Hotel Belmont Vancouver MGallery

Hotel Belmont Vancouver MGallery occupies a building that spent decades as a budget chain hotel before Pacific Reach Properties renovated it in 2019 and reopened it as an independent boutique property. On 1 December 2021 it joined Accor's MGallery Hotel Collection, the first Canadian address in the brand, with 82 rooms over five storeys.

The place

The hotel is at 654 Nelson Street, at the corner of Nelson and Granville Street, in Vancouver's Granville Entertainment District.

Rogers Arena, the Vancouver Art Gallery and BC Place are all within walking distance. Accor's other Vancouver hotels are the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, Fairmont Pacific Rim, Fairmont Waterfront and Fairmont Vancouver Airport, so the Belmont is the group's one MGallery in the city.

The concept

Vancouver firm Parr & Fee designed the building, which opened as the Barron Hotel. Sources give 1908, 1911 or 1912 for its construction, and one account says the Canadian Pacific Railway's wish to draw business near its Granville Street terminal spurred it. It became the Belmont Hotel in 1925 and later passed through the Nelson Place Hotel and Dakota Hotel names before ending up as a Comfort Inn. The property has hosted many performers over the years, Michael Bublé early in his career among them.

Pacific Reach Properties bought it in 2017 and worked with CHIL Interior Design on an extensive renovation that kept Edwardian-era details, among them wallpaper on the lobby ceiling and carpet run up the walls of the guest corridors. Historic Hotels of America dates the reopening as the Belmont to 2021, while other accounts say 2019; the independent hotel traded from spring 2019 before the Accor deal.

The bar and neon-lit public areas are done in flamingo pink and sea-foam green, a retro-modern look with art on the walls. Rooms have Nespresso machines and Marshall-branded mini-fridges. Pacific Reach kept ownership when the hotel joined MGallery, which Accor created in 2008, and guests earn points in the ALL loyalty programme.

Dining & wellness

The Living Room is the full-service restaurant and lounge, and serves a daily buffet breakfast. The bar shares the pink and green palette of the lobby.

Two private rooms, The Den and The Kitchen, are set aside for small events and gatherings.