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Hotel Zed rolls into Tofino

Throw-back hotel merges retro with technology in $20 million Island revival
Zed Hotel official transport is a ’69 Chevy wagon | Accent Inn

While most of B.C.’s hotel industry is just starting to come to life as pandemic restrictions ease, Victoria-based Mandy Farmer, president and CEO of Accent Inns, has transformed a former Tofino inn into an extraordinary $20 million hotel for the Pacific Rim tourist town.

The Hotel Zed Tofino is the third throwback-style hotel for the company, which has already revived older hotel properties with psychedelic colours, retro decor and unusual services in Victoria and Kelowna.

The 58-room hotel, with rooms starting at $179 a night, has a bike-through lobby connected to multi-use pathways in Tofino. Guests have access to a “psychic’s den,” with a crystal ball and a drop-in tarot-card reader. A mini disco includes LED floor lights that interact with dance moves and a sound system where users can plug in their own devices.

There is also a secret arcade equipped with retro games such as Donkey Kong Jr. and Ms. Pac Man. The hotel shuttle is a classically retro 1969 Chevrolet Kingswood Estate station wagon.

Hotel Zed Tofino, on four acres of rainforest backing onto the lagoon side of Tofino, is also part of the Tribal Park Allies, a group of businesses committed to the ecological protection and restoration of the Tribal Parks ancestral gardens and Tla-o-qui-aht culture and governance.