A high-rise condominium in downtown Toronto, located next to Scotiabank Arena sounds excellent, right? Toronto is a global city getting a nice hotel downtown can be pricey. That’s why when we came across RivetStays on York Street, we were shocked by the price. RivetStays are high-rise condo in the heart of downtown; and our stay only cost us $200 a night during spring break! While we booked through Hotels.com, the stay felt very similar to a modern Airbnb.
The pictures looked nice, but I expected the place to be a bit run down because of the price. I was wrong, we got there and the condos are newly built and modern. Shortly before arrival we found out we were staying in the “low-rise” suites…only floor 36. RivetStays is part of the ICE Condominiums, two high rises towering downtown Toronto. The lobby is modern and the key pickup went smooth enough. Tired and all, we headed up to our suite. One thing we noticed was the lineup to the elevator could be quite long, especially for the high-rise suites… luckily we were in the top floor of the low-rise elevators.
Rooms & Kitchen
Like the lobby the suite was modern and clean. It wasn’t overly fancy, but the suite was nice. There was a front entrance, a kitchen, a small living room, a modern washroom and a regular bedroom with a large and comfortable bed.
There was a smart TV and large, but bare balcony. We were on the 36th floor so the view was nice, but in Toronto that’s considered low; so, despite being nice the view was slightly obstructed. But we could see the CN Tower, Rogers Centre and Scotiabank Arena all from our balcony. It was nice being so central.
The kitchen had everything you need including an oven and stove, microwave, fridge and coffee maker. They even had some basics like sugar and coffee. We wanted to eat good in Toronto, so we saved money for lunch and dinner by cooking breakfast. And to our surprise, we were right across the street from Longo’s a nice supermarket.
Location
Being next to Longo’s was nice, especially since we had a small, but full kitchen. And even better was the central location of the hotel. We were a 5-minute walk from the CN Tower and Rogers Centre if you were planning to watch a Blue Jay Game or just explore the area. An 5 minutes in the other direction was the Scotiabank Center to watch the Raptors or the Leafs. There were also plenty of bars, restaurants, and even Round House Park and Harbour Front within walking distance. We were also a 10-minute walk from Union Station. The location couldn’t get any better.
Final Thoughts
The location was unreal, the building and suites were modern, and it had everything you needed including a full kitchen. The only problem was the air conditioning/heat didn’t seem to work. It was early spring so normally you shouldn’t need AC yet, but at night the room got very hot. We tried and tried, but the thermostat wouldn’t work. Although we didn’t bother to call anyone to fix it, we just opened the windows and sweated it out. There was also no room cleaning, which was expected. To dispose of garbage, we dropped it down a garbage shoot down the hall so that wasn’t bad. But little things like that are why RivetStays is only ranked as a 3 star.
But all in all, it had everything we needed, it was clean and the location was fantastic. I loved staying downtown Toronto, especially for $200 a night. If we come back, we’d definitely stay at RivetStays again. And for solo travel, couples or even families with one small kid, I’d recommend it.
To Book:
Add comment
Comments