voco Niagara Falls - the Cadence by IHG — Hotel in City of Niagara Falls

Just wanted to share my personal experience at this hotel, why I rated the service 1 star

I booked this hotel to celebrate my girlfriend’s birthday while on a trip to Niagara Falls. After driving about 8hrs, we got to the hotel at about 2am. We called ahead of time to let them know we’d get there at that time.

When we got to the hotel, we parked outside to unload our items. When we got to the door, it was locked with no employee in the lobby. We stood there for a few minutes waiting for an attendant to see us and let us in. Nothing. We then called the hotel and had to wait another 5minutes before they contacted the lobby attendant who then opened the door, all while we were exhausted and carrying all of our belongings.

Once we got to the desk, the employee told us they needed another deposit. I had contacted them about this days earlier and they said no deposit was needed. I came to find out this was not true at the counter.

We proceeded to drop off our items in the room, and then went back downstairs to move the car. We saw no parking out front. The employee told us there would be parking by the restaurant or three blocks down the street. We drive over and there is no parking by the restaurant and despite seeing spots, the lot had a sign that read full and would not spit us out a ticket.

We returned to the hotel and found a parking spot right out front by a tree and a sign that read “no standing”. Beyond exhausted at this point, we explain everything to the employee and decide to ask her if we were safe to park there, or if we could park on the sidewalk out front since there was a car already there and enough space for a few more. She says that the car can be towed if we park by the tree and that her car is parked on the sidewalk, that we cannot park there either. She tells us to park in the church lot or proceed to look for parking by another hotel across the street.

At this point it’s around 3am, and we get in the car again to look for parking again. Once we finally find the church she mentioned, it was roped off. When we got to the hotel across the street, the app told us there was no parking available even though there were empty spaces.

We didn’t want to take any chances with getting towed on vacation, so we returned to the hotel after depleting all our options.

When we got inside, we once again asked the employee what to do considering we had been looking for parking for about an hour at that point with no luck.

With reluctance she said we could park at the original spot we were at, by the “no standing” sign. I asked her if we would be towed since that is what she implied an hour earlier. Now the narrative changes and she says the spot is owned by the hotel so we wouldn’t have gotten towed but said we would have to get up at 8am to move it even though check out was 11am.

Knowing we had just driven 8hrs, that it was now close to 3:30am, that we had just spent an hour+ trying to find a parking spot to rest, and that we would have to drive 8hrs back home that same day, they made us have to get up and move a car at 8am that wasn’t inconveniencing anyone. So we slept for 4 and a half hours to get up and move a car that wasn’t illegally parked or in anyone’s way. You’re supposed to rest and relax at a hotel. They didn’t care to make anything any more...

There are some really good things about Voco – the Cadence in Niagara Falls NY. It is a small, recently remade hotel, a short walk from Niagara Falls on the NY side. The rooms newly remade and well furnished. The hotel also seemed to make an effort to be environmentally responsible – no water in plastic bottles, rather a really impressive water filter/dispenser on each floor and reusable bottles in each room. ||However, there were a number of surprises that might make guests a little grumpy.|• Service in the breakfast restaurant was appalling. It took for ever for our breakfast to come and when it did it was cold (had it just been sitting ready to go in the kitchen?). The waitress was utterly inattentive, and when you were able to get her attention she was slow and unenthusiastic in her response. And it was not that she was run off her feet – there was just a father and son at another table. Maybe it was the earbud in her ear and her mind was wandering? Serving coffee, she brought the coffee to you in a full cup, gripping the lip of the cup in her hand (a little off-putting). And even though we had paid for our breakfasts in advance included in the room rate, she insisted we would have to pay extra if we wanted a second cup. |• The rooms had a coffee maker and what looked like very nice Illy coffee. However, there was no milk/cream or even coffee whitener provided, nothing in the small fridge either. |• Despite all the brand new fixtures in the bathroom, the toilet seat was fixed askew so that when you sat on it you found yourself also sitting on the bare porcelain of the bowl.|• And finally, the check-in. There was an awful long wait as the one receptionist and the manager sorted out some complication with the guest ahead of us. After she had made her contribution to solving this problem, it would have been nice if the manager had opened a second station on the reception to serve the considerable line that had grown while they had struggled with the initial guest check-in. And when I did finally get to the checkin counter, the receptionist was very sceptical that our reservation had been with breakfast included – even though it was clearly stated in the reservation confirmation email from IHG. The receptionist did have a cheery manner, but after the long wait and the challenge on the breakfast inclusion, it was difficult to reciprocate her...

There are some really good things about Voco – the Cadence in Niagara Falls NY. It is a small, recently remade hotel, a short walk from Niagara Falls on the NY side. The rooms newly remade and well furnished. The hotel also seemed to make an effort to be environmentally responsible – no water in plastic bottles, rather a really impressive water filter/dispenser on each floor and reusable bottles in each room. ||However, there were a number of surprises that might make guests a little grumpy.|• Service in the breakfast restaurant was appalling. It took for ever for our breakfast to come and when it did it was cold (had it just been sitting ready to go in the kitchen?). The waitress was utterly inattentive, and when you were able to get her attention she was slow and unenthusiastic in her response. And it was not that she was run off her feet – there was just a father and son at another table. Maybe it was the earbud in her ear and her mind was wandering? Serving coffee, she brought the coffee to you in a full cup, gripping the lip of the cup in her hand (a little off-putting). And even though we had paid for our breakfasts in advance included in the room rate, she insisted we would have to pay extra if we wanted a second cup. |• The rooms had a coffee maker and what looked like very nice Illy coffee. However, there was no milk/cream or even coffee whitener provided, nothing in the small fridge either. |• Despite all the brand new fixtures in the bathroom, the toilet seat was fixed askew so that when you sat on it you found yourself also sitting on the bare porcelain of the bowl.|• And finally, the check-in. There was an awful long wait as the one receptionist and the manager sorted out some complication with the guest ahead of us. After she had made her contribution to solving this problem, it would have been nice if the manager had opened a second station on the reception to serve the considerable line that had grown while they had struggled with the initial guest check-in. And when I did finally get to the checkin counter, the receptionist was very sceptical that our reservation had been with breakfast included – even though it was clearly stated in the reservation confirmation email from IHG. The receptionist did have a cheery manner, but after the long wait and the challenge on the breakfast inclusion, it was difficult to reciprocate her...