The Queen's Griffen

The Great: Queen's Griffin is located on a very cool street full of superb independent businesses. Every few paces provides something new and cool to experience. The entire Parkdale neighbourhood is cool! As soon as you enter the building, you are transported to a private getaway overlooking all of this old school Torontoness. We stayed in the patio suite, and yes, it has a nice big private patio with a great view. You feel like you won. The Good: The suite is good! It is super clean, there is a kitchen featuring a decent amount of counter space, and glassware is provided, which is great. The bathroom is nice, with modern fixtures, there are lots of storage cabinets to put things out of sight, and the bed is comfortable. What could be improved: There are no chairs or places to sit inside the suite. Yes, there are picnic tables and loungers out on the patio, which is great, but those are too big to bring inside. A couple of bar stools around the kitchen island would fix this. In the bathroom, the mirror is not hung on the wall, so it slumps forward, pushing the faucet lever shut. It's tough to manage. This could be fixed with a couple of nails. The shower head/water pressure is great, but is mounted so that water will blast right out into the rest of the bathroom if you are not super careful. The HVAC machine beside the bed is kind of a beast. I could sleep through the noise it made, but my wife could not. Overall, we were glad to be there and really enjoyed our stay. NOTE: Our booking advertised 24 hour check-in, but on the day of we found out it was at 4 pm. There are no staff on site, but they were easily reached via phone call or text and were super helpful.

Rooms were spacious and clean, a good location with great transit opportunities. Good choice if you can find a good deal!

I enjoyed my stay and would stay here again if the price was right. I stayed in the Thunderbird room, which was clean, had a kitchenette, outdoor patio, comfortable bed for two, tv, kettle and toaster, and lots of cupboards. The Thunderbird room also has a lovely outdoor rooftop patio. The area immediately around the Griffen has some delicious restaurants and a grocery store (and small mall) within a 30-second to 5-minute walking distance. I was surprised by a few things that did not bother me but may not appeal to some types of travelers: 1. I wasn't sure the best way to reach staff. Text and emails went unanswered. 2. There were three long staircases to climb to get to my room. One from the entrance to the second floor, one to get up to the thunderbird room from the second floor, and one upon entering the Thunderbird room itself. 3. I could not find any hangars or an iron/ironing board. 4. The bathroom is very cramped and there is no bath. The shower does not have a door. The mirror above the sink was not mounted, just placed on the sink countertop behind the faucet. Also note the rain-style shower head is up very high with an attached shower head on a hose, and a switch to switch between them. 5. The air conditioner is on the floor with an exhaust tube that goes out the window. I was unable to close the window fully. Let me qualify the points above as they may seem like dealbreakers, but were not to me: 1. Before arriving at the hotel I was sent three text messages over time that detailed everything I needed to know about arriving and checking in. My unanswered phone calls were just to confirm my Agoda booking in their system, and I sent a follow up text about another question saying I figured out what I needed, so they may have seen that and not replied. 2. I have no trouble with stair climbing, but some travelers or those with special needs might. 3. I was in town for business and wanted to iron my shirt or hang it in the bathroom while showering to steam out the wrinkles, but I had another which did not need ironing. 4. Water got all over the floor when showering. I did not need the shower head on the hose part, so the height did not bother me. One thing is that I did not know where to hang the towels after showering. 5. The temperature was fine that I didn't need the window closed, and there were no bugs that came in. Not sure if that is the case year round. If the window can be closed, I didn't see instructions on how, and didn't want to mess with the setup. One other thing I will note about the area is that it is about 15 minutes to an addiction and mental health centre. I met a number of colourful characters but had no trouble with anyone. The people working in the shops in the area were very warm and kind. All said, I had a pleasant stay, and the Griffen worked well for my purposes. I appreciated the extras in the room far more than the hassle of the quirks I listed. If you decide to stay here, I think you will enjoy it and hope this review helped you.