Gold Winner Westin Nova Scotian
Silver Winner The Prince George Hotel
Bronze Winner The Lord Nelson Hotel & Suites
For locals, Halifax hotels aren’t places to sleep as much as they are where you attend events, host your big day or even go out to dinner. So Coast readers probably cast their Best Hotel votes based on more than room service, which suits Westin Nova Scotian’s sales and marketing director Glenn Bowie just fine. “A great hotel has a can-do attitude,” Bowie says. “The answer is always’ yes,’ and you make it happen.” He points to the Halifax International Security Forum, an annual gathering of “rock stars of the political world” that has brought such powerbrokers as Condoleezza Rice to town. Last year, organizers wanted a special reception, so after the group of delegates left the Westin for an early evening event, the hotel’s lobby got transformed: The front desk became a bar, lighting was added, furniture changed. When the delegates returned, the lobby was a swish lounge. “Everybody there felt they were in New York or Rome, and not in the lobby of a hotel,” says Bowie. “It’s that type of thing that makes you special.”