BitwiwerthHotel Index
Category 03 of 04

Casino Hotels

Large hotels built around a gaming floor, restaurants and a theatre — read here first as hotels.

Casino hotels — ornate medallion, roulette and chips

A casino hotel is a hotel with a particular anchor tenant. The gaming floor pays for the scale — the number of keys, the size of the kitchens, the theatre that can hold a touring act on a Tuesday — but from a guest's point of view the questions are the ordinary hotel questions. How far is the room from the noise. What does the building look at. Is there somewhere to eat at eleven at night.

The four properties below are treated the same way as every other entry in this index: the building, the rooms and the service come first, and the gaming floor is described as one department among several. All four are established, full-service hotels that happen to have a casino attached, and each has a different reason to be where it is.

01

Montreal Casino & Hotel

Montréal, Canada

The complex sits on Île Notre-Dame, on the artificial islands built in the St. Lawrence for Expo 67, and it inherited the French pavilion — a stepped, angular structure that still looks like a piece of world's-fair optimism. That inheritance gives the property a shape no purpose-built resort would have chosen.

As a hotel it trades on that island position. Rooms look back across the water at the downtown skyline or out over the park and the rowing basin, and the drive in crosses a bridge rather than a car park, which does a lot for the sense of arrival. Interiors are contemporary and calm; the restaurants range from a quick counter to a full tasting room, and a cabaret space handles the evening programme.

The gaming floor occupies the lower levels of the pavilion and is one department among several. Guests who never set foot in it get a riverside hotel a short drive from Old Montréal, with the parkland of Parc Jean-Drapeau on the doorstep and the city's summer festival season within reach.

02

Fallsview Casino Resort

Niagara Falls, Canada

Built into the escarpment above the gorge, this is a hotel whose entire proposition is one view. The Horseshoe Falls sit directly in front of it, and the upper floors look down on the plume of spray from a height no street-level property can match.

The rooms are large and conventionally comfortable, and the sensible advice is to pay attention to which side you are booking, because the difference is the whole point. Below them the resort behaves like a small town under one roof: a theatre that brings in touring names, a spread of restaurants from steakhouse to buffet, a spa, and enough indoor circulation to make a February stay pleasant.

The falls themselves are a short walk downhill, and the resort's position means you can be at the railing in minutes and back in the warm just as fast. The gaming floor is the largest single space in the building and the reason it exists at that scale, but the room, the view and the theatre are what most guests come away describing.

03

River Rock Casino Resort

Richmond, British Columbia

River Rock stands on the Fraser River in Richmond, minutes from Vancouver's airport and on the light rail line into the city — a location that quietly makes it a practical airport hotel with a great deal more attached.

There is a marina at the foot of the property, a river walk that goes past it, and a hotel divided between a full-service tower and a quieter wing. Rooms on the water side face the boats and the flat delta light; the spa and pool are on the upper levels. Dining runs from a late-night noodle bar to a proper Cantonese restaurant, reflecting the city it sits in rather than a generic resort template.

The show theatre is one of the larger rooms in the region and books accordingly. The casino occupies the ground floor and is busy, but the building is laid out so that the hotel lifts, the restaurants and the theatre entrance can all be reached without crossing it.

04

Casino Rama Resort

Rama, Ontario

Casino Rama sits on the Chippewas of Rama First Nation land near Orillia, in cottage country a couple of hours north of Toronto, and it is owned and operated in partnership with the First Nation — a fact reflected in the artwork, the naming and the staffing throughout the property.

The setting is lake and forest rather than city. Rooms are in a low-rise hotel wing with a resort feel, and the surrounding attractions are seasonal in the way the region is: boats and trails in summer, snow and a long dinner in winter. The spa and pool are the indoor counterweight.

Its entertainment centre is the property's landmark — a purpose-built venue that has hosted a long list of touring musicians and comedians, drawing audiences who drive up for the show and stay the night. The gaming floor supports that programme; for a weekend guest it is one option in a building that also has restaurants, a theatre and a lake ten minutes away.