Nov 26

Nov 26 Delta London Armouries Hotel Review - Southern Ontarios Best Hotel

The Delta Hotels London Armouries is one of the best hotels in Southwest Ontario. Although the Delta London is a business hotel, it has the heart of a boutique hotel with the bones of a historic hotel with the features of a full service business hotel.

The historic red brick with the tower in the background

As COVID-19 continues to dominate the news cycle, good news is coming, as three vaccines have been approved in the past few weeks, I am more hopeful than ever to be able to travel by the summer of next year. But, until then, it’s important to remain cognizant of COVID-19 and respect government guidelines that are in place. For that reason, when visiting my partner’s parents on one of the last nice weekends of the year, we decided to stay at the Delta London Armouries.

Originally built in 1905, the property was built as an armoury and then used as a training hub during the two World Wars. Abandoned by the government in the 70s, a local entrepreneur redeveloped the space into a unique historic hotel in 1986. A 2018 renovation updated the suites in the old section of the hotel, creating 15 unique suites (and providing an opportunity for Marriott Elites for upgrades).

The historic armoury is tastefully built into the hotel

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Booking

According to the front desk, the Delta London was operating at about 40% capacity for most of the summer after being closed for the entire spring. Since the weather has gotten worse, the agent mentioned that capacity is more like 20% on many days. The hotel, with its extensive business facilities, wasn’t seeing the usual London Life or TD business travellers, but rather families looking for a quick vacation.

Pretty stunning lobby for London Ontario

Personally, I booked the hotel through Marriott Bonvoy to take advantage of the bonus points available to me at the time in addition to the perks that I get being a Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Elite member. I booked an AAA / CAA Hot Deal which ended up being about $130 for the night.

That being said, the new promo has pre-paid rooms pricing out at $116 a night, a pretty good deal if you’re also getting breakfast and an upgrade out of it!

If you’re looking to use points, the Delta Marriott is a Category 3 hotel, which means it’s available for 17,500 as a standard redemption.

For those of you who aren’t Marriott Elites, I can also usually find good deals on travel aggregators like Hotels.com. In addition to regularly providing good prices, you can earn 1 stamp per night. After 10 nights, you earn a free night at the average rate of your 10 nights, which is a 10% return, a really good deal if you don’t have status or travel often.

Check-In

We checked into the hotel pretty late at night, after enjoying the last sunshine and spending our time outside, we were really tired.

The hotel has retained the character of its old armoury history, with the lobby, restaurant and bar in the old armouries section of the hotel.

Before arriving at the hotel, I was expecting to have another person with us to sleep on the pull-out, so I asked (through Marriott Chat) for a suite upgrade, and boy, did I get an upgrade. Although I only booked the King Room, I ended up getting upgraded to one of the largest suites in the property, the Huron Suite.

The Huron Suite is a newly renovated executive suite, with a comfy king-size bed, a large TV, desk and a side chair (to be honest, does anyone actually use these?)

As this is a business hotel, I was happy to see that they had a comfy chair at their workstation. They also had a power bar with lots of plugs, perfect for a consultant on the road looking to charge 56 different electronics.

The bathroom was clean and large, with a much too large shower that took ⅓ of the space in the room.

The soapbox toiletries were very much 4 star level (certainly not Bodrum Edition Le Labo level), but they did the trick.

The real crown jewel of the room was the Huron Suite, which was fit for a whole executive committee meeting. The room consisted of a communal table, a couch and table and a small bar in the corner, pretty awesome for a suite in a business hotel.

Delta London Facilities

Considering its purpose as a business hotel, the facilities at the hotel are awesome. In the basement of the armouries (in what appears to be old squash facilities) is the gym, perfect for a hotel facility.

In addition, there is a basketball court in the basement, perfect for shooting a few hoops as a warm-up or keeping the kids entertained. The Delta London Armouries is a perfect hotel for kids!

The hallways around the facilities are newly renovated, but with the character of the old facility tastefully built-in.

In addition, there are monuments reflecting on the buildings past.

The Delta London Armouries has a medium-sized pool in the armouries section of the hotel, which is still open during the pandemic. The pool has specific rules for this period.

Pool – 9am-10pm. Reservations are required for pool use. Only 1 family up to a max of 8 swimmers permitted at a time. Guests are able to book 1 45-Minute time slot per day (last time slot will be at 9pm). Please contact the Front Desk to arrange your booking

Unfortunately, the hot tub is closed at this time. Along with the following facilities.

The following services remain CLOSED and suspended until further notice:
In-Room Dining Service. Orders can be made for take out during the restaurants operating hours listed above
Whirlpool
Change rooms and Saunas
Valet Parking - the Front Desk will provide you with self-parking details on your arrival
Signature Club Lounge
Delta London Dining

The Delta London Armouries normally has a lounge available for Platinum Elites, but unfortunately, at this time it was closed. The hotel provides a hot breakfast in the restaurant instead, which was located in the lobby of the hotel.

According to the hotel, the hours were as follows:

We are excited to have our Armouries Grille and Cantata Lounge reopening for your dining pleasure. We are currently operating on reduced hours for Dine in and Take out options only.
Breakfast: Monday-Friday 7am-10am, Saturday and Sunday 7am-11am
Dinner: Sunday-Thursday 5pm-10pm, Friday & Saturday 5pm-11pm

While I would usually take advantage of breakfast, I spent some time with my partners family instead. For those interested, breakfast looked great. The menu was as follows:

The Point

Overall, the Delta London Armouries is a great business hotel with several family-friendly leisure amenities. For people looking for a relatively cheap getaway, the Delta London Armouries could provide enough room for a family of 4 for a weekend away, along with some pool time and some gym activities. I will most definitely be back when I’m in town!