The Vance Hotel, Seattle Submitted by Lezah

Swank Home


Dave and I went down to Seattle to catch The Go! Team concert, and decided to stay over-night rather than make the two hour trek back north once the show was over.

Back in June we had looked around on the internet and settled on what promised to be a very grand hotel, but never got around to booking it. So there we were, the day before the show, and we had nowhere to stay. We had discovered that our hotel of choice charged in excess of $400 per night for a room - time to re-think our plan! So back to the internet we went. Scared, I immediately jumped on the cheapest offering, a run of the mill looking place for $140. Still not happy, Dave looked further, and found the next cheapest place - The Vance. Frankly, even with the $40 price difference, there was no comparison - at least from what we could tell from the computer. We booked The Vance.

Arriving in Seattle, it was a very direct and quick 5-10 minutes off the freeway to the hotel. Turns out they offered valet parking and we didn't know where to park, so we took them up on the offer - for only $20 (a good price for parking in Seattle!) we had our car parked in a secure garage - no worries!

The lobby was under construction, but not distressingly so. Any construction-type work was taking place behind the temporary panels that had been put up - and they were personalized, having been autographed by pretty much anyone and everyone (ditto for the front desk).

Check in was quick, the staff was very pleasant, and we headed to our room.

Turns out one needs a key to gain access to the elevator (as well as the rooms), so there was an additional level of security there. Overall, the decor of the lobby and elevators was circa 1920, with lots of wood and marble and oriental carpets. Once on our floor, though, the style morphed into a blend of the old and the new: walls were a charcoal grey, the ceiling and door frames were painted black, and the room doors were papered with full sized black and white art photos depicting architectural scenes (for example, Roniq Bartanen's 'Courtyard, Paris' and 'Parc St. Claude, France' were two). Walking down the hall gave one the sensation of being in an art gallery. All the dark colours were off-set by the carpet, which was adorned with wide bands of black, grey and brilliant pink.

Our room was on the small side, but there was plenty of storage and the bulk of the room was taken up by the bed - and what a bed it was! All in white, piled high with pillows, it looked like a cloud - and felt like one! I don't think I've ever slept in such a comfortable bed before. The TV was very state of the art, all curved stainless steel, which echoed the decor in the bathroom, where the sink was a stainless steel bowl.

Due to construction, there was no restaurant facilities in the hotel, but in the morning the lobby was set up for a continental breakfast where one could come and browse.

Likewise, I didn't see any pool or gym, but frankly, we had no time to use such amenities anyway.

The hotel is very centrally located, right on the edge of the shopping district, and is a short walk over the hill to Pike Place Market, or an equally short walk through trendy Belltown (home of some great restaurants), or to the Space Needle/Experience Music Project.

One small note: the only slightly negative thing we experienced here were problems with the valets (well, 3 of the 4 we dealt with) being unable to start our vehicle - but then, it has an immobilizer on it and apparently that is not a common thing in Seattle, so I can understand the difficulties they had.

Overall, we were extremely happy with our stay and will definitely return there next time we're in town...