Vancouver, British Columbia
Maxcasinolic is one address, ninety-four rooms and about two hundred people who actually care about the details.
We opened in 2018 in a converted bank tower on Cornwall Avenue, and we have spent every year since trimming away the parts of hotel design that felt borrowed. There is no parent brand behind us, no franchise committee deciding what colour the lobby should be, and no plan to open a second property any time soon. What there is: a team that has been together long enough to know each other's quirks, a building that we still rearrange twice a year, and a guest list of regulars we mostly know by name.
Maxcasinolic operates under a British Columbia gaming facility operator licence. Access to the mezzanine gaming floor is restricted to guests aged 19 and over, and we apply the same responsibility standards to our staff as we ask of our guests.
Who we are
A hotel that grew out of a stubborn idea
There are easier ways to run a hotel in downtown Vancouver. Fewer of them produce a place you would actually choose to stay in on holiday.
We began with a wager between three people who had spent their careers inside other people's hotel brands. One had run food and beverage for a group of eighteen properties across North America. One had been a housekeeping director for a chain whose name you already know. One was a chef who had spent the previous decade refusing to open a restaurant because every investor she met wanted to water down the menu. Between the three of them, they had a short list of things they were tired of watching go wrong, and a slightly shorter list of things they were confident they could get right.
The building they found on Cornwall Avenue had been built in 1974 as a bank, converted to offices in the nineties, and sat mostly empty for six years before they bought it. It had good bones, an excellent position relative to the seawall, and a floor plate that happened to make a natural hotel layout once you removed the suspended ceiling. The rest of it we built ourselves, floor by floor, over a nineteen-month renovation that we scheduled to avoid peak season in the neighbourhood's construction calendar.
At a glance
- Independent hotel, no franchise affiliation
- Nineteen-month renovation completed in early 2018
- Ninety-four rooms across twenty-two guest floors
- Nineteen private residences above, managed long-term
- Two restaurants, one spa floor, one rooftop bar
- One gaming floor, licensed and staff supervised
Our philosophy
Three rules that decide almost every call we make
We drafted these on a whiteboard before we started construction and have never rewritten them. Every argument about a renovation budget or a menu change has come back to these.
Design for the room, not the lobby
Anyone can make a first impression with marble and flowers. We spend that budget on the room you actually sleep in. Blackout drapes, real work surfaces, proper lighting, quiet plumbing, and beds you remember.
Keep the team long enough to be good
Our average staff tenure is over four and a half years. Nearly two-thirds of the original opening team is still here. Consistency of people is the only way a hotel ever actually gets better.
Refuse to add what does not help
We removed televisions from the suites, declined to add a lobby gift shop, and said no to a third restaurant. Every addition we have made since 2018 has been paid for by something we removed first.
Our story
Eight years, told in six moments
A short timeline of the decisions that shaped the property you see today.
The building is bought at auction
Three partners close on a 1974 bank tower nobody else wanted. The original plan was six floors of hotel and four of offices. It changed within a month.
Nineteen months of renovation
The suspended ceiling comes out, the floor plates are opened up, and the first sketches of the two-storey penthouse go onto paper. We mostly kept the building's original concrete and steel.
Maxcasinolic opens with forty-one rooms
Half the current room count, one restaurant, no spa and no gaming. The restaurant filled up in eleven days. The spa opened nine months later, by popular demand.
The building stays open through a hard two years
We ran as a residence for medical staff and recovering travellers, which kept the team employed and the property alive. This is also when the Chef's Table concept was designed.
A full floor-by-floor refurbishment
Forty-one televisions removed. The penthouse terrace built. The wine wall installed. The mezzanine converted into the licensed gaming floor we operate now.
Managed growth, no second property
We are at ninety-four rooms and we are staying there. Every year since 2022 we have reinvested in refinishing the floors rather than expanding into other cities.
The rule we keep returning to
If a change will not be visible to a guest on their second visit, it does not get its own budget line. We fund improvements by taking them out of other improvements.
Kaori Lindqvist, managing partner
Milestones
Numbers we look at once a quarter
Our team
The people you will actually meet
A handful of the department heads, senior hosts and specialists who run the day-to-day of the property.
Kaori Lindqvist
Managing partner
Twenty-two years in hotel operations across North America and Japan. Kaori runs the balance sheet and has final say on any renovation that touches a guest room.
Amara Osei
Executive chef
Came to us from a two-Michelin-star kitchen in Copenhagen. Amara runs the Chef's Table personally and has never sent a menu to print before tasting it herself.
Théo Lambert
Head sommelier
Built our 420-label cellar from scratch and still buys half of it personally, mostly from Okanagan and Willamette producers he has followed for a decade.
Mira Vasquez
Senior guest host
Has worked at Maxcasinolic since the opening week. Mira handles penthouse reservations and anything a guest is unsure how to ask for politely.
Devon Rutledge
Director of housekeeping
Built our forty-two-step room standard and trains every housekeeper personally. Devon's team refreshes every occupied suite twice a day.
Hana Chen
Spa director
Licensed in both traditional Chinese medicine and Western physiotherapy. Hana set the treatment menu and refuses to add anything to it without a full year of data.
Fintan O'Rourke
Head of events
Runs every buyout, wedding and board retreat at the property. Fintan has talked more than one couple out of a plan they would have regretted by Monday.
Priya Nadkarni
Gaming floor manager
Licensed gaming supervisor with thirteen years of experience. Priya trains every floor host in our responsibility protocols and handles self-exclusion requests personally.
How we work
A daily rhythm that has not changed since 2019
Every day at 8am, the department heads meet for fifteen minutes in the back office. Every Friday at 4pm, we do a full walk-through of the property. Every Monday, Kaori publishes a one-page update on what we changed the week before and what it cost. Nothing about that system is glamorous, and it is the reason the property has stayed consistent through three different economic cycles.
Our investment approach is deliberately boring. We only spend money on things that will still matter in five years, and we only hire people we expect to still be working with us in five years. That filters out a lot of noise and produces a small team who know exactly how the building runs.
207 staff
Across rooms, dining, spa, events, guest services and the mezzanine floor.
Reinvestment
Roughly nine percent of annual revenue goes back into refinishing guest areas.
Feedback
Every guest review is read by a department head within twenty-four hours of publication.
Design reviews
Two full property design reviews per year. We have moved furniture more than once because a guest asked.
Portfolio
Projects and spaces we have designed and rebuilt
We do not run an outside design practice. Every project below lives inside or adjacent to our own building.
What we offer
Two signature experiences worth reading about
The two bookings that show the property at its best. Both are handled personally by department heads.
Signature Penthouse Suite Experience
Two storeys on the 41st floor. Butler service, a marble soaking bath, a 68 square meter terrace and a wine wall holding 168 bottles.
Explore the suite
Harbourfront Chef's Table Dinner
Twelve seats at a single maple counter. Nine courses decided each morning based on what the boats brought in, paired by our head sommelier.
See the menuFrom our journal
More things we have written down
Occasional notes on how the property is built, run and occasionally taken apart.
Why Our Suites Don't Have Televisions
A note from the design team on the decision to remove forty-one televisions during the 2022 refurbishment.
Read the article
A Night At The Harbourfront Chef's Table
Twelve seats, nine courses and one very fast two and a half hours. What it actually feels like to eat at the counter.
Read the articleAccreditations
Standards we hold ourselves to
Independent certification and membership in the programmes below. All are re-assessed at least every two years.
BC Hotel Association
Member in good standing since May 2018.
Green Key Global
Certified 4-Key rating under the sustainable hospitality programme.
Rick Hansen Foundation
Accessibility certified across all guest-facing spaces.
Responsible Gambling
Aligned with the BC Responsible and Problem Gambling Program standards.
Get in touch
If you want to talk to a person, this is the fastest way
Whether you are booking the penthouse, planning an event, applying for a role or simply curious about how we run the property — a form is fine, but a phone call is faster. Our reception team is staffed 24 hours and the concierge desk picks up from 6am to 2am.
+1 778 342 0956
maxcasinolic@gmail.com
1818 Cornwall Ave, Vancouver, BC V6J 1C7, Canada
Responsible gaming and our commitments
Maxcasinolic operates a limited mezzanine gaming floor under a British Columbia gaming facility operator licence. Access is restricted to guests aged 19 and over, and we do not offer gaming credit or accept third-party funding for gaming activity. We treat the gaming floor as entertainment, not as a primary attraction of the hotel, and we expect the same restraint from the guests who use it. Every floor host is trained in problem gambling recognition, and voluntary self-exclusion can be arranged confidentially at any point during your stay — no reason needs to be given, and no judgement follows. If you or someone in your party is struggling with gambling, our team will connect you with the BC Responsible and Problem Gambling Program, available 24 hours a day, at no cost. Guests who prefer not to enter the gaming floor are entirely unaffected: the suites, spa, restaurants and rooftop bar operate without any connection to it. Full licence details, registration numbers and our accessibility commitments are maintained on our Legal Information page. If you have questions before your visit, please ask our front desk — we would much rather answer them than have you guess.