World Traveller 73 
Review: Delta Hotels London Armouries, Ontario, Canada
Our travels on a family visit to London, Ontario, Canada led us to needing a hotel to stay for several nights while in town. The hotel inventory in London, Ontario is fairly slim, without a lot of exciting properties to stay at. As Marriott Bonvoy travellers, we ended up at the Delta Hotels by Marriott London Armouries. The Delta Hotel London Armouries would end up being a stay highlighted by excellent Marriott Bonvoy recognition and a fantastic suite upgrade.
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Review: Delta Hotels by Marriott London Armouries, London Ontario, Canada
“A Delta Hotel property that occupies a historic armoury with outstanding Marriott Bonvoy Elite Treatment and recently renovated historic building suites”
I had a business trip planned that would take me from my hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia across the country to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. MrsWT73’s brother happens to reside in London, Ontario; a short two hour and fifteen minute drive away from Toronto, Ontario. Thanks to advances in global technology, she was able to remote work for the week; all while taking in a weekend trip to visit her brother in London.
Booking the Delta London Armouries:
We had grown out of the era of staying immediately on the family house sofa bed and opted to stay at a more comfortable a local hotel in London, Ontario. As Marriott Bonvoy loyalists, we had a choice between three Marriott Bonvoy options: the Courtyard London, the Residence Inn London and the Delta London Armouries. The Delta London Armouries looked to be the best full service hotel choice.
I booked this stay via the Marriott website direct. As I booked with Marriott Bonvoy Titanium level status, I was promised an upgrade to the best available room (including suites), lounge access, and a guaranteed late check out to 4 PM.
The room rate was pretty soft given I was travelling in February; far from the peak summer season of travel when many visitors come to town. My rate at the time was under $200 CAD ($156 USD), which seems to be pretty constant for this hotel- whether it’s summer or winter.
Marriott Bonvoy Suite Night Awards:
The hotel offers a few rooms in the Marriott Bonvoy Suite Night Award pool. Marriott Suite Night Awards are awards give to Marriott Bonvoy Platinum, Titanium and Ambassador level members for passing certain stay thresholds. The Suite Night Awards confirm the guest into an elevated room category; typically 5 days in advance of any stay. As an older hotel, it offers a number of configurations available. Unfortunately, it seems that the hotel does not offer the largest or best suites available under the Suite Night Award Inventory.
The hotel is presently a Marriott Bonvoy Category 4, and is floating around 20,000 points under the variable pricing scheme for a one night redemption. If you value Marriott Bonvoy points around $0.005 per point, you’re probably better off redeeming points on a 20,000 point room if the room rate is higher than $100 USD per night.
Planning and Getting There:
We arrived into Toronto Pearson International Airport on an Air Canada flight. I’ve reviewed these flights several times before, including Air Canada Signature Business Class Vancouver – Toronto so I don’t have a different experience to report at this time.
We picked up a Hertz car rental and were lucky with getting an Infiniti Q50s in the President’s Circle Ultimate Choice aisle. While I’ve certainly had worse cars from this location, it’s was handy to be able to chose such a car and go.
We packed up the car and headed on the two hour drive south of Toronto on Highway 401, eventually arriving to the Delta London Armouries.
The Delta Hotels London Armouries was initially built in 1909. It served as an Armoury Depot for the British Regiment for a number of years in the period of time after Canada’ confederation in 1867, but before Canada was recognized as an independent country from the United Kingdom in 1982. The London Armoury served the city for decades as a training facility and weapons storage for reserve and regular army units. It comprised of mess halls, sleeping quarters, parade spaces, and a shooting gallery. The London armoury was converted to a hotel in 1986 which saw a medium rise tower built over top of the historic Armoury building.
The property was converted to a Sheraton branded property in 1989 and it was eventually re-flagged to a Delta Hotels property in 1992. The Delta Hotels brand was absorbed by the Marriott Hotel family in 2015; bringing us to the hotels’ current franchise affiliation today.
The hotel is well located within central London, Ontario with many central business district downtown destinations that can be walked immediately from the hotel.
Checking In:
We arrived by car and parked out front of the historic London Armouries building. After entering, we had a small queue to check in, as there was a small queue of families checking in as a result of a hockey tournament that appeared to be converging on the hotel at the time.
Our friendly check in host Rachel took us through the features of the property. As a Marriott Titanium Member, we received a complimentary upgrade from a base level that we had booked into a Suite. We would later discover that we had been upgraded into the Royal Suite; likely the best room on the property.
We also had no challenges with a Marriott Bonvoy Titanium Level 4 PM late check out, despite being assigned an elevated suite upgrade.
After check in, I self parked the car and headed up to room. The parking at the hotel is on a pay basis at $25 CAD. There is a limited space secured underground option that is connected to the hotel by elevators. There is also an overflow exterior option that requires a lengthy walk around to the front door. Both parking options are available on a first come first serve basis.
The Room: The Royal Suite
Our assigned Room # 240 was in the historic armoury part of the hotel. Typically, I associate older historic rooms as being tiny. However, we were blown away by the suite.
The Delta London Armouries invested $2 million dollar in renovating 15 suites in the historic building in 2018. All the rooms renovated were on the second floor in the historic building. The renovation was aimed to attract VIP guests that were staying or performing at the nearby Budweiser Gardens, along with their enroutages.
The suite entry led into a foyer space that was complete with a small wet bar. There was a mini refrigerator in this space, along with a small coffee maker and microwave oven.
Proceeding past the foyer space, we found ourselves in a massive corner room with twenty foot ceilings. The room was exceptionally impressive with a renovation that was from floor to ceiling in nature.
The living space featured a dining table, a separate sofa and occasional chair. The room itself was exceptionally spacious and allowed for lots of room to navigate around the furniture.
The living space area offered a television that was slightly off set from the sitting area. It offered a combination desk area, that had a number of power drop points for device charging, in addition to the room hotel telephone.
The comprehensive nature of the renovation allowed the designers to use the space in the Armoury Turrets in the corner. They used this space by making an elevated seating area that allowed for a commanding view across the room. A few steps up, and we found ourselves in a quaint seating area with an over arching view of the room.
There was such a sweeping view, that there was an elevated view over to the king size bed. The king size bed was tucked into a corner of the spacious suite. Although it wasn’t in a separate space, the room was certainly large enough to feel as though it was a different sleeping area.
A flat screen television was also mounted on the wall, so that you could watch television in bed. Despite this, the views over to the other half of the room were more interesting with our “in the corner” bed position.
In terms of sleep quality, the room was very quiet, despite facing the street. There was some through the night noise of sirens given the urban area and the proximity to the street. In addition, the heating ventilation offered some clanking through the night with a heat port limited to the entry way of the room, making the sleeping area in our room a little cool.
The room featured a single bathroom. The bathroom was spacious and fully renovated along with the rest of the room. It offered a single vanity, along with a large stand up shower.
The toiletries were of the standard Delta Hotels variety and featured argan oil shampoo, conditioner and body wash and body lotion.
The floor layout of the Delta London Armouries surrounded the newer tower portion of the hotel in the historic wing. Our room was in the bottom turret of the hotel.
Around the Hotel Property:
Swimming Pool:
The Delta Hotel London Armouries offered an indoor pool. The pool was located on the other side of the atrium opposite from the Armouries Grill. The pool was quite popular among the family travellers and it seemed to get quite a bit of use.
Hotel Gym:
A few steps down from the pool was the hotel health center. The health center appeared to be squished into what was, at one time, two squash courts. One squash court contained a series of exercise equipment, where as the other squash court remained as a squash court space for multi use purposes.
I didn’t see anyone actually using the gym space during my stay but it is always nice to have access to this facility.
Armoury History:
Given the London Armouries long history, on the second floor stretching the length of the London Amouries building, were select history showcases outlining some historical items of the buildling. If you have interests in history, you’ll find this space to be quiet engaging.
The showcases feature meal ration discs, service medals and Volunteer Medals from World War Two, Knitting Instructions for Service items, World War One Service Medals
I find these pieces of history to be quite interesting as it ties the building to a space in time, adding some insight into your stay.
Delta Signature Club Lounge:
The Delta London Armouries offered a Delta Club Lounge. The Delta Club Lounge is typically accessed by purchasing a Club Floor room, or can be accessed through elite benefits courtesy of Marriott Bonvoy Platinum / Titanium / Ambassador level benefits.
The Delta Signature Club Lounge was located in the towers portion of the building on a high floor. Unfortunately, it was closed during my visit as a result of the pandemic. As a result, I didn’t get the opportunity to test it out.
I was able to take a peek inside the lounge and it seemed to be a reasonable space for an executive lounge. The lounge offered some windows, which would have had a terrific view of east London, Ontario.
The view from the Delta Signature Lounge at London Delta Armouries was pretty good, considering it’s high floor location in a tower in London, Ontario.
Hopefully, the lounge will get up and running again soon, as the lounge is a pretty comfortable spot to be when travelling for business.
Food and Beverage:
Armouries Grille
Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Breakfast
The Delta London Armouries in hotel restaurant was the Armouries Grill. It was located off the lobby in an atrium between the historic armoury building and the newer tower building. While the Armouries Grille had sort of a dated look between the old and new, it was a perfectly pleasant atmosphere.
The space offered tiered stairways up to the hotel’s Cantata Lounge, which was located up on the top atrium level.
During our stay, we happened to be enjoying Marriott Bonvoy Titanium level elite membership in the hotel’s loyalty program. As a result, we were able to select a breakfast option as an elite welcome gift.
The Delta Armouries Breakfast menu was a popular place with lots of goodies on the menu. The hotel breakfast options were much greater than I was expecting, and better than some of my usual hotel stays that offer the same five usual breakfast options. With the theme of the hotel being a past Armoury, the menu items were all military themed by name.
We presented our Marriott Bonvoy Titanium level breakfast vouchers. We were invited to order anything on the menu, including Steak and Eggs. This was a great move on the park of the Delta London Armouries as some hotels try to up charge for every little offering. I was happy to report that we were really treated well at the property.
MrsWT73 enjoyed an Officer’s Triple Choice Omelette with ham, cheese and rye bread. This was received with strong favourable reports.
I tried the Captian’s Eggs Benedict with sliced black forest ham, served with crispy potato patties. While it wasn’t the lightest tasting eggs benedict that I had tasted, it hit the spot.
On my last day, I enjoyed a Poutine Bowl with sausage, bacon potatoes scallions and hollandaise sauce. It was very filling and I enjoyed it – consistent with the winter season.
I enjoyed a bit of a food coma after that one. The Delta Armouries Grill was a popular spot for breakfast, and it was frequently a fast paced operation.
The setting of the Armouries Grill and the food and beverage zones at night have a little opulent flair to it with nice lighting.
The Delta Hotels London Armouries Bottom Line:
The Delta Hotels by Marriott London Armouries was everything that we could have expected from a stay in London, Ontario, Canada. Without a whole lot of hotels to chose from, the Delta Hotels London Armouries was our best choice. We received an outstanding upgrade as a Marriott Bonvoy Titanium level member, and were treated like royalty throughout our stay, courtesy of our Elite Status. While I tend to shy away from historic hotels, our room was fully renovated and clean in every way possible. I would look forward to returning to this property on our next family visit to London.
World Traveller 73 
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