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| - Ever since my parents sold my childhood home and moved away from Toronto, all my trips back to Toronto now involve staying in a hotel. So on my most recent trip to Toronto, my husband and I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express Toronto Downtown. We enjoyed our stay and I have to say that it's one of the better HIEs.
Like most HIEs, it's functional and clean. Sure, the decor is somewhat dated, but that doesn't bother me. We paid $129/night and that included free hot breakfast, local calls and WiFi. We didn't go by car, but I believe that parking is an extra $20/night.
The staff there from the front desk people, to the cleaners, to the staff working the breakfast counters, were all very friendly and nice.
The rooms weren't huge, there's no fridge or microwave, but the rooms were clean and comfortable enough. Toiletries were from Bath and Body Works.
The hot breakfast was great. And they have little things that set them apart from other HIEs. For example, all other HIEs I've been to use processed cheese spread (like Cheez Whiz) in their "cheese omelettes," but not this location, they use real cheddar cheese! They have regular yogurt AND Greek yogurt (several flavours of each). In addition to the usual cereal options at HIEs (Froot Loops, Corn Flakes and Raisin Bran) they also had Special K with Berries (yep, the little freeze-dried berries that are oh so yummy!). They don't have a pancake machine though. They alternate between scrambled eggs and omelettes (your choice of real cheese omelette or plain omelette) and between bacon and pork sausage. They have turkey sausage every day. They also have muffins, English muffins, bagels, toast, cinnamon buns, bananas and oatmeal.
The dining area has a spillover room across the hallway. The main dining area was always crowded, but there were very few people in the spillover room, so we ate there every morning of our stay. It was much quieter and I preferred it. It was just farther from the food if you wanted to get more of anything.
Location is pretty much right downtown. The closest subway station is King. Another reviewer said that the view from this hotel is a homeless shelter. Yes, there is the Salvation Army Gateway on Jarvis across from the hotel and if you have rooms facing Jarvis, this may be your view. Our room faced the courtyard. The main entrance is from the courtyard (which you can access either off Lombard or Adelaide). It's not in a tony neighbourhood, but I wouldn't consider it a rough part of town either.
There's a church on the other side of Adelaide, and the church bells ring on the hour. So if you are a light sleeper, this may be an issue for you. I'm not that heavy of a sleeper, but I was not bothered by the church bells.
WiFi was fast and reliable. I have to mention though, we were initially told to use the "basic package" log on which requires you to enter your last name and room number as the passwords. This did not work. So I called the front desk and they gave me the password for the "access code" log on, which worked perfectly.
Another reviewer mentioned that this place lacks electrical plugs. The dated decor makes me think this place was built at a time when not everyone and their kid has a cell phone, tablet and laptop. So yes, there is one plug on the lamp on the desk and one plug on the wall under the desk. If you are really desperate I guess you can unplug the wall mounted hair dryer and use the plug in the bathroom.
All in all though we had a good stay. The hotel is clean, the staff are friendly, and the price is inexpensive for a downtown Toronto hotel. I would stay there again.
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