Residence & Conference Centre - Ottawa West — Hotel in Ottawa

My friend and I stayed one night at the residence on the August long weekend. Check in time was 4pm. My partner and I arrived at the campus around 2:45. We knew we were early but figured sometimes there is flexibility in check in time, so it was worth a shot. The friendly male at the front desk informed us that because it was a long weekend and they were fully booked, they unfortunately couldn’t check in early. Understandable. He helped me with parking and I had no problems. My friend and I had a long day of travelling so we went and had a nap in the car.||||At approximately 3:52pm, we walked in again and approached the front desk, thinking 8 minutes before check in might grant us a little grace. Turns out that was very presumptuous, and the young woman at the front desk was very sure to make me feel that way.|||| Before I could even say anything, the young woman said “are you here to check in?” I responded yes, and she very matter-of-factly said “check in is not until 4”. Her tone was very rude, as if she was annoyed by something previously. My friend and a grabbed a seat in the lobby. We watched a few more parties of people walk in and get the same message. ||||At approx 3:55, I joined the queue. I watched the minutes tick towards 4, utterly frustrated that they offered no flexibility in check in. By 3:58, there were 5 or 6 parties (and 10+ people) lined up waiting to check in, and the 3 reception staff continued to stare at their computers and ignore the line. The entire line up was notably frustrated. ||||I understand internal pressures the staff may have been receiving from management/housekeeping to wait until 4pm to begin checking in. What I can’t understand is the mhorrendous customer service from the three young women at the front desk, who continued to ignore the line.||||I had two thoughts:||||1- if the pressure from housekeeping required them to wait until the last second to check in, the organization needs to rethink their operations. Is housekeeping really walking into a room to clean and requiring every last minute to clean it? If so- that is an unfair pressure on the housekeeping staff.||||2- the three ladies at the front desk exhibited very poor professional judgement. They must have felt the dozens of frustrated eyes on them. People were waiting. People were scoffing. Tired. Staring at their watches. It was unbelievable. The complete lack of social awareness was so shocking that myself and other customers were turning to one another to complain. The staff completely ignored the long line up, staring aimlessly at their computers and having conversation among themselves. It appeared as if they were purposefully ignoring the line up to prove the point that “check in isn’t until 4pm”. Come on, 4pm is a matter of seconds away. It was shockingly rude. They could have begun serving customers earlier or at the very least acknowledged them. ||||It took the second hand of the clock turning 4:00 for them to begin serving people. It felt like a joke.||||Staff needs to re-think their priorities and start putting...

I lived here, and let me tell you- don't bother coming. Find somewhere else. It's overpriced for the age, decrepicy, and low quality. The staff has one or two kind gems, the rest are atrocious. Air conditioning units are so old, they break every few weeks, and are loud as hell. When you rent a place out, you rent it to sleep at night. The air conditioning unit makes it impossible to sleep at night.

There is noise during the night, and no matter how many times you try to get someone to help you get someone to stop hammering or yelling, they refuse to do so. In fact, they will not do anything for a few weeks. Then when you do finally get them to go speak to someone, they will assume you're lying and making up the story. They'll give you this neat little card saying 'go talk to someone else about it.' Right, because my weeks of inability to sleep with someone working on things loudly is all in my head. And you shirking responsibility is going to fix it.

Then he told me it was probably the AC. You know, their AC units are so damn loud, they're used as scapegoats and excuses, and even the staff knows it. Jokes on him, I turn the AC off at night, just to be able to sleep. I suffer through the groggy heat, and even then, the loud hammering and people who stay here doesn't cease till 4 am. I have classes at 8.

The place is old. Doors are broken, sinks are broken, cleaning staff doesn't clean up well after messy college students, leaving lingering smells and disgusting health hazards. Cleaning staff rarely comes, maintenance sometimes does their job but not really, as the residence is so caught up on charging you a grand a month or 100 bucks a night for a decrepit room, and making a profit, that they don't want to pay for real repairs. If I can, I'm breaking my lease early and getting the hell out of here. Don't stay here as a hotel guest, and most CERTAINLY don't live here. Sunny, the manager, is absolutely abhorently bad at dealing with people, and her policies...

We loved our stay at this residence. It is a university residence, not a hotel, but is much cheaper than any hotel I could find for the weekend. There were 2 bedrooms, a 3 piece bathroom and a kitchenette with a large fridge and a microwave. Had I had the opportunity to read other reviews I probably would have liked to check out the floor kitchen but I didn't know one existed. The little kitchenettes do not have any dishes or cutlery. We had plastic cutlery and a kettle packed and managed to get by with the accumulation of coffee and tea cups in our van. If I were staying longer I would have definitely made a run to Dollarama for a few china items. At least a few cups and plates would be a nice touch with a small bottle of dishsoap. I found the bedding and towels to be quite fine, soft and clean. The apartment, kitchen and bathroom were all clean. the elevator was being serviced so that was a bit of a problem. The one working elevator was left on the service setting for the weekend which meant it stopped at every floor, causing the call buttons to go off. You had to keep pushing your call button every time it went out and, eventually, the elevator did get to your floot. There was no problem getting the elevator to the first floor, only for higher up floors did you have to keep pushing the call button and be a bit patient. That was the only glitch, however, in our stay. The Residence is building R on the college directory which is a good thing to know if you arrive at midnight after a long day of driving. The front desk staff was exceptionally polite and helpful. Parking was $5 for 24 hours on the weekend. The residence is not near downtown but there is lots of bus service and we saw city busses on campus after midnight. The residence is across the street from a mall with a good selection of stores and coffee shops and fast food. We were only staying the weekend but I would not hesitate to stay...