Xenios Suites

The only good part was being close to Byward Market. Our stay was noisy despite the supposed quiet hours, with a loud party and music on the floor above. The toilet didn’t work, and instead of getting a plumber, they said it would be fixed the next day. At nearly 9 pm they offered us a room on another floor in the walk-up. The bathroom exhaust fan did nothing, the shower water couldn’t be controlled and was scalding hot, and there was no smoke detector. The range hood vent didn’t vent anywhere, which is illegal and a fire hazard. The top step from the sidewalk was an inch and a half higher than the others, extremely dangerous and not to code. I would never stay there again.

The studio was hospital clean, the bed was really comfortable, and it had everything we needed. I’m surprised by all the bad and one-star reviews. The location is very central, within walking distance of the World Heritage locks, market, and historical buildings. The price is a bit high, and there are some strange people outside, but we never felt unsafe.

We booked the Mega Deluxe 2 double bed studio for four nights, but there was nothing mega deluxe about the place. The location was very convenient and central, and the beds, pillows, sheets, and bedding were clean and comfortable. The hand and bath towels were clean too. There was no reception desk, and the booking details didn’t give us a floor number, so we had to ask cleaning staff to direct us to our room. There’s no internal lift or elevator, and the top step to level one has a much higher rise than normal or safe. We had to be careful constantly, and it seemed genuinely dangerous. I’d be surprised if it complied with building standards. The building air conditioning wasn’t working. They’d installed an in-room unit with a tube venting through a window, but there was no manual, so I had to find one online. With outside temperatures in the low 30s every day, we ran it 24/7 and still couldn’t get the room below 26C on hot nights, even though we wanted 23C-24C. The fan stayed on high unless we set the temperature above 26C, so it was too loud to watch TV and we needed ear plugs to sleep. The television remote didn’t work either; with no manual, I found one online and reset the TV. There were no tea or coffee supplies or coffee machine, face tissues, kitchen or tea towels, or face washers. Dishes from previous guests were left in the sink, the stovetop rangehood filter was filthy, and there was no water jug for the fridge. The IKEA saucepans weren’t assembled, with handles missing and knobs not attached to lids. The bathroom fan didn’t work, and the internal security door latch was broken. There were large gaps around the entry door, letting a bothersome amount of bright corridor light into the room at night. We used pillows every night to block light from underneath the door.

We got a clean, quiet, modern room with full-sized appliances, and the price was very reasonable. The location made exploring the city easy, with the Byward Market about a 90-second walk away. We’ll definitely stay here again!