This article is reposted from US Credit Card Guide. The author is Antōnius, a Canadian points-and-miles expert.

About The Pearle Burlington

The Pearle is a new Marriott hotel that opened in Burlington, ON a little over a year ago. It sits right on the Burlington waterfront, with the waterfront trail just downstairs and views of Lake Ontario. The Pearle is currently part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection. It is located on the shore of Lake Ontario, one of the Great Lakes, on the Canadian side.

Location:

Overview

Because the hotel is newly built, the interior facilities are all new, and the style is fairly modern. The TV supports Chromecast, which is a much better experience than the typical smart TV setup (many Marriott hotels in Canada still have older TVs with HDMI only).

  • The room felt fairly spacious overall, and you can see Lake Ontario directly from the window
  • The pillows were not very comfortable, but the mattress was fairly firm, so I still slept pretty well
  • On the smart TV, selecting input > HDMI 2 on the remote takes you to Chromecast

This hotel is relatively low-rise (guest rooms are on floors 2-9), and there are not many suites on each floor. Previously, when I booked for 12/24-25 using SNA, I only got a studio suite. This time I did not use SNA (because I was going to Niagara for New Year’s, so I saved it for that trip), and I was upgraded to a large studio. The space was more than enough for one person, the desk was large enough, and there were two closets.

  • The bathroom has a sliding door, but since everything is new, it was quite clean
  • One minor downside: the luggage rack is fixed inside the closet, so it becomes inconvenient if your suitcase is even a little large

The hotel does not have a lounge, but it does provide breakfast vouchers (you can order two mains and two drinks, and since breakfast at this hotel does not require tipping, the voucher covers the entire meal). The welcome gift is a CA$15 F&B voucher or 1,000 pts. Breakfast is served with table service at Bread Bar on 1/F, mainly pastries plus combinations with eggs, bacon, and salmon. Service ends at 11:00, but since Bread Bar is an all-day café open to the public, I think showing up a little late probably would not be a big issue.

  • Breakfast is at the café inside the hotel, and you can smell the fresh pastries
  • I ordered the Benny Croissant and the Skillet; even dining solo, that still counted as two mains and two drinks

The food quality was pretty good. If I were paying out of pocket, I definitely would not want to pay that much from the menu (the two dishes together were about CA$45 + 13% HST), but this breakfast benefit is still worth the 750 pts per day opportunity cost. (P.S. It is pretty obvious this menu is designed for elite breakfast, because the pastries displayed in the case do not count as mains, and in practice not many people were sitting down for a full main.)

Other Features

The room key is made of wood. It has a nice feel to it, and you can take it home as a souvenir.

All of the service staff had a very gay/lesbian vibe. I do not know why, but that was the impression I got from every staff member I encountered throughout the hotel.

The hotel has a trendy personality-based theme lately, and there is a display board on 1/F introducing the person Pearle.

Housekeeping was especially thoughtful. I had left the hanger for the bathrobe in the bathroom, and when I came back this afternoon, I found that housekeeping had taken the bathrobe out from a pile of things on the sofa and hung it next to the shower. Since this hotel is usually priced similarly to older Marriott/Sheraton properties, that level of housekeeping was a pleasant surprise for this price point.

Drawbacks (but the pros outweigh them)

  • There is only valet parking (CA$25 per day). If you park in the outdoor lot across the street, you need to pay according to the other hotel’s rules or you may be towed. Staffing also seems limited, and the request car webpage is pretty bad, so sometimes you have to go downstairs and ask in person.
  • The closet by the door hits the door handle when opened (if you plan to use both closets, the second one is harder to fully use).
  • There is no bottled water. You need to fill your own water at the water/ice machine, though the room does provide a kettle.
  • Wi-Fi login is annoying. It is not the standard Bonvoy login page; you have to create an account and then request a temporary password, more like campus guest Wi-Fi.
  • This stretch of Lake Ontario in Burlington is mostly just water views. If you like bridges, there is an artificial island along the QEW between Burlington and Hamilton, but otherwise there is not a lot of especially scenic scenery.
  • Even though this hotel is in Canada, the elevator oddly does not start counting from L (the 1/F shown on the elevator should really be considered a mezzanine).

Price

Normally this hotel runs around CA$150 or 20k points. This time I used a 35,000 FN to book it (cash rate was CA$325).

  • Hotel-themed gingerbread house