A stunning historic hotel with bags of exquisite charm and quirkiness. Food good and plentiful in the restaurant, and from a design and furnishings point of view this is one of the most eclectic and stylish hotels I have come across. Spa treatment ( massage) was one of the best I’ve ever had and I’m fussy. It feels like this hotel is revving it’s engine ready to come back with a vengeance after the struggles in the hotel industry linked to Covid. Naturally a lot of the staff are new and learning as they go, but whatever small niggles they are working through right now will be ironed out without doubt and I can’t wait to come back to give this charming place and its welcoming and friendly staff a well deserved 5.
My husband surprised me for my birthday with a trip to the city, and a night at this landmark. Hotel has an old world charm, though could use some TLC and clearly in need of repairs. We had a nice dinner at Gatsby restaurant, food & service were good. We retired to our lovely room and we’re asleep by 10. We were woken up shortly before 1am to a dripping noise, which soon turned in to a steady stream of water coming out of a pot light (!) in the bathroom, splashing in to tub, and running along ceiling, down wall and pooling on floor. We called the front desk and they came up, but by the time they arrived it had slowed to drip again. They offered to switch our room (at this time it was nearly 1:30am), which we had no desire to pack up everything and move in our pyjamas! My husband had booked a massage and rock climbing in the morning and we woke very late after the eventful night, rushing to get ready for bookings. As we rushed out front door the same manager who’d been up in the night asked if we wanted breakfast, but we were clearly in a hurry and racing out the door. We arrived back at 11 for check out, and a massage. My husband went to speak to the manager about the nights events and hoped they would compensate us in some manner for an awful night. He was told by same gentleman that he had no authorization to do so (despite being the manager) (!?), and had offered us a room move and breakfast, which we declined. My husband was shocked by the lack of dust service, explaining that moving rooms at 1:30am was in no way desirable, and we had reservations in the morning, and offering us breakfast on the spot as we were rushing out the door didn’t fit in to our plans. He told us there is nothing more he could do. We are completely understanding that it was likely another guests’ error of leaving water running that caused the issue - yes these things do happen, and we understand. What we can’t comprehend is the complete disregard demonstrated to us as customers as we spent well over $1000 at hotel on our room, dining, and massage, with scarcely and apology. So disappointed that this lovely historic landmark has fallen in to such standards.…
We stayed in February for a two night staycation in the city. The front desk staff called us around 8 am to ask about our request for down alternative bedding/pillows, thinking we wanted no sheets at all? What an odd request! I don't know why she had to call and wake us up early on a weekend, calling before 9 am on a weekend is rude considering we were looking forward to a relaxing long weekend and the second night was supposed to be a surprise they would announce at the front desk. Instead, it just caused a lot of grief and resent for booking it in the first place. Our check-in time was 3 pm, and we expected they would be ready for us having called us so early; They were not, and were still preparing the room and we waited about an hour. We only were given two standard/queen size pillows for a king sized mattress. We were lucky that we travel with a MyPillow, otherwise we would have been caught short. Loved the Molton Brown toiletries, definitely going for high-end. We've read reviews about shenanigans, and yes they do happen especially during TIFF. In a previous booking, we stayed in the junior king and it had scratch marks on the bedposts, looked like someone had some cuffs on them for some fun. Paying for the upgraded room, we expected a better radio than the cheap iHome radio in comparison to the Teac mini stereo found in the lesser Junior King we stayed in previously. If you want to. watch TV, they did not compare to other mid-high priced chains. The dated TVs were hooked up to an old Rogers HD STB that was connected by coax cable for the a/v, so you're essentially watching a letterbox with a bad picture, not using the entire screen. Not sure when they last renovated, but a lot of the furniture seemed scratched and beaten-up in the rooms, but not the cheapest stuff bought in bulk that you would see in most hotel chains. You can tell someone cared about the design when they put the stuff in, and it was nice to have an incandescent bulb in the fixtures instead of the flicker and hum of cheap CFLs in most other chains today. In comparison, other mid-high priced chains in the city have upgraded furniture, carpets, and electronics, and have installed big 50 inch televisions as the standard offering for guests. The only positives were the food service (though high tea seemed a bit pricey), the room and the Yorkville neighbourhood are fairly quiet at night being on the south side of Bloor Street in comparison to much of the hustle and bustle of the city. Don't stay expecting excellent customer service, because CC, who was the manager on duty that couldn't offer her own solution without calling her manager to make up for the comedy of errors that weekend was no longer at the hotel. Not worth the money spent for the hassle, given the staff are so uncourteous to guests.…
We stayed here for a staycation experience. We wanted to treat ourselves and stay somewhere luxurious. Based on the photos on the website and the 5 star rating we were quite excited for our stay. When we arrived, the staff were not that friendly and seemed indifferent about us being there. When we got to our room, the first thing we noticed was an odd musty smell. There was a large stain on the carpet in the entrance way, likely from water damage. The bed was made very sloppily, with the sheets that are supposed to be under the comforter touching the floor and wrinkled. The pillows appear if they were just tossed onto the bed. The television uses a very old cable box, and kept cutting in and out, making it difficult to watch any shows. There were also stains on the desk, as if it wasn’t wiped at all from the last guest. 5 star hotels usually pay attention to every detail, and Windsor Arms seems to overlook everything. We have stayed at Ritz Carlton, Shangri La and the Royal York and they are far superior. Windsor Arms needs to step up their game if they even want to be in the same league as those properties. I would not recommend staying here, there are far better hotels out there.…
Lovely high tea today, spoiled by the fact that they increased their prices over 50% without advising anyone. So not worth the money for pasty sandwiches. We booked in October, advised of an amount, they confirmed our booking in an email. They then increased their prices Nov 1, increased again for a "holiday price". Nothing mentioned in the menu outlining the $30pp increase. Very disappointed that no one had the courtesy to advise when we were seated of the 'revised price'. When speaking to the manager, she basically said 'too bad'. Disgusting. We were looking forward to this treat for months and it was completely ruined. #windsorarmshoteltoronto #scammed #thanksfor thechristmastea #sorryaboutyourtip
The Restaurant is quite filthy and dirty there is so much dirt stuck on the ceiling and the chandeliers and on the speakers covered with dust. and dirty sofa eww who give them 5 start its quite filthy
We went for high tea for our friend birthday, it was 6 of us . We were seated in a small table, we had to be super careful, pouring our tea, or serving our scones. The table was no more then a meter long, by 50, a wrong movement and will have been a disaster The bathroom, had an awful smell, that you can smell though the mask. For the price that we pay ($432.00) was NOT worth it, Tipping it’s up to the client, and NOT a 18 % tip on your bill 15% would have been more then plenty, under the circumstance Teresa C.
First, we had originally tried to cancel our reservation a few days before and were not allowed to. We were very much looking forward to our stay but we had something come up so accommodating our request would have been appreciated. We decided to go as it was a lot of money, so we moved things around to make it work. We were still very excited to come stay at the hotel as we had heard great things about it and the photos we had seen online made it look amazing. When we arrived at the hotel we were informed that our room wasn't ready and we needed to wait for it. We were slightly early so we didn't mind. We went out for a bit and then came back for a couple drinks at the hotel bar. We were very disappointed to see some of the staff were very relaxed with their mask wearing, either pulling it down under their chin or nose. Also, customers were walking around without masks and the staff did nothing about it. This made us feel unsafe, and wondered what other details were being missed if something as big as COVID regulations were being ignored. When we got to our room we were let down. It was very small. Everything felt old and dirty. There was an odd smell in the room. The carpet was old and bunched up in areas. The TVs were at least 10-15 years old. The bed was horrible, it had massive sunken areas. We went out for an early dinner with friends and came back around 8. We laid down and tried to rest, and it was a very uncomfortable experience. That's when we decided to leave. We packed up and went downstairs, and met the person at the desk, who had his mask also pulled down. I said we were leaving and he said ok and went and caught our car. He did not ask once about why we were leaving. You would think that if a customer was leaving at 8:30pm instead of staying the night you would inquire about why they are leaving to see if there was something wrong. Before coming to this hotel we had stayed 2 nights at the Four Points in Niagara Falls. It is a basic hotel. That experience was so much better than what this hotel offered, and for a fraction of the cost. The Windsor Arms is supposed to provide a 5-star experience and what we experienced was one of the worst we have ever had at any hotel.…
We celebrated our wedding at the hotel 20 years ago and it was fine at the time but visited recently for our anniversary to enjoy a visit to the spa and lunch afterwards and were sadly disappointed. Ever since they added the private residences, the rest of the hotel has gone downhill - big time. The spa hasn't kept up with the times and is wildly over-priced; ditto for the restaurant, which features the same decor from 20 years ago. There are so many much better options in the Yorkville area now - avoid this tired old pile of crap; no one should pay top dollar for such a lousy environment.
Class and Service. This hotel is a throw back to more polite and "gentile" times. The room was luxurious . clean, piped in music, lights with dimmers. expresso machine. Beautiful decorations and photos of past famous patrons. If you can get a room here don't miss this UNIQUE hotel. Few of these wonderful old world hotels still exist.
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