Staybridge Suites Niagara-on-the-Lake by IHG — Hotel in Niagara-on-the-Lake

Having spent literally hours combing through reviews of hotels in the Niagara area, I chose this property based on the glowing recommendations of other guests. Despite it being some 15 -20 minutes from the Falls itself and set in a characterless but convenient roadside location, I chose here because others had rated the accommodation and service so highly.||In terms of service, I'd agree with the majority. I found Cosimo who checked me into the hotel to be charming, helpful and obliging and his colleague Robin who dealt with my departure to be equally professional and helpful. Sadly, though, my departure was premature, as I experienced one of the worst nights' sleep I have ever had in a hotel, which I will explain in due course.||The suite to which I was assigned was on the top floor at the end of the hallway and to the rear of the property. It overlooked an ugly commercial property at the other side of the hotel's parking lot. The suite was spacious and well equipped, but not perhaps quite as well presented and or as clean as I had hoped for based on the reviews I had read prior to my arrival. I found the fixtures and fittings in the room to be a little tired, with some in need of replacement (for example the carving knife in the kitchen was blunt and the handles on some other kitchen utensils were loose or came off in use). I also noticed some fraying of carpets where these met the hard flooring in the kitchenette and bathroom, tile grouting in the shower which needed to be refreshed and also what appeared to be a troubling damp patch in the corner of the lounge area to the left of the window. The drapes at both windows looked untidy and the kitchen was not as clean as it could have been, with crumbs in some of the drawers. ||None of these issues alone was enough to cause complaint, however noise coming from the rooftop directly above room did prompt me to speak up in the middle of the night. After trying to get to sleep for almost 3 hours with a low frequency hum and a regular clanking sound preventing me from doing so, in the absence of a comparable suite, I was moved at 2am to a room in the adjoining Holiday Inn Express which shares the lobby area with the Staybridge property. ||Whilst the room move was dealt with efficiently and obligingly, and I was eventually able to get some sleep, the knock on impact of this was far from desirable, impacting badly on my vacation plans for the following day. I dealt with Robin the following morning who was polite and professional but not perhaps quite as apologetic as I might have hoped for in the circumstances. She accompanied me to the suite which I had vacated in the early hours and acknowledged the noise, but initially tried to explain this as being external to the hotel itself, attributing it to bird-deterrent devices in nearby agricultural land. A quick trip outside to the parking lot confirmed to me that any such noise from local landowners was very different in terms of both pitch and frequency.||I was offered a choice of moving to another suite or cancelling my second night without penalty, and I chose the latter after having had breakfast which was sadly also quite disappointing. Whilst there was a reasonable selection of items available, again there were some discrepancies with the glowing reviews I had read and also the tempting imagery on the hotel's website. I found no crispy bacon or bowls filled with tempting, juicy-looking whole fruits here - just some rather unappetising looking sausages and a bowl of bananas which were either completely green or too ripe to eat. The quality of what was served at breakfast was, in my opinion, no better than an average breakfast-inclusive hotel and actually much worse than I have enjoyed at other Staybridge Suites sites around the globe and also at some of the chain's competitors.||Even though it is located some distance from the area's main attractions, this property was not particularly competitively priced and clearly sets its prices partly based on its very favourable reviews. In my opinion, however, it did not offer value for money. In the spirit of fairness, I have rated it as average based on my comparison of the hotel with others within its category, but based on on my experience with this stay I also believe I could well have also justifiably rated it as 'poor', save for the service extended to me by the hotel's team. I certainly wouldn't feel comfortable in recommending it to others in the glowing and effusive way other...

We loved everything about the hotel and our stay. We have stayed at 10 hotels in the Niagara area and this one is the best in terms of overall value. It is rare to have free parking, free breakfast, a full kitchen, pool and a very quiet hotel at such a price in the Niagara area. It's about a 15 minute drive from Clifton Hills and the Falls, but totally worth it. It's very close to the outlet mall which you can see out the window, depending on your room's view.

The manager John was very attentive and I emailed him the night before our stay regarding ingredients in one of their breakfast items. When I woke up there was a response with a photo of the ingredients. Just an FYI to anyone out there, the mix used in their waffle maker is eggless! Pretty cool!

When we arrived John was in the lobby removing Christmas decorations. That shows that even as a manager he seems very hands on. He remembered my email and my name. He greeted my daughters and did a magic card trick for them. He struck up a conversation with our family as well. He was very personable and we thoroughly felt right at home talking to him.

My husband spoke to Robin over the phone about an early check-in and she was such a pleasure to speak to and we met her when we checked in. She provided us with so much information about things around town (in particular skating) for little kids. She even looked up information on her phone to assist us. She was very professional and had a warm and caring attitude. Paige worked at the front desk in the evening and assisted us with board games for our kids. Thanks to the options, our little kids played Scrabble for the first time! All the staff we interacted with were very friendly and approachable.

The property was very well maintained and felt very nice and new. We didn't wait more than 2 minutes for an elevator.

Our kids enjoyed being in the pool. They love to swim. We stayed for 1 night and used the pool for roughly 1 hour each day. We were literally the only people in the pool on both days. We saw staff come in to replenish a d remove towels.

About the rooms, we loved the layout nd my husband said I could live here for a few days. Everything was clean and the things in the room were well spaced out. You could see that a lot of planning went into setting up the rooms.

The breakfast was fantastic with a lot of options. We're vegetarian and don't eat eggs and there were tons of options. Bread (gluten free available upon request - how nice is that for those that need it!), bagels, fresh fruit, oatmeal, and other typical things. As mentioned above the waffle mix is eggless. The coffee actually tasted very good. I believe they even had soy or oat milk as well. It was really a great breakfast and it was complimentary. There was also an evening reception, with a few options and nothing too fresh, but we did have some nice beverages. the fact that the rooms have full kitchens meant we brought fresh foods to much on anyway.

There was ample parking (free) at the hotel and we could even see our car out the window which I liked.

We had numerous devices connected to the WiFi and the connection was fantastic.

My husband kept saying, you made a good choice picking this place. We frequent the Niagara area and this will now be our hotel of choice (if we don't need a water Park). It was a perfect getaway that our family needed.

Kudos to the hotel staff for taking such care of every detail! We have recommended the place to others as well. Yes, you need to drive to the falls, but it's not that far at all. We hope Stay bridge expands in Canada....

If I could give half points, this would be a 3.5.

Alright so I'm not sure where the fancy hangout and dining area outside was supposed to be but somehow we missed it. I want to warn people that this is completely connected to a holiday Inn Express and the two hotels share ALL amenities. Breakfast, parking AND the pool are shared. So what's normally an already busy and crowded amenity, is even busier and more crowded because of the two hotels. This isn't mentioned anywhere at all during booking, of course.

They have postings everywhere stating breakfast is until 10:30 on weekends and 9:30 on week days, yet they stop serving 30 minutes earlier than that regardless of what day it is.

Our room was clean except for the grout on the floors and the door handle. The grout was mostly brown and black from being so dirty and the door handles hadn't been cleaned. At nighttime, lots of silverfish came out of the woodworks in the bathroom and that was offputting. There is a kitchen but the dishes were dirty, and I mean all of them! Yuckers!

So for the positives though, this is located only about 20 minutes from Niagara Falls. It's located in a quiet little area off the highway. There isn't much directly around so you get a good night's rest. The pillows weren't bad and the bed was okay. I travel with my own mattress topper and with that I slept very well in the room. The room was also very quiet, which I requested a quiet location and I really appreciated the hotel making that happen. I'm a terribly light sleeper and my room (551) was nice and quiet. The hotel seems very well insulated too, and I barely heard any outside noise at all. Thst was remarkable to me, lol. I was expecting lots of noise from above too, and there wasn't any.

It should also be noted that Benjamin who works the overnights is a GEM! We were so glad to have crossed paths with him and appreciated him answering questions for us when needed. Please pass along a kudos to him for being a kind soul. Thank you Benjamin, you rock!

This was not a bad stay, but things could have been improved. If there weren't silverfish in the room, it would have been a 4 star review. For a hotel of this caliber, the stay was fine and just needed some improvements. I also think it's only fair to follow your own postings on breakfast times and to let people know ahead of time that the amenities are shared with hundreds of other people in another hotel. And grout this dirty is just gross. But again, the location is quiet, there is a breakfast, and there's a great person working...