World Traveller 73 
Review: Delta Hotels by Marriott Vancouver Downtown Suites, Canada
I needed a hotel to stay at after a colleagues retirement celebration event at the nearby Vancouver Club. The Delta Hotels by Marriott Vancouver Downtown Suites happened to fit that bill. I had previously stayed a this property on a mattress run, in order to get Delta Hotels Privilege Gold Level elite status. With the hotel now under the Marriott Bonvoy rewards program, As a returning guest now under Marriott Bonvoy oversight, how would my hotel stay fare?
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Review: Delta Hotels by Marriott Vancouver Downtown Suites, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
“The Delta Vancouver Downtown Suites Hotel is Vancouver’s Terrific Marriott All Suite Hotel offering, that is only hampered by being in a slightly edgy neighbourhood, and somewhat compact rooms”
There are times when you need a local hotel to accomodate a sleep over after a social engagement. With a fellow executive hosting a retirement celebration at the nearby Vancouver Club, I needed a nearby hotel for the evening so I wouldn’t have to worry about driving after the event. As a result, I ended up at the Delta Hotels by Marriott Vancouver Downtown Suites; a hotel within walkinge distance to our event.
The Delta Hotels by Marriott are positioned within the Marriott portfolio’s business hotel brands. The Delta Hotels brand states that they are “Hotels Are Exactly Where You Want To Be For Business Trips or Getaways“. With this description, the Delta Hotels Vancouver Downtown Suites property pretty much meets that mark.
We’ve stayed in quite a few of the Marriott hotel offerings in downtown Vancouver. These include the nearby Vancouver Downtown Marriott Pinnacle Hotel, The JW Marriott Parq Hotel, The Westin Bayshore Hotel, and The Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre. Please feel free to check out those reviews if you want to see what other Vancouver hotel options look like.
Booking The Delta Hotels Vancouver Downtown Suites:
The room rates in Vancouver, Canada are highly variable dependent on the travelling season. When the cruise ships are in town during the summer weekend months, the rates are terrifically inflated on the weekend. The summer months of July and August also see really high rates.
During our winter visit in February, the rates on the weekend were pretty soft. We were able to get a room for approximately $250 CAD ($180 USD) for a weekend night stay.
It’s worth noting that all rooms at the Delta Hotels by Marriott Downtown Vancouver Suites are actual suite rooms. This gives it a slight advantage from some other downtown hotels in the neighbourhood. You won’t be getting a large old school suite with a lot of space, but you’ll certainly have a smaller detached living space for one, that fully fits the definition of a suite.
As always, I booked through the Marriott Bonvoy website, which as a Marriott Titanium Member, entitled me to a complimentary upgrade to the best available room, including select suites, and a complimentary late check out up to 4 PM.
Marriott Bonvoy Redemption Opportunities:
The Ottawa Marriott Hotel was a Marriott Bonvoy Category 6 prior to the move to variable pricing. As a result, rooms are typically approximately 42,000 – 62,000 points per night, with about 50,000 points a night as an average standard. The rates trended upwards in the summer months and were lowest on Sunday nights.
If you value Marriott Bonvoy points at $0.008 a point, you’d have to spend more than $336 USD to come out ahead for a 42,000 point redemption. As a resident of Vancouver, I don’t find that this represents spectacular value. It may work in your favour if you’re redeeming against a popular cruise ship weekend night stay where rates are outrageously expensive.
Getting to The Delta Vancouver Downtown Suites:
As a local Vancouver resident, I ended up self driving to the property in northern downtown Vancouver. The Delta Vancouver Downtown Suites is a twenty six floor tower that is co-shared with the Simon Fraser University – Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue.
The property is well situated for sightseeing, around downtown Vancouver. Assuming you’re packing an umbrella for the winter months when it’s normally raining, you wouldn’t need to access a rental car in order to get the most out of a visit to downtown Vancouver, Canada.
The Delta Hotels Vancouver Downtown Suites property is located near many transportation hubs. It’s located two blocks from the Vancouver Skytrain Canada Line; which makes it easily accessible from the Vancouver International Airport. It’s also about five blocks from the Vancouver Cruise Ship Harbour Terminal; perhaps just out of walking distance if you happen to have a lot of luggage.
In any case, the hotel’s loading area is accessed off Seymour Street. The frontage of the hotel on neighbouring Cordova Street does not have any loading area or access. Navigating through Vancouver’s one way street system, we drove north up Seymour Street to get to the hotel and the arrival area.
The hotel does not have great street visibility from Seymour Street, as it’s tucked back half a block from it’s Seymour Street address.
The loading area is urban in nature and is pretty small, with space for only a few vehicles. I sent in MrsWT73 to get self parking instructions and to identify the correct garage; which wasn’t obviously marked with a Delta or Marriott logo.
We eventually located the parking garage, which was located to the right of the alleyway. The parking garage was a secure underground. We ended up self parking the vehicle ($43 CAD – with in and out privileges) and heading up to the front desk.
It is worth mentioning that the Delta Downtown Vancouver’s Suites location at Seymour Street and Hastings Street is located near the Centre of the Downtown East Side. This neighbourhood, which located about five to six blocks away from the hotel in an easterly direction, happens to be the centre of the drug opioid crisis in British Columbia. As a result, there tends to be a lot of property crime in the particular area.
Most of the hotels’ parking garage structures mark the reality of this circumstance. While this isn’t attributable to the hotel itself, its worth a mention that if you’re parking here, you’ll want to remove everything from your car before leaving it overnight.
It’s a marked difference between The Vancouver Marriott Pinnacle Downtown Hotel, which is located just five blocks away in a westerly direction from the Delta Hotels Vancouver Downtown Suites, but in a much more pleasant and liveable neighbourhood.
Despite the threat of property crime, given its central business district location, I wouldn’t expect you to have any personal safety or security concerns during your stay at this property. The personal crime safety levels aren’t likely to be greater here than at any other location in downtown Vancouver.
Checking into the Delta Downtown Vancouver Suites:
The Delta Downtown Vancouver Suites check in desk was located near the front doors. With three kiosks open and working, there was no wait at check in. There was no specific Marriott Bonvoy Elite Line, as is usually the case these days at smaller hotels.
The lobby is located in a modern looking atrium between the Delta Hotel and the Morris Wosk Centre for Dialogue. While atriums can look pretty dated, this one looked sharp, contemporary and modern looking. It had attracting looking lobby chairs, flexible work space and a cascading staircase that descended from the hotel’s conference room facilities.
We were promptly greeted at the front desk. Earlier, I had completed on line check in through the Marriott App. As a result, the check in process was really quick. I was thanked for my Marriott Bonvoy Titanium Level loyalty.
Marriott Bonvoy Platinum / Titanium and Ambassador level members are offered a complimentary welcome gift, breakfast or one thousand Marriott Bonvoy points. I took the points since I had an early departure the next morning. I was also offered an additional one thousand Marriott Bonvoy points as a result of the hotel not being able to offer an executive lounge. The lack of lounge wasn’t as a result of a pandemic closure, rather the hotel did not appear to be configured to have space to offer this amenity.
During check in, I was also told that I had received a complimentary upgrade to a “suite”, courtesy of Marriott Bonvoy Titanium Level status. This turned out to be a one category room upgrade from the base level “Suite – One King“, to a “One King Bed, City View Guest Suite” on a high floor. Perhaps unusually, this did not turn up in the Marriott Bonvoy app during the days before my stay or during the stay itself.
I was also provided two chocolate chip cookies in a bag; a nice snack and a welcome touch. The cookies were slightly overcooked and brittle, but it was much better than nothing at all.
Lastly, a Marriott Bonvoy Titanium level 4 PM check out was offered without any hesitation or fighting. This was really appreciated as MrsWT73 had some social engagements the next day. The flexibility of the late check out allowed for her to confirm her plans, then worry about the hotel situation later.
The Room: A One King Bed, City View, Guest Suite – High Floor 16th and Above:
After checking in, I self led ourselves and our luggage up to the suite. Consistent with the security circumstances, the hotel had a private security guard in the lobby, and hotel elevators are key carded for access. While the security wasn’t over the top, it was nice to have on hand.
Getting off on the twenty fourth floor, I led myself to Suite #2202. The hallways were a combination of older maple wood trim, mixed against more modern grey carpeting. With only nine suites per floor, each floor was pretty quiet and peaceful.
Upon entering the suite, I found myself in a compact urban suite. The space was primarily oriented for a single traveller. However, there was more than enough room for two travellers to co-exist for a shorter stay.
Immediately upon entering the suite, there was a small foyer area. The foyer area contained the room’s coffee maker and other coat hook zones. We were travelling with both evening attire and ski gear, so we had ourselves a lot of luggage for an overnight stay.
Living Room Space:
After passing by the foyer area, I immediately found myself in the living room space. The living room space was a small format living room. The couch contained a small sofa bed (perfect for those traveling with teenagers / children).
There was also a small desk area in the living room. While I wasn’t there to work for this particular visit, the desk space was a little on the smaller side. The living room didn’t have a whole lot of counter space for storage.
Unfortunately, the suite room didn’t feature any kitchen or wet bar sink space that you sometimes find in the all suite hotel category. This was perhaps the only thing that was missing from the Delta Hotels Vancouver Downtown Suites room configuration.
Bedroom Space:
Off the living space was the bedroom area. Much like the living room, the space as a little on the compact side. The king bed didn’t have a lot of room on either side for ingress /egress.
The room had decent sky line views. Since the hotel is located inland from the water, and is lower than many of it’s surrounding towers, you’re likely to get other tower views. These views aren’t sensational, but it’s far better than looking into another concrete wall or alleyway.
The bedroom contained a second flat screen television. There wasn’t a lot of artwork in the bedroom, and it almost appeared a little bland.
The one bedroom suite featured a single bathroom. The bathroom offered a stand up shower and single vanity sink.
There were some reasonable views from the east side of the hotel. Despite Vancouver behind a harbour city, the view was mostly of land skyscrapers.
The hotel only offers nine suites per floor. This makes for a really quiet stay within the hotel. The hotel hallway noise was virtually non existent.
Getting to the sleep quality of the room, while the hotel hallways were quiet, the neighbouring streets were not as peaceful. The nearby streets of Hastings and Cordova seems to serve as a major access way for Ambulances to zip East / West across Vancouver.
As a result, the nights’ sleep was often interrupted by the sounds of ambulance siren noises. This is perhaps not surprising when you consider the fact that the hotel is located near the downtown east side neighbourhood and these ambulances are getting to and from those persons in medical crisis. Again, while this isn’t directly within the hotels’ control, it’s safe to say that a stay here will be very much urban in nature, along with the sounds that come with such a stay.
Overall, the rooms was perfectly sized on the compact side for a single business traveller but slightly snug for a couple travelling together. I wouldn’t expect a large amount of extra space while booking a suite at this property, but you could have a whole family stay if you absolutely needed to in a pinch (instead of getting two separate rooms).
Around the Hotel Property:
The Delta by Marriott Vancouver Downtown Suites property contains many of the features of a full service property. While it doesn’t feature a swimming pool, it did feature some additional amenities.
Conference Centre:
The upper floors of the hotel on floors two and three contain the hotel’s conference facilities. The space leads into the open air atrium. It was a compact but reasonably pleasant space to spend a conference break.
The hotel also features an elevated walkway to the parking garage on level three. It’s possible to get to the parking garage without getting wet during Vancouver’s rainy season.
Fitness Center:
The Delta Downtown Suites offers a small fitness centre. The fitness centre was located on the fourth floor. There were a limited amount of treadmills and elliptical machines. The gym featured daylight windows; a great feature for any hotel gym.
Given the compact space of the gym, I did find that the gym was often full and at capacity at peak times such as in the early evening or early on the weekend mornings.
Food and Beverage:
With the Delta by Marriott Vancouver Downtown Suites having a great urban location, there are many terrific dining options that are off property and in the neighbouring area.
Despite the options off property, it’s nice to know that the Delta Vancouver Downtown Suites does offer an “in house” restaurant called Stock and Supply.
Stock and Supply – Kitchen and Bar:
Stock and Supply is the hotel restaurant for the Delta Vancouver Downtown Suites. Stock and Supply is a smaller format bar and lounge, which contained a fair number of visitors during the evening hours.
The Stock and Supply offers happy hour between 2 – 5 PM and 9 – 10 PM.
Checking Out of The Delta Vancouver Downtown Suites:
On departure day, I used the Marriott App to check myself out of the hotel. With a short line at the front desk, I went with the electronic route which was easier than battling a line.
MrsWT73 provided the hotel a courtesy notice to let them know she was leaving at the front desk at about 2 PM. There was a bit of a line with quite a few line cutters, which perhaps marked the only low point of the stay.
I had no surprises on the bill with everything as expected.
My Marriott Bonvoy points posted to my account within 36 hours as promised.
The Bottom Line: The Delta Hotels by Marriott Vancouver Downtown Suites
The Delta Hotels by Marriott Vancouver Downtown Suites offered almost everything that you’d expect in an all suites hotel.
While the neighbourhood was a little “edgy”, the property met all our needs for a short weekend stay. The neighbourhood was louder than expected, but the hotel was more than hospitable and friendly.
The hotel also happened to be well located for doing what we needed to do in Vancouver. It would be a convenient stop for anyone looking for connectivity to Vancouver International Airport (by rail) and to Vancouver’s Cruise Ship Terminals.
World Traveller 73 
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