Booking room in Vancouver w/ American dollars?

I've never stayed in a hotel out of the US, so I'm not sure how it works. :)

I booked a room at the Best Western Chateau Granville for June 2018, post-cruise staying one night and taking Amtrak to Seattle the next morning. Chose that since it has 2 double beds and a sofa bed for the three of us ladies. I booked via booking.com. The price it gave me is American ($245, $286 w/ taxes and fees) along w/ the current CAD exchange amount ($361.70 CAD). If/when the exchange rate changes, I'm still locked into my American rate and they will charge my CC (no foreign exchange fees on it) for whatever the exchange amount is at the time of our stay, right?

Hope that is a good location. We will be sightseeing after getting off the cruise via trolley/bus. We will take the early train to Seattle Mon AM, hopefully leave our bags at train station and sightsee some downtown and then transport to an airport hotel for the night and fly home Tues AM.

If it is prepaid, then you pay the current rate,. If it is pay-when-you-stay, it will be billed in CAD at whatever the conversion rate is at that time. The hotel may offer to bill you in USD but that is often at a poorer exchange rate.

In my experience the hotel will bill in CAD what they think is the equivalent of the USD value. But ... it is the credit card company that determines the exchange rate that is applied. So the actual amount you are charged can vary a bit.

I did not do prepaid even though it was around $35 cheaper. One, Our trip is not set in stone; if a better price comes up on a cruise on a different date, we may change. Two, we have not decided for sure if we will spend that Sunday night in Vancouver or Seattle. I'm thinking if we have to catch the Sunday evening train to Seattle, that will make us too rushed in any sightseeing. Also, the BW I booked is most likely cheaper than a downtown Seattle hotel we would need since we would be arriving so late Sunday night. :D BW has free cancellation until two days before the check in date, so I went ahead and booked it. Can cancel if need be.

If the American amount does not change, I'm good with that. That's the amount I am using in my trip budget. Thanks!

It's an OK location. I've stayed there twice, once three nights for a three-day photography workshop, and once for a 1-night cruise back to Seattle. It's in an area that has a lot of homeless folks nearby, but go 2-3 blocks towards the cruise terminal and it starts to clean up a bunch. I ended up unloading about $40k of photography equipment a half block away and the few people who walked by just kept on walking.

Yes, you can book that hotel in USD, and they do charge you in USD as agreed.

if you're really concerned about exactly what your cost will be I'd ask the hotel directly - my experience, including in BW hotels, has been the same as the 'roach: pay in advance using the currency specified on the the booking site, or pay the hotel directly in local currency at time of stay (or if you opt to pay in a non-local currency at the front desk, get hit with the usual 'convenience fee' worse exchange rate which you should definitely not do if your own credit card has no fee).

In short, my expectation is that your rate is not locked in at US286$ but at CAD362$ and you'll pay an actual rate based on the exchange rate at the time of stay not booking. Peety's experience paying in USD may have been booking direct with BW.com, or using a currency autochange at checkout, or using a different agency than booking.com, or pre-paying - not clear from the comment above?

First time was booked with BW.com, and you could easily pick between the two currencies on the site. Second time was through a travel agent.

There are a surprising number of businesses in Canada that thrive on tourist business and offer a choice of currency. The southbound duty free shop at the Peace Arch offers both, which surprised me beyond belief. I also know of a unique RV business in Calgary that allows purchases of $85,000 vehicles in USD.

^Thanks for clarifying; since OP booked through a different method than you they should check for first-hand info from Booking.com and/or the hotel directly.

With our comparatively tiny population, 90% of which lives within 100km of the border and many of whom are closer to large US cities than large Canadian ones, plus the whole 'longest undefended border' thing I'd be more surprised if it was NOT common to accept USD! Before the Euro, there were many cities near borders across Europe that would run multiple cash-drawers - Maastricht I recall had three separate trays for Dutch/Belgian/German currency in almost every store. Anything that makes it easier to part tourists from their money without incurring more costs than the extra income generated will be done;-)

Of course this does not mean that the exchange rate for USD is as good as the interbank one - quite the opposite generally, especially for smaller cash transactions (although I'd wager that anyone buying an RV or similar-expensive item would be offered a competitive rate).

When booking hotels in other countries I would always pay the rate with my credit card in the currency of the country in which the hotel is located.

Your credit card with no fees for currency conversion , will always give you a better rate than letting a hotel booking site change currency for you!

if your based in the USA then you may try booking with Tourism Vancouver. Call 1800-hello bc and compare their rates. Chateau Granville is an older hotel with large room in the Granville area. Its not unsafe but Granville is the 'entertainment' zone so can get louder at night. If your using this for sightseeing then it will be fine.

I will have my earplugs because I will be with two big snorers :D. I will tell them to bring theirs along, also. With it being a Sunday night, maybe it won't be quite as rowdy, LOL.

Fair warning: in-room internet in that hotel is really strange. They deliver wired internet to the back of the TV, then put an el cheapo Wifi router on the back of the TV. The in-room info book has the Wifi network name and password on page 11 (I think). Because there are plenty of rooms, the list of networks to pick from can be a mile long, and at least on an iPhone you can't see the last few characters (which matter most in this case) so you kinda have to guess and see what you get.

Fair warning: in-room internet in that hotel is really strange. They deliver wired internet to the back of the TV, then put an el cheapo Wifi router on the back of the TV. The in-room info book has the Wifi network name and password on page 11 (I think). Because there are plenty of rooms, the list of networks to pick from can be a mile long, and at least on an iPhone you can't see the last few characters (which matter most in this case) so you kinda have to guess and see what you get.

Hopefully we will be too worn out to even need to bother w/ internet, but thanks for the info. Hopefully if there is an issue w/ the train, they will send a text. That reminds me, I better see if my sis will be able to use her Verizon phone in Canada.

Hopefully we will be too worn out to even need to bother w/ internet, but thanks for the info. Hopefully if there is an issue w/ the train, they will send a text. That reminds me, I better see if my sis will be able to use her Verizon phone in Canada.

I found in-room Internet to be rather useful for the sake of not paying through the nose for roaming charges. I simply kept my phone in airplane mode, then enabled Wifi in the room. That allowed me to Facetime with my wife without actually making a "real" phone call at Canadian prices.

Note that if you do enable your phone for use in Canada, and you have an iPhone, there's a "switch" in the settings to disable data roaming. If you enabled your plan for Canada with data, you'll need to flip that switch to be able to use cellular data. (It meant that my phone couldn't do real-time navigation as it couldn't get traffic and routing data until I discovered the switch.)

None of us have IPhone. Sis and her BFF have some version of a Samsung (sis is Verizon, BFF is US Cellular). I have Tracfone up until this week I had an LG Sunset phone. It bit the dust at only 4 months old, and I am having a hard time getting Tracfone to honor their warranty, so who knows what IO will have come next June. Won't be an IPhone, though. I only use my phone for calls, a little texting and occasional internet when I am somewhere w/ wifi (use data only if necessary). I'm not a big phone person.

Sis is my only family left, and she will be with me on the trip, so I won't have anyone I need to contact. If my phone doesn't work in Canada, it's no big deal.