Vancouver Airport Hotels

[wdw1972]

May 2025 we'll be embarking in Vancouver, flying in from Florida. I've booked the 2 nights before the cruise at Pan Pacific - never been to Vancouver, may never return, so wanted to do it up nice! However, flying from FL the flights generally don't get until until late evening. The one I plan to book gets in at 10:55pm. Given the price of Pan Pacific, I don't want to pay $$$$ to arrive around midnight, so I'm planning to fly in the day before. My thinking is spend that night at an airport hotel with a free shuttle, then next morning shuttle back to the airport to catch the train to the waterfront station and walk the short distance to Pan Pacific. 

 

When searching airport hotels I came across Accent Inn, with very good reviews and the few requirements I need (free shuttle, free wifi). Anyone familiar with it? Looking for verification it's ok, or a recommendation of another hotel if Accent Inn is too sketchy.  Thanks in advance!

 

Sue/WDW1972

[d9704011]

I stayed at Accent Inn once and did not care for it.  I suggest you take a look at the Holiday Inn Express near the airport; additionally, you may want to consider walking from HIE to Bridgeport metro station in morning to take Canada Line downtown.  It's easy enough to do and will save having to pay the airport supplement on using the train.

[martincath]

+1 to taking SkyTrain from a station that isn't on Sea Island (if you pick an airport hotel that isn't conveniently-walkable, ask their shuttle driver to drop you off at the nearest station instead of back at the hotel - it's a common request).

 

Several modest chain hotels are close enough to the Canada Line to do that trick, so if you collect points (or have them to spend) you might find one that's compatible. Never having stayed in the Accent myself, my second-hand impression from those who have is that it's perfectly adequate if you only need a clean and safe room for the night (and for cruise parking especially) - it's just a bit out of the way for dining and entertainment options, even compared to other airport hotels.

 

The advantage to a hotel close to Bridgeport is that the lines merge, so trains are twice as often as from the airport or the other terminus at Brighouse, but on a weekday morning you're still looking at 6-7min frequency - it's really just folks who plan to stay a couple of nights and go sightseeing downtown, returning in the evening that find service frequency a real factor (just miss a train and you have a 20min wait for the next one), but for your purposes any hotel close to any station is perfectly practical - e.g. Aberdeen Station where it doesn't get more convenient in terms of walking with luggage than from the Radisson just across the street.

 

Price-wise though, it's rare for even an airport hotel to cost less than the YWCA Hotel downtown - which might save you enough to take a cab instead of SkyTrain on arrival, and is also less than a mile from the pier so a <$10 cab ride if you avoid peak cruise boarding time to transfer to the PP next day with your bags. It also sometimes quicker to take a cab or Uber from YVR to downtown late at night - less than 30mins to many downtown hotels with no traffic - than to shuttle to a hotel in Richmond (with only one bus each, and no dedicated drivers, when you call them the theoretical 10-15min drive can easily be 30-45mins for the driver to stop doing their other tasks, fire up the bus, get to you and bring you back - and that assumes no wait for other folks who might have called ahead on cellphones from baggage claim and haven't made it to the shuttlebus pickup point yet...)