HotelChatter

Check In Experience
We pulled up to the lovely port-cochere porte cochere [Ed Note: our college Hotel Design professor emailed us to correct our spelling -- oops!] and stepped out of our yellow chariot beneath a veritable rainbow of fun and fabulous flags and brightly-colored signs. Fun! Fabulous!

We hit the lobby, waited in line behind a few fairly frantic and befuddled travelers who failed to comprehend some $25.00 parking charges.

Finally, we were greeted with an obviously-stressed-at-the-end-of-her-morning-shift staffer with a "your room is not ready yet, check-in-time is 3:00, come back at 2:30 and we may have something but we're really busy" (dude, we get it) -- but we sort of wanted to forgive her when we saw the classic Kimpton "passion" listed on her nametag (hers was music, if we recall). We hung in the lobby until our room was ready -- the restaurant, Zin, was being painted during the lunchtime hours all week, so that was a no-go.

Room Reaction
By 3:15, our room was ready to go. We had a 1-bedroom suite for three of us in the room. And we must say, it was inexplicably...beachy. It was almost as though the hotel hit the dead-center mark between being slightly aged and dumpy and retro-chic. It reminded us a bit of the Miami Beach hotel we paid 100/night for last spring break, with brightly-colored carpets and old TV's -- we could definitely tell this place was modern and funky about 5 years ago, but a renovation would certainly do some good. But, certainly, it was kitschy and charming, with a fantastic heart-shaped coffee table in the living room and a retro lime green light fixture hanging down over the dining room table.

The only real funky-in-a-different-way sort of issue was with the goofy room setup: the dressing area (with the closet and luggage rack) was next to the minibar in a little corridor about 10 steps from the bedroom. Kind of weird.

What We Liked
Aside from the snippy front-desk agent we encountered, the service was excellent. The staffers were very casual with us -- lots of "dude"s and "oh yeah"s, but they were friendly, outgoing and were mostly twentysomethings.

We headed to the bar for drinks one night (said painting did not affect dinner, bar or breakfast service) and we got tons of attention and tons of delish cocktails (try the Tiramisu Martini!)

Everything, for the most part, was super-clean in the hotel and things were in good condition despite the building's slightly-aged decor. The toiletries in the bathrooms were Aveda, hairdryers were powerful and the robes were plush; housekeeping was speedy and efficient and the complimentary wine tasting hour was well-attended and we felt totally comfortable thanks to the super-friendly staffers.

Oh, and great views of the water from our huge balcony, too!

Internet was fast and free -- broadband, that is. No wireless in the rooms, but it works fairly well in the common areas of the hotel.

What We Didn't Like
About three hours into our stay, one of the elevators in our tower broke. Whatever, it happens -- but that left one working elevator for all 20-something floors. Oh, and did we mention that this tower seemed to lack a service elevator? Roomservice, guests, housekeeping, and the engineering team (who were trying to fix the other elevator) were all sharing one elevator for 2 days. It was kind of a circus.

Once, when 8 of us were packed into the one working elevator, it stopped on the 10th floor and the doors opened to reveal a dude shining a flashlight into the broken elevator -- yelling "can you hear me?!" to a guest stuck in there. Sucks! We hope she got a free room!

Our other biggie was the showers: the water jumped from scalding hot to freezing cold seemingly at random, and we don't particularly enjoy doing the shower-dance for 30 minutes when we've got somewhere to be.

Oh, and it seems like they bill guests automatically for overnight parking at checkout ($25.00), so make sure you check your bill carefully because we got charged for parking twice (we had no car at all) and had to ask for the adjustment.

Bottom Line
Alright, obviously they were just having an off weekend. Right? We were in Vancouver to party and we weren't there on our honeymoon or anything, so it didn't matter much to us that the elevator was broken or that the shower was not consistently hot enough for sexytime. Plus, free wine!
The service was fantastic, even if the building was havin' some issues -- and the Robson St. location is unbeatable and the room rate -- starting around $200.00 -- ain't too bad either.

Have you stayed at the Kimpton Pacific Palisades? Let us know about your experience!

Tags: HotelChatter Reviews / Vancouver Hotels / Kimpton Hotels / Hotel Video Tours

by Jenna