“We chose this hotel because it is very close to the University of Toronto and had great online reviews, but we ended up extremely disappointed.
Right after booking, we received an email asking guests to bring cash or a debit card and requiring that the card be checked to confirm it belongs to the guest. The wording of the email was full of distrust toward customers. When we arrived, they also insisted on photocopying our photo ID, which felt like unnecessary and excessive collection of personal information. Their explanation was that they needed it for the insurance company or the police ‘in case something happens,’ which made us feel very unsafe staying there.
We stayed in Room 4 on the second floor and found that the building was an old, poorly designed house. The stairs were extremely steep, the shared bathroom was very small and had no shampoo or body wash, and the floors, walls, and ceiling were all uneven with patchy paint. The walls in our room had cracks, and the ceiling looked as if it might collapse onto the walls. window in the room was tiny, and in case of a fire, it would be impossible to escape. During our two-day stay, we never saw a single smile from the staff. This is the worst hotel I have ever stayed at in North America in terms of both infrastructure and service.
I really don’t understand how such an old, seemingly makeshift building could be approved by government authorities as a hotel, nor how it received so many perfect scores and ‘excellent’