Top Business Hotels in Ottawa

The Chateau Laurier is the iconic hotel in Ottawa. Unfortunately, during Covid, it was not the greatest experience. First, no housekeeping. Second, no valet parking and hotel parking lot was always full so we had to park about 10 minutes away. Third, inconsistent service and no room service. The product is probably better in normal times but price was too high for value. Positive was larger room with a view of the Canadian parliament buildings.

The hotel is simply bad on all counts - cleanliness, sleep quality, unexplainable bill charges. But the main thing for me was that the cleaning staff came into our room when there was a “Privacy Please” sign on our door while we were out. I have been traveling for work since 2005, weekly, and the DND sign was always something that ensures your privacy in any hotel, any country I have been to. The funniest thing is that the hotel declared they would not be cleaning the room for the duration of my stay in the pre-arrival email, which made me happy, and then they still came in to clean it, despite the sign. I called the front desk immediately when I saw it, created a big issue, and they told me that the clean-up was requested and SHEDULED by me. I explained it was impossible and how upset I was, and guess what - NOTHING happened to make things better for us, absolutely nothing. The manager did not call to apologize, there was absolutely no reaction to this, pretty big in my opinion, issue. So yes, hotel folks, if you are reading this – I did bring it to the attention of the staff. Compared to that, the rest was not as outrageous, but still quite bad and generally important to the quality of the stay: - Cleanliness: When we arrived, the toilet seat was dirty, there was pubic hair in the shower and the shower gel dispenser was empty. I did not want anyone in my room, so I sanitized all impacted surfaces, decided to use the little soaps for the showers instead of the gel and moved on. Ironically, when they broke in to clean my room, they still did not fill up the shower gel! That made me laugh when I stopped crying. - Beds: As another review here mentioned, beds are terrible. It is like sleeping on a water bed, you can feel every little movement, and between that and the old pillows, you are lucky if you get any sleep at all. - Room charges: Unlike any other hotel, this one did not send the email with the bill on the morning of the departure. Naturally, after what I have been through there, I decided to check the bill before I leave instead of just leaving like we do. I had booked using points, so my bill was supposed to only have parking charges + tax. However, when I got the print out, there was an additional $38 CAD per night charge just called “Room”, which the front desk could not explain. The further the conversation went, the more defensive the front desk representative got, until eventually they angrily removed the charges. Not even an apology or any sign of regret that there was a mistake, but a whole lot of attitude and pushback on the paying customer who happens to also be a platinum elite at this chain. Still remains to be seen what ends up being on the credit card – I am seeing some strange charges in the ‘pending’ status. As I was coming down to get the bill, check it and leave, I was squirming as I was expecting to be asked ‘how was your stay’ as usual, and I would not have known what to say. “I told you how it was la

Overall this hotel is of good value with the cleanliness and proximity to downtown Ottawa. The hotel was opened to business in 2019. I redeemed from my Aeroplan for the 2 nights stay, and I paid $25/night for parking. Room - The room itself is clean with quite spacious bathroom. It is equipped with small fridge and there’s a microwave over the counter which is good. Amenities - it has a swimming pool and it’s clean with the adjacent patio and you can go outside which is good. It served complimentary breakfast with good selection of food. Plenty of seatings within the dinning area. Parking - OK but a bit tight in the parking stall however even it’s quite fully booked we are able to find parking. While we stayed I’ve found it interesting cleaning wasn’t done during the first night. The attendant made a mistake to our room and we ended up knocking the wrong room but it was an honest mistake I believed. What I’ve found it interesting though is right across diagonally across is a homeless shelter so just be prepared across the corner of the stress diagonally there’s a homeless shelter and be prepared for that. It didn’t bother me but you may end up having the room view of that depending on where your room is located. I’m sad to see so many of them and especially during the pandemic still seeing them on the street is a hit heartbreaking for me. This is a relatively new hotel and suitable for family and I’d recommend.

So nice to have a hotel conveniently located to nearby points of interest. It's a busy area, though, so be careful when crossing streets! It's evident the hotel is aging but our accommodations were nice & one could see that updates to decor, shower, etc. were somewhat recent. The shower area was huge (perhaps they got rid of the bathtub & just extended the shower area???) Must use room key card to access the elevator to guest room floors. Appreciate the extra security! The staff was responsive when we asked for additional supplies. The breakfast area was very nice, with great views. But the buffet is quite pricey as are individual menu selections. Better to grab breakfast in one of the many options in the neighborhood. There is also a restaurant on-site, again, very pricey. With so many options nearby, why not experience the city? We found the area to be quite walkable & were able to take in quite a few sites in our brief visit. Our experience at the Westin was positive; we understand the minor inconveniences of escalator repairs, etc. are part of general maintenance and didn't let that influence this review.

We only stayed for 2 nights (Thursday and Friday), and HIGHLY recommend for the rooms. The included breakfast is ridiculous. The breakfast room needs to be double the size to accommodate the number of guests that are trying to either - get their breakfast OR try and find a table to eat their breakfast. The model they have is NOT efficient for how busy this hotel is. Toast your own bread (it takes 3 times through to get it a bit brown) and make your own waffles?? no no no. When there are 20 people lined up, have your staff make a batch of toast and a batch of waffles and put them in warming trays. Just my thoughts. We would stay again, but would skip the breakfast and head to Denny's.

The location of the hotel is very good, very close to attractions such as Capitol Hill, within walking distance. Parking is not in the hotel, first go to the front desk or the welcome to inquire, if you can't find it yourself, give a thumbs up to the handsome welcome guy, and help to park in the designated parking lot of a nearby hotel. The room is average, worthy of the price.

Stayed at the Novotel for a week in early Feb 2023 while attending a conference at the nearby Westin. I booked for a really low rate through hotwire. After a pleasant check in I was excited to come into a very large on the 8th floor with a separate seating area and a very large TV. Room was pretty clean although when packing up before check-in I found some items under the bed that did not belong to me. Location was perfect, right across from the Rideau Centre and the Westin/Conference Centre and within a short walk to the Parliament Buildings, Sparks Street and Byward Market. My only compliant is the walls must be paper thin as I could hear the ding of the elevator and conversations in the hall from my room. I was also there a four hour during a power outage in the evening. I assume the outage was unscheduled but there was a lot of confusion and no one at the front desk when it occurred. The hotel shares a building with a DND office which made it confusing leaving the building by the stairs as the stairway lead to a entrance that read ”DND property alarm will sound”, it took awhile to figure out how to exit by the stairs.