Rose L.
Yelp
We rented out about ten rooms over Labor Day weekend for our biennial family reunion. The hotel itself is lovely upon first glance, located just up the street from Lake Ontario, close to Niagara River Recreation Trail and Queen's Royal Park, as well as a ten minute brisk walk into the two center (about five minute walk to the Shaw Festival Theatre). This quaint, vine covered three-story house converted to hotel shines in their customer service. They are hospitable, kind and incredibly accommodating. Quick to give recommendations, answer questions and schedule their free in town shuttle service if needed. The have a free wine and cheese hour every day (albeit a little lacking on the cheese part with only the house-made "beer cheese" a spicy and savory pimento styled cheese). The wine is also always the same, which gets old quick. Coffee and tea is also always available in the lobby as well as homemade cookies.
They serve a continental breakfast daily, which is lovely, although just a little off. The room which houses breakfast is too small to accommodate all the guests, do just hope that everyone isn't an early riser. You can choose to sit out in the small terrace garden, which is a lovely addition to the hotel as well. Another odd fact about breakfast is they have servers to bring drinks and "manage" tables, although breakfast itself is buffet style. I think the servers honestly just complicate the already crowded process a bit, although they are over-the-top lovely! And breakfast itself is great, coffee and juice is ordered from servers while a bar of fresh fruit, meats, cheeses, breads, scones, cereal, toast with your choice of topping, yogurt and a hot item are all served.
I think after spending some time in NOTL, I realized there are always tourists and people visiting. Things get used and run down quickly. You'll notice this with the carpets at the hotel although for the most part things are very pristine. The rooms themselves are very comfortable with large working electric fireplaces. Most have large bathtubs and showers, tv's (you can borrow DVD's--as well as boardgames!--from downstairs), wine glasses, ice buckets, etc. Unfortunately the rooms don't have refrigerators (I converted the in-room recycling bin into a make-shift fridge by filling it with ice), which was very inconvenient. Also, the lighting in the rooms is lacking, although the bathrooms do that some impressive built in magnifying mirrors (and hairdriers!) Also, the complimentary toiletries were very budget friendly. Room service will make your bed in the morning and restock any used, complimentary toiletries.
Overall, while I did enjoy my five day, four night stay at Harbour House Hotel, it was truly the service that made the experience the most enjoyable. This is not a budget friendly hotel and for the price, I think some of the luxury aspect was missing. I would look into other options before staying here in the future.