Westin Bayshore Vancouver

I had previously stayed here a night prior to a Seabourn cruise and thought it might be a nice place to visit during Labor Day week. Boy was I wrong. I made three separate room reservations for my family with 12 Nightly Upgrade Awards applied to the reservations. I reserved one Standard Room, one Superior Room, and one Premium Room (at a higher point cost). Upon check-in I was told that there were no upgrades and that I would have 3 of the same standard rooms. I was also told that the free breakfast for Titanium Elite members would be limited to just two of the three of us and that it is only for the cold $32 continental breakfast. It's also $55/night for parking. It was only after reminding them that I had actually paid extra for a premium room and asking to speak to the non-present GM that I was begrudgingly given the extra breakfast card, but no return of the extra points that I had spent. At breakfast I used the $32 credit towards the waffles and had to actually pay extra because I ordered coffee with it! So now I am stuck here with my family for the rest of the week, trying to figure out how I am going to try to get any use out of all these Upgrade Awards that expire in a little over 3 months. I am glad that there is still a DIFFERENT loyalty program out there that: welcomes you by your correct title, THANKS YOU FOR YOUR LOYALTY, and has free hot breakfasts, free valet parking, GUARANTEED upgrade awards on date-of-booking, and guest of honor awards so that all family members can be included. Too bad Marriott doesn't seem to have any of that. Like my son said many years ago in Paris, “Daddy, I don't think this is a real Westin”. Today I would tell him, “It isn't son, it is a Marriott now.” UPDATE: My adult son went into one of the dry saunas that they have scattered around the outdoor pool area. When he went to stretch, his wrist touched a burning hot exposed heating element. Now he has burns that are blistering. Nice. Read less

As other have mentioned the location is great and very walkable. The views from the room were stunning. BUT, the rooms are very tired. The bathroom fixtures/countertop/shower/towel placement (over the toilet) give a motel vibe. Not kidding! As a titanium member we were told if we waited longer for a room we would receive an upgrade in the 'newly' renovated tower. We waited past 4pm and the room definitely had not seen an upgrade in sometime (especially the bathroom). Staff are friendly and helpful. Meals were good. 3 srar for the tired room especially at this price point! Read less

I stayed with the family for 2 nights in August in a standard room with 2 double beds. There are quite a few Marriott options to choose from within Vancouver. The Westin seemed to have a slight edge over some others, with reviewers often praising the location near Stanley Park. STANDARD ROOM: the room itself was basic but fine. Bedding was a notable positive, this was very comfortable. We had a very nice view overlooking the hotel swimming pool as well as the waterfront lined with boats and the mountains behind. The bathroom was disappointing however. Really dated and cramped with a combined shower/tub and almost nowhere to hang towels (not ideal when there are 4 of you in the room!). Noise insulation was also very poor within the room, we were on the 4th floor and could hear sea planes, music from the lounge downstairs, people talking, etc. PHYSICAL PROPERTY: clearly a very old hotel. Looks like a generic concrete block from the outside. The lobby areas are quite nice and modernised, but soon as you step out of the lift into the room corridor it was like you were back in the 90’s. A couple of convenient onsite inclusions such as a coffee shop and a little store selling toiletries, snacks, etc. at seemingly non-hotel prices. The swimming pool was a popular spot in the sunny weather we had. This was well heated with varying ratios of shade/sun as the day progressed. LOCATION: could be good or bad depending what you’re looking for. On the plus side the hotel is right on the edge of Stanley Park as well as the waterfront. Closer to nature and some nice scenery. On the negative side, the area immediately around the hotel was lacking in shops, restaurants, etc., so in that sense the hotel didn’t feel super central. Park aside, most things we wanted to visit were a 15+ min walk or a 10-15 min Uber ride away. That said we did enjoy the access to the park and made use of the hotel bikes (free for 2 hours) to do a loop around the park which was quite pleasant. They had kids bikes as well. Getting around was also straightforward with generally short waits for Ubers plus a line of local taxis parked outside the hotel as a backup. STAFF: generally quite friendly, some more than others. We arrived at the hotel quite early from a cruise and appreciated getting access to our room by 10am even though the hotel was very busy. We did have an issue when our key cards stopped working at check-out time, despite a 1 hour extension previously been agreed. It seemed the late check-out hadn’t been logged on the system. It took 3 trips back and forth to the lobby with new keys being issued each time and it still didn’t work. Ultimately an engineer had to be called to get us into our room. Not ideal when you have a flight to catch! The ageing property should probably get most of the blame for this though. CONCLUSION: I was a bit underwhelmed by this property. It is really old, despite the lobby having being spruced up. I stayed on points which made it easier to tolerate, but I couldn’t see myself returning as a cash paying guest based on the rates of CAD 800+ quoted during my dates. On the positive side I did like the view from the room, the pool area, plus the free bikes were a nice perk. Read less