Stayed at Toronto Don Valley this past weekend with my sister. We booked this hotel on Hotels.com for $190 USD per night, a bargain compared to the price of hotels downtown over the same period.
When we arrived we parked at guest parking and made our way to reception. There were two guys behind the desk helping guests and we ended up waiting about 10 minutes to check in. Both sets of guests in front of us seemed rather high maintenance so it wasn't a big issue. Within minutes we had our key and headed up to our 5th floor room.
One note about the reception area...it is very narrow. While waiting behind people to check in other hotel guests had to cut in between people in line just to make it to the elevators. Clearly the architect who designed this place had no idea about efficient use of space or traffic patterns.
The room itself was dated to say the least. The photos online definitely oversold this hotel, as many other Yelpers have commented before. Our room wasn't fancy by any means but it was far enough from the elevator to avoid any noise. It overlooked the covered pool out back that looked like a weird Soviet-era radio array. It's too bad there is no garden or comfortable outdoor seating back there. We didn't get to check out the pool as we had a fully booked weekend but the outdoor pool near reception looked good.
At 3am we realized the walls are paper thin as our next door neighbors arrived back at their room waking us up with their drunk conversations. One of the many annoying things about traveling I suppose.
All in all, it was a decent place to stay but one could definitely find better options out there, or even an Airbnb which may be far more competitive in terms of comfort and price. The staff were very friendly and helpful and parking was about $13 CAD per day, below ground or right out front. Not bad considering the cost of parking downtown. Will I return? I won't say never but we'll see.