If you must stay near the airport in Vancouver, stay here. By airport hotel standards it is amazing. By Fairmont hotel standards, it's got some work to do.
The rooms are lovely! This is a newer property so hasn't got the challenges of keeping an old building up to date. The rooms are modern and, at least on the Gold floor, large. The bathrooms (always a challenge in Fairmonts) are beautiful and big.
There is nifty console beside the bed from which you can control all lights, curtains (played with that for ages), music, alarms and temperature. Well, you could control the temperature if the heat worked. In my room, the heat didn't work. A visit from the "engineer" resulted in a new filter and much banging around in the ceiling but no heat. I'm not sure he understood that the problem was not with the heater but with the fan. The room never warmed up past 19C.
To the lounge! The Gold lounge is nice and if you like looking at airports, affords you a view of the international terminal ramp. The daily appetizers are better than Calgary's but still not up to the standard you'd see at the Hotel Vancouver or the Chateau Laurier. We have a brie and cranberry in puff pastry nibble that's pretty standard, but a bit greasy. There is chicken on a skewer that has been sitting out way too long for me to sample.
On the cold side there is a very tasty pastry cup with tiny grilled vegetables and very nice salad of beets and chevre with a light vinaigrette. The local smoked salmon is also very nice. The rest is a pretty dull, sad collection of crudite with dips and a few cheeses.
Breakfast was a small selection with some watery scrambled eggs and five (I counted) sausages in the bin. There were berries in a shot glass and a standard selection of fruit, yogurt and smoked salmon. Could be worse. But could be waaaaay better.
I don't know why this lounge has no computer to do things like print a boarding pass. Seeing as it's an airport hotel you'd think that would happen a lot. The staff are happy to print it for you or, if you'd rather not cough up your travel info, you can go to the business centre downstairs. Speaking of staff: they seem to be a bit scarce and need to be summoned by buttons from back rooms even during busy check-in and check-out periods.
The lobby is under some kind of renovation so the bar and the restaurant are in the same area. The service is terrific and the view of the airport is, well, the view of the airport.
Bottom line: If you must stay at the airport stay here but if you want a nice hotel stay at the Hotel Vancouver. It's not much more money but it's a much nicer stay.