Vancover Hotel Recommendation

[whitsmom]

We are staying at the Vancouver Marriott Pinnacle Downtown Hotel. It's about an 8 minute walk to the cruise terminal. There are four of us staying there so we have the option of walking it with our rolling suitcases or taking a taxi. It wasn't cheap but it wasn't out of line either. We get there the afternoon before cruise, so I wanted closer than I maybe would have it we were going in several days before. We are using Go Shuttle from the airport to the hotel.

[TwinMamainMN]

It doesn't get any better for visiting the park, or Denman Street for various eateries, and there's a Safeway just a couple of blocks away on Robson for groceries. The downside is you'll probably need to take a cab with at least some of your party for the sites at the other end of the downtown core - Chinatown, Gastown, Yaletown, Granville Island - as it's a 2 mile walk to these.

 

There's one other condo hotel much closer to the other end - Rosedale on Robson - with similar apartment setups that is more convenient for these sites, but correspondingly less so for the park. Getting multiple rooms at the YWCA Hotel would likely be a decent saving, but as their kitchens are shared it will be more challenging prepping food for your son without risking cross-contamination. Basically depends where you choose to spend your time as to whether your location is ideal or just OK for you.

 

If your daughter is wheelchair-bound instead of it just being occasionally helpful (criteria are that the person is unable to use regular transit buses without help), you can sign up in advance for the local accessible transit service, HandyDART, which will do door-to-door drives for the price of a regular transit ticket ($2.85pp) and even includes a free attendant if needed. Assuming the rest of you can handle walking, this is a very cheap way to get the whole group between places - but you do need to book by phone, with as much advance notice as you can as the fleet is small. Cabs are more flexible, and won't be pricey, plus no extra charge for wheelchair cabs if needed for DD - expect to be paying $10 or less on the meter for any downtown core site to any other.

 

SUPER helpful, thanks! Yes, DD needs the wheelchair. She can walk only very short distances and with the use of forearm crutches. $10 for a cab is totally do-able!

[roothy123]

Assuming you aren't afraid of heights, you might like the hotel we stayed in. It was called Blue Horizon or something like that, and just about all rooms had at least a few floor to ceiling windows and a small balcony. They charge more the higher you go in the hotel. We thought it was great fun to stay there, but obviously it would not be for everyone. It was in the main section where most hotels are located, had lots of places to eat nearby, and was moderately priced, so it worked for us.

[waverley7]

We reserved an Air BNB as the hotel prices were pretty outrageous! Our Air BNB is $179 Canadian dollars a night. It's 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. We are a family of 4 three nights at a Mariott Residence Inn was $380. While I realize we could have found a cheaper hotel, the Residence Inn provides a bit more room, free breakfast, and a kitchen so we felt the difference in cost between Residence Inn and a traditional hotel room was justified.

 

I'm going to be looking at Air BNB for next June. When do you go?

 

I haven't started looking yet, just booked the cruise this morning. Always nice to speak to someone about where they stayed.

 

Janice

[runnergirl1979]

We are staying here at this Air BNB. https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/13157169?location=168%20E%2039th%20Ave%2C%20Vancouver%2C%20BC&s=dPz6NXGL I will report back after we stay this summer.

[runnergirl1979]

Janice, the Air BNB we stayed at (https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/13157169?location=168%20E%2039th%20Ave%2C%20Vancouver%2C%20BC&s=dPz6NXGL) was perfect. Helpful hosts that were there but left us alone. Walkable distance to Queen Elizabeth Park, quick drive to Superstore for groceries. It was a bit far from downtown stuff but was great overall!

 

quote=waverley7;56145848]I'm going to be looking at Air BNB for next June. When do you go?

 

I haven't started looking yet, just booked the cruise this morning. Always nice to speak to someone about where they stayed.

 

Janice

[martincath]

^NB: unfortunately that looks like an illegal rental so will be no use to someone visiting next year. As of April this year business licenses are supposed to be placed in every AirBnB listing; pre-existing clients have a grace period until August 31st, after which AirBnB have agreed to enforce the rules by pulling all short-term rentals without a license number and refusing to allow new ones to be placed without the license number. Unfortunately for these folks, since their rental unit sounds like a separate downstairs apartment with it's own door they will not qualify to be allowed a license - you can only rent your own primary residence, or an individual room inside it, and you need to prove it's the primary residence to get the license.

 

All separate apartments (basically if there's a locked door between basement suite and upstairs, and a door to the outside) will remain illegal for short-term rentals, and with the fines set at $1000 a day it's going to be a seriously brazen move to pretend you only rent for 30 days minimum then let folks 'move out early.' The good news for visitors is this means every AirBnB from Sep 1 will be required to have fire exits including safety plans showing them posted on-site, have extinguishers & good quality smoke/fire detectors which are tested each year (and documented), get records audited and unit inspected on request by city officials, display a paper copy of their license in the unit, and generally be verified safe and fit for habitation - for us locals it means a crapton of units going back into long-term rental stock which we have a serious shortage of and no more condo unit rentals against local bylaws, as owners of condos must prove the bylaws allow short-term rentals before they'll get their licenses (and since these are publically-available, if they forge their own it's easily discovered), and no worries that your renters are subletting via AirBnB as anyone renting needs proof that their landlords have OKed it.

[waverley7]

Thank you Runnergirl and martincath for the information.

 

That kind of sucks for renters then. Good that safety will be an issue but still sucks.

[runnergirl1979]

No reason to be rude, martincath. It would be impossible for me to keep track of Air BNB regulations in YVR as I do not live there and would have no reason to know even if I did. What I posted is correct for the moment. In fact, I booked this suite last summer and was unsure if we would even be able to stay there due to possible regulations being put on Air BNB units. I had to wait until April to find out for sure if we would even be able to stay there. Being rude to me for simply trying to help a fellow traveler find out about my experience is not cool.

 

^NB: unfortunately that looks like an illegal rental so will be no use to someone visiting next year. As of April this year business licenses are supposed to be placed in every AirBnB listing; pre-existing clients have a grace period until August 31st, after which AirBnB have agreed to enforce the rules by pulling all short-term rentals without a license number and refusing to allow new ones to be placed without the license number. Unfortunately for these folks, since their rental unit sounds like a separate downstairs apartment with it's own door they will not qualify to be allowed a license - you can only rent your own primary residence, or an individual room inside it, and you need to prove it's the primary residence to get the license.

 

All separate apartments (basically if there's a locked door between basement suite and upstairs, and a door to the outside) will remain illegal for short-term rentals, and with the fines set at $1000 a day it's going to be a seriously brazen move to pretend you only rent for 30 days minimum then let folks 'move out early.' The good news for visitors is this means every AirBnB from Sep 1 will be required to have fire exits including safety plans showing them posted on-site, have extinguishers & good quality smoke/fire detectors which are tested each year (and documented), get records audited and unit inspected on request by city officials, display a paper copy of their license in the unit, and generally be verified safe and fit for habitation - for us locals it means a crapton of units going back into long-term rental stock which we have a serious shortage of and no more condo unit rentals against local bylaws, as owners of condos must prove the bylaws allow short-term rentals before they'll get their licenses (and since these are publically-available, if they forge their own it's easily discovered), and no worries that your renters are subletting via AirBnB as anyone renting needs proof that their landlords have OKed it.

[Cruise_More_Often]

No reason to be rude, martincath. It would be impossible for me to keep track of Air BNB regulations in YVR as I do not live there and would have no reason to know even if I did. What I posted is correct for the moment. In fact, I booked this suite last summer and was unsure if we would even be able to stay there due to possible regulations being put on Air BNB units. I had to wait until April to find out for sure if we would even be able to stay there. Being rude to me for simply trying to help a fellow traveler find out about my experience is not cool.

How could you possibly perceive martincath's information to be rude? You, yourself, admitted that your information is "correct for the moment." All martincath pointed out is that for future cruisers your choice will not be available to them next year. That is helpful information, and that is why I and many, many people on this board rely on martincath's help.

[rsldonk]

I swear by the Hyatt and in Vancouver it’s a couple blocks from the cruise terminal. That where I booked for August. Price is a bit steep even for a Hyatt but I had points to spend so wasn’t too bad

 

 

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[martincath]

No reason to be rude, martincath. It would be impossible for me to keep track of Air BNB regulations in YVR as I do not live there and would have no reason to know even if I did. What I posted is correct for the moment. In fact, I booked this suite last summer and was unsure if we would even be able to stay there due to possible regulations being put on Air BNB units. I had to wait until April to find out for sure if we would even be able to stay there. Being rude to me for simply trying to help a fellow traveler find out about my experience is not cool.

Hmmm - short of pre-emptively apologising for any potential offence you chose to infer I'm at a loss to what I could or should have written differently in my post, since your info was misleading for the poster you responded to as they will not be able to make use of that accommodation on their visit next year. Nothing I said invalidates your experience at the time it happened, blames you for providing misinformation, or attacks you in any way whatsoever. My response gives the exact date of the next change, so it even confirms the 'window of usefulness' of your info for other visitors.

 

I'm happy to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that your posting was purely from ignorance of the local AirBnB rules rather than any malicious intent. I'm genuinely clueless as to how you saw my post as rude, and if you're willing to explain what set you off I'll take it under consideration for future posts.

[waverley7]

I appreciated both comments from you folks, no rudeness taken on my part.

 

I was glad to know about the rental and thankful for the information on the new laws coming up for Home rentals as I had no idea this was even happening.

 

We are all here to help each other not attack!

 

Thanks again to both of you.

 

I have a question though.....if I am looking at more rentals. How do I know if they have the new law in place for their rental? I see martincath that you indicate a license will be shown on the listing, I guess I just look for that license listed as well. Oh, why do governments change the rules so much! ;p

 

Don't worry, be happy!! :cool:

[martincath]

I appreciated both comments from you folks, no rudeness taken on my part.

 

I was glad to know about the rental and thankful for the information on the new laws coming up for Home rentals as I had no idea this was even happening.

 

We are all here to help each other not attack!

 

Thanks again to both of you.

 

I have a question though.....if I am looking at more rentals. How do I know if they have the new law in place for their rental? I see martincath that you indicate a license will be shown on the listing, I guess I just look for that license listed as well. Oh, why do governments change the rules so much! ;p

 

Don't worry, be happy!! :cool:

No worries. And yes, if you do not see a business license mentioned in the listing for Vancouver, it's almost certainly illegal - I haven't seen any info about the city not managing to process applications in time for the Aug 31st deadline, so come Sep 1st any listing without a license should actually disappear. AirBnB have agreed to be the 'police' on this matter, so they will only accept posting that either a) have a business license number, or b) a minimum rental duration of 30 days.

 

Incidentally, the only change has been to allow AirBnB etc. to become legal at all! For decades it's been illegal to rent any private property for less than 30 consecutive days unless you have a hotel or B&B license. Every single rental via AirBnB and their ilk has been illegal until now (except for the small fraction of 1% of the total that were > 30 days), and they knew it perfectly well. Just like Uber, they have zero regard for legal compliance until they are forced to with big enough fines that they actually feel the pain. Some individuals who decided to rent their places could claim ignorance in the early days, but unless you never read news in any form it's impossible to claim ignorance of the requirements any more!