Book a room called “city view” and you might picture rooftops and skyline. What we got was a single narrow window that quietly turned a sunny afternoon into something closer to dusk. That one detail shaped our stay at Fairmont Hotel Macdonald more than anything on the room list warned us to expect — and it’s the reason I now think which room you book here matters more than most people realize before they hit confirm.
The Room We Booked: City View, Gold Floor
We checked into a Fairmont Gold King with a city view — Gold’s standard king configuration, tucked onto the hotel’s private upper floor. On paper, that combination reads well: private check-in away from the main lobby, a comfortable king bed, a city view included in the description. In the room, it read differently.
There was one window, and it was narrow. Even in the middle of a sunny afternoon, the room held onto a kind of permanent late-afternoon light — not gloomy exactly, but noticeably dimmer than I’d expected from a room whose listing specifically promised a view. Nothing else about it felt like an excuse. The room was part of the hotel’s 2024 renovation, so it looked and felt current: restrained colours, a genuinely comfortable bed, warm finishes that leaned into the building’s heritage without overdoing it. Even the room key had a little wood-grain detail to it, which is a small thing to notice and a small thing that told me somebody had thought about this. Which made the window feel less like a limitation of an old building and more like an oversight nobody had caught.
The bathroom was the real surprise, and it went the other direction entirely. Fully renovated, bright, and startlingly spacious for a hundred-year-old building, with a glass walk-in rain shower and Le Labo bath products that made the whole space smell like it had wandered in from a much newer hotel. If the bedroom felt like 1915 with better light fixtures, the bathroom felt like it had been airlifted in from somewhere built last year.
The problem was never comfort. It was daylight.
Why We’d Choose River View Next Time
If I had to book that exact room again, I’d swap the city view for the river valley without a second thought. Audrey got there faster than I did — she said it standing right there in the room, no hesitation, that she’d pick the river view next time. It didn’t take much to talk me into agreeing.
Neither of us hated the room we got. That’s worth saying plainly, because it would be easy to make this sound like a bigger complaint than it was. The bed was comfortable, the bathroom was excellent, and the private floor did everything it promised. But a city view at this hotel isn’t really a view in the way the word usually implies — it’s a smaller window facing a smaller slice of the world, and once you’ve noticed that, the rest of the hotel starts to feel brighter by comparison, almost pointedly so. If scenery matters more to you than it turned out to matter to us going in, it’s worth checking current river-view rates on Booking.com before you commit to anything — the premium isn’t always as steep as you’d expect.
Room, View and Space Are Three Separate Purchases
When we sat down to book, I assumed there was basically one ladder to climb: pay more, get a better room. That’s not how it actually works here, and if I’d understood that before our stay, I might have made a different call.
There are three separate things you’re buying, and none of them automatically includes the other two. View buys you scenery — city or river, at roughly the same price either way. Deluxe buys you floor space, somewhere around a quarter more room to spread out, again in either view. And Fairmont Gold buys you the private floor: lounge access, breakfast, evening canapés, a check-in that skips the main lobby entirely. Any one of those can stand alone, all three can stack if the budget allows, and it’s entirely possible to skip all three and still land in a comfortable, freshly renovated room in the middle of the hotel.
We had exactly one of the three: Gold. Our room delivered everything Gold promises. What it didn’t deliver was a view, because Gold doesn’t come with one built in — you can book a Gold room facing the city or a Gold room facing the river, at the same private-floor level of service. We got the city-facing version, and the window that came with it.
I never slept in one of the larger Deluxe rooms, so I won’t pretend to know how the extra space feels once you’re actually living in it for a night. But the logic holds regardless of who’s testing it: Deluxe adds room to spread out, not necessarily a better window or lounge access. If floor space is what matters most for your trip — a family stretching out, or just somewhere to put a suitcase without a furniture negotiation — that’s the box to tick, and it has nothing to do with whether you also spring for Gold or a river view.
Once I understood that, our own booking choice made a lot more sense in hindsight. We hadn’t overpaid, exactly. We’d just bought the one upgrade that never touched the thing that ended up bothering us.
What You Can Actually Book Now
The current lineup breaks down cleanly once you know what you’re looking at, and you can compare the full current room lineup on Booking.com while you read through it. Sizes below are approximate — a 1915 building doesn’t measure in tidy round numbers — but the categories and what each one includes reflect the hotel’s current room list.
| Room Category | Approx. Size | View | Beds | Gold Access |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fairmont Room | ~300 sq ft | City or river | King, queen, or two doubles | No |
| Deluxe Room | ~377 sq ft | City or river | King or two queens/doubles | No |
| Fairmont Gold King (City) | ~301 sq ft | City | King | Yes |
| Fairmont Gold King (River) | ~301 sq ft | River | King | Yes |
| Grand Deluxe View (family) | Larger, open layout | River | Fits a cot | Yes |
| Accessible Room | — | River | Roll-in shower, connects to a Fairmont View King | Confirm at booking |
A few things jump out once it’s laid out like this. The base Fairmont and Deluxe categories exist in both views — the cheapest room in the building can still face the river, and the most expensive base room can still face the city. Gold only comes in that same 301-square-foot king footprint, in either view, so it isn’t the category to chase if square footage is the priority. There’s also a family-oriented option that combines Deluxe-level space, a river view, and Gold-floor privileges in one booking — worth knowing it exists, even though it drifts toward suite territory and isn’t something I can speak to firsthand. And the accessible room here is specifically a river-view category, built around a roll-in shower and connecting to a standard river-view king, which is useful to know before assuming accessibility and view are separate conversations at this hotel. If that applies to your trip, it’s worth confirming the accessible room’s current availability on Booking.com directly before locking in dates.
Read against our own stay, the pattern gets easier to use. Daylight matters more than I expected walking in, space matters more the moment a second suitcase is involved, and the lounge is its own decision entirely, unrelated to either. Nobody’s trip needs all three. Ours would have been better with one swapped for another.
Which Room Fits Which Traveller
If daylight isn’t a priority and you’re only sleeping here between a full day of meetings, the base city-view room does the job for less money than anything else on this list. If scenery is the whole point of the stay — an anniversary, a first visit, anything you’ll actually sit and look at — river view earns its place regardless of whether you also add Gold. If you’re travelling with family and need room to unpack rather than just crash, Deluxe or the Gold-floor family option solves a different problem than view does, and solves it whether or not the window faces water. And if you know you’ll use the private lounge — breakfast, evening canapés, somewhere quiet to check email away from a busy lobby — that’s the case for Gold, independent of whatever view sits outside your window.
Booking the Right Room
The mistake we made wasn’t booking Gold — Gold did exactly what it promised. It was not comparing enough at once. It’s easy to look at one line item, decide it sounds good, and book without checking what a river-view room costs on its own, or what a Gold river-view room costs combined. Those three numbers move differently depending on the season and how far out you book, and the gap between them isn’t always what you’d guess.
Before committing, compare rates for a standard river-view room, a Gold city-view room, and a Gold river-view room on Booking.com for your actual dates. Sometimes the full combination is a modest step up from Gold alone, which makes it an easy yes. Other times the Gold premium and the view premium stack in a way that makes one clearly smarter than paying for both. There’s no fixed rule — only a five-minute comparison that we skipped and wish we hadn’t.
The Verdict: Which to Book
Here’s what I’d actually do differently. I’d stop treating “which room” as one decision and start treating it as two: do I want the private floor, and do I want the view. Those questions have different answers for different trips, and ours only really needed one of them answered yes.
If I’m being honest about what bothered us, it wasn’t the price of the room or even the size — it was that a “view” on paper turned out not to function as one in the room. That’s the detail I’d pay to fix next time, ahead of upgrading anything else. Gold earned its keep on this stay. The window didn’t.
We’d still book Fairmont Hotel Macdonald again without hesitation. Next time, though, I already know which box I’m ticking first — and it isn’t the one we ticked before.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I book a city view or river view room at Fairmont Hotel Macdonald?
I’d choose river view now. Our city-facing room had one narrow window that made the space feel darker than expected, even on a sunny afternoon. The bed and bathroom were excellent either way, but the view itself is where I’d spend differently next time.
Does booking Fairmont Gold automatically include a river view?
No. Gold buys private-floor access, lounge privileges, breakfast and evening canapés, but not a specific view. Fairmont Gold King rooms are available facing either the city or the river at the same private-floor level of service, so view and Gold are two separate decisions.
What’s the difference between a Deluxe room and a Fairmont Gold room?
Deluxe adds floor space, roughly a quarter more room than the base category, in either city or river view, without lounge access. Gold adds the private floor and its perks in a fixed room size, regardless of how much space you actually get. They solve different problems and don’t overlap.
Is the accessible room at Fairmont Hotel Macdonald a city view or river view room?
It’s a river-view category, built around a roll-in shower and connecting to a standard river-view king room. Worth confirming directly with the hotel at booking, since availability and exact features can vary.
Can I get a river view without paying for Fairmont Gold?
Yes. The base Fairmont and Deluxe categories are both available in river view without any Gold-floor access, generally at a similar price to their city-facing equivalents.
Is there a family-friendly room with Gold access?
There’s a Grand Deluxe View option that combines more space, a river view and Gold-floor privileges in one booking, with room for a cot. I haven’t stayed in it myself, so I can only point to it as an option rather than review it directly.
How big are the rooms at Fairmont Hotel Macdonald?
Base Fairmont rooms run around 300 square feet, Deluxe rooms around 377 square feet, and Fairmont Gold King rooms around 301 square feet regardless of view. The Grand Deluxe View family option is larger with an open layout.
What should I compare before booking a room here?
Pull up rates for your actual dates and compare at least three lines: a standard river-view room, a Gold city-view room, and a Gold river-view room. The gap between them shifts by season, and skipping that comparison was our actual mistake, not the room we chose.
This article is also available in Spanish. [Leé la versión en castellano: Habitaciones del Fairmont Hotel Macdonald: vista a la ciudad vs. vista al río y cuál reservar]
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