Family-friendly Hotels in Ottawa

Everything was great at this hotel.. amazing staff that is friendly and makes customers feel welcome.

Our family of 4 needed a hotel near the airport between connecting flights so our expectation was not high. We always had good experience with other Hampton Inns so this was just an easy choice, assuming a known quality hotel and also close to the airport. The Good about this hotel - 1. close to airport 2. free shuttle (details to follow) 3. has a couple restaurants just across from the parking lot if you don't want to venture out too far 4. check-in was quick The Bad - 1. Free shuttle only starts at 6am so if you need to catch an early flight you'll need to find a taxi. In our case, we had to pre-book a taxi the night before because we needed to get to the airport at 4:30am. 2. The hotel shuttle was just a plain white van with no signs indicating it's for Hampton Inn. Driver was not in any kind of uniform and when I knocked on his window trying to inquire, he came out and yelled 'What's going on'. Well not exactly what I expect a hotel shuttle driver to identify himself that way. When I asked if he's from Hampton Inn the answer was yes. But in retrospect any random guy can give me the same answer and we just kinda need to trust that driver that he's a legitimate Hampton Inn shuttle driver. The whole short trip to the hotel we were wondering if we would end up getting mugged. Just not a good feeling and I think the hotel can handle this a lot better, how hard is it to give this driver an uniform with a hampton inn logo, or print a hampton inn logo on a piece of paper and put it on the dashboard. At least something to make your shuttle and driver look a little bit more legitimate and make your guests feel a little bit safer. 3. As mentioned earlier we pre-booked a taxi to pick us up at 4:15am, turns out the front desk forgot to book it for us. When we got down to the lobby and looked for the taxi, that's when the front desk guy realized he forgot about it. So we waited for another 10-12 mins for the taxi to come. (taxi fare from hotel to airport was less than $20) 4. Not all electric outlets are working, in our room the one attached to the side table lamp didn't seem to work. Had to search high and low to have enough outlets to charge 4 phones and 4 apple watches. The Very Bad - The mattress was the absolute worse, I have never stayed at a Hampton Inn that have mattresses that dip down about 2 inches and with no support whatsoever. I'm not a big person, but my husband is so the whole night I was sinking and rolling to my husband's side. All I needed was a few hours of sleep between flights and I could not get that because of the mattress. Tossing and turning the whole night and could not find a good position. My back was hurting the next day like I was sleeping on an absolute garbage mattress the night before. We did not use the free breakfast, coffee wasn't ready during our stay, no other amenities were used. The poor rating is given based on the fact that everything we needed for a short stay in this hotel fell far sho

This hotel is pretty old and it shows, but the room was quite pleasant and spacious and the bed was comfortable. Loved that there was a room air filter machine plus an internal AC unit, though it didn't work terribly well. There was also a white noise machine which was lovely. The bathroom is super-small and the only disappointment during our stay. The staff was very solicitous and professional. Did not enjoy having to pay for parking over and above the cost of the room (that was a surprise), but I guess downtown hotels can command these fees. All in all a very pleasant stay, and I would book again if I could get a deal through Trip.com (rack rate is very pricy).