Sheraton Niagara Falls — Hotel in City of Niagara Falls

I visited the Sheraton Niagara Falls as part of a convention. Arrival was in the evening, and the GPS directed me to the side door and driveway to the parking lot. So I was a little disoriented because there was no unloading area, but I pulled into the parking lot which was controlled by a gate and parked.

Even at the front entrance there did not appear to be any bell service available as far as I could see. But I did not need help, so after checking in, I took a cart out to the parking lot and got my own baggage - plenty of carts available next to the side door.

The room was fine, a refrigerator and a tiny microwave in it, as well as the coffeemaker and tea and coffee makings. There was a dresser with six drawers, sufficient for me to unload my large suitcase in half of it and leave the other half for my roommate. The beds were comfortable. several pillows on each, three down, which I prefer, and one poly. Climate control was on the wall as I entered, easy to set the temp and the wall unit did the rest. It was a tiny bit noisy but not too bad.

It was a shower only. The water pressure was good and hot water was plentiful. They had the pump bottles on the wall and next to the sink, and I asked for a bar of soap which was provided. Towels were big and fluffy and plentiful. We had the room made up once during our stay, upon request, which is what we preferred. Other than our trash getting pretty full in those tiny cans it was fine.

The staff was great. I had access to the Club Lounge and the staff was very good but they could not always provide dietary info about the food they were serving which was an issue since I am gluten free. Food was pretty basic - scrambled eggs, sausage, and oatmeal as well as continental choices for breakfast - sorry I can't really recall those choices since I couldn't eat any of that, but there looked to be a good variety, though the menu was the same every day. Yogurt, boiled eggs, bottled juice and milk variety, soda, coffee, tea and cocoa.

Evening hour was a hot choice which I couldn't eat because I didn't know content, and cold cuts, cheese cubes and crudite. Coffee, tea, sodas and water. Alcoholic drinks could be provided, I believe.

The room was small and seating was limited. There were a couple of hi top tables to stand and eat at, and they were generally well used since there were limited chairs. But turnover was pretty brisk.

There's no real bar in the hotel, which was bad for our groups' socializing. The attached Rainforest Restaurant was apparently not so great and did not have a bar (reportedly, I never set foot inside). The hotel supplied a restaurant list for the surrounding area but we were there just after the 'season' ended and many of the restaurants on the list were closed. Yelp was no help either, apparently. We also missed out on the local free trolley service and the nightly fireworks, both of which were discontinued after the end of the season (Oct 15, I believe).

I drive a plug in hybrid and there is no means to charge at the hotel, notwithstanding a listing on one of the EV charging websites. There are a couple of places not far away that the front desk referred me to, but both of them required paid parking in order to use them, and I was already in paid parking at the hotel, which is apparently owned by the local government, not the hotel. I found the Amtrak Station a bit more than a mile away with free parking and charging, and sat there for an hour or so late one night to get something in the battery - 2nd level charger.

For me, the high point of the hotel is the pool and jacuzzies. The pool is heated. The jacuzzies are not too hot, but that was ok, I was happy enough. No kids allowed in the jacuzzies after 9 pm. The pool closed at 11. There is no gradual stair into the pool, you just use the metal ladder to get in and out. Shallow end is 4 ft, deep is 7 ft, I think.

So the hotel was pretty good. The staff was very good, they were very friendly and helpful as...

Great Location for the State Park and the Falls. Free guest laundry (including free supplies) was great. Starbucks in the lobby was perfect!. Reception and lobby staff were very accommodating. The Rainforest Cafe...VERY disappointing. We waited up to ONE HOUR to get in, then we were put on a table right near the entrance, ZERO atmosphere, ZERO experience for the kids, people walking by every ten seconds, and standing around waiting for tables, so I refused to sit there. Had to wait another 15 mins for a table in the main part of the restaurant (as shown in the marketing photos). Food was (eventually) served cold. I sent it back. Quality of the food overall was AVERAGE, at seriously inflated prices. Menu choice was the usual burgers, fries, pasta, pizza etc etc, little imagination (Seriously? is this what you think everyone eats?)....but hey, we're just more tourists right?...just feed us any old overpriced (cold) food, expect us to lap it up and pay 20% tips and then we'll be on our way to make room for the next bunch of gullible tourists. On DAY 2 and DAY 3 of our stay we drove to Buffalo (30 mins) to find a proper restaurant, with a good menu at sensible prices (highly recommended!). Starbucks, great coffee as usual but please don't ask for an 18% tip just for taking my coffee order (are you serious?!...tips are at my discretion AFTER the service has been provided to a good standard, not before) Housekeeping.....BEWARE. Housekeeping do a so-called "LIGHT REFRESH" of the room, meaning the bedsheets and towels are not changed, the bed is just pulled over and kind of tidied up. This is a BIG issue for me...the hotel are charging me FULL price for my room, PLUS additional 'destination fee' added on, so I expect clean bed sheets and fresh towels EVERY DAY. I don't buy into the trendy SAVE THE PLANET guilt-trip marketing by re-using my towels or not having fresh bed sheets every day. The only thing reusing towels does is save the hotels profit margin. If you want me to reuse my bedsheets and towels then you must give me a discount on the room fee, otherwise NO DEAL. (TOP TIP for anyone using this hotel...strip you bed and put the sheets on the floor and the towels in the bath before you leave for the day....housekeeping will have no choice but to change them all. Unless of course you want to save the hotels profit margin... I mean save the planet). All in all we had a great family visit to the Niagara Falls, but I don't need to be dealing with the avoidable money grabbing annoyances I experienced. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE stop treating people like short-term tourists with money to throw away before they ship out and the next lot arrive. I expect a fair experience for the inflated prices you are charging, and I didn't get it. On a final note, having read many other reviews and the hotels responses, I challenge the SHERATON HOTEL that as well responding publicly with a watered down weak apology, why not contact me personally and compensate me adequately for my very poor family experience. Will you do that? I think not. After all I'm just another tourist who's been, spent his money and moved on to make way for the next one. I strongly recommend anyone visiting Niagara Falls to shop around, there must be better options available.

UPDATE after 10 days since posting this review....Standard response from hotel, as can be seen below. Weak apologies, ZERO compensation for my family. No substance at all. We WILL NOT be returning. Please make an informed decision to avoid any disruption to...

Pros: Walking distance to Niagara falls and many restaurants.

Cleanliness was good.

Microwave and mini fridge in room.

We could see the hot air balloon from our room window.

Room was spacious.

No noise issues.

Neutral: Bottled water is provided in the rooms and restocked each day (you are charged a mandatory $10/day for this though).

House keeping did not seem to speak English so they were not able to understand instructions we shared with them. It wasn't too big of a deal.

Layout of the hotel is interesting with VERY long hallways. For some rooms you may need to walk quite a ways to get to the elevator.

Cons: There was no fan in the bathroom or at least not one that worked.

The body wash container was completely missing off the rack for our shower. We couldn't get the phone in the room to work to call the front desk and ended up just asking about it the next day and using a bar of soap we had brought. The next day halfway through the day (and after house keeping had come) still no body wash. We called the front desk, from our personal phones since the room phone was still not functioning, and then after that 2nd time of requesting body wash, they brought and installed it to the wall where it was supposed to go.

There's only one Laundry room for the whole hotel that's on the 2nd floor. There's 2 washers and 2 dryers for all guests. Both washers were out of service! One said "out of service" and the other "temporarily out of service". Hotel staff could not say when they would be repaired. A couple days later I went to check on the laundry room and half the room was flooded with water. There were also supposed to be laundry supplies provided but we could not find any.

Hotel staff didn't have much information about alternate laundry options or shuttle information. For laundry we ended up hand washing some items and then using the dryer, but we found the dryer a bit difficult to use. There is only heat setting but no time or other setting. So we just had to periodically check on the items.

For transportation / info on the area they just referred us to a desk with people from a tour company advertising their tours. They didn't provide any other info except for info related to their tour company. We ended up signing up for it, and even though it was fine, we were given false advertisement information that was not fully accurate of the actual services provided.

Nothing to microwave food on so we had to use a napkin since most take out containers are not microwave safe.

There are a couple restaurants attached to the hotel which is convenient. However they are a bit pricey. Breakfast was not included but there is a breakfast restaurant attached that's $20/person. And there's the Rainforest Cafe attached for lunch and dinner options that's easily $25 or more / person. The Rainforest Cafe was pretty good food wise and when we were there service was great.

Last note, not hotel specific, but for the area in general, is a pretty shady area. A local in the area we talked to also mentioned that to us after our own observations and reviews around the area and he warned us to be careful at night. There's a lot of mention for this hotel and others in the area of theft from vehicles from hotel parking lots and sometimes theft of entire vehicles. Bring a vehicle at your own risk and be careful of theft in the area. One side of the hotel was a lot shadier than another entrance. Just be cautious if you have young kids or...