I stayed at the Zephyr building for 1 month in apartment 3 and had to quarantine due to the government guidelines at the time.
I’ve written a detailed review of my stay at the building.
=Summary=
The apartment is a good size for 1 person but if you are two people it can be a bit cramped. There is more than enough storage space for your bags and other items. The bathroom is decent and has a good built-in shower within the bath. As per usual with Airbnb’s, remember to bring all your toiletries which is standard practice. The Safeway store down stairs has everything you’ll need in terms of groceries, toiletries etc.
The apartment has all the necessary features you’d expect, washer/dryer, TV, separate table to eat at, good bed.
=Location=
I didn’t need to get to the city centre that often so the location was fine for me, but I can see how the location could be a problem if you needed to get to the city centre everyday. Though you can just Uber around town with ease. The costs stack up fast though.
There is a Safeway grocery store downstairs, London Drugs and liquor store nearby. Short walk to English Bay and the seawall.
=Minor Inconveniences and Issues=
What is lacking however is, no clothing drying rack (not all clothes can be put in a dryer), no broom to sweep the floors with. Only a mop is available which means you can’t easily get rid of dust.
There were unfortunately some notable issues, the building access code the first time you enter at check in does not work and goes to voice mail Or an automated message will say the door is open but the door does not open. I had to call concierge, who’s situated in Montreal, who are very helpful by the way and they gave me “alternative building access codes” to try which eventually got me after 15 minutes of trying.
Access to the building is a huge problem for grocery, Amazon and FedEx deliveries/pickups as we experienced these problems multiple times.
There is no intercom within the apartment which means if someone dials the building code at the building entrance, you’ll have no idea someone is at the entrance as it seems to dial the Corporate Stays hotline which goes to a waiting room and you may or may not get an answer which resulted in the aforementioned delivery problems.
Shortly after arriving to the building I asked to link my phone number to the intercom so we could at least open the door for deliveries, this took 3 business days (excluding weekends/holidays) to complete and a total wait time of 5 days as the request was made on a Saturday and there was a public holiday on the Monday. This resulted in x2 FedEx pickups that were missed meaning my day 8 Covid tests reached the lab several days late.
Pots and pans were soiled and not cleaned.
We asked whether an earlier check in was possible, “additional fee of $79 CAD ” was the response, even if you wanted to check in an hour earlier at 3pm, we did not go for this option. To add to the confusion, when you receive the “check in instructions” it says “Your suite will be ready as of 11:00 am on your arrival day and you may check-in anytime after that.”, with no mention of a fee.
The elevators are VERY slow, surprising for a building built in 2020, 5 minute waits are not uncommon. This is no fault of Corporate Stays of course, I mention this for future guests so they can plan ahead :-)
The building walls, floor/ceiling is not sound insulated very well, so you can hear footsteps and light talking. This is minor and wasn’t much of an issue but surprising for such a new building.
Not an issue, but finding the central garbage bin within the building can be challenging to find the first time, the advice given is “Located on P1”, but the reality is that you need to walk across a large parking lot, approx. 30-40 meters, enter through 2 doorways, and there is no signage. This of course is more of a building problem and not Corporate Stays problem, but what they can do is provide a better explanation.
As with most of Vancouver the building is pet friendly, I did not have a pet with me, but there were other Airbnb guests who did (Corporate Stays rents the entire floor of 6 apartments) and they would leave the poor dog alone locked up in the apartment for hours, resulting in the dog barking constantly for hours, days and weeks. I finally complained a few days before I left when I got woken up to the dog barking before 7am in the morning. Concierge was very quick to respond and apologetic, it’s their guests fault and not theirs :-) after all.
=Verdict=
I would recommend Corporate Stays, they seem to have a good customer support process and team backing the apartments. Staff are friendly when you call or email, please continue doing this :-)
However, because Corporate Stays is located in Montreal, 3 hours ahead of Vancouver, if you have any issues that require assistance in Vancouver, all the customer support staff can do is give you stock information that isn’t much different from the Check In guide that gets sent to you.
If you’re looking to book this place I’d recommend it, it’s just that in my circumstances where I had to quarantine it was very difficult to manage deliveries as I couldn’t leave the apartment.
=Advice to Corporate Stays=
You absolutely need customer support staff working in the location where a building is situated or at least in the same timezone so staff can resolve issues in person and on the same day. (As far as I know, they now have staff available and a separate Vancouver concierge email)
Consider updating the building guide