Jenny Clapp

Review of The Exchange Hotel

This is a lovely hotel right in the middle of town...

This is a lovely hotel right in the middle of town. It's not quite finished but I can imagine that when it is, it'll be incredible! The rooms were comfy and pretty large although didn't have a lot of 'functional' space - we were staying for a week and it was quite difficult to find room for all our clothes, I ended up with a lot on the floor. The bathroom was lovely, with an excellent shower, and the complementary toiletries were L'Occitane, which was very nice indeed! However, despite the hotel's best efforts to be environmentally-friendly (providing soap instead of miniature body wash bottles, installing special heating and air con systems, etc.) it still felt like there was a lot of waste - for example, they are currently offering a breakfast service in the reception area (I presume until work is finished on the restaurant) and everything is served in greaseproof paper bags, plastic bottles and disposable cups. I hope this is only a temporary measure until the restaurant is up and running but it would be nice to see fewer throwaway items used, especially in a hotel which prides itself on being so eco-friendly...the bedclothes were also strange to us European folk: instead of a full duvet cover there was one sheet under it and one sheet over it, so if you move at all while you sleep then chances are you'll end up in a right tangle of bedding by the morning (and also end up in contact with the duvet itself, which in a hotel feels slightly uncomfortable...I thought the point of duvet covers was that they could be washed and replaced without you having to touch the duvet that gets shared between guests...). Having subsequently gone on to stay in another Canadian hotel the system was the same, so I assume this may be a North American thing - still worth any other British/European travellers bearing in mind though, as it felt quite strange to us. All in all a lovely stay - we would definitely come back here if we ever visited Vancouver again.