What is This? W Hotel Toronto

For those not in Toronto, BlogTO is a low medium effort news aggregator for the city. So when they blogged about the opening of the W Toronto, I knew I had to check it out because I am a basic person that does things like that. The W is actually a lot older than I imagined, both the brand and the hotel: the first hotel of this brand was launched in 1988 (that’s right, older than me!), and catered towards a very very young crowd. Even today, the website highlights parties, buffets, singing and more parties. Similarly to it’s parent brand, the W Toronto is not a new hotel: it is a refurbished Marriott that was supposed to open in 2020 (no prizes for guessing why it was late).

Location

Located at 90 Bloor Street East in Toronto, the hotel is literally on top of Bloor - Yonge station, one of Toronto’s central(ish) transit hubs. The good thing is that the W is actually connected to the train station, so you don’t have to venture outside in the winter.

Subway Entrance

Do note that this hotel isn’t technically in the core of downtown, although it only takes 10-15 minutes to head to Union Station, Toronto’s actual central transit hub.

 

What this area IS near to is the the expensive Yorkville area, which has plenty of high end shops and dining to keep one occupied. Also, there’s a giant rock.

Fear not: with peak hotel rates going for $600 (largely due to the hotel’s splashy opening), you probably won’t be shopping for long.

Check In

Upon entering the W Hotel, I passed by the Public School Coffeehouse+Kitchen+Bar; it indeed changed it’s dynamic based on the time of day.

Place to Hang Out

One can also elect to take breakfast here, or in more sit down dining area of the hotel (which we will go into later).

Hang out place continued

Moving through the hotel, we begin to encounter the W Toronto’s say unique sense of decoration. This reminded me of a high end version of the Moxy Frankfurt, which makes sense because both are targeted towards "millennials” (neverminded most millennials are past 30 already).

Entrance

The actual check in begins on the 6th floor, and to get there one needs to take these snazzy elevators.

The check in area was quite an impressive affair, with plenty of stainless steel, marble and plush sofas to keep your Instagram happy. Indeed, one of my friends insisted on a picture, and I instantly questioned whether I should remain friends with her.

Check In

In keeping with the hotel’s vibes, there was a DJ playing in the lobby - thankfully, couldn’t hear him in our room, although some reviews suggest otherwise.

The lobby also hosts the Living Room, an resplendent bar that I knew I should have taken a picture at for my instagram.

Bar

There was also an outdoor area, which was absolutely splendid in the late summer Toronto air.

Outdoor Seating

There were a few attempts to make this hotel more “business” focused, such as the inclusion of charging ports and proper tables. There were also several conference rooms that could be booked, although be aware that the walls are glass.

Conference Room

The check in area was certainty of the W’s view: beautiful to look at, mostly comfortable, and quite loud. Check in was done by a very nice, professionally dressed, and to be honest kind of cute associate. Though what made her cute was her giving me the suite upgrade, extra water, extra face cream LOL.

Lobby Overview

I made my way to the room through a set of double decker doors, and was impressed with the décor of the W Toronto: it was calming and sophisticated, yet different from the generic wooden hues that populated most other high end hotels.

Hallway

The Room

I had originally booked at Wonderful, Guest room, 1 King, Courtyard view, with the hope of using my Suite Night Awards for this hotel. In the first of many good acts, this hotel kindly obliged, upgrading me to a Studio Suite, Studio, 1 King, Courtyard view. One thing to note, and the reviews of the hotel touch on this, is that the regular rooms are kind of small at 266sqft/24sqm. This is fine for single pringle Alex, but for a family this would definitely get tight. For reference, I had a room at 350sqft in Bellevue, and I am thankful I went with such good friends as otherwise I don’t think we would have stayed friends after the trip.

Door

The room itself was quite nicely furnished, with the expectation that this was more of a “party room” than a fully functioning bedroom. What gave it away was probably the below sign.

Drink Options

Studio Suite, Studio, 1 King, Courtyard view was split into 2.5 main sections, with no dividing doors (hence the studio). As an aside, I have come to realize that I could never live in a Studio for longer than 1 week. We begin with the living area, which had a rather extensive coffee and water setup. However, the drinks were obviously overpriced, especially consider that there was an LCBO 100M away from the room.

Drink Situation

Next up was the sitting area which consisted of a table and sofa. The table was small, but my friend use it to eat a satisfying meal of…McDonalds. Thus, the tradition has been continued.

Sitting Area

However, there was an additional sitting area directly opposite of the bed. I have no idea why it was placed there, unless one wanted to creepily watch the occupant of the bed sleep. Our group thus moved that seat to form a central area for playing boardgames.

Random Seating

Speaking of watching things, I found it funny (and understandable), that there were 2 TVs in the room; after all, what type of hotel would this be if they made occupants turn their heads to watch TV!

TV Number 2

If you wanted to watch other people / HD Real Life../you couldn’t. Unfortunately the door to the balcony didn’t open, and we figured out that it was locked. I believe the room you need to book is the Marvelous Terrace, Guest room, 1 King, Courtyard view, Terrace level.

Unenterable Terrance

To round out the “living” area of the room, there was another chair and seat that faced the unopenable balcony. Again, the design of this room was a bit weird, but still very lovely.

The above seat, along with the other one, faced a massive king bed. The bed was great, although (and I know this is a first world problem), the sheets were a bit scratchy.

King Bed

As someone who needs like pitch black to sleep, I didn’t like the lighting on the bottom of the bed. However I remember it was motion sensitive, which was great for a good nights rest.

Nightstand

Now, for the most interesting part of the room: the bathroom. Now, most studio apartments have a separate bathroom from the actual room. The W Toronto has elected not to do this, which has lead to some say interesting reviews.

View

As you can see, steps away from the door.

Bathroom

I quite liked the design of the sink, which I thought was a more modern take on luxury relative to the Ritz Carlton. But what was even better was the sheer number of amenities, starting with the Face Wash, Vegetable Soap (which was well received by my friends) and Cleansing Cream.

Prettying Up

Furthermore, there was what I can only describe as a cornucopia of “stuff you never knew you needed in a hotel but now you know you need”. Unfortunately, this was wrapped in way to much plastic, and honestly should have been just provided on demand in a more eco-friendly way.

There was standard Dental Kit, Shaving Kit, Makeup Remover, but also Mending Kit, Nail and Shower Kit, Shoe Shiner (that didn’t work well), Loofah and Ear Plugs. People have said the last item was what they appreciated the most given how noisy the hotel got, but I didn’t need that to sleep.

The bathroom and shower were thankfully separate, and were reasonable for a luxury hotel.

For a post shower experience, there was nice bathrobes provided with a lovely W monogram.

Bathrobes

I liked the room overall, although I am the primary target for the W’s designers. This is (and will be) a perfect place to host your friends: we managed to get a fridge delivered, and filled it with Wine and Boxed Water. And boxed water just tasted like water. For someone travelling for pleasure, this would be perfect; however, if you are travelling for business, or with someone you don’t know too well, I would recommend a humble, consistent, room with separate bathrooms at the Courtyard or Sheraton.

Other Amenities

Back to the Hotel

After going to the double decker doors, the first major thing you see are the meeting rooms. Now, I would only utilize the W Toronto for a wedding or party - this is a bit…much for a formal business meeting. Nevertheless, the hotel boasts 6 event rooms, one of which is shown below.

The space was punctuated with tasteful, yet leisure oriented designs: I feel some people may find it overwhelming, especially if they are staying for a longer trip.

An alternative, yet weather dependent place to gather would be the outdoor patio on the 6th floor. This was perfect in the late summer weather, but come November I feel like this place would be deserted.

Large Meeting Table

There’s more photos of the actual lobby / living space earlier in the review, but if you need a reminder this is what it looks like:

Lobby

Next up is the GYM. Now, one thing to note about the W Toronto is that it does not have a pool, likely due to the space constraints. Guests have been tripped up on this before, so be aware. The hotel makes up for this by having a sizeable gym, although the weights are admittedly a bit light (they only go up to 50lb).

If you want, you can also look down at the people checking in, or at the courtyard.

Courtyard View

One thing that was absent was the presence of a pool (thanks Greg for reminding me). In other hotels, they would give you a pass to use at another hotel, or even at a community center. Funnily enough, I was actually at the Four Seasons Spa, and use their fantastic spa pool, so the exclusion didn’t affect me to much 😉

The final venue of the W Toronto is SKYLIGHT, a fantastic rooftop bar. Note this isn’t called STARLIGHT (which is what I said when asking about it at the hotel). More on that later. The decor was fantastic, the food stylish, and of course prices to match.

I felt that the drinks were fairly priced, while the food was a bit underwhelming for the cost. That being said, everything here was meant for instagram: look at the size of the ice cube in my old fashioned!

The views here are spectacular: as someone leaving the city after 3 1.5 years, I very much enjoyed seeing Canada’s economic capital running in the background.

However, breakfast is taken downstairs at the more pedestrian Public School. The W shines with its treatment of Elite Members: my friend and I were able to order a complementary starter and a main off the breakfast menu. Which both looked and tasted very good!

Breakfast

The vibe downstairs is more business focused, and I saw several more formally dressed people have morning meetings here.

The Service

The Service here I would say was a 8.5/10: very good, well intentioned, but could use a few more months to get to it’s full potential. My reservation for SKYLIGHT was lost, and I had to chat with them again to have it booked. Thankfully, the crew member managed to get us our original reservation. The W’s approach is a bit more hands off than say the Ritz, which I enjoyed: team members were more than happy to bring us whatever we needed, including 6 bottles of Boxed Water. Everyone was extremely professional, courteous and of course well dressed (hey, this matters for me).

Water

Final Thoughts

I quite enjoyed my time over at the W, although it may have been because of my friends. For a few nights in Toronto, this is a great place to be: it is near shopping, food and the subway. The “bones” of the hotel have been thoroughly refurbished, so much so that you can’t tell this is was once a drab Marriott. Elite Treatment, as was the overall hotel service, was wonderful: suite upgrade, a ton of free water and free great breakfast. One major caveat though is that the rooms are not for everyone: the regular rooms are quite small, and the studio suites lack a view. Nevertheless, I would definitely say to stay the W Toronto, particularly once the hotel finishes its renovations (most suites aren’t fully renovated yet!), and the excellent crew fully get the hang of running a luxury hotel.