingly for what it is rated. It is in a great location that is close to most attractions. You also can walk to many shops and restaurants nearby. The rail stops in front of the hotel as well for even more added convenience. Only gripe is the $ 30 parking charge! Would I stay here again? Sure if I’m on a budget. I might look for a more spiffy location but this spot does the job just fine.

I stayed here for 6 nights and chose this hotel because it had a great location (5 minutes walk from the subway, and street car right in front), and best price for a downtown Toronto hotel. So I didn’t expect that much. I was so mistaken. The hotel was great! Large rooms, quiet, clean, excellent front desk staff, and a nice business center to boot. There were a lot of college students, but I found them friendly and polite. So I have no problem recommending this hotel to other travelers, especially if you want good value.

Well Oct 31 was my birthday. I booked a room here through a 3^rd party website. Not advised that the $ 50 security fee was not taken off my visa at the time of booking I needed to pay it the day of check-​in. Unfortunately they did not want to take cash as a security deposit even when I was willing to leave all pieces of ID at the front desk until my checkout. Long story short they did not give me my room after paying for it. Instead they decided to let two young girls sit in front of their hotel in the rain and cold without a place to stay.

Worst travel experience of my life
I booked online with my TD Visa Debit card and waited eagerly for my first trip to Toronto without my parents. After a very stressful 6 hour drive to Toronto I arrived at the hotel only to discover that the card I used to book the trip would not be accepted. I was told that the hotel does not accept visa debit cards and asked why I wasn’t told that when I made the reservation I was told that the booking confirmation says the location does not accept cash. I mentioned that does not preclude a visa debit card or even a regular debit card which I also offered I was told they are the same as cash which is not specified anywhere. I offered to pay a deposit or make some other arrangement I was told in no uncertain terms by the extremely rude manager that I would not be staying there that night without a credit card which I did not have available. I was even told that some managers overlook this policy but that this one would not despite my reservation and lack of place to go. Overall this was the worst travel experience of my life, I ended up finding a much nicer hotel with caring staff for a comparable price. If you are considering a trip to Toronto do not stay at this hotel, they may not even let you if you want to.

What a crappy hotel. Dirty and noisy. Location is okay. And just to let you know, you can hear everything from the adjacent room with those doors in between.

It’s midnight and I walk into my Primrose hotel room and I have to wake up early tomorrow morning, and the guy in the next room is snoring so loudly that it’s as if he’s in my bed. So I call the front desk to see if I can switch rooms.
Me: «The guy in the room next to me is the loudest snorer I’ve ever heard, and – «
Front desk guy: «Ok, I’ll send security right up.»
Me: «What? No. I just – «
Desk: «Hold on.»
[hold music]
Desk: «Ok, so we’ll send security up.»
Me: «No! No, no. He’s just a loud snorer. There’s no need for security.»
Desk: «But if it’s a noise complaint, we send security.»
Me: «What? No, that’s ridiculous. It isn’t his fault. I just want to see if there’s another room I can go to.»
I went on hold again. He found another room, and I had to go downstairs to get the keys. So I do, carrying all my stuff. He looks at me and says, with total confusion: «You’re checking out now?»
This guy.

Pros:
–This hotel is ideal when it comes to location, very central to everything you could possibly want to do in Toronto. I was fine walking almost everywhere, but subway/​streetcars were also nearby.
–Room is spacious, comes with a mini-​kitchen, bathroom, and bed area. I had a decent view of the city as well. Bed is super comfortable, FYI.
Cons:
–Wanna know why this hotel is always jam packed with college kids? Well, that’s because this hotel has a student residence program in place with the nearby universities.
–Four elevators for the entire building. Facility services also uses these same four elevators. You can be waiting for over 15 minutes for one elevator! The day I was checking out I ended up having to walk down 15 flights of stairs with my luggage because the elevator wait was over 20 minutes! Unacceptable.
–I had requested early check-​in prior to arriving which I thought had been confirmed. When I arrived at 2pm I was told that my room was not ready. I asked if there were any other rooms in the hotel available, and I was told no. I asked if I could at least leave my bags in the room, as my friend had already come to the hotel to take me out and I just wanted to get them out of the car. I was told this wasn’t an option and I’d have to come back at 3pm. I was somewhat annoyed with this but whatever. I ended up coming back to the hotel and checking in at 4pm. The room seemed as if it were cleaned in a hurry, as the floor was sticky (don’t even wanna know what that was) and there were still some grease stains near the kitchen area.
–When I stay at hotels the only time the cleaning ladies will come in will be the day I check out. I keep the room clean and the only thing I ever ask for is additional towels sometimes. That’s IT. With that being said, I had called down to the front desk and asked for additional towels one of the nights I was there. The woman at the front desk decided to get her Sherlock Holmes on by asking me, «didn’t we give you two new towels this morning, why do you need more?» Wtf?
Misc:
–Parking deck is located to the side of the hotel (off Jarvis St) for $ 24/​day. This deck is super small and I saw SUV drivers having a tough time getting in/​out without scraping the sides of their cars, so be wary. There are other outdoor lots nearby that are less, unless you don’t feel like walking an extra block or so.

Overall, this is a pretty solid hotel given the price and location. I have stayed at this hotel a few times and each time I stayed I was satisfied. The rooms are comfortable and big enough. I have stayed in more expensive hotels that are significantly smaller than the rooms at Primrose so my view of big enough is relative. The décor is dated, but it’s not a deal breaker for me as I’m only in the room to sleep. So unless you’re going for a romantic get-​away, the décor isn’t that bad.
The area where the hotel is located isn’t the best in Toronto, but I never found it to be dangerous — especially during the day. In the evenings, unique characters show their faces, but no one that is overly concerning. Be smart but don’t freak out. I know that doesn’t sound reassuring, but I’ve never felt my safety to be an issue when I walked in that area.
Streetcars can be accessed right in front of the hotel and the subway is only a few blocks west. Being downtown and near transit, it is pretty easy to get to Yonge/​Bloor, Yonge/​Dundas, Union Station, Eaton Centre, Rogers Centre, Air Canada Centre…
There are plenty of stores/​restaurants around the area as well. I can’t speak for the quality of those places of course.
Two things that bugged me about the hotel. One — the elevators can be slow. Not painfully slow, but slow. Two — parking is tight. I drive a Civic and I can’t see how anything significantly bigger would be able to get around the corners. Luckily, there is a parking lot beside the hotel. Not great, but not horrible.
I would definitely stay here again for business/​workshops. I would also give this place a shot for vacation if you want to save some money on accommodation so you can spend money on more important things like shopping and shows. If décor is super important to you, then check out a different hotel.

Stayed here with my boyfriend for Frostcon on December 14, since I live way out on the north edge of the city and we wanted to stay to go out dancing after (and big blizzard that weekend…).
A nice hotel, convenient location, a little cramped design-​wise (very vertical, there’s over 20 floors but it looks tiny inside), friendly staff, I absolutely LOVED that there was a kitchenette in our room included (I wished I’d brought food to cook on the mini-​stove… man, why the hell can no other animé/​sci-​fi conventions have hotels with those? I would save SO much cash), cozy bed, we had a nice view from our room and a good-​sized one at that. And lobby Tim’s? Hello, saving money. Only things against it were that our bathtub looked pretty gross (it was cleaned, but had some lasting stains in it that looked like hairdye or paint or such), and the heat/​AC controller was confusing as heck, it got darn cold in our room as a result. Also had such a long wait for the elevator at check-​out (fifteen minutes and not even ONE had arrived on our floor despite having four, and we were behind four others with huge bags) that we gave up and hauled our suitcases down sixteen storeys.

Hotel Building: Outdated and smelly.
Neighborhood: Ok. Close to Yonge St (like Times Square) and Church-​Wellesley (trendy gay area) but is not like these area. Lot’s of homeless people.
Hotel Staff: Rude and incompetent. We booked through Orbitz a week out and they had no record of us. Took 30 min and 3 people for them to admit that the reservation was there but they had misplaced a fax. Meanwhile I kept having to move me car during rush hour because there was no street parking and I had to let people out of the one car drive. Several encounters with employees through out the trip did not yield better results.
Rooms: 2 stars at best, seen worse but certainly wasn’t good. Broken closet door and noisy air conditioner.
Parking situation: They say that they have indoor parking. Here’s the catch, they don’t have much of it. Had to park down the street at an outdoor lot where there were a ton of shady people and signs warning not leave valuables in the car.
Overall: I don’t expect much from a Best Western, but this was pretty bad.

Hotel was good for the price paid. Lower portion is a college dorm so the lobby and elevators are always busy. There are a few things that could be improved but the overall quality for the price paid to be downtown is decent. However half of our vacation was spent waiting for the elevator. I don’t know if I would book this place again.

Lobby décor was nice and modern. Front desk check-​in was quick. Very aggravating that there was no parking left in the garage. We had to park in an open gravel lot with no security. We worried about a break in of our car. The location is not bad, but is somewhat sketchy. The park down the street had many junkies. When I requested a restaurant recommendation from the concierge, I was told to try Swiss Chalet, some crappy chicken place-​not helpful. Close to the subway.

This hotel has good room with a comfortable bed. The rooms are updated, but the bathrooms are not. The location is fantastic and within walking distance to many thing. I liked that it had a fitness center, but was disappointed that it has no weights and only 4 pieces of cardio equipment. I would consider staying here again.

The best thing about this hotel is the location, it’s a bargain. There’s a restaurant right inside the hotel as well as a Timmy’s. The staff was super friendly and even helped me with storing my luggage til i could check in and helping me get a taxi to get around toronto. They make out of country visitors feel welcome :)

Got a terrific rate directly off of their website using AAA discount. Cheaper than other discount sites like Expedia etc. which is unusual. The room was fairly spacious which was nice since we had 3 people sharing one room. Although a double bed is kind of small for 2 people better if a queen size bed & double when you ask for a room for 3. Centrally located we were able to walk everywhere although locals kept telling us we would need to take public transportation. (which could be because it was super cold winter time, but we didn’t mind the walk at all) If you don’t want to walk their are buses, streetcars right in front of hotel. They were renovating the lobby when we first got there so it looked dank & uninviting but by the time we left the lobby looked really nice. Also, there are a lot of young kids that stay there so kind of noisy. Plus they were doing some renovations on other floors and we could hear a lot of pounding early in the morning. We called the front desk and they had them wait till 9 am to start back up. Also, when we checked out they gave us a little extra discount for the noise which was really nice. If you want to grab snacks there is a GREAT grocery store called Loblaws less than 2 blocks away. I would definitely stay here again if i came back to Toronto!

Enjoying the comfort and easy downtown location.
I do find the décor a bit dated but am finding the comfort outweighs the age.
Never had any issues while I stayed.
They had a security guard on in the late hours so anyone returning had to prove they were staying there. Made me feel extra safe as a female traveling alone.
The consierge service was stupendous as well! Called me a car service to the airport and really only waited about 7 minutes or so. He chatted with me and made me feel welcome.