Hôtel Terrasse Dufferin — Hotel in Quebec

HTD OVERALL / BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT. Hotele Terrasse-Dufferin (which I’m referring to as “HTD” here forward) is a good place to stay for most people. Unless something has gone wrong (it didn’t), I “feel bad” not giving a 5 star-review. I struggled on this one – I really would like to have had the option of a 4.5 stars. Ultimately, given the price (expensive) and the property’s flaws, I settled on 4 stars despite the kind staff and excellent location. |All photos of room 15 taken as we were leaving (room was appropriately made up when we arrived). ||QUEBEC PROVINCE OVERALL. We really enjoyed Montreal and Quebec city (which I’m referring to as “QBC” here forward) and the stops we made around or in between both. In retrospect, splitting it 3 nights in Montreal and 4 in QBC was fine; vice-versa would have been fine also. ||WHO. Family of 4 (middle aged married couple, kids 13 and 11) Americans. Frequent domestic travelers with less (but some) international experience. No French speakers amongst us. ||WHAT. Vacation to Quebec province, including a stay at HTD.||WHERE. Montreal (3 nights @ Sonder’s Penny Lane in Old Town, good location and experience) followed by 4 nights in QBC. ||WHEN. August, 2025. I note it was quite warm while we were there. I was shocked that the highs were hotter than many parts of the USA far to the south, including where we live most of the time. I note that an experience at HTD and QBC in general would differ radically for summer vs. winter. ||WHY. The purpose of this review is mainly to educate others on HTD. I share some other information that I think will be helpful. ||SPECIAL NOTE. I point out that we went out of our way to be extra nice and polite the entire trip, given that some Canadians are understandably displeased with the USA right now. Almost all Canadians we interacted with were nice and polite toward us (certainly more consistently nice and polite overall than what you experience in the USA).||DRIVING IN GENERAL. We did have a rental car, since we drove from Montreal and wanted to take nature excursions outside QBC. Renting a car and airport experiences were similar to in USA. Driving in Canada was not too different than driving in the USA, although of course KPH instead of MPH. GPS (Waze, Google Maps, Apple Maps) were accurate. ||HTD DRIVING AND PARKING. Be mindful that in tourist season such as when we were there, it can take a while to get into and out of the “Old Quebec” area (where HTD is located) due to so much pedestrian traffic. Driving to HTD, you’ll definitely be wondering “wait, can I turn here? should I turn here?” etc. GPS worked for us, but you have to be patient with pedestrians and construction. |We were able to secure a parking spot at HTD for a reasonable daily fee; you’ll want to set that up in advance. The parking area is around the corner (a 30 second walk) and is where the street sort of dead-ends (basically you drive past the hotel). There is not much extra parking in Old Quebec, we were very glad we paid for the spot at HTD. ||HTD STAFF. Everyone there was very nice and tried to be helpful. This is especially valuable when traveling, and in area you are not familiar with. Everyone we dealt with spoke enough English for our purposes. ||HTD LOCATION. (see the phots I’ve uploaded) Overall, the location is fantastic. HTD is in the “upper town” of Old Quebec. It’s funny, but if you have a balcony room like we did and use the balcony, you’ll definitely end up in someone else’s vacation photos – people take photos of HTD, especially the flags at the balcony area. Interestingly, the USA Consulate is next door (thus the security guard on duty outside with an American flag patch on the uniform). ||The most common photos of Old Quebec tend to be from the St. Lawrence River showing the Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac (the hotel which looks somewhat like a castle to us Americans), and many times the HTD is also shown (from the river, HTD is to the left / the south). ||From HTD, you can pretty much walk anywhere you’d likely want to go in the area in 20 minutes, and almost all of the Old Quebec activities, restaurants, and retail are within a 10 minute walk. The boardwalk overlooking the river is basically right in front of you. ||HTD DESCRIPTION OVERALL. It’s obviously an older building which could use TLC. It has “old world charm”. I don’t think it has central air conditioning. There is no elevator; the stairs are steep but at least the staircase is sufficiently wide. Some persons struggle to get their luggage up and down. Physical keys are used, the building is locked at 7 p.m. (key access), with the staff gone for the night. There is no restaurant, room service, etc.||HTD ROOM 15. We had room 15, which is on Floor 2 (in USA that would be floor 3). That room is referred to as a “Suite River View with Balcony” and might be the largest room (or tied for it) at HTD. We knew it would be a tight fit for the 4 of us, and it was. If you are used to a lot of space / require a lot of privacy, you might struggle a bit. ||The room was not “nice” in the way that you’d expect at a reputable modern hotel in the USA. It’s important to know this in advance and be prepared to accept it (we did). In different circumstances, we would have been unhappy with the room. You’re mainly paying for the location. ||Mostly, I won’t describe things which are obvious from the photos I am posting. Here are a few items of note.||The pull-out bed takes up most of the “living room” – there is just enough space to maneuver around it to get to the balcony, kitchen area, and front door. ||The bedroom has a semi-portable air conditioning unit which has a hose going to the outside through a window. It does work, although we were hesitant to leave it on when we were not there, since the hose itself got quite warm. The living room area has no air-condition at all unless you leave the bedroom door open and aim the AC unit such that part of the air blows out to that room. That’s what we had to do. The AC unit is loud, but in a gentle “white noise” way (I like white noise) and having it on at night helped cover any possible noise from the street / boardwalk. || The ceiling fans worked.||There was sufficient closet space and some hangars, although the bedroom closet door can’t open all the way due to the bed. ||The mini-fridge with small freezer area worked well. || The bathroom wasn’t great in general, although the toilet worked fine and so did the shower. Water pressure overall was ok. || The balcony can fit 2 persons in chairs and 4 if standing. There were fireworks over the river a few times during the week, and you have a great view of such things from the hotel. The balcony has partial privacy from the adjoining room balconies.||A strange quirk is that the rooms next door on each side have balconies…which actually run partly outside Room 15 itself. (Seems clear they rearranged the set up at some point, perhaps to expand Room 15 or perhaps to reduce Room 15’s balcony so the adjoining rooms could have one). This was not a problem for us, but if you open the curtains in the bedroom or the bathroom, part of what you’re seeing is the balcony on either side (so, yes, persons out there could see in if you had curtains open). Again, this is “weird” but was not an actual problem. We kept those curtains closed anyhow to reduce the heat coming in. ||2 small baskets of snacks were present in the room, in addition to a few orange juices. This was a nice touch. They do not have or provide bottled water, and 1 day their “water filling station” was broken. A few times during the stay I asked for more juice, and it was provided.|| I was pleasantly surprised how quiet the room was. We did not, at all, hear noise from the outside. I am a light sleeper, and slept pretty well despite the smaller bed. The humming from the AC unit likely helped. ||MEDICAL CARE; PHARMACY. One of our kids had a minor medical issue which needed some attention. We were able to get seen at a private clinic in Montreal on short notice, and they did want our passports for that. The Montreal pharmacy did not have the necessary medication, but had branches in QBC, where we were going the following day. Eventually we were able to get the medication at a pharmacy in QBC. Given realistic expectations, a reasonable experience. ||QBC TIP. You may not need cash $ at all. We did not acquire any Canadian Dollars in paper money, although a few times it would have been handy. ||QBC TIP. Most service industry people in Old Quebec speak some English. We DID use internet-based translation tools every day, including for menu translations (some menus are also in English, some are not). ||QBC TIP. We used Open Table to secure reservations for dinner vs. waiting in longer lines and wandering around hoping to get a table. If you don’t mind waiting a little while and/or don’t have your heat set on a particular place, then reservations not needed (but keep in mind they don’t typically text you, you need to wait in line physically right there). ||QBC TIP. Unless you’re just not an outdoor person, we do recommend the national parks, waterfalls, etc. near QBC. ||QBC TIP. If you’re going to get out and about (which is the point of being there), you’re going to need to deal with stairs. If you’re going to really get out and about, you’re doing to deal with a lot of stairs. ||USA / CANADA TRAVEL TIP. We did everything online we could before and during the trip as far as border control, declarations, etc. This included “ArriveCAN” and “Mobile Passport Control”. We were amazed at how easily and quickly we went through customs...

DO NOT TRUST IT!!! WORST experience EVER! We booked on Dec 18th from Expedia. The hotel didn’t send any notifications about the MUST-check-in time. We arrived at 10pm but can’t check in. Called the management +20 times but no one answered the phone. Then we requested a refund. Per Expedia rules the hotel has to approve the refund to be able to process. The hotel rejected our request multiple times. I never had such an expedience before so do not come to this place. ——————————————————————— To clarify and respond to the hotel’s reply to my original review:

We booked this place on Dec 18 via Expedia, expecting a proper hotel experience. Nowhere in the listing did it clearly state that check-in would be entirely self-managed like an Airbnb, nor was there any warning or communication indicating that we would be completely locked out after a certain time. We arrived around 10pm after a long journey, only to find ourselves locked out, unable to check in, and left stranded in the middle of the night.

We called over 20 times — no one answered. We were outside at midnight, exhausted and stressed, doing everything we could to get in. In the end, we had to scramble to find emergency accommodation and ended up paying an overpriced last-minute rate elsewhere.

Now the hotel says, “We sent you check-in info via Expedia messenger.” Really? Why not email or text us directly like every other professional hotel? Why blame Expedia for not providing our contact info? If that’s truly the case, how do you expect customers to receive critical check-in instructions? This isn’t just poor communication — it’s completely irresponsible.

Let me ask a few honest questions: What kind of “hotel” operates like an Airbnb, with no front desk, no emergency support, and then refuses to take accountability? Why do you feel justified charging the full amount, when you provided no service and left your guests outside in the cold? How can you blame the customer and Expedia, instead of owning the failure of your setup and communication process?

This is not a real hotel — it’s a misleading listing pretending to be one. Every other hotel we stayed at on this trip sent clear instructions, multiple reminders, and had 24/7 support. This place? Nothing but blame-shifting and silence when we needed help the most.

You didn’t just ruin our night — you created an unsafe and incredibly stressful situation no traveler should ever experience.

To anyone reading this: Do NOT book here. It’s not...

We understood rooms are not cheap in Quebec City, but there would still be plenty of selection in the mid CAD 200 range. We booked this hotel for $230/night in July for 3 nights. Due to train delay, we arrived at the hotel at 10pm for a late check in. Turns out the horrible experience started with finding the hotel is not staffed after 7:30pm. No one answered the hotel phone number. We called an emergency number found on a sticky note on the front door and got our key from a real estate agent box. Little did we know we were assigned the smallest and highest room in the hotel (Room #12) , we dragged our luggage up 3 floors through steep stairs of this 200-year-old building. Opening the door, we saw a small room still feeling warm inside with a noisy portable air conditioner set to 18 deg. C. The night proved to be hot and sleeping was not possible until 3am. The sheets, pillow case and pillows have visible stains, the carpet under our feet slide around as you walk around. The washroom is even more tiny (even for me at only 5ft 7in) with no exhaust fan. Vanity has no room even to put a tooth paste. You cannot get warm water because you can only take water from a hot tap or a cold tap. The shower drain runs so slow you may expect to step on water during the shower. Shower water temperature takes a while to adjust and will change suddenly during your shower. The only thing you can do is to wait for the water to normalize while your body is still wet. After the shower, we called the emergency number with attempts to report the issues, but no one answer anymore. With only 5 hours of sleep, we packed up the next morning, reported the issue to the office staff and conveyed our intent to leave. We accepted the cost of the first night, but requested refunds for the 2 subsequent nights. As of a week later, the manager still insist that we should be responsible for the fees of the un-occupied nights. If you are planning to book this hotel, please think twice. You may accept the risk to be assigned to Room #12 (like us), or put your hard earned $230/night to better use by choosing from plenty of other hotels. Note that the old town of Quebec City is very walkable. We ended up staying in another hotel located further west closer to the Artillery Park with much better value for money and proximity to great restaurants and reservation availability! Hope this comment helps you get a well-deserved experience in your coming...