Edmonton Hotel and Convention Centre — Hotel in South Industrial District

We booked this place from an external source. We booked it the night before for a family emergency. We're local Albertians.

We were more focused on price and the ability to accommodate our kids. They offered a room with 2 king-size beds, which worked well for us at a price we could afford.

Upon arriva, we booked in with ease. We meandered to find the pool and restaurants, then got our luggage and to our room. I like the security of needing to scan your key card to access the floor. My son even ran up the stairs and needed a card to open the door. Upon entering, the room was nice and cool, clean, and appeared well taken care of.

We watched some local channels on the TV when heading to bed. When we woke up, we "got ready" and went down to find the AYCE buffet at the restaurant (complimentary for our stay). We were not greeted at the door but instead much further, towards the back of the place, by the buffet. We presented the card we got to show proof that we are guests (seems there still running old school here, not a downside if it works for them).

The Buffet: Paper plates and bowls. Wooden utensils (cutlery). The food was edible with plenty of options to choose from. Hot food like "hashbrowns" (or tater tots), hard boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, beans, toast, and oatmeal They also had cereal, yogurt, whole fruit, and some sweets like cookies and cinnamon twists. The quality was what one could be expected for a hotel of this caliber, but I've paid more for much less choices. The one thing I found most disappointing was with the condiments; ketchup, syrup, salt, and pepper were not on the tables. I had to place my place down mid buffet to add those... Why is it so hard to have those on the table?

Following that, we went to the pool. The hot tub was hot. The pool was quite warm (no slides or anything). The steam room didn't work. There was what seemed like a button to turn it on, but no matter the way we pushed or held it down, it never worked. Additionally, the stairs to get out of the pool at the deep end are basically not there. The lowest step is only 30mm +/- from the top of the water. There are definitely signs that this pool has been around for years. Now...I must discuss the towels from the pool...Ive worked in kitchens for years (10+/- in various kitchens), of which, 2.5yrs at a hotel. After you wash a well-used cooks uniform, it still always has this stale, deep fry oil smell to it. The towels at the pool definitely had this smell...ive never smelt it anywhere else in my life.

Overall, the location kinda sucks if you're hoping to find a pub/bar/any entertainment within walking distance. It's in the industrial area. We knew this as locals, so it was not an issue for us. I enjoyed not having to hear sirens or the bustling busy streets, part of the appeal to me honestly. The place has a dated appearance, like 1970s. Everything is brown and dim. The doors are wood colour, the walls are brown, the tile is brown, the fabric is brown and the lights are all dim.

But in all honesty, if your not too picky about quality and are looking for cost efficient, this hotel is decent. It's not "dirty" but definitely dated.

I...

I booked a room directly through the hotel and this is my story. I called the hotel while I was staying at a different city and called the number on the website which directed me to a lady that spoke with a very thick accent. Booked a room for 2 adults and for some weird reason she was in a rush, like she had a lineup in front of her. I didn’t make much of it. Showed up the next day around 2pm for our reservation. The front desk had a very nice kid that was trying to do his best while the manager/supervisor was hovering behind him. We could tell this kid is either training or it’s his first day on the job. Anyways, we go through the routine of ID and credit card. My husband passes his ID and the kid says no, I don’t need yours. He hands us a coupon for breakfast the next day and off we go to our room. Very basic room but at least had actual glass coffee mugs. I don’t know why those mugs got me excited lol. Anyways, fast forward to the next morning. We show up for breakfast at 8am. The lady at the restaurant looks at us there’s two and the coupon we were given says 1 adult. I was gonna pay for the second person and my husband stopped me and said wait let’s walk to the front and ask. I’m not a morning person and the last thing I want to do is have to problem solve first thing in the morning. We walked to the front and the front desk doesn’t really apologize but starts making excuses about them only counting who they see on the system which leads me to believe the mistake was done by the lady on the phone during booking. I know that mistakes happen and I have nothing against anyone but I wasn’t in the mood to listen to excuses, I just wanted it fixed. Front desk lady calls restaurant lady and off we go to have our forsaken breakfast. We get there, I grab a PAPER plate and walk through the buffet and surprise surprise, there was hardly any food and the poor guy in front of me filled his plate with tater tots, or hash browns , or whatever those little shredded potato balls that come out of a freezer bag are called. What a complete disappointment. Had a bowl of cereal and got all pissy at my tea PAPER cup.

We walk back to the room, I’m so pissed at this point that all I wanna do is leave this place. My husband decides to take a nap, so, I thought I’d pack.

Here’s me trying to calm down and pack our bags and all of a sudden to put a cherry on top of a fantastic morning, here’s the cleaning lady barging into our room although we had the do not disturb sign on the door. She says “do you need cleaning?” And my response was there’s a “do not disturb” sign on the door. She turns around and says sorry.

It’s safe to say, I couldn’t get out of there fast enough and probably never coming back.

Sorry Radisson, but your standards have declined...

This was at one time a nice hotel, but it has been extremely neglected.

We booked two rooms for our family of 5. The more expensive room was the worst one out of the two.

There was a screw, sharp side out, sticking out of the bathtub skirting that almost stabbed my toddler. We wanted to switch rooms, but it was very late and there were many people waiting to check in because their system was down (they couldn’t issue room keys). We gave up and pulled the screw out because it was a hazard - then the whole panel on the bathtub fell off. Someone had used a makeshift screw to hold it together before. If you zoom in on the below photos, you can see the crust on the floor and mold around the tub due to split caulking.

The toilet seat was broken on one side. The room was fairly dirty - dust on the wall panels (see photo 4) , tables, lights and also old toothpaste splashes on the washroom wall paper. I stopped taking photos of the problems as there were numerous.

Good thing we brought a screwdriver, also, because the door lock was falling out of the door and we had to screw it back in. We noticed this because there was dust on the key lock box and we were looking for the source of it. The screw had fallen out of the door and stripped the hole.

We had to wait for a long time for sheets at 10pm even though we booked a room with a couch bed. The only thing they included for that were two pillows and one blanket. No sheets. Our toddler wasn’t able to sleep because we were waiting.

The king bed sheets were thin and worn. There was no duvet cover - just two thin sheets sandwiching a duvet. Triple sheeting is a normal practice in some hotels, but it is usually done in a way, also with thicker sheets, so you are not exposed to the duvet for hygienic reasons. This is not the case at this hotel because the sheets are not folded to encase the duvet and they are worn and, in our case, see through and about to rip in some spots.

The breakfast room had two buckets on the floor catching water below huge holes from disintegrating ceiling tiles — clearly this is a problem with proactive maintenance which made me wonder about the potential for mold issues.

All and all, this is a moderately priced hotel that is kept like a very cheap roadside inn — maybe worse. I can almost guarantee that you will feel something is “off” here as soon as you get past the lobby and start walking through the dark hallways...