Hilton Garden Inn Ottawa Downtown — Hotel in Ottawa

Be VERY careful if you decide to stay at this hotel and make sure to check your credit card statements!

I stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn Ottawa Downtown a few weeks ago during Bluesfest. The location was perfect as it was just a short walk to the downtown area and an even shorter walk to LeBreton flats.

The hotel itself was clean and nice enough. Our room was nice, except for a few things. The bathroom wasn’t ideal because the toilet paper holder was broken and there was no fan (which seems to be pretty standard in hotels), so it got very humid after taking a shower and you could hear everything from outside the bathroom… so not great privacy-wise. The beds were also very uncomfortable and the pillows were some of the worst I’ve experienced in a hotel before, so we didn’t sleep the best during our stay.

Regardless, our stay was fine. My issue was with what happened AFTER we checked out.

A few days after getting home from our trip, I noticed a charge for $118.48 from the Hilton Garden Inn Ottawa Downtown on my card that was separate from the charge for our stay. I had no idea what this charge was for, so I immediately called the front desk. They said it was for a dinner in the restaurant. First, we never even ate at the hotel, not even breakfast because that’s not included in your stay. Second, this "dinner" was purchased several hours AFTER we checked out from the hotel. After being told that they would have to "investigate" before approving any sort of refund and they would contact me the next morning, I heard nothing. I called back the next day and was basically given the runaround, told it was the food department’s job, and when I was transferred to them over the phone, they just hung up on me. After calling back again, I was finally able to speak to a manager, who basically told me to wait and see what happened. After some more begging for them to figure this out, the manager agreed to investigate the situation for me that afternoon and call me back with an update. Long story short here, it felt like I had to go a bit "Karen" mode on the phone to get anyone to care about this mystery charge to my account.

Finally, the manager called back and said that they figured out what the charge was. Hotel staff had charged someone else’s meal (again, a meal that was ordered AFTER we checked out and were already checked into another hotel) to my card because they had "the same first name as the name on our booking." Not the same full name, not someone who gave the same room number as the room that we had just stayed in…. just the same FIRST NAME! When I asked how this was able to happen, I was basically just told "it’s fine." Instead of an actual apology for their mistake, the manager just said "well this happens, I’ve had movies that I didn’t watch charged to my room before, so it’s fine."

I was able to get the money refunded after this, and I also was able to advocate enough for how unsafe this unauthorized use of my credit card made me feel that the manager agreed to refund our parking fee, which I am grateful for. The big issue for me here is that although I was able to get my money back, it took me several phone calls and insisting that someone look into the issue. Plus, what if I had just never noticed the charge in the first place?

Moral of the story, I would be very cautious if you decide...

We were very pleased with the central location of this hotel for visiting the various attractions in Ottawa. Most of the attractions were walkable within 15 minutes. Further attractions requiring a bus were easy to get to as the bus and Line 1 tram stops we needed were across the road ($3 in coins/ for seniors). We stayed at this hotel for 4 nights. Our comfortable room on the 7th floor had a very good view towards the War Museum and the Ottawa River. If we visited Ottawa again we would certainly use this hotel.||There were no surprises with our room as it was similar to other Hilton hotel rooms we have used. The room was very comfortable with open shelves in the closet for storing clothes rather than dresser draws. There was a range of TV stations, even one channel for Parliamentary sessions, and, of course, WIFI was free. The room's safe is at floor level! We did like having a microwave and a small fridge in the room. A convenience store was a block away on Albert Street for milk to go along with the oatmeal packets we had brought along as well as our own coffee cups and spoons. The room just has paper cups and wood stir sticks. The bathroom had those squeezable bottles for body gel, shampoo, and hand lotion, but one can ask for a bar of soap. We were too busy sightseeing to use the pool. There were computers for use in the business area. Staff helped us in printing out our boarding passes and in ringing a cab for us. ||Breakfast is like those in hotels that offer a free breakfast with the room, but at this Hilton there is a $20 charge. We did use the Tulip Cafe for dinners though. Expect to pay $20-$30 without drinks. We enjoyed their soups, salads and sandwiches especially. There is a Tim Hortons (closed after 5pm) across the street on Queens and a wonderful bistro called, Occo, on Bay street which we used too. Otherwise, there are no cafes or shops nearby. The Lyon West station building across the road from the hotel was under construction so in the future there may be eateries in that building. The buildings on the streets leading to downtown are office buildings and if there is a food center in them they close at 5pm if not earlier. There is a small selection of pubs/cafes on pedestrian Sparks Street from Bank to Elgin Street - about a 12-15 minute walk from the hotel and a few other choices around the Hotel Laurier area. ||The hotel area is very quiet considering one is just at the edge of downtown Ottawa. We enjoyed our holiday in Ottawa and had a good hotel to come back after...

The room we stayed in (Double Queen Non Smoking) was large, clean and well equipped with a microwave, refrigerator, coffee machine, television and office space along with many power and USB A charging outlets. There are also many storage spaces available such as drawers and cupboards. Do note that the Wifi speed is capped at 4Mbps upload and download, making it unsuitable for streaming much of anything carrying video or downloading files larger than a couple of megabytes. The bathroom was suitably furnished with shower and bath available, though I found the omission of a hand towel hook strange as there were definitely hooks available and suited for the bath towels. It was also noticeably not fully renovated to the hotel website's presentation. However, the main issue with the room we stayed in was the constant noise from both the ventilation system and a lower pitched (250-300Hz - 20-35dB) but very annoying hum that permeated the sleeping area. Even ear plugs could not completely block out this hum, which understandably caused issues with sleep quality. This may have been a "bad luck" of the draw situation, but was our unfortunate reality. Since the manager may read this, I'd like for them to explore the ninth floor (926-937) and find out for themselves what this noise could be as we could not locate it as coming from anywhere inside the room in particular. I am absolutely certain that a room without this issue would result in a much more enjoyable stay.

Regarding the service, the staff was friendly and accommodating, although we do have to point out that the breakfast vouchers were not given nor explained on check-in day, which caused some double-billing. This has absolutely been resolved, but the oversight would be best avoided in the first place. The breakfast itself is quite ordinary and tailored to a particular clientele, which did not really mesh well with me but that is of course a personal taste. Depending on the time you choose to go, there may also be a queue as the seating area fills up.

The location was suitable to our stay, which was neither for business nor vacation. It is in close walking distance to some key locations in downtown Ottawa such as various museums, war memorials and Parliament Hill but we did not make use of this advantage...