Sandman Hotel & Suites Vancouver Airport

It’s an okay hotel, nothing really that I was impressed about but also there was nothing to complain about. I booked the king suite for $ 149 USD the day before my boyfriend and I stayed in it. It was a super quick book and we had no troubling finding the place. The suite was a little darker than it was in the photos online and there’s only two main light: the bathroom and the light in front of the door. The suite was pretty spacious so it wasn’t crampy in there. Wish we had a better view but it was just a roof of the balcony by the outdoor pool. I love how Denny’s was connected to hotel because CHOP’s room service was expensive as hell. I’m not going to pay $ 12 for a fruit parfait or pay for half a chicken for 20.00 plus tax and the delivery charge, etc… lol sorry.
Anyways back to reviewing the hotel, it was super clean and it was a light lit hotel so it looked pretty classy and romantic. Not bad but not anything to rave about.

Horrible. Just completely horrible. The worst hotel I EVER TRIED having business with. I’m from Seattle, Wa and as I called in days before– trying to make reservations they did everything quick over the phone. I’ve asked and called in many times to make sure how much is 1 night, they gave me a price in CAD. Then I had asked if that could be converted to USD for me and they had given me a reasonable price. As I agreed, I gave them my card to place in hold giving them my information. And when I got there ready to check in, they had told me a different price, completely different from the phone. I had let that go and was willing to pay for it too, however after I had agreed the front desk employees told me I must pay an extra deposit of $ 100 over the amount for one night if I paid in cash. If I pay in card, they’ll charge me $ 50. They are not clear with their words and likes to change things up every time you are trying to negotiate. As that said, we cancelled the rooms. On the phone before I booked they had told me if I cancel I will be charged that is why they had taken my card information on hold, now the employees told me I won’t be charged. Bit they had already taken my information. So I requested a consent letter stating that I will be charged of zero. Hopefully I won’t be. As we wanted to leave the manager had given us the nastiest attitude you can expect. Horrible business. Horrible hospitality. Horrible. If there was a choice of star ratings of no stars they’ll get a negative!

I’m not sure why this hotel is rated so poorly. While I wouldn’t give it a 4* rating, I would like to give it 3.5*. There have been obvious renovations made since most of the low ratings were awarded (were the renos made *because* of the poor ratings?). My other half and I stayed here for the past weekend, as it was close to the venue for my FIL’s retirement party. We were happy with the proximity to the Canada Line skytrain (10 minutes’ walk, albeit on very busy streets) and our spacious king room. Our room also had a little bar area (with bar fridge) outside of the bathroom, which would have been utilized if our meals had not been provided by family and the aforementioned party. Everything was clean and the mattress was fine, if a bit saggy; it was too bad that the sinks were clogged. The free wifi was faster than I expected, which is always a bonus!
The clerk at check-​in was really nice. The clerk at check-​out needs to smile more and pretend she likes her job.
Overall, I’d stay here again if I were in the area.

Stayed on top floor fully renovated everything was perfect. Front desk guy was awesome.

Don’t confuse this place with Sandman Signature, which is the one with the Steve Nash sports gym. This one is more like the ugly stepsister where Air Canada will stick you when your international flight is delayed for 7 hours and you miss your connecting flight.
Although this place isn’t as bad as some of the reviews make it sound, there are definite improvements that need to be made by the hotel management. First off, the hotel knew way in advance that this hotel was going to be absolutely packed because of the delayed flight (plus the cancelled flight the day before), yet when I arrived, the place was severely understaffed.
There was one guy at the front desk, and he had to manage about 30 guests at one time, not to mention answering the constantly ringing phone and taking care of already checked in guests… poor guy. Needless to say, I waited over an hour to be checked in, and by that time, there weren’t any non-​smoking rooms available. But thankfully, the guy was extremely apologetic and offered me their best room on the house, the 2 story loft.
The 2 story loft is actually pretty nice; it’s extremely spacious and you have a kitchen, bar, living room area, and an office desk (see pictures). The bed is a king size so there’s also plenty of room with a flat screen TV and it’s well air conditioned.
It also seemed at the time they were running out of rooms, yet more people were being sent here. That may be more of Air Canada’s fault, but still… there seemed to be a poor effort of coordination between the hotel and the airline.
Some other tips while staying here…
— Pack your own toothbrush/​toothpaste; they charge $ 3 here.
— If you need to take a shuttle to the airport, make sure you tell the front desk to reserve a spot; otherwise the shuttle won’t come and you risk missing your flight
— They must have upgraded their wifi, I had no problems connecting and didn’t experience any slow connection.

I was given a room for two days free because my sister from Seattle was unable to come and visit so she was kind enough to give it me. let’s just say that I’m happy that the room was free because parking cost me about $ 18 for two days– no complimentary parking here. As other reviewers have stated the free wi-​fi here sucks, really slow-​reminds me of dial up! The room was ok and the bed was comfy but everything looked quite dated and needed new design to spruce up the place. Only positive was the staff who were friendly and courteous. Location is very convenient to downtown Richmond or a 20 minute drive to downtown Vancouver. If you like to gamble then head over to River Rock casino just 5 minutes away.

My buddy and I feel this place is solid. Great Jacuzzi and free access to Steve Nash’s Gym. Great place for a few nights stay if your needing to be close to the airport or ferry. People at the desk are very helpful

Decent place to rest at. The furniture inside the rooms are not the newest, but they didn’t look old either. The front desk personnel was helpful and very professional, given how understaffed and stressed they were that day I was there. However, I nuked two stars off this place because of the poor wifi connection. For whatever reason, it was extremely slow and unreliable; I kept on getting booted out.
If you are just looking for a place to rest without any internet connection, this place may be for you. However, if the latter is important to you, then I would not recommend this place. Given how many hotels there are in Richmond/​Vancouver, I don’t see myself coming back here.

I recently spent a week in this hotel while traveling for business.
Let me get to the important thing:
THE INTERNET CONNECTION WAS SLOW AND UNRELIABLE! DO NOT STAY HERE!
Ok, now that that’s out of the way…
The hotel décor is very dated and the elevator takes ages to arrive. My room was interesting, the bed was upstairs in a sort of loft configuration, with a window-​unit air conditioner down in the lower part of the room. Which means the bed area was often very warm. The downstairs TV was on a little cart and was tucked under the stairs, near the couch. Unfortunately, the TV was tethered to the wall and there wasn’t enough tether to allow the TV to be seen from the desk where the direct internet connection was available, or to be used as a second monitor for my laptop while connected to the internet. DID I MENTION HOW SLOW THE INTERNET CONNECTION WAS??? Both the wired and wifi connections were inadequate and complaints to the desk achieved nothing.
There was also some mold on the ceiling near the door of my room and the light fixture in the bathroom was rusty. When the bathroom lights turned on, they flickered so much at first that every morning I wondered if it was going to be time for me experience a grand mal.
I’ll not be staying here again.

They’re «upgrading». i say they need to try harder. high speed internet is about dsl, i think. our room was supposed to be on the floor that was already completed upgrade-​wise but it really i think they just put in a small flat screen tv and that’s it. womp womp. still, it’s mad cheap and mad convenient with clean sheets and clean towels if you’re kickin’ it in richmond. staff was friendly enough so if you’re low budget like me and seriously dgaf (also like me). you could do worse (like sleeping under and overpass).

Very dated, very worn out, badly maintained and terribly designed. I stayed here only becauseit was close to the River Rock and had some sandman points to use up. A friend was having his 40^th b-​day there and having earned a free night from all my stays at the sandman kelowna (the exective tower there is brand new with cutting edge design) we decided to book a room here. Bad idea. This place is worn and dated with the cheapest of the cheap fixtures– see the pictures I posted. I’m not picky, I’ll stay anywhere as long as the sheets and shower are clean, but I’d have a hard time paying more than $ 20/​night here. The rack rate on our room was $ 219… hello! Needs a gut and re-​do.
Moxies downstairs is a great spot for lunch or drinks though.

I did not enjoy my stay here one bit.
Aside from having friendly staff, I would only recommend this place if the rate was extremely cheap and you only need to spend one night here before catching a flight.
I was ‘upgraded’ to a loft suite (as were my coworkers); if that was an upgrade, I would hate to see what the other rooms are like. The carpet felt grungy and the kettle available in the fully stocked kitchenette was filthy. I don’t think I would feel comfortable eating in that room. There were 13 steps on a narrow staircase leading up to the bedroom. The bed was fine, but the TVs (one upstairs, one downstairs) are old and the remotes + buttons actually on the TV barely work. The downstairs television is stored underneath the staircase, so you have to pull it out and roll it in order to watch. Once you do that though, you have this major obstacle to get around if you need to go to the washroom or the door. The air conditioning is really loud, but like the person before me said, if you turn it off the room gets too stuffy. It also doesn’t reach the bedroom upstairs, so even with it on there was no cool air (or air circulation) reaching the bed.
They advertise high speed internet, but it was more like no speed internet. I didn’t even bother using it for the entire week I stayed there. As an avid internet user and being there on business, it was very inconvenient.
I hope I won’t have to return.

This property is dated and not impressive. Second floor has smoking rooms — avoid if you are a non-​smoker. Rooms near the ice machine can be very noisy.
Most rooms have a mini-​fridge, but not all. The mini-​suites and loft rooms have a stocked kitchenette: coffee maker, kettle, dishes, cutlery, corkscrew, microwave. The air-​conditioner is noisy, but can’t be turned off or else the room gets very stuffy. The beds are comfortable but the bedding is thin Vellux blankets. The lofts have a king-​sized bed (and TV) upstairs, with the bathroom, kitchenette, couch and a second TV on the main level. Going down the narrow stairs when you have to use the bathroom in the middle of the night can be a bit hazardous.
There is free wired Internet access but no WiFi. There is a business center room for guests with 2 computers and a printer.
The front desk staff are always very kind & friendly. There is a Moxie’s in the lobby — menu is a bit pricey but it’s a good restaurant.
Try to get an odd numbered room. Even numbers face the highway and can be quite noisy.