Grand Hotel And Suites Toronto

DON'T STAY HERE!! Rented the 2 bedroom JR Suite - upon returning to the hotel from a nice dinner out, we were greeted by security and the hotel "supervisor"(Matt) claiming that we were over capacity for our room. There was my wife and I and another couple (4 ppl) staying in the 2 bedroom suite and we invited back another couple for a glass of wine before calling it a night. We were treated like criminals and harassed by the 'supervisor'. We were not loud nor did we have a noise complaint. They kicked out our guests for no reason except for the suspicion they may spend the night. The hotel supervisor was extremely rude and unprofessional. His customer service skills were horrible and offended us immensely. We will not stay here again and be sure to tell everyone to do the same. For a hotel located in such a horrible neighbourhood you'd think they'd appreciate their customers.

Unique Quality: None

DON'T STAY HERE!! Rented the 2 bedroom JR Suite - upon returning to the hotel from a nice dinner out, we were greeted by security and the hotel "supervisor" (Matt) claiming that we were over capacity for our room. There was my wife and I and another couple (4 ppl) staying in the room and we invited back another couple for a glass of wine before calling it a night. We were treated like criminals and harassed by the 'supervisor'. We were not loud nor did we have a noise complaint. They kicked out our guests for no reason except for the suspicion they may spend the night. The hotel supervisor was extremely rude and unprofessional. His customer service skills were horrible and offended us immensely. We will not stay here again and be sure to tell everyone to do the same. For a hotel located in such a horrible neighbourhood you'd think they'd appreciate their customers.

Unique Quality: None

Don't stay here!!! Got the Jr 2 bedroom suite. Upon returning to the hotel after a night on the town the hotel "supervisor" harassed us and tormented us. He was rude and degrading and had no customer service skills. Will not stay here again.

Unique Quality: None! Staff ruined experience!!

On first appearance, The Grand seemed like a decent hotel for a colleague and I to stay during a one week business trip to our Toronto office. The staff seemed pleasant and the rooms/amenities were very much up to par. However, during my first night’s stay, I awoke sometime shortly before dawn with an extreme itching sensation all over my body. Having already had bed bugs once ten years before, I was justifiably paranoid and immediately jumped out of bed. However, still in sleep-induced daze, when I did not immediately find anything, I resigned to catch another quick hour of sleep before my wake up call.

I did not begin to notice any bites until sometime just after breakfast when we were heading to the office. After about a half day of suffering through discomfort, I was forced to step out of meetings to see a doctor. Unbuttoning my shirt, both the doctor and I were shocked to see literally hundreds bites all over my arms and torso. What was worse was that I was suffering a moderate to severe allergic reaction and had large protruding welts all over my body.

Following the doctor’s orders, I picked up some antihistamine and garbage bags before catching a cab to The Grand. I went straight up to my room, packed up and threw my suitcase and clothing into a big garbage bag. I went down to the front desk and informed them that I had contracted bed bugs from their room and requested to be moved to another. After trying to convince me that this had never occurred before, they sent me back to my bed bug infested room with a maid who was going to “confirm” based on her qualifications whether or not there were bed bugs present.

Equipped with a large can of Raid, the maid led me back up to my room. After showing her some very small blood streaks on the headboard and what looked like the remnants of a bed bug shell, the maid denied that bed bugs could have anything to do with the situation. She then asked to see the bites and, when I showed her, she exclaimed that I was mistaken and that I was only having an allergic reaction. To this I replied that she was correct and that the reaction was to bed bugs as confirmed by my visit to the doctor.

Speaking with the supervisor on duty (at this point I still had not spoken with the manager), I was informed that, although bed bugs in their hotel was a very unlikely scenario, they would be happy to move me to the one available suite in the hotel. Upon first glance, the penthouse suite seemed like a nice upgrade and, although I still felt unresolved with the situation, thought that at least the hotel was attempting to make up for it in one way or another. It was only once I had settled in that I had noticed tiny little black specks all over the hardwood floor. Looking at my feet, I was horrified to see dozens of tiny little black flies encrusted in the bottoms of my socks. Looking around the room, I saw what my colleague later claimed as “piles of flies” littering the entire room. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of tiny dead little black flies all over the suite. I even found some on my bed that were still twitching, evidence that the room had recently been fumigated. However, at this point, I was dead tired and rather than having another ridiculous debate with the staff, I cleared the top blanket of flies off my bed and went to sleep.

The next day, I spoke with the on-site supervisor again, explained the new problem and said I was unsatisfied with the service and conditions of the hotel. I politely requested that my medical and dry-cleaning bills be reimbursed even if I was unable to have the charge for my two nights’ stay waived. To this the supervisor explained that this was not the hotel’s problem and that they would not be reimbursing me, nor would they be waiving the charge for my stay.

At the end of the day, I am not a person who complains a lot. If I get served the wrong pizza at a restaurant, I usually just eat it so that it doesn’t go to waste and I don’t make the server feel bad. I also understand that bed bugs (and potentially other infestations) are a rampant problem in major metropolitan cities such as Toronto and can understand the hotel’s reluctance to admit to any history of issues. But, as a customer, I have honestly never been treated so poorly and, the fact that I was forced to incur a number of charges that were no way attributable to negligence on my part, just seems plain old wrong (in addition to the dry-cleaning and doctor bills, I ended up having to discard my luggage, costing me hundreds of dollars). For these reasons, I feel it is important to share my story.

From what I was told the Grand Hotel and Suites was once a police headquarters for the city. It is now a fine hotel. The rooms were nice, the pool and gym where elaborate and I really appreciated the size of the gym. I worked out there a couple of times.

It was reasonably priced and as you can see from my pictures. There is a great roof top with hot tubs and a great view of the Toronto skyline.

The Hotel is downtown and just an average walk to mot everywhere. But I would say it is on the fringe of the downtown core. In an area a local person told me they used to call the tenderloin district. You could get a little sense that you have left the core of downtown and were venturing out into the fringe areas.

I would be eyes wide open walking back to the hotel at night but you should be fine.

Overall a great hotel. The conceirge staff where friendly and very helpful.

The swimming pool at the Grand Hotel really is something worthwhile! The photo from their brochure shows its features much better than anything that I could have taken!

Unique Quality: This two-storey neo-classical pool has hand painted murals of the Garden of Versailles surrounding it.

Now I have stayed in a number of hotels all over the world - yet the Grand really impressed me with its elegance! The decor of the hotel was all first class - marble and brass everywhere! As for my room, it had an entrance area with its own sofa and TV, before making your way past a small kitchen area into the bedroom where there was another larger TV and a nice desk for computer work. The bathroom was also very plush with mirrors and everything done up in white. The same quality applied to the meeting room and meals that were brought in to us!

Unique Quality: In addition to its amazing swimming pool (see later Tip), its roof-top boasts a patio garden with heated whirlpools and a great view out over Toronto. The hotel also offers complimentary full breakfast, in-room movies and a shuttle service to anywhere in the downtown financial core of the city. My room rate was US$125 or US$140 with all taxes.

Directions: In the main downtown area, only a few blocks from anything.