My hotel experience was so close to perfect, so close. Made a one night reservation over the phone for a Friday night and booked a room with a king size bed, facing the city, instead of the lake because it was a bit cheaper. With my triple A discount the room came to $205 for one night. If you wanted to park down the street in the parking garage it was $10. However, valet was $18 and you can come and go as often as you please. $18 for valet is insane when you are paying big bucks for the room, additionally tipping the valet attendants each time your car is parked and the $10 for WIFI. Yeah, they charge for WIFI which is ludicrous and pretty unheard of these days, you know in the year 2016 and all. Rip off. Am I right? Okay so I valeted my car and headed inside the hotel to which I would have assumed was the lobby but it wasn't, there were just elevators, which evidently needed instruction manuals because the set upon entering didn't lead you to the rooms, only up to floor 7, the actual lobby. Too weird and as I'm riding up the elevator to the lobby I'm thinking, ugh. Well that was my reaction until I stepped out onto the 7th floor and was blown away. The front desk had an electric fireplace behind it, beautiful crafted into the wall, everything was sleek, modern, cozy and pretty much everything you could want. The "lobby" has Panorama on Seven right next to it with a large bar that was literally screaming, "Come drink." I was able to resist for a few hours, checked in and headed up to my room on the 14th floor which you could only get to through a second set of elevators, like I said, instructions needed. Quick note: naturally for my one night stay, I had three suitcases, three shoeboxes, two grocery bags and a cooler and stacked my things on a bell cart which I was told would be brought up to my room.
The room was gorgeous, if you're into hardwood floors and that super modern look and feel, which, thankfully, I most certainly am. HUGE windows overlooking the city of Buffalo and by overlooking the city I mean overlooking the filthy rooftop of the smaller building next-door but nevertheless, it was a view. Huge flat screen television which allowed you to log into your netflix, pandora, hulu or amazon accounts to listen to tunes or watch a flick. So I had the Pandora crankin, was rolling around the king size bed (mattress VERY very firm) and there was a little l shaped couch nook with a coffee table which was convenient. Large full length mirror, decent closet space and a big bathroom with a shower and plenty of vanity space. I was impressed. Then, I realized the cart with my luggage never came so I called down to the front desk and they put me on hold for a solid 2 minutes which made me think about all of my things that were possibly MIA and really glad I decided to walk up my bottle of champagne myself so I knew at least that was safe. Seconds later a gentleman arrived at the door with the cart and unloaded all of my bags, hung all of my coats was so professional and friendly, I loved it. I went to the gym which is on the 6th floor. The gym is TINY, couple bikes, treadmills, ellipticals, one leg machine, one arm machine and free weights. Yet, their kid's hockey training gym is 10 times the size down the hall. With that being said, the equipment is modern and new, they have complimentary water bottles, towels and headphones for you and the windows make for a killer workout view.
Checked out panorama on seven around 7 pm. The bartender was great, friendly, attentive and everything was going well until I got my bill. I told the bartender I wanted a big in your face bone dry glass of red and he said he had just the thing. If I had known the glass was 22 freaking dollars I would have sipped a little slower, OH, and you know, not have gotten it in the first place. I'm a student for goodness sakes. So that was sneaky in my opinion. The front desk called us a cab as we were headed out for dinner which was convenient.
Besides the unnecessary additional fees, the stay was really exceptional. The hotel staff (valet, front desk, people I communicated with over the phone to make reservations were beyond professional, beyond.) Almost forgot, check in is at 4, I called around 11 to see if I could get in sooner and the woman assisting me found a clean room and let me check in at 2, so appreciated. Valet during checkout time is hectic, so if you're in a rush head out early. Tim Hortons is connected to the hotel so you don't have to go outside which is nice. That's all. Good stuff, but you need to bring that cash. read more