Best Western Plus Toronto North York Hotel & Suites — Hotel in Toronto

If you value your time, money and privacy I suggest you go anywhere else!

My partner and I stayed in a King Suite. Upon arrival to the room we were hit with a strong smell of cigarettes. It smelt as if someone had just smoked a whole pack - it was awful. Upon further inspection of the room we found the couch was stained with what looked to be dried blood, there wasn’t a single garbage can in any of the bathrooms or bedroom, the mini fridge was leaking water, several lights didn't have light bulbs, we didn’t have a privacy sign for the door and the A/C unit in the bedroom did not work.

I went down to the concierge and explained the issues. I was told that because it was late and they had been fully booked, there was nothing they could do. We had to tough it out for the evening and come back in the morning to speak with the front desk manager. We were given a free breakfast voucher… but it was only for 1 person (we ended up not using). We were told that a manager would be made aware of our concerns and he could give us “better compensation tomorrow."

The next morning, we went down and spoke with one of the managers (who's name I cannot recall), who said he was not made aware of our concerns from the night before, so we re-explained. He said that housekeeping signed off on the room being clean but would have them go back through it again. Additionally, they would try a different spray to get rid of the smell. We gave him permission to fix the room and spray it WHILE WE WERE OUT FOR BREAKFAST.

Upon our arrival back a few hours later, the AC unit in the bedroom appeared to be working and we now had garbage cans in our bathrooms but the smell was still very much there.

Later that afternoon, we heard someone trying to get into the room. When we saw the shadow of someone walking across the living room, my partner jumped out of bed and found the hotel manager we spoke to earlier that morning, wandering our room with a spray bottle. No knock, no asking if anyone was in the room upon him unlocking the door, nothing! We were appalled! The manager seemed to have very little concern for our panic.

Upon returning from an event late that night, we spent our final night locked in the bedroom and still, no relief from the god awful, headache inducing smell.

We paid over $600 for a 2 night stay. No offer to change rooms. No offer for refund/discount. Not even an apology for any of the inconveniences. We were charged full price!

I have since contacted Best Westerns main customer service line to report our concerns with the hotel room and the manager who let himself in our room. We were told Customer Support couldn’t do anything - we had to take it up with the hotel. So, after almost 2 weeks of trying to get hold of the main manager, Nick (who kept telling me he would call me back to discuss our concerns and never did) I finally got the opportunity to chat with him.

Instead of being met with professionalism and a little empathy for our troubles, he accused us of lying about the issues in our room and claimed we did not make proper formal complaints to concierge during our stay. Additionally, he kept insisting that the manager who entered our room had knocked and made himself known and claimed we gave him permission to enter our room whenever he wanted. Zero accountability was taken and no amicable resolution was made.

We will NEVER stay at this or any Best...

Do not stay here! Unclean, false advertising, unhelpful staff.

We stayed from Oct 11-16, 2021 and had booked with Expedia. 3 significant events occurred which led to my low rating as follows:

First, a few hours before we arrived I noticed a charge had been applied to my credit card. I thought this was strange but thought perhaps the first night was being charged in advance. When we arrived to check in we learned that someone else had checked in earlier, they were checked in under my reservation and their room had been charged to my credit card. It took over 5 days for this charge to be removed, and no apology was given.

Second, on our first night we pulled back the sheets and found they had not been changed, as there was dirt and hairs on the sheets. I went downstairs to the reception to request clean sheets. No apology was given for the state of the room, nor an offer for cleaning or to be moved to another room. I took the sheets back to my room and found I had only been given a top sheet and pillowcases. So I went back to reception for a second time and was eventually given a bundled up sheet that was taken from the dryer. When I took it upstairs I found it was actually a mattress protector and not a regular sheet. So I went back to reception for a third time and explained it was a fitted mattress protector and not a fitted sheet. She argued with me and tried to tell me it was "new material for the new sheets", but eventually gave me a fitted sheet. Once I was back in the room and remaking the bed myself I realized the top sheet was not the correct size for the bed, but I did not want to go back for a 4th time.

Third, the Expedia website clearly states "daily housekeeping" on the hotel details, and there is a sign in the bathroom that states dirty towels should be thrown on the floor to be changed, and towels to be re-used should be hung (which also suggests daily housekeeping). We checked in on the 11th, and had no housekeeping on 12th, 13th, or 14th. On the 15th we stopped at reception in the morning to request the room be cleaned, and I specifically mentioned that we needed more coffee and had run out of toilet paper. The person aggressively told me "my staff do not do housekeeping everyday" and seemed to be angry that I had not previously advised them of the specific issues and aggressively asked me who I had told about the coffee and toilet paper. I said that I was telling them now, and that was why I was requesting housekeeping. If a hotel advertises daily housekeeping, I should not have to request it, and I certainly do not expect that attitude when I do request it.

Also - the pool and hot tub were not open due to covid. I understand covid measures are in place, but it would have been nice to know this information before we booked.

If the issues had been dealt with pleasantly, I would be writing a very different review. However all of my issues were only met with arguments and this hotel was the low-light of my trip. For the same price I am sure you can find somewhere that will treat you nicely (and maybe even clean...

I’ve been somewhat of a regular guest at this hotel until after the treatment I received by the hotel staff during my last stay. I stayed at this hotel for what was supposed to be two nights, however the treatment of the hotel staff caused me to shorten my stay to one night. I had checked in on a Friday for one night, but after a late night change of plans while out with my friends I called the front desk around 2am to inform them I’d be staying another night. I was told that’s fine that I just had to come down to the front desk at some point the next day to re-check in. I’ve been through this process many times before at many different hotels. So I got back to my room early in the morning and went to sleep with the plan of sleeping in, however when 11pm rolled around I had the front desk calling and knocking on my door constantly telling me to “ante up or leave.” I told them I’m trying to get some sleep after being out late, that I would be down afterwards to pay, and besides they already had my credit card number, but they quite literally told me to pay now or leave. So I told them that I can be down to the front desk in an hour or two after I wake up, or I can pack up my stuff and go and stay in the hotel across the street to which they seemed all too happy to let me do.

Upon check out I wanted to split the cost of my bill between credit and debit card, the lady at the desk clearly felt inconvenienced by this and proclaimed that I was “just trying to give her a hard time,” which I honestly wasn’t. I was however annoyed and explained to the front desk how their policy had lost my repeat business to which they argued, yes argued, all hotels have the same policy, which I know from experience that while they may have the same policy they give their guests some leeway if they know they’re getting another nights stay out of them, and I’m booking directly through the hotel here not a 3rd party. The lady at the desk argued that the 4 Seasons would do the same thing if I stayed there, which was ironic because I had just finished a weeks long stay at the 4 seasons the month prior and did this exact same thing, they gave me till 4pm before I went down a re-checked in to the hotel cause thy know how to treat their guests. When I countered with this point I was effectively called a liar by the lady at the front desk who literally told me that “I wouldn’t be able to stay at the 4 seasons hotel.” Pretty unreal stuff. She refused to give me her real name but she was working the desk Saturday March 3, 2018 at noon. Personally if this was my business I’d want to know how my policy and irrational employees were all too happy to drive away a repeat customer, literally they could’ve cared less about my business. Which shows as they haven’t even responded to the poor reviews they’ve gotten online, a good hotel, not even an expensive one, that cares about their customers will usually respond to a poor review in an attempt to...