Cambridge Suites Mississauga — Hotel in Mississauga

I booked and paid for a 2bedroom suites + kitchen at Cambridge months ago. Nearly a month goes by and Cambridge staff emails me saying they over-booked will provide alternate accomodations. Weeks go by no communication. I contact Expedia. No help since they say it's the hotel's fault. I contact the hotel. Manager can't be reached. I finally get an email from Cambridge that they booked an alternate accomodation. It's a single room 45 minutes away in a different city, and doesn't have any of the amenities/inclusions (no pool, paid parking, etc) of my original 2 bedroom suite. Never bothered to ask me or even try to book the same type of room (a 2 bedroom suite). There are plenty of comparable suite/residence-style hotels near my original booking that Cambridge could have suggested. I call Expedia and Cambridge and spend hours trying to get in touch. Expedia relays that this is too far and doesn't include any of the original amenities to Cambridge. We get nowhere that day. Days later I get an email from Cambridge that they changed my alternate accomodation to a hotel closer to my original booking. Again they book at single room in a low rated hotel beside a super-highway which plenty of noise issues. How a single room is equivalent to a 2 bedroom suite with kitchen is beyond me. It's clear that the Cambridge manager (Shauna Higgins) is just trying to wipe her hands clean of this and never bothered to look for a 2 bedroom suite at a residence/suites style hotel. I did a bit of searching and found a 2bedroom suite at a hotel 5 minutes from Cambridge suites. To avoid being over-booked yet again, I called the hotel, explained that I was over-booked by Cambridge and asked if there's a physical room available and reserved it to made sure I had it. I sent the information of the 2 bedroom suite that I found to Shauna Higgins, their front desk staff and Expedia and asked if they can book this 2 bedroom suite. They refused. It was their single rooms or nothing. After weeks of getting nowhere with Expedia and Cambridge, and angry/excuse filed email from Shauna at 1-2am in the morning, Shauna proceeds to cancel my reservation. Now everything is more expensive and there are fewer options. We got totally screwed over by this hotel and no compensation to cover increased expense of booking at this time before our trip. Expedia says this is closed and they cannot help. After the nightmare I went through dealing with Cambridge and Expedia, we are left to scramble to find a new accomodation. Unbelievable. I provided them with an equivalent 2 bedroom suite and they would not book it!! It was their suggestions or nothing. This is unacceptable, unprofessional behavior and the Cambridge suites manager (Shauna) should be fired from her position or demoted.||I will never book at Cambridge.||I will never use Expedia companies ever again (AVOID: Trivago, Hotwire, Hotels, Travelocity, orbitz, VRBO, CheapTickets, CarRentals). ||I see many posts on several websites about Shauna and this over-booking disaster. It has affected many people and many people appear to have been poorly treated and left with nothing. I recommend you write reviews, contact the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and CBC MarketPlace and CBC Fifth Estate about over-booking in the hotel industry. Canada needs to enact over-booking laws similar to the rules that govern the airline industry in the event of over-booking and cancelation, otherwise hotels/Expedia will just keep treating customers like Cambridge/Expedia did to many people in this...

Between the time of my booking (several months in advance) and our reservation, this hotel rented out all the suites to the government to house refugees (this part I don’t take issue with, just the customer service). Apparently an email notification was sent out, but because I booked through CF1 (a 3rd party booking system through a military discount plan) our email went to a no reply address that was sent to them by the online booking system. ||We arrived around 10pm with a very sleepy 4 year old in tow, and were told we were in another hotel 20 minutes away, and instead of a 2-bedroom suite, in a standard room. Because we were sharing a rental car with our in-laws who were staying at a nearby hotel (selected for proximity to ours), that solution didn’t work, plus after booking and paying for a suite, we weren’t happy about a standard room. It was too late to sort it out, so they just put us in the same hotel as the in-laws for the night. It was not very suitable, so the next day we called and asked them to find us something more similar to what we had booked. They said they would try to at least get two adjoining hotel rooms somewhere, since clearly a 4 year old won’t be staying in a completely separate space on his own. ||Around 2pm or so we got a call from Tanya (a manager or supervisor) saying she had booked us a comparable suite at another hotel. Great! She would text us the details. 8pm rolls around and still no text, but we had the name of the hotel so we planned to just go there when we finished supper. Before we were done eating I got an email from another hotel employee saying she had booked us at a different place entirely! So I call for an explanation. She had no idea Tanya had booked anything and was upset that she had spent so much time looking for something for us. By this point our son is sound asleep in the back of the car, and we have no clue where to go. So I call both of these hotels and NEITHER ONE has a reservation in our names! At this point it’s after 10pm, and we have nowhere to sleep, so while we waited in the car in a Wendy’s Parking lot we are searching for a room on our own thinking we would just have to pay twice and try for a refund later. Finally (after screening my calls) my husband called from his phone and got an answer and they said they were working on something. Around 11pm or so they finally booked us into a suite at an extended stay. Unfortunately, it was a good 20 minutes from our in-laws so every time we went anywhere we had to drive an extra 20 minutes to pick them up and drop them off. The final suite itself was lovely. But the end result was a kid who was asleep in the car, on hotel lobby benches, in our arms, etc and spent hours more in the car during what was supposed to be a fun family vacation than needed. The cancelled reservation without notice was bad enough, but an honest mistake (although there was one email communication with Tanya before arrival, so if they had to have gone digging they could have found my contact info) but the gong show that followed to try to get into a room was ridiculous! Terrible customer service, and they just kept reminding us that we had a great rate and they were paying more for the other hotels than the rate. Well yeah, that’s why I booked so far in advance! I have no doubt that the government made it worth their while to cancel all their reservations, so no, I don’t feel sorry for them about eating...

My Review of Cambridge Suites Mississauga – 3 out of 5

My stay at Cambridge Suites Mississauga was generally good, especially in terms of the location and room size. The hotel is centrally located with ample free parking, which was included in my booking along with breakfast.

Pros: •The suite I booked was very spacious compared to other hotels in the area. •The bathroom was located away from the entrance and directly across from the bed, which gave a better sense of privacy and comfort. •The hotel was relatively quiet, and I didn’t experience much noise from neighboring rooms. •Housekeeping staff were regularly working in the hallways, keeping the common areas clean. •The parking was free and easy to access. •Wi-Fi was included.

Cons and issues I encountered: •The breakfast was disappointing: limited variety, mostly packaged items rather than fresh options. For example, the fruit served was canned and full of preservatives, and there was only one type of egg (hard-boiled). •The room had a strong musty odor, especially noticeable in the pillows, bedsheets, and mattress. It smelled like damp storage or like other guests had just used the bedding without proper cleaning. •The room lacked proper ventilation, and it seemed windows were never opened for fresh air. •The bathroom fan was extremely loud and malfunctioning, as it was connected to the light switch. I couldn’t use the bathroom light without triggering the noisy exhaust fan. I reported this to the front desk and a technician came, but I had my “Do Not Disturb” sign on and wasn’t feeling well, so I thanked him and asked him to come another time. •Internet service, although included, was unstable. It disconnected frequently, which is a serious issue for business travelers or anyone attending online meetings. •A strange burning smell was noticeable near the elevators, which was concerning, although I’m not sure what the source was. •Front desk staff were not particularly friendly or welcoming. They seemed as if they were doing the job reluctantly, with minimal effort to make guests feel at ease. Since the front desk is the first impression for any traveler, this was a bit disappointing.

Conclusion: Overall, considering the price I paid on Booking.com and the large room size, the deal was reasonable. However, I recommend the hotel management to seriously address the issues of hygiene, ventilation, bedding freshness, customer service, and internet reliability. After a long 6+ hour drive, I was hoping for a peaceful, clean, and fully functional space to rest — without unpleasant smells or technical...