Review: Opus Hotel, Vancouver

Vancouver's Opus Hotel has personality. Forget the muted colours and identikit rooms typical of North America. This is Canada's liberal-leaning, tree-hugging west coast city, so where better to open a hotel that doesn't conform?

The family-run Opus has been welcoming the cool, the chic and the famous since 2002 and has made it onto the Condé Nast Gold List for the past four years for good reason.

Situated downtown in the revitalised and ever-so-hip Yaletown neighbourhood, the 96-room hotel is a boutique property with a difference. Rooms are styled in bold colours according to the tastes of five imaginary ‘lifestyle concierges', Susan, Billy, Mike, Pierre and Dede. So while rockstar Billy's room is a lurid lime green, fashion exec Susan's room is an elegant deep blue.

Arriving not-so-fresh off a two-hour coach journey with bags trailing dirt through the lobby, eight-month-old son screaming for lunch and husband showing signs of strangling us, I'm not sure we're the kind of guests the Opus hopes to usher into its boutique domain.

The staff are super friendly and welcoming however, the atmosphere's laid back and the baby even has his own mini toiletries (Johnson's for him, L'Occitane for us). We feed him lunch in the bathroom though; this hotel's too posh for soup spillages.

Our cherry red room is smart and uncluttered and feels more like the apartment you yearn to own than a hotel. It's inspired by Mike, a doctor from New York who's into ‘outdoors, fitness, dancing and dogs' and the ‘gay and mixed scene'.

The room's kitted out with all the amenities you'd expect from a boutique property and more - unbelievably comfy kingsize bed, plush Frette bathrobes, iHome docking station, flatscreen TV, CD/DVD player, Wi-Fi, minibar and goodie drawer (rosemary raisin pecan crackers to complement your G&T and an ‘intimacy kit' if you're feeling saucy).

The emphasis is just as much on comfort and small touches as it is on style. The Herman Miller ergonomic desk chair beats any office seat I've used. And Mike's left a selection of his favourite books and music.

Bath time is an exhibitionist's dream. The bathroom has a massive window looking right into the bedroom. Some bathrooms have huge windows facing directly onto the street, so you can liven up the day of the office workers across the street. (In both cases there are blinds for more modest guests.)

The lifestyle concierge concept extends to the super fashionable Opus Bar, where each character has his or her signature cocktail; Mike's is a Manhattan of course.

Next door the Elixir bistro whips up a mean pancakes with vanilla bean maple syrup and blueberry compote for breakfast which will wipe out any lingering hangover.

And if you need a lift anywhere downtown, there's a complimentary BMW waiting outside or a couple of mountain bikes if you've got the energy to cycle round Stanley Park's seawall. Baby seats would be a good addition however.

Just occasionally the Opus feels a bit too cool for school. Does anyone actually use the in-room oxygen canisters? How about a good old-fashioned dose of local mountain air?

But if you're searching for stylish, design-focused accommodation which doesn't compromise on comfort, the Opus could be the perfect escape from the predictability of North American chain hotels.

The Opus Hotel
322 Davie Street, Vancouver V6B 5Z6, British Columbia, Canada
Tel: (604) 642 6787 or 1 866 642 6787.
Website: www.opushotel.com

Price: From C$209 in low season and C$309 in high season.

Getting there: A new Skytrain station opens right outside the hotel this autumn, putting the Opus just 22 minutes from Vancouver Airport.

Travel information: www.britishcolumbia.travel

14 August 2009