This budget hotel is located one block from Chinatown and 5 blocks from Gastown, so it's a great location for budget travellers who don't want to rent a car. The lobby looks clean and there is a great brewhouse on the main level that features all natural preservative free beer that's micro-brewed on site.
The following text is from a press release from the city of Vancouver. The release was regarding attempts to save the famous Ho Ho restaurant sign but the mayor's office and this portion tells about the history of neon in the city of Vancouver.
Neon Products is generally credited with creating the first neon sign in Vancouver. Popular colours in the 1920s and 1930s were pinks and greens. These early signs often used neon tubing to "frame" a sign -- like the Winters Hotel in Gastown (Abbott at Water).
After World War II, and the shortage of sheet metal was over, sign designers were inspired with new-found freedom. Signs took on new complexity including movement of lights. There are still excellent examples from this era extant in Vancouver: Ovaltine Cafe, Niagara Hotel [altered to say Ramada], Dragon Inn [gone], Save On Meats and Helen's Children's Wear [gone].
Pierre Berton, in 1958, called Vancouver's Granville Street, the West Coast's "Great White Way" -- our answer to New York's Broadway. At that time, there were more than 18,000 neon signs in Vancouver, one for every 19 residents.
In Chinatown, a new wave of immigrants from China brought an enthusiasm for neon -- and excellent chefs -- which combined to create the best of restaurant signs. These included the Bamboo Terrace, Mings, Forbidden Palace, W.K. Chop Suey, and, of course, the HoHo.