Review: Four Points by Sheraton Kelowna Airport, Canada (2023)

May 24, 2023

18 minutes

I returned to the Four Points by Sheraton Kelowna Airport for a recent business stay. Having stayed at the property several times previously, I would be interested to see whether the hotel was still the place to stay when in Kelowna. The hotel provided a basic stay experience, but I couldn’t help but feel that the hotel had slipped a little from its opening day. The hotel seemed to be wearing and operating on a cost cutting environment, despite the rebound of travel after the pandemic. Read on to see how our stay experience fared at this property.

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If you’re looking for a hotel in Kelowna, please also see our review of The Delta Hotels by Marriott Grand Okanagan Resort Kelowna, the Fairfield Inn and Suites Kelowna, and the Hyatt Place Kelowna.

“Slightly past it’s prime, the Four Points by Sheraton Kelowna Airport appears to be cutting its way to profitability, with limited Marriott Bonvoy elite benefits, despite a convenient location to Kelowna International Airport”

Firstly, a disclosure. I’ve been a repeat customer at this property for seventeen nights since it opened. As a frequent traveller to the region, I have stayed at this hotel for repeated work trips through the region. This review would be of my most recent trip to the property in a post pandemic world.

The Four Points Sheraton Kelowna Airport is owned by Argus Properties which is a privately owned real estate development company centred in Kelowna, British Columbia. They also happen to operate some competing hotels that include the Eldorado Resort and the neighbouring Hampton Inn and Suites by Kelowna Airport.

The Four Points by Sheraton Kelowna opened in the summer 2013. It’s been running for about eleven years and has matured. While it used to be the newest place to stay, it’s moved into the mature category in it’s mid life cycle with newer hotels that have since opened up in town. Initially operating under the Starwood Preferred Guest program it evolved into the Marriott Bonvoy program. It’s not had a full renovation since it has opened, despite being in a highly competitive hotel environment in the Kelowna area.

Booking The Four Points by Sheraton Kelowna:

The Four Points by Sheraton Kelowna Airport is one of the closest hotels to the Kelowna International Airport. As a result, it can tend to completely book out and occupancy rates can be higher than expected. This is especially prevalent during the winter season as many travellers connect through this property on their way to Eastern Canada and Europe if they happen to be skiing at Big White Ski Resort which is located about one hour away.

The room rates at this property are highly variable and depend on what is happening at the time of your stay. I’ve seen rates in the summer as low as $197 CAD and as high as $394 CAD for a stay.

During my spring visit in April, the rates were pretty average. We were able to get a room for approximately $219 CAD ($180 USD) for a weeknight night stay.

As always, I booked through the Marriott Bonvoy website, which as a Marriott Titanium Member, entitled me to a complimentary upgrade to the best available room, including select suites, and a complimentary late check out up to 4 PM.

Marriott Bonvoy Redemption Opportunities:

The Four Points by Sheraton Kelowna Airport was a Marriott Bonvoy Category 5 prior to the move to variable pricing. As a result, rooms are typically approximately 25,000 – 35,000 points per night, with about 30,000 points a night as an average standard. Similar to other properties, the rates were pretty flat all year round and were lowest on Sunday nights.

If you value Marriott Bonvoy points at $0.008 a point, you’d have to spend more than $240 USD to come out ahead for a 30,000 point redemption. There might be some outsized value redeeming points on a room, if the cash rate is high during summer months.

Getting to The Four Points by Sheraton Kelowna Airport Hotel:

I arrived to the Kelowna International Airport on an Air Canada flight from Vancouver.

The Four Points by Sheraton Kelowna Airport operates a complimentary shuttle service. However, this is “on request” and requires an advance reservation.

Not wanting to be stuck waiting for the shuttle, I opted for a Hertz Rental Car instead.

After collecting the rental car, I drove across Highway 97 to the hotel, which is located immediately across the street from the airport.

It’s worth mentioning that if you were absolutely stuck, and the weather was fine, you could potentially walk the distance from the Kelowna International Airport to the Four Points by Sheraton Kelowna. The distance is about 400 meters and it’s about a ten minute walk, including a slope and a walk across a four lane highway. Be forewarned though that in winter, this isn’t likely recommended as the sidewalks aren’t likely to be maintained and may be icy, muddy or snowy.

The property is located near the airport but quiet a ways out of town from Central Kelowna. Although there is a Nesters Supermarket across the street from the hotel, and a Starbucks Coffeeshop next to the hotel itself, there isn’t much in the neighbourhood that is of interest. If you’re doing business in Kelowna, and staying at this hotel, you’ll need a rental vehicle to get around.

Overall, it was fairly easy and simple to get to the Four Points by Sheraton Kelowna Airport. I didn’t have any challenges accessing the property thanks to it’s convenient hotel location.

Checking into the Four Points by Sheraton Kelowna Airport:

Before the check in counter while I was getting my rental car paperwork processed, I took this as an opportunity to check in advance to see if there were any possible suite upgrades available. I did this by checking the amount of inventory available for sale on the Marriott Bonvoy App. Sure enough, fifteen minutes before I checked in, there were 3 suites available for sale. These was the highest number I could reserve in the Marriott app.

As I arrived by rental car, most of the parking lot was blocked off for a “special event”. I self drove around to the back side of the property, self parked and walked into the lobby.

My particular reservation had me attending for a work meeting that was hosted by the hotel over two days. Most of the attendees to this event were what I’d describe as “elite light” travellers.

There was no wait at the front desk. When I was attended to, i asked about the possibility of suite upgrades for this short stay? I got the usual “…but we’ve already upgraded you in to a Deluxe Room…”

It got awkwardly silent.

I countered with “…so you’re saying there are none available?” The response was silent with the action of getting rushed through the transaction with presentation of the key without further mention of the elite benefits. There wasn’t any mention of welcome amenity and I was presented with my key folder and given my room assignment.

Marriott Bonvoy Elite Members at Platinum Elite or higher are supposed to receive a complimentary upgrade to the best available room, subject to availability on the day of arrival, for the entire length of stay. Complimentary upgrade includes suites, rooms with desirable views, rooms on high floors, corner rooms, rooms with special amenities or rooms on Executive Floors.

In addition, Platinum Elite Members and above receive one Elite Welcome Gift (of their choice where multiple options are offered) on a Stay of one or more consecutive nights as described…. If the Elite Welcome Gift is not offered at time of arrival, compensation applies.

While this isn’t a rant or preach of Marriott Bonvoy benefits, it is a bit disappointing miss out on a suite upgrade; especially when you know it is there. In my past seventeen stays at this property, I’ve only ever been upgraded to a suite on three occasions. Every time, it has been through prompting at the front desk.

Based on this, I have to conclude with a reasonable track record over the past ten years and seventeen nights stayed, that the hotel isn’t too kind to those on Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status. In fairness, I didn’t further chase this issue while I was on property, but it certainly coloured my impression of the stay, right from the moment of arrival.

I wandered my way up to the upgraded “Deluxe” Guest Room. When I got to my room, I folded through the key folder and located a complimentary beverage coupon to be used at the on site Gulfstream Restaurant along with my parking pass for complimentary parking. Secure parking was additionally available in the hotel underground for $12 a night. I think I would have rather had the suite upgrade, but it’s the thought that counts.

The Room: 1 King Bed, Deluxe Guest Room

There are only three categories of rooms at the Four Points by Sheraton Kelowna Airport. The entry level room is the Traditional Guest Room (286sq ft), followed by the Deluxe (384 sq ft), followed by a few combinations of the One Bedroom Suite (587sq ft) and a single two bedroom suite (1,300 sq ft) for sale in the system.

The hallways are dark and brown, consistent of the Four Points era that the hotel was built. My Marriott Bonvoy Titanium level status to the upgraded room only got me up to the third floor out of six. I was assigned room #320.

The Bedroom:

The Deluxe Room #320 faced southwards towards the business park. It was a bit of an increase in size from the base level room by offering another 98 sq feet as a result of being in the larger and wider portion of the middle hotel building.

The room was decorated in the standard hotel browns of many Four Points properties. The room is looking quite dated in today’s competitive hotel environment, being surpassed by many other hotels in the category within the Kelowna area.The room had a king sized bed.

The room offered a small living space that consisted of a double sofa bed, along with a single reclining chair.

I wouldn’t necessarily call this area “spacious” but it made do for the two nights that I had to spend at this property.

The desk featured a rail desk that offered a limited place to work. The desk portion was actually pretty narrow and didn’t offer much space to stretch out and set up a work station.

The room contained a 42 inch flat screen television housed in an attractive mount and surround. The 42 inch flat screen is almost small for this particular category of hotel, as we’ve seen screens enlarge to 50 and 55 inch versions in most hotels these days.

There was a single bottle of water in the room. Unfortunately, it was another sign of cost cutting; one where there used to be two bottles offered. It was either coffee in the morning, or water to enjoy now.

The single chair was functional, and I used it to Face Time home for those calls.

The view from the room was particularly industrial. It had a view offer the office park complex, the Hampton Inn by Hilton by Kelowna Airport, and a parking lot filled with Vivid Cannabis Tour trucks.

The entrance part of the room offered a multi function cupboard that allowed for clothes hanging, a microwave, the in room safe, and a tea and coffee station.

The floor layout demonstrated that there were limited suite upgrades available with two per floor generally available.

In terms of sleep quality, I found that my sleep was just average to below average. There is quite a bit of hallway noise in this property; worse than in competing hotels. The doors to the rooms are designed to slam shut. This noise effect echoes down the hall way and into other rooms.

On my second night, I was woken up at 3:40 AM by a repetitive beeping noise. In the pitch darkness, I sourced the noise to the telephone handset that some how, despite being on the charging device, had drained down to low battery. The design of the phone made the wireless hand set beep out loud for charging. I ended up yanking the phone out of the wall, so I could get back to sleep.

My stay experienced involved diagnosing phone hardware issues in the middle of the night. As a result, I didn’t have a very restful nights’ sleep for my two nights on the property, as compared to other hotels in this category. While it’s not apparent if phones are not working just by looking at them, I can’t help but think that this isn’t a new issue to a hotel that’s been around for eleven years.

The Bathroom:

The bathroom was coloured in modern whites with floor tiles. Most of the toiletries were converted into dispenser pumps to avoid single use plastic waste.

In another apparent cut that’s not widely advertised, the hotel has moved to housekeeping every second day. This doesn’t appear to be advertised on any public facing websites, and it was only until the second day of my stay that I realized that housekeeping wasn’t coming by.

This meant that the single bottled water provided had to carry your through your stay, unless you happened to find housekeeping carts in the hallway during the day.

Around the Hotel Property:

The Four Points by Sheraton Kelowna Airport has some limited amenties.

Pool / Fitness Centre:

The Four Points by Sheraton offers an indoor hotel pool. The hotel pool consists of a small pool and hot tub.

There is a waterslide installed at this property but for some reason it is permanently closed.

There is also a small fitness centre consisting of two treadmills, two elliptical cycles and a small free weight station. The gym is accessible twenty four hours a day.

The hotel provides some basic features. While I didn’t use the exercise room on this particular trip, it’s been a welcome addition for past stays at this location.

Food and Beverage:

Boulevard Restaurant

The Four Points by Sheraton Kelowna Airport offers a trendy on property dining at Gulstream Restaurant. It tends to get busy in the evenings, as there is not much around the property otherwise.

I ended up redeeming my drink voucher at this location. The hotel was kind enough to allow me to take the beverage back to my room.

Other Stay Observations:

I ended up spending two days worth of time as a meeting participant at and event held within the conference rooms at the property. The catering for the meetings was favourable and the staff were friendly.

Unfortunately, the hotel appears to be expanding on the western end of the property. As a result there was a lot of construction noise during the event. It’s odd as a meeting attendee to watch event organizers have to get the hotel to stop construction to address the construction noise during what is a paid event at the hotel in order to actually hear the meeting information. It was simply odd as a meeting attendee.

Lastly, I ended up eating off property during one night of my stay. As I parked my car in the back parking lot after dinner, I couldn’t help but notice all the dark (suites) rooms in the far left window vertical row of the hotel. All the suites were dark, except for one on the fourth floor above the sole tree. This meant that they were likely empty.

Returning inside, with a flick of a few thumbs on the Marriott Bonvoy app, it was more proof that suites remained available for sale throughout my stay. Why the hotel won’t accomodate an upgrade per the terms and conditions of the Marriott Bonvoy program is beyond me.

Checking Out of The Four Points by Sheraton:

On departure day, I checked out at the front desk. The hotel didn’t ask how the stay was, and just stated that I was “good to go“. Since I was rushing for a same day flight home, I didn’t get into my experiences for the stay. My bill posted accurately, and I received my Marriott Bonvoy points relatively quickly.

I did receive a survey several days after the day. I ended up completing the survey and outlined the issues I had with the stay. I got a pretty canned generic answer fairly promptly after completing the survey, which was appreciated but I didn’t get the impression anyone was taking anything I had to say too seriously.

Providing the highest level of hospitality is our number one priority and Isincerely apologize for failing to meet your expectations. I sincerely apologize that we were not able to accommodate your request for an elite upgrade. As a titanium elite member we highly value your continued loyalty to Marriott. We try our best to meet all requests made by every guest, elite upgrades are subject to availability and we were unfortunately unable to grant your request for this stay. I have shared your feedback with our leadership team to ensure the necessary guidelines are in place and reviewed to prevent this issue from occurring in the future.

It still didn’t explain why suites remained available for sale at the property to the general public throughout my stay. This remains a mystery and the only conclusion I have is that the hotel doesn’t want to expend the additional labour and costs in cleaning them over a standard room.

The Bottom Line: The Four Points by Sheraton Kelowna Airport

I used to give this property high marks having stayed multiple times (17 nights) over the past decade. Unfortunately, this hotel is no longer leading its game in Kelowna.

From the lack of daily housekeeping, to telephones that wake you up with beeping in the middle of the night, to noisier than average hotel hallways, to the unwillingness to provide available suite upgrades per Marriott Bonvoy Terms and Conditions, to daytime construction noise during conferences / meetings in the hotel, to hotel rooms that are looking dated, to waterslides that are permanently shut, I feel that this place has been surpassed by many newer hotels in the Kelowna area, such as the comfortable and new Hyatt Place Kelowna.

Usually, we see older hotels provide more inclusions and benefits given that they need to stay competitive in the marketplace. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case here. Given all of the above, it will be a while before I am back to this property; unless I happen to really need to stay near the Kelowna Airport.

If you have stayed near the Kelowna International Airport, was this hotel on your stay list ?