World Traveller 73 
Review: Courtyard by Marriott Nanaimo, Canada
This week’s travel had me travelling to the northern part of Vancouver Island in South West British Columbia. Departing from Vancouver, with limited flight availability, and some labour issues impacting the BC Ferries service resulting in many cancellations, I ended up deciding to fly over through Nanaimo, making the Courtyard by Marriott Nanaimo the logical choice for a hotel stay in this particular region. The Courtyard by Marriott Nanaimo is the only Marriott property around for miles, so I was interested to see how this would impact any possible future hotels stays in this region.
Review: Courtyard by Marriott Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada
“Another brand new property, the Courtyard by Marriott Nanaimo marked a familiar Courtyard attempt in the downtown Nanaimo revitalization”
This particular trip was marked with a lot of travel drama and it didn’t go all that smoothly. While my stay at the Courtyard by Marriott was fairly smooth, there were a few areas of improvement that I would note for my next visit time.
Booking The Courtyard Nanaimo:
The City of Nanaimo is located partway up Vancouver Island. As the primary ferry down servicing access to the Northern part of Vancouver Island, the town of 106,000 people is one of the larger centres in Northern Vancouver Island.
The hotel opened in March 2023 as a brand new construction build in the older downtown district of Naniamo. It marks one of the first new build properties in this area that consists of older commercial shops and businesses.
The hotel generally offers rates between $149 – $196 CAD ($108 – $146 USD) during the week, with some softening rates on the weekend as low as $144 CAD ($105 USD) rates on some Saturday and Sunday nights.
I booked my a base standard Guest Room – 1 King Bed, Sofa Bed, Guest Room for approximately $180 CAD ($130 USD) on my stay. 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, complimentary access to the Marriott Executive Club Lounge (of which there wasn’t one at this property), and a complimentary late check out up to 4 PM.
It is worth mentioning that there are no suites at this particular property, so any Marriott Bonvoy Elite upgrades offered will be a soft upgrade into a higher floor category, a better view or quieter area away from the elevator.
Marriott Bonvoy Redemption Opportunities:
The Courtyard by Marriott Nanaimo offers competitive room redemptions with the new variable redemption rates. While I can’t imagine many wanting to redeem points at this hotel, rooms are typically around 22,000 points per night, on a fairly constant basis.
If you value Marriott Bonvoy points at $0.008 a point, you’d have to spend more than $176 USD to come out ahead for a 22,000 point redemption. While this represents reasonable valu,, I can’t actually imagine anyone redeeming points at this particular property, nor can I imagine the rate ever being higher than $176 USD making redemptions worthwhile, since most travellers here are likely on the business travel circuit.
Getting to The Courtyard Downtown Prince George Hotel:
I arrived into Nanaimo through the Nanaimo Airport, which is located 15 kilometres south of downtown. I picked up a National car rental to conduct my business on the island for the day, and self drove to the hotel. As I was working up the island, I had a fairly long drive back to Nanaimo, and I arrived to the hotel at around 8 PM.
The hotel is located in the older downtown area of Nanaimo. It would mark my first exposure to staying in downtown Nanaimo, as this was often a place I just passed through by car, on my way to other parts of Vancouver Island.
I made my way to the hotel by car and parked out front and headed inside to check in. I ended up parked in a 15 minute timed loading zone that appeared to be enforced by the city.
Checking into the Courtyard by Marriott Nanaimo Hotel:
After parking my rental car in the front loading zone, I went to check in to the hotel. As expected with a brand new hotel, everything was sparkling and shiny new.
I had a friendly check in at the front desk. Having completed a mobile check in through the Marriott Bonvoy App (selecting paid self parking option at $9 CAD a night), everything was pretty much ready to go when I arrived.
I was thanked for my loyalty. I was offered 500 Marriott Bonvoy points as a Marriott Elite Welcome Amenity, and explained parking options. This was where my first hiccup occurred.
I was very politely informed, that due to a local concert event occurring in the area, that the hotel did not have any parking available to offer. I was politely asked to see if I could attempt to self park the car at 9:30 PM, some 90 minutes after I arrived.
I hadn’t eaten dinner by this time, and was keen to get out of my suit for the day, so I opted to find some self parking on my own. As a result, I didn’t complete the hotel registration form for the parking that would have involved providing my licence plate.
After dropping my bags at the room, I ended up hunting down some local parking. As the hotel is in a inner city district, there isn’t much parking available in the area. I navigated across the street to a parking garage that had several “full” signs.
The parking lot had street directions to an alternate parking location. However, being from out of town, the street address meant nothing to me; in terms of directions.
I found a compact but full parking garage, as described on the sign. After performing several long reverses and three point turns, I ended up waiting for other visitors to leave and getting a spot that was recently vacated. This added an inconvenient twenty five minutes of time to my arrival experience.
Getting back to the hotel, the lobby contained a small market with sundries available for purchase. This was located immediately beside the front desk. While didn’t get the opportunity (or need) to purchase any additional items, it was nice to find things available for purchase if needed. Given Canadian alcohol licensing regulations, there were no alcoholic drinks available in the market.
The Room: Guest room, 1 King, Sofa bed, City view:
After I had located parting, I headed up to the room. The hotel featured modern indigenous art, as recognition of the unceeded indigenous territories in the local area.
The hotel offered the usual printer stations, which are always convenient for on the go work projects.
After getting off on the eighth floor, I located my assigned room #809 which was located right across from the elevator bank.
The hallways of the Courtyard Nanaimo offer a modern design consistent with the property being a brand new build that’s recently opened.
The Bedroom:
I booked a standard Guest Room – 1 King basic level room. As a Marriott Bonvoy Titanium level member, I was entitled to an upgrade to the best available room on arrival, including select suites.
I wasn’t provided any room upgrade except to a high floor that was one level below the very top ninth floor. I entered into the room and found a comfortable and modern design for a hotel room.
The Standard Guest Room was nicely decorated with modern greys, and a soothing indigenous inspired head board.
The room offered the standardized Courtyard couch chair, along with a short leg rest. The chair was typically comfortable, and convenient for getting shoes on.
The functionality of the room was updated with modern conveniences, including bedside USB charge ports, reading lights and a large work space for working. Having USB ports by the bed, is always something that I miss whenever I’m in a hotel room that doesn’t happen to have them. In this case, it was a super convenient way to charge devices.
The television viewing angle from the bed was at a ninety degree angle. For those that enjoying watching television in bed, this wasn’t the most convenient angle. Given my short stay at the property, I didn’t spend any time watching television.
The room offered a rail desk and television workspace. As a result of under television lighting, the workplace was really well lit. Unlike some other desks, the work space was a little light on power ports.
The room featured the typical microwave, un-stocked (empty) mini fridge and an in room coffee maker.
Surprisingly, the room actually featured proper glassware, which is a nice touch for a business traveler hotel. I’ve usually come to expect plastic cups when I stay at the within brand “Four Points by Sheraton” hotels.
While it’s getting more and more unusual for hotels to offer Marriott Bonvoy elite welcome amenties, in contrast to this I received an exceptionally nice note in the room. The note referred to offering a Cedar Bark Rosé, although they must have run out, as all I could locate was two bottles of Eska bottled water.
Still, it was a nice touch for a later arrival.
The Bathroom:
The bathroom was of the standard Courtyard variety. The bathroom featured a single vanity and a half shower without a door.
The hotel offers 39 degree north bulk toiletries dispensers in the shower. In the usual business traveler style for middle aged men like myself, it is exceptionally hard to read the contents of each of the toiletries dispensers in the shower as a result of the tiny 12 point font. The contents of these containers isn’t as obvious as it could be. I wish the type was a little larger.
The property floor plan itself is on an “L” shaped design. All rooms have almost the same square footage with a variety of city views. As indicated, there are no suites at the property.
The room itself offered a city view over the rooftops of nearby adjacent Nanaimo casino. The view itself wasn’t super exciting, and was actually pretty dark and dismal. A parking lot view is never usually very exciting.
In terms of sleep quality, I have to say that I had probably the worst night’s sleep I’ve ever had in a Marriott hotel encompassing over 700+ nights. The bed quality was excellent, the neighbourhood was mostly peaceful for an inner city location, but I seemed to have a room that was possessed by a noisy air conditioner that wasn’t aligned with the thermostat.
I always ensure the temperature is set to a comfortable level before I head off to bed. Initially, I set the dial to 22 degree celicus. However, the noisy air conditioner unit was uncomfortably loud. It was loud enough to interrupt a sound sleep.
After about twenty minutes, I ended up turning it off completely. After ensuring that the thermostat was set to “off”, the air conditioner engaged multiple times throughout the night. The noise of the air conditioner was loud enough that it constantly interrupted the sleep quality.
I was up at 2 AM and 3 AM attempting to fiddle with this thing in order to get it shut off, experimenting with different variations of “off” and “auto”. I should have disconnected the power cord to the unit, but I wasn’t thinking that straight in my groggy 3 AM wake-ups before an 8 AM flight home.
Because of the air conditioner, I had a pretty terrible sleep at this property. If I had to stay next time, I’d either test this out several hours before bed, or I’d make sure to unplug the air conditioner unit prior to going to sleep. Neither situation was ideal for time constrained business travellers who are just looking for convenience.
Around the Hotel Property:
The Courtyard by Marriott Nanaimo isn’t considered a full service hotel. As a result, it offers limited amenities.
Fitness Centre – Indoor Pool:
The Courtyard by Marriott Nanaimo offered a small indoor pool. The pool was a little dark. Despite this, it offered a small hot tub area and was modern in appearances.
Fitness Centre – Gym:
The hotel also offered a reasonably sized gym and workout space. There were at least four treadmills available, which limited the need for waiting for equipment. I was surprised at the size of the gym, and it was actually larger than what I was expecting for a hotel of this size.
While I didn’t use either the gym or the pool, it’s nice to have an option available to guests.
Food and Beverage:
The Courtyard by Marriott Nanaimo offers a limited Bistro restaurant. The hotel is situated a short walk from a few downtown restaurants, but it’s always appreciated to have an on property restaurant option. I had quite a few issues getting off property food, so I’d strongly recommend the Bistro Restaurant by virtue of convenience.
Bistro Restaurant:
The Bistro Restaurant operates only during meal time hours. During our visit, it was advertised to operate between 06:30 AM and 10:30 AM Monday to Friday, and 7:00 AM to 11 AM on Saturday and Sunday. Evening service is advertised between 4:00 PM to 10:00 PM Monday to Friday and 4:00 PM to 11:00 PM on the weekend. There is no lunch service.
During my Wednesday night visit, the restaurant closed at 9 PM; an hour earlier than posted on the hotel website. This seemed to be a general theme around downtown Nanaimo. Whether dealing with a hotel restaurant that doesn’t align with website timings is only something that you can decide for yourself.
The Bistro Restaurant is located just off the lobby. It is in a bright and contemporary space that is designed for communal gathering.
I do generally find that the Bistro Restaurants in Courtyards by Marriott are over the top expensive for what you get. Even though I was travelling on expense, and having done a little local dining research on google. I ended up deciding that I would attempt to find food located off the hotel property.
The Bistro offers a licensed bar. It was fairly popular amongst business travellers during my week day visit.
Around the Neighbourhood:
Having arrived at about 8 PM, and spending twenty minutes locating parking, I ended up setting out looking for dinner in the neighbourhood at about 8:40 PM. I had researched a number of places nearby the hotel on google, so I figured I would have no issues.
Unfortunately, I was way off on that assumption. Out of about five restaurants in the area, three of them were completely closed on a Wednesday night. I walked over to nearby Melange Restaurant. Melange was advertised on Google as being open until 10 PM. When I arrived at 8:50 PM, I was completely turned away for dinner.
I then tried to hit up nearby Modern Cafe Nanaimo. When I hit up the front door, I actually had the staff member throw the closed sign up on the door when he saw me approaching. I had a brief chat with him but he said the kitchen’s closed; despite google having a 10 PM close sign.
I am really empathic to restaurant owners after having gone through the shock of restaurant ownership during the pandemic, but when you’re turning away business, my sympathies run out.
Knowing that the hotel Bistro restaurant had closed by this point, I had struck out of two out of two restaurants tried, and the three others I had looked at online were also showing as closed, and knowing that I couldn’t get my car out of the garage as I couldn’t get another parking spot, I ended up walking up the block to Wendy’s for dinner. I barely got in there and actually got told to leave from the dining room at 9:20 PM because they too were also closing.
For a hotel that caters to business travellers, it was really inconvenient to get a meal in the nearby neighbourhood. I’d report that if you happen to be arriving here late, don’t expect to find anywhere nearby open to get a meal off property after 9 PM.
Checking Out of The Courtyard by Marriott Nanaimo Hotel:
On departure day, I visited the front desk to check myself out of the hotel.
I had no surprises on the bill with everything “as expected”. The check out was instant and exceptionally pleasant.
I was asked about my stay. I did report to the front desk my challenge with the air conditioner. The front desk did not seem surprised by this comment based on his reaction. However, there was no alternative remedy or good will offered; and nor was I expecting any.
My Marriott Bonvoy points posted to my account within 72 hours as promised.
The Bottom Line: The Courtyard by Marriott Nanaimo Hotel
The Courtyard by Marriott Nanaimo mostly met all my expectations for a business stay.
The Courtyard by Marriott Nanaimo offered brand new accommodations that were located in central Nanaimo. The room condition was brand new and everything was as you might expect for a stay at a Courtyard by Marriott property.
However, the stay wasn’t without its issues. Not having any parking available to guests and having them have to fend for themselves isn’t anything I’ve ever experienced before at a Marriott property. The “in room” air conditioning kept me up most of the night, even though it was “off”. There isn’t much food around the property if you happen to arrive late. While the food availability isn’t within the hotels’ control, it does impact on how convenient a stay is.
As a result, I’d probably give this place a miss next time unless I had no other choice. Either that, or I would arrive much earlier to allow for parking, climate control tweaks and the sourcing of a restaurant.
World Traveller 73 
Recent Comments