Pantages Hotel Downtown Toronto — Hotel in Toronto

We were robbed in our room. Total lack of care or accountability from front desk. The elevators are key card entry to get to any floor. Rooms are key card entry. No cameras in hotel hallways. Our room was a suite with a kitchen and a separate bedroom area with a door. Our room was 1713 - at the end of the hall, not near the elevator. 3 of us were staying in the suite. We booked for 2 nights. Upon check in, we noticed the door didn't shut on it's own and needs to be forcefully closed to ensure it's properly shut.

On the second day, we requested towels and a pillow about an hour before this event. We found it took a long time for these items to make it to our room. When they came, the man said "are you girls having a pillow fight later tonight?" which we found to be both creepy and unprofessional to say to 3 women staying alone in a hotel room. We also questioned how they knew it was only girls staying in the room as only 1 of us answered the door.

We had 4 friends also staying as guests in the hotel. They were visiting us in our suite and left to go smoke outside. The three of us were still in our room, in the bathroom/bedrooms getting ready to go to dinner. The door was not shut tight, not visibly wide open but left ajar as it doesn't shut on its own without force. Within a time frame of 10 minutes, somebody had entered our room, taken a wallet and a cooler bag from the kitchen area, while we were in the room. We did not hear or see anyone. Upon their return it was noticed the cooler was missing, we began searching for it and it was discovered in the stairwell with all the beers taken. We then subsequently noticed the missing wallet.

We informed the front desk. They seemed to take this seriously but upon finding out that the door was not shut tight and that we had friends visiting our room, they decided to point the blame on us, and even insinuated that one of our friends robbed us. They also informed us that they had "all kinds of people asking to be let up to our room throughout the night and called us several times" - we had zero missed calls, never once had the hotel phone ring, and no knowledge of anyone that could have been asking to come to our room. We immediately knew we were being judged by the manager on duty, Gordon, and he would not be taking this seriously. When we left to go to dinner we stopped to ask if there was any update and what the hotel would be doing to assist with the matter. Gordon was snickering and smiling the entire conversation, once again insinuating our friends stole from us, clearly not taking the situation seriously and placing blame on us for the door not being shut. Of course had the door been shut we likely wouldn't have been robbed, however, we knew the elevators were keyed entry, as well as a 24/7 concierge at the front desk, plus we were STILL IN THE ROOM so we also felt it safe enough to do so for the short time period - people do this all the time when they leave to get ice etc. Its not like we left an open door with nobody inside. We were under the impression we were staying in a safe environment. We take accountability for the door being ajar. But the hotel has taken ZERO accountability for the total lack of safety and ZERO empathy for having our personal and private information stolen. In addition to the clear judgement, snickering, and terrible customer service when handling any of this situation. No apology once, no acknowledgement that what happened was serious and frightening, and could have been potentially MUCH worse - we could have been killed, robbed at gunpoint, etc. The hotel should have handled this better we were left feeling unsafe, and with no added protection of hotel staff looking out for us. I cannot understand why nothing was done on their part, at the very least acknowledgment and empathy, even knocking on other guests on the floor to see if anyone noticed anything, check cameras in the lobby and elevators, anything. Given all of this - I am concluding the robbery was an inside job and a staff member is responsible for...

We stayed here for 4 nights this past week. We had a room on the 16th floor.

First thing that surprised me was that if we wanted housekeeping, we had to call down for it, by 11PM the previous night. Maybe this is a common thing, but I've never seen it before. It was fine...but a little bothersome.

The room was clean, but a little odd. On the surface it looks fancy, but then the details don't add up. The bathroom has this nice marble façade, but the shower is missing a rubber grommet. Or there is no towel rack, so you end up putting your towel on the very limited bathroom counter space. Nothing that is deal-breaking...it's just these little things.

The room has a nice little kitchenette in it...but no dishes whatsoever. I don't know if people who get these types of rooms normally bring their own pans, cutlery, plates, glasses, etc. We didn't, but it wasn't much of a problem because we didn't really use the kitchenette.

The bed frame is bigger than the mattress, something I'm not used to. So, I would swing my feet out of bed, and hit the frame. Again, no big deal, just another little thing.

Going into the room, you walked down a small hallway for probably about 20 feet or so. It's all dark, no windows. There's a light switch by the door that illuminates it, so no problem if you are coming in...but if you're leaving, and the light is off, you have to walk down this dark hall to GET to the switch. Not much of a problem during the day, but at night, that part of the room gets very dark. It's weird to me that there's not a switch at either end of this hall, so you can turn the lights on or off no matter what end you're at. End of the world? Absolutely not, but it could pose a problem, especially for an elderly person.

The service was fine, we didn't interact with the staff much. Housekeeping was done fine the day we did request it. The front end staff was friendly, but the girl we spoke to when we checked in wasn't too much help with some of our questions, and her directions to a nearby restaurant were confusing (we did find the place by accident later).

All of this stuff is minor...but the one big problem I had was the Wi-Fi in the hotel. It is plainly unacceptable in this day and age. It took me a minute to download 30 MB on my phone. I don't expect lightning fast speeds at a hotel, but speeds that slow should simply not be accepted by anyone, in this day and age, in downtown Toronto.

To end on a positive note, one thing this hotel does have going for it is it's location. I suspect that's why it costs as much as it does, when it doesn't have a pool, like many hotels I've stayed in. It is close to many downtown places, so if you want to walk around downtown, it has that...

I was blown away by the beauty of our room at the Pantages hotel, where a friend and I stayed for the evening of May 12th. Bright lighting, modern finishes, and a spectacular view up on the 16th floor. We were also met by a very friendly front desk clerk who happily welcomed us!

When I stay at a hotel, the most important thing is clean bedding and a bathroom. The remainder is not as essential or worth complaining about, for me. The attention to detail on cleanliness was indeed lacking for the room in general... You could tell there were areas that may have appeared to be untouched by prior guests and so were not cleaned at all before our arrival (layer of dust on the stove top, some crumbs under the TV stand, a few stray hairs). With this being said, the bedding and bathroom were clean, so it didn't really take away from my experience.

The area is great. Very close to everything downtown, parking right next door/across the street. Victoria street itself tends to be a bit less busy I found, so easier to grab an Uber or pull out of the parking garage.

The only other point I would make is a lack of communication. On the morning of May 13th, at 6AM, the fire alarm was triggered due to the sprinklers going off in another room (whether there was actually a fire or merely a malfunction is unclear, since we weren't told). We all shuffled out of the building where we waited outside for over an hour, with absolutely no communication from the front desk clerk or any employees of the hotel. While I entirely understand that the fire alarm and the events that transpired with the firefighters was out of their control, keeping guests in the loop was something that could have been done better. I watched the clerk move around the lobby and other areas, purposefully avoiding eye contact with guests, while we stood confused and unsure of when we could return to our rooms.

With all this being said, I would indeed return to Pantages for another stay. While there were a few notes of improvement, my overall experience was good and it was great value...