Tessa B.
Yelp
My partner and I decided to go on a whirlwind trip to Victoria, and it being my home town I had a multitude of couches that we could have slept on, but I figured it would be more fun to get a hotel, and Hotel Zed is a pretty new, funky place that I thought would be a good candidate. Boy, was it ever.
I cannot say enough good things about this place. This used to be a run-down, nasty motel right next to the Denny's parking lot a little ways outside of downtown. Now, I mean, it's still next Denny's, but now it's radical as Hell! They did such an amazing job making this place totally unrecognizable to what it was before, and creating something truly unique in Victoria.
The lobby has free coffee, a record player (with good record selection), super funky hang-out area, typewriters you can use to write letters for free (or buy a cheap postcard to type on). Downstairs from the lobby there is a rumpus room with free ping-pong and Wii, which is open til midnight. My boyfriend and my two friends brought some drinks down there one night and had a total (respectful) riot. There is also a restaurant attached to the lobby, if you're feeling peckish.
There's also a pool (with a crazy waterslide that terrified me that I repeatedly went down), a hot tub and a sauna. And if you forgot your bathing suit and just sit next to the hot tub in a leather jacket while your friends splash around in the pool, nobody will kick you out. I can neither confirm nor deny whether my boyfriend did this.
But above all else, it's the staff that makes this place really stand out. Everybody is really helpful, nice, and silly. They have a shuttle bus (which is a VW van) that will just drive you and drop you off/pick you up anywhere (within reason) that you ask. And it's FREE (though we, of course, tipped, and so should you).
This place is just all across the board super radical. Oh, and did I mention it's probably the cheapest hotel in all of Victoria? Yeah. Believe dat.