The Anndore House - JDV by Hyatt — Hotel in Toronto

Really this is a 4.5 star review, but they AREN'T perfect.

This is a funky, “alternative” boutique hotel. It’s location is pretty handy to attractions on the north side of Toronto, and yet there’s a subway station just a few hundred feet away that gets you quickly downtown. The décor is "industrial chic" with simple plywood furniture, and much of the plumbing and electrical on the exterior of rough concrete or brick walls. The artwork is a mish mash of different styles, genres and decades. There’s an old fashioned looking land line phone (although push button) and amazingly cool faucets and showers controls. Made of polished brass, they look old fashioned while having a solid, very mechanical feel. We liked the sink being separate from the toilet and shower – very convenient. But they kept putting the hand towels in the shower, not at the sink. Annoying.

This is one of the few hotels I can remember that didn't have some damage or deferred maintenance. There were no banged up door frames, falling toe kick, loose tile, toilets that didn't flush properly, etc. It shows attention to detail.

Staff was effusively polite and response to any enquiry was immediate. There’s no ice machine on the floor, so you have to call it up from the restaurant. But it always came within a few minutes. The bed was OK, not great. A little too firm for us, and we disliked that the comforter being sewn into a sheet, so you can’t separate it out. So either you sleep without it at all, or you have to set the A/C temp very low to keep the room cool enough. We asked for a lighter comforter which was provided, but we would have preferred old school sheets and a blanket!

The lobby is very small, and street signage is terrible. The attached restaurant is much more obvious, not sure about this choice. Some other gripes. The A/C was making a funny rattling noise. They sent a maintenance guy up who cleaned the filters which solved the problem. Why aren’t the filters on a regular cleaning schedule?

The biggest (and dumbest) design decision were the light switches. There are three banks of switches to control all the lights, including the closet where the sink was, the toilet and shower and the main lights. One bank was at the front door, and the other two by the bedsides. So if you want to go into the closet to use the sink, you have to go to the front door to turn on the light. And there are 5 switches total for each bank, so if you need reading glassed (90% of adults over the age of 45 do.) you must have them with you to figure out which switch you need. And if it’s dark, you risk turning on ALL the lights in place. Not a nice thing for your partner. It’s a completely idiotic design and will be difficult and costly to fix, but should be done.

Another complete failure is the TV setup. There are no streaming or cable channels. It’s all local stations, and a couple from Buffalo, NY. But if you want to catch up on your Netflix or Hulu, (Much less Max or Starz) you have to stream it off your phone, which didn't work very well. In this day and age and in a 4 star hotel, it’s just not good enough.

Value is decent for a 4 star hotel and we would stay here again. The in house restaurant is not up to the same standard, reviewed separately. They definitely need to fix the TV issue (easy) and the light...

They got two important things right: the bathroom is clean, and the beds are comfy and clean (although there’s no top (flat) sheet, so if there’s any sort of accident, the hotel has to replace an entire duvet cover – doesn’t make a lot of $$ sense to me).

However, there are a few stumbles: at street level the Anndore House is not effectively identified. There’s a wee small plaque facing east, and that’s it. (I checked in in the evening; in morning there was a sandwich board — an improvement.) Much bigger are the signs for the Constantine, a restaurant on the ground floor. Go figure.

To get into the hotel the lobby, you have to tap a sensor. The sensor isn’t labeled effectively, and there are no instructions to tap it. I finally figured it out, tapped it, and nothing happened (dunno, maybe I’m a ghost) so I wandered around and finally found the valet, who did the tapping correctly, and I was in the lobby, thank you, valet. I walked forward towards a reception desk that was facing…not me. It was turned 45 degrees and was facing somewhere. The people behind the desk were very nice and gave me a room key card.

I got in the elevator and pushed the button to my floor, then began to text my companions. I noticed the elevator wasn’t moving, but continued to text. I’ll sort it when I’m finished, I thought. Then a family of four got on and the father took his room card and tapped a sensor and the control panel of the elevator lit up and we were moving. “Thanks,” I said to the father. “I had no idea it worked that way. You saved me from possibly starving here.” Again, a sensor that needed tapping — intuitive to some, perhaps, but not all, and no instructions posted (instructions are not expensive to create and post).

This is the second noisiest hotel I have stayed in, the first noisiest being the HoJo in Windsor, Ontario, where there were herds of children galumphing up and down the hallway all night. In the Anndore, however, was different. This time it sounded like the Canadian Olympic gymnastic team was practicing its handsprings overhead. It was a bit disconcerting. I understand about thin walls in hotels, but thin ceilings and floors? Structurally worrying.

Finally, the parking. There is none. You can park across the street at a cost. Now, I deplore how much room in our world is given over to cars, however, hotels cater to travellers, many of whom travel in…cars, and it seems to me it’s a basic Cost of Doing Business for a hotel to supply parking to guests, so this lack of parking is a bit of a deal-breaker for me when the hotel’s charging as much as the Anndore does.

TLDR: clean bathroom, comfy, clean beds, weird industrial aesthetic, a...

We lucked into this hotel through Hotwire. We got an excellent price on the hotel . There is valet parking available however it is quite pricey, we found a parking garage to park in overnight with In-and-Out privileges for a much lower price just a 5-minute walk away. We got an excellent price on the hotel . Upon arrival at the hotel, the finishings look high and modern. The front desk was welcoming and friendly. We were provided with an early check in with no problem. Check in was quick. The night desk staff seemed bothered when I asked if they had a pair of nail clippers I could borrow. The elevators are a little slow, but it is an older building that has been renovated.

The rooms are a good size, with a cozy seating area. They have been renovated with modern finishings, with a retro vibe. There is a working rotary phone as well as a vinyl record player that also doubles as a Bluetooth speaker. Each room is provided with bottled water and local coffee and tea and a kettle. The bathroom is well appointed with Canadian brand Skoah toiletries. The shower has both a rain shower head with good pressure as well as a handheld removable shower handle. The air conditioning worked well, but sounded like a toilet flushing when it started. The beds are comfortable. There are no curtains however there are vinyl shutters and the windows can be opened. The shutters do a decent job of keeping the light out, but it's not completely dark. The rooms are quiet, we only heard a few doors closing and one group of people screaming late at night. Leaving the fan on helped. There is a good size TV with options to connect your devices. There is a small bar fridge as well as lots of shelving and cupboards for storage. An iron and blow dryer are provided, other necessities are available by contacting the front desk. There are plenty of outlets for charging devices.

The area does have some construction as well as some homeless people living on the sidewalks, don't let this deter you, it is a safe area. The Subway is a 5-minute walk away. Eaton center and Yonge / Dundas Square are 20 minute walk away. Casa Loma is a short drive away. There are lots of eateries, cafes, and shopping in the vicinity.

We did not visit the on-site restaurant Constantine, but it looked quite nice and would be an enjoyable place for adults. There is also an on-site cafe called Scarlet door that provides coffee and pastries.

I have a very high standard for cleanliness, and I found the rooms to...