Days Inn, Niagara Falls

...and I stayed at the Days Inn in Niagara for two nights in May at the start of our tour round Eastern Canada. We’d booked this as part of our Globespan holiday so I don’t know how efficient the booking process was. The hotel was three star and we certainly didn’t pay over the odds for our stay, although I don’t know exactly how much we paid.

Arrival
We arrived at the Days Inn at around 3am Canada time, or 8am according to our ...
...
Location
The Days Inn is less than a five minute walk from the Niagara Falls which was really convenient. Most of the hotels in Niagara seemed to be in the same area. This made it really easy to get to the Falls, especially in the evening when we went to see the Falls lit up. The hotel is also really near to the touristy area of Niagara, which was like a slightly up market Blackpool promenade. This did mean that there was a bit of ... more

My friend and I stayed at the Days Inn in Niagara for two nights in May at the start of our tour round Eastern Canada. We’d booked this as part of our Globespan holiday so I don’t know how efficient the booking process was. The hotel was three star and we certainly didn’t pay over the odds for our stay, although I don’t know exactly how much we paid.

Arrival
We arrived at the Days Inn at around 3am Canada time, or 8am according to our body clocks! We breathed a sigh of relief as our bus finally pulled up outside the hotel (our flight had been delayed quite a bit so neither of us was in the best of form by this stage!). I’d heard great things about the friendliness of the Canadian race from friends who had been to Canada before so was expecting a nice warm welcome from the hotel staff – you’d expect those in the hospitality industry to be the most welcoming to tourists. Unfortunately we didn’t get the welcome we’d expected. The man behind the desk didn’t say anything as we came in – he just stood there and waited for me to hand over our booking reference. All he said was “Your room’s on the first floor, the stairs are behind you”. He obviously hadn’t noticed the size of our suitcases, but fortunately we managed to locate the lift – there was certainly no question of asking for assistance with our bags! No information re hotel facilities or restaurant was given on arrival.

Location
The Days Inn is less than a five minute walk from the Niagara Falls which was really convenient. Most of the hotels in Niagara seemed to be in the same area. This made it really easy to get to the Falls, especially in the evening when we went to see the Falls lit up. The hotel is also really near to the touristy area of Niagara, which was like a slightly up market Blackpool promenade. This did mean that there was a bit of noise at the hotel because it was so near to the nightlife, but it wasn’t a big problem.

Room
Most of the rooms in the hotel are situated around indoor courtyards. This means that the only windows in the rooms are facing out onto the courtyard – there is no natural light. This makes the rooms, which aren’t particularly roomy, very dark and gives them a slightly oppressive atmosphere.
The hotel is in the process of being refurbished and the rooms are furnished to a very high standard. Our room had a fridge, bath, shower, TV, coffee maker and computer. The room was also supposed to have a hairdryer and iron but these were both missing so we had to ask reception for them. (By the way, the ironing board which we eventually received was one of the funniest things I have ever seen – it had the cutest little legs that were approximately two inches long! Not the easiest thing to use for ironing, but worth it just for the comedy value!)

Hotel Facilities
The hotel has no restaurant within it. We were slightly surprised by this when we arrived but were later to discover that this is the norm in Canada. There is a restaurant which is affiliated to the hotel however. It’s called Perkins and its entrance is approximately twenty feet away from the main hotel entrance. You get a 10% discount in Perkins if you show your Days Inn room card. If you’re a fat pie you will love Perkins, but it certainly won’t be helpful if you’re on a diet! The prices are really good – I ordered a full breakfast on the first day and was astonished by the amount of food that I received – the waitress arrived with a massive tray with three plates loaded with food. All this cost only $15 (approx £7). What a bargain but I dread to think how many calories were in it! The restaurant does an all day breakfast, lunch and dinner but everything on the menu could be described at stodgy. It’s opening hours are long – 7am to 11pm.
The hotel is also affiliated to a swimming pool. The pool is connected to the Days Inn (and three other hotels) by a walkway. It’s probably better described as a leisure centre – it’s not the kind of pool you’d go to for a proper swim. It has loads of chutes and would be a great place for taking kids for a day out. I had assumed that the pool would be free for hotel guests, but how wrong was I! A day pass for the pool cost around $40 which seemed pretty steep to me. We gave the pool a miss but heard lots of other guests speaking very highly of it, despite the high prices.

Staff
This was my main problem with the hotel. Staff were really quite unhelpful. We had quite a few queries to ask at reception such as – where can we get breakfast, how do we get to the Falls from here, can we have an iron please, and can you order us a taxi. Each time we asked a question it felt like we were being an inconvenience and we were treated as if we were idiots for now knowing the answer to our question already. For example when we asked about getting breakfast we were told simply the name of the restaurant – how was that supposed to help us find it!
Two members of staff were often malingering behind the reception desk but both were often dealing with the same query, even when there was a big queue behind the desk. We often had to wait a long time before being served.

Overall
The Days Inn was fine to stay in for a couple of nights (and I don’t think many people would want to stay at Niagara for more than a couple of nights). It was cheap and really conveniently situated but didn’t offer much in the way of customer service. 

...less