LauraC10274
Couples · August 202510/10
Where to begin about this hotel? The excellent rooms? The just-right level of service - available when you need it, never intruding when you don’t? The great breakfasts at One Kitchen? Frankly, it...Where to begin about this hotel? The excellent rooms? The just-right level of service - available when you need it, never intruding when you don’t? The great breakfasts at One Kitchen? Frankly, it’s hard to choose.
We’ve stayed at One Hotel in Toronto once before, and to my husband, the hotel has now become nicknamed, “The Nice Hotel”. As in, “When we go to Toronto, can we stay at the Nice Hotel again?” How could I say no to that? So, we happily returned to the property for a second stay.
The room, as with our prior visit, was pristine, relaxing. It was one of their smaller rooms, but was so perfectly designed that we could easily put away all of our things and not have suitcases constantly underfoot. I covet the cabinetry with the excellent pocket doors that fold out of the way when needed. The bathroom has a wonderful setup with the sink divided away from the toilet and shower area with pocket doors. There’s no mystery light switches, everything is clearly labeled so you don’t need to play lighting roulette when trying to go to bed at night. The mattress was so comfortable. We both got wonderful sleep each night of our stay.
Sadly, I don’t have the name of the excellent staffer who checked us in at the hotel, but, the room they picked for us was exactly what we needed - quiet and far from the noise of the elevator.
Valet parking service was immaculate, albeit for first time visitors to the hotel, it can be a little tricky to find, as it’s around the corner from the actual hotel entrance. We also took advantage of the Audi car service one night to go out to a restaurant. Many thanks to Jayjay, Ali, and Kiraz for taking excellent care of us and our car. They were able to retrieve the car and have it loaded for us with amazing speed when we were departing.
Housekeeping services are excellent, and deliveries were promptly dispatched to the room. Honestly, with service like this, it’s tempting to just stay in the whole time!
But even a pearl sometimes can have minor flaws. And these are truly minor. I’m not a fan of the shower system in the rooms at this property, because you have to switch off the water to swap between the hand spray and the rainfall. A minor thing, to be sure, but it’s not intuitive. Someday I hope they decide to include a bidet seat for the toilets at the property, as we do end up bringing a portable bidet on our visits. I’m still not wild about hotels swapping to shared toiletries between visitors, even if the practice is more economically/environmentally sound. I just have some trust issues with such things, even though they’ve become more common. It would have been nice to have a mini refrigerator, instead of just the minibar. The television has the spare HDMI port locked out, so we were unable to use a game console we’d brought with us for a grudge match of Super Mario Cart. But again, these are some seriously minor quibbles for an absolute gem of a property with amazing staff.
This property does charge resort fees. I much prefer everything be in the room rate so we know the full nightly cost up front when we reserve, so again, a minor quibble. (Clearly, we’re not the exact target market for this property, as we do have to maintain a budget while we travel, even if we do splurge on a nice room like this for some trips!).
This hotel secures the guest floor access with keycards; it’s a great practice all hotels should do. The door on the room also had good quality locks and kept the room feeling secure. Again, design here is down to the very last detail for comfort of the guests.
If you do breakfast at the Kitchen in the hotel, definitely try out the Croque Madame and the Sweet Potato waffle. Both are amazing, even if the overall prices at the restaurant can be a bit startling for breakfast. (These prices are on a par with similar luxury properties in NYC, so again, likely a case of us not habitually dining at upscale establishments.) Service is once again at the just-right level, which can be a rare thing in restaurants.
So, if you’re looking for an oasis in Toronto, I honestly think you can’t do better than our experiences at ‘the nice hotel’. I hope it will be in our budget to return there again soon.Show More
