escape4

Introduction I stayed a few times at DT Gatineau in the past but I never bothered posting a review. I noticed that was not even a thread on FT so hopefully my review will be useful to some. Depending on the time of year, this hotel can be the cheapest Hilton option in the Ottawa region and you might be favorably surprised by what you get for the price tag. Location The one weakness of the hotel might be location. If you do not have a car this will not be your hotel of choice, but if you do then parking is free and you are not far from Ottawa downtown. In the summer the hotel is more popular being on a golf course. In the winter the flip side is that you can get a very competitive price especially if you have a car. Room The hotel has the look of a small castle from the outside, and in some public spaces indoors it is a bit old. However the rooms were clearly redone recently. I have stayed in maybe three different room types in this hotel and none of them were bad. This time I booked the basic room on a points redemption and I was upgraded to a King 2-room premium suite which is the highest category room. I would note that there is not a big cash difference between the basic room and the top room category, and all of them are relatively roomy – in fact I think this is probably one of the hotels with the cheapest price per square foot in the region so this hotel will be attractive to people who value having a large room. Because the basic room is quite decent, this means I never worry about whether I will get an upgrade or not at this hotel. The room type I got on this stay has a separate living from the bedroom including a sofa bed and a fireplace. The same fireplace is also on the bedroom room side so you can enjoy it from two different rooms which is a definite plus in the winter. The angled walls add to the special chalet feeling and is very different from standard cookie-cutter rooms you would find at other hotels in Ottawa for example Hampton Inn, Courtyard, TownePlace Suites, etc. The entire room has tiles which I prefer to hotels with carpet. The bathroom was nicely redone and is quite expansive. I wish it had a stand-alone shower but unfortunately it’s in a bathtub and also water pressure was not that great. Dining Breakfast in the restaurant is offered until 11:30am during weekends which is conveniently late. The food selection is nothing to write home about: standard hotel fruits, and hot choices are standard with omelets, sausages, bacon, etc. Nothing stood out in a good or bad way except perhaps that the décor is relatively interesting.The room used for breakfast is closed in the afternoon and evening. If you want dinner at the hotel you actually go to the independent restaurant attached to the hotel called La Ferme Rouge. This restaurant used to be in a different location in the city but it burned down. They reopened it at DoubleTree. It seems to be famous in the region and was packed on a Saturday night when I stopped by. Overall Overall I would recommend this hotel as being good value for the price you pay and is generally a forgotten option for travelers to Ottawa simply because it’s on the other side of the river and is a poorer cousin to the very nice Hilton in Gatineau. However if you have a car you can pay less than half the price of the Hilton and have an attractive room in decent shape, many of them suites, with far higher than average square footage.