Fairmont Empress 4 stars

I stayed here for a hockey tournament and was very happy with my experience. Although the hot tub and pool was closed they gave us access to a near by hotels facilities. Very cool building in the heart of the city. Definitely want to go back

All the staff very pleasant the room wuss very nice

We were very upset to see the "renovations". Much of the historic charm is lost with a push towards modernism. This doesn't make sense for a historic hotel like the Empress. The paper "lamp-shades" hiding the beautiful old chandeliers were absurd. The very unattractive art above the fireplaces in the tea room was awful. The nice old-world furniture has been replaced by very unattractive contemporary ugliness. Our room looked newly redone and felt like little more than a Comfort Inn room. Very bland.

We were hoping to use the swimming pool and heated pool but dissapointed that it wasn’t available for use. We were not informed ahead about it and even on the website, it was not stated pool is innacessible. They could have just offered us room upgrade to make up for it. We only booked for one night and thought we could just stay the rest of our day in the hotel and enjoy some amenities.

Main hotel smells excessively like perfume. It was unpleasant to be in the lobby area due to the perfume smell and my room had an excessive smell of febreeze. The restaurant was closed on Monday so I couldn't experience the food, and the bar food was limited and nothing special. The proximity to the conference center was amazing. Nice staff at the hotel throughout and good service.