A casino hotel built by people who actually work the floorEleven years on Cornwall Avenue
Vipcasinolic started in 2014 with one floor, two blackjack tables, and a stubborn belief that high-limit players wanted fewer choices presented better rather than a hundred options competing for attention. Eleven years later that belief still shapes every decision we make, from the size of our suite count to the kind of staff we hire.
What has not changed
We still run a boutique property. We still know every guest by name by the second night. And we still say no when saying yes would be the wrong call.
- 48 suites, no expansion plans past that
- No third-party affiliates in the guest journey
- Responsible play trained into every host
A venue that would fit inside a boutique hotel
Vipcasinolic is not a casino with rooms attached, and it is not a hotel with tables in the basement. It is one property where the two sides answer to the same manager, share the same kitchen, and walk the same corridor forty times a night. That structure lets us do things larger resorts cannot: change a table limit at midnight because one guest asked, hold a suite two hours past checkout because the flight slipped, and send dinner upstairs without a receipt to sign.
We hold forty-eight suites across two towers, one main gaming floor with twenty-two tables, and two private salons available to guests staying in the upper categories. Staff count sits at around a hundred and thirty across hospitality, gaming, culinary and security, and the average tenure of a floor host here is six years. In a city where hospitality turnover often runs at fifty percent a year, that figure tells you more about the place than anything we could write ourselves.
- Licensed under British Columbia gaming regulation since launch
- Owner-operated rather than group-managed
- Independent audits on gaming records every quarter
Fewer things, done properly
We are often asked why we do not expand. The honest answer is that expansion would cost us the thing guests actually come for, which is a small team that recognises faces and a floor that never feels like a tourist trap. Growing to three hundred rooms would mean hiring a hundred strangers every season, and the property would slowly become a resort rather than a residence.
So we hold the line. Every new suite we add has to improve the average stay, not just the average revenue. Every new staff member has to be someone the current floor hosts would be happy to work next to. That is a slower way to grow, and we are fine with it.
Hospitality first
The rooms, the kitchen and the floor all report into one hospitality director. No department defends turf at the guest's expense.
Small, senior team
Under 140 staff, most with a decade of hospitality experience. Nobody is learning the basics on your booking.
Deliberate, not quick
We say no to short-term revenue that would damage the property's reputation over a single season.
Transparency over polish
Rates, limitations and rules are written plainly on the site and in the room, not buried under promotional language.
Eleven years, one block at a time
A short version of how a single floor on Cornwall Avenue turned into the property you see now.
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2014
Two tables and a handshake
We opened with a single gaming floor on the ground level, two blackjack tables, and a neighbouring hotel arrangement for ten rooms. The owner, Meredith Kowalczyk, worked the floor every Friday and Saturday for the first two years.
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2017
The first tower
Construction finished on the first tower with twenty-four suites and a private corridor to the floor. That corridor remains the single most-complimented feature in guest reviews to this day.
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2019
Kitchen and salon
We brought the kitchen in-house and opened the first private salon. Before that, food came from a partner restaurant three blocks away, and the arrangement had run its course.
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2022
Second tower and penthouse
A second tower opened with twenty-four additional suites, including the Presidential High-Roller Penthouse spanning the top two floors with its own lift.
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2025
Where we stand
Forty-eight suites, twenty-two tables, two salons, one kitchen, and no immediate plans to change any of those numbers. The next decade is about depth, not width.
What the numbers actually show
Figures from the last full season, verified against our operating records and published without rounding up.
The people you will actually meet
Senior staff who between them have spent more than eighty years in Vancouver hospitality. These are the faces behind the names on your booking confirmation.
Meredith Kowalczyk
Owner & Managing Director
Founded the property in 2014 and still chairs the weekly floor meeting. Spent fourteen years in hotel operations before that, mostly in Whistler.
Devon Alcaraz
Director of Hospitality
Runs suites and food service. Came to Vipcasinolic from a boutique property in Kitsilano and has been with us for nine seasons.
Rania Iqbal
Head of Floor Operations
Oversees the gaming floor and the private salons. Fourteen years in regulated gaming, seven of them with Vipcasinolic.
Hana Tremblay
Executive Chef
Brought the kitchen in-house in 2019 and has kept the 24-hour service window running ever since. Trained in Montreal and Lyon.
Callum Reyes
Residence Manager
Handles every penthouse booking personally. Available by phone seven days a week and known for replying before guests finish typing.
Petra Nowak
Guest Relations Lead
Runs the desk that answers your emails. Responsible play training coordinator and the person who writes most of the replies you receive.
Idris Bergman
Head of Security
Former provincial regulator, now responsible for the plainclothes team on the corridor. Takes a dim view of shortcuts of any kind.
Sofia Petrov
Compliance Officer
Handles AML checks, credit reviews and regulatory reporting. Twelve years in compliance, all of them in regulated gaming environments.
What eleven years of doing this has taught us
Running a boutique casino hotel is not one skill. It is a dozen, layered, and most of them you only learn by making the wrong call twice. Below are three lessons we would pass on to anyone building something similar on this coast.
Ask Us A Question-
Small floor, senior staff
A guest notices competence in the first four minutes and cannot un-notice its absence. We hire fewer people and keep them longer, and it shows in how the escalation path actually works.
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The corridor beats the lobby
Every suite we build now connects to the floor without crossing a public space. That single design choice removed more guest complaints than any training programme we ever ran.
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Say no early, say yes rarely
Declining a booking that would not fit has cost us revenue in the short run every year since we opened. It has also kept the property's reputation intact for eleven years running.
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Publish your limits
Rates, age rules, credit terms and refund windows all appear on the site in plain language. Guests who read them arrive with the right expectations and leave with fewer disputes.
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Look after the team
A floor host who is well-supported by management will hold the room calm on a bad night. That is not a soft idea, it is the operational foundation of the entire property.
Two rooms that define the property
Not our entire accommodation offer, but the two categories that shaped everything else we build. Both are shown with their true dimensions and standard rates.
Royal Casino Suite
Our entry into the high-roller category, and still the most-booked suite on the property. A twelve-floor suite with private corridor access, marble bath, and a blackout bedroom that runs silent overnight.
See full details
Presidential High-Roller Penthouse
Two floors at the top of the second tower with a dedicated lift, private chef, and a salon for three tables. Built for week-long stays, not weekends, and managed directly by a residence manager.
See full detailsProjects and upgrades we have delivered
Selected work from the last five years. All of it inside the building we already occupy, because we still have not bought anything else.
Private corridor retrofit, 2017
Cut a direct route from the first tower to the gaming floor, bypassing the lobby entirely. Touched no exterior wall and finished two weeks early.
In-house kitchen, 2019
Rebuilt a service area into a working kitchen with a 24-hour window. Ended a five-year partnership with an external restaurant and cut ticket times by half.
HVAC overhaul, 2021
Replaced the aging climate system across both towers with per-room controls. Turned three-year-old guest complaints about heat into zero-figure mentions.
Second tower, 2022
Twenty-four additional suites, a second salon, and the penthouse residence. Designed to match the first tower's floor plate so staff movement stays familiar.
Acoustic upgrade, 2023
Soundproofed every corridor-facing wall in the upper categories. Validated by an independent acoustics report and published to guests on request.
Service vehicle bay, 2024
Added secure parking for two client cars beneath the second tower, with a private lift from the bay straight to the penthouse level.
Cornwall Avenue, Kitsilano
Our front door sits on Cornwall Avenue in Kitsilano, ten minutes from downtown Vancouver and thirty-five from the airport by private transfer. The private guest entrance is on the north side of the tower, marked by a single brass plaque and nothing else.
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Address 1818 Cornwall Ave, Vancouver, BC V6J 1C7, Canada
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Phone +1 604 329 1874
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Email vipcasinolic@gmail.com
Four commitments we do not bend on
These are not slogans on a wall in the back office. Each one has a real operational cost, and we pay it every month.
Responsible play enforced
Every host is trained to spot distress and instructed to act on it, even when it costs us revenue. Self-exclusion takes effect the same minute we receive it.
Guest privacy held tight
Staff use the service corridor. Guest names are not discussed in public areas. Data handling is described openly in the privacy policy and never sold.
Clear pricing, no surprises
Every rate is published with taxes and resort fees included. Chef ingredients and alcohol are the only line items that ever appear after the fact, and they are agreed in advance.
Long-term thinking
We have turned down expansion opportunities twice. Both times the reason was the same: the current guest experience would have suffered on the way to a bigger balance sheet.
Writing from the floor
Occasional pieces on what is changing in high-roller hospitality and how we are responding. Published irregularly, when we have something worth saying.
Why High-Roller Suites Are the New Normal in Vancouver
What used to be a rare perk is now a standard expectation on the west coast. A look at what shifted and what it means for operators who want to stay small.
Read the piece
A Practical Guide to Responsible Play at a Casino Hotel
Three things to set up before you sit down, written for guests who plan to enjoy the floor and go home with their evening intact.
Read the pieceA note on how we operate and who we are for
Vipcasinolic is a licensed gaming venue in British Columbia, and everyone who walks onto our floor must be at least twenty-one years old and able to show government-issued photo identification on request. That rule holds every time, for every guest, regardless of how many years they have been staying with us. We do not make exceptions and we are not apologetic about it, because the licence we hold depends on the strength of that policy. Gaming here is entertainment, not a financial strategy, and it is not a way to solve a shortfall, cover an unexpected bill, or repair a difficult month. Money spent at the tables should be money you already have, and money losing it should not change anything about your rent, your savings, or anyone who depends on you.
Our staff are trained to recognize the signs of play that has stopped being entertainment: chasing losses, playing past a stated budget, becoming withdrawn or agitated as the night goes on, or showing up with money that was not theirs to spend. When we see those signs, we act. Sometimes that means a quiet conversation over a glass of water in the lounge. Sometimes it means suggesting a walk along the seawall and a break of an hour or a night. In the most serious cases, we will offer a self-exclusion that takes effect immediately and cannot be reversed for the period chosen by the guest. There is no judgement attached to any of this. The guests who ask for a break are usually the ones who come back to the property for a proper reason rather than a difficult one, and we treat them exactly like every other guest.
We also keep the commercial side of things honest. Rates shown on the price page include taxes and resort fees and are the same rate you will be quoted by phone. Chef ingredients, alcohol and any gaming credit are the only items billed after arrival, and those are agreed in writing before the stay begins. Guest data is described fully in our Privacy Policy and is never sold to third parties. Cookies used on this site are explained in the Cookie Policy. Booking terms, refund windows and liability are covered in our Terms & Conditions and Refund Policy, and the company's legal registration sits in the Legal Information section. If anything is unclear, or you want to speak to someone before you book, our guest relations desk answers seven days a week and will tell you honestly whether the property is the right fit for the trip you are planning.
Come and see it in person
Tell us the dates you are considering and a floor host will come back with availability, table limits and a firm rate. No payment details needed until you confirm.