SLEEP OVER IN THE STICKS, RAMADA GUELPH ONTARIO
Written: Jan 22 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Nice big rooms.
Cons: No Jacuzzi.
The Bottom Line: A fair value I thought.
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| JAMES23's Full Review: Ramada Hotel & Conference Center - Guelph |
It seems like I'm not traveling as much these days as in the past. That means less time in hotels, which ain’t always a bad thing. Mind it also means fewer opportunities to rave or b*tch about hotels as the case may be, here or elsewhere.
Just after Christmas last year I did get a chance to overnight at a hotel. Several old army buddies were getting together for a bit of a reunion and a welcome back for some of the younger guys from Afghanistan. The dinner and drinks ere scheduled for Guelph a small city a couple of hours drive from Toronto and the wife reluctantly agreed to let me go and play.
As I knew from past experience this was going to turn into a late night, if not an all nighter this meant I had two options. A taxi bill of several hundred dollars and a couple of hours or grab a room for the night. Well there was a third option; however December in Ontario does not lend itself well to sleeping it off lying in the ditch.
One of the local guys suggested the Ramada Conference Centre as both a reasonably priced establishment and convenient to the where the festivities would be. Price was important as that freed up more money for important things like beer. Convenient turned out to be across the street from the bar we were going to be using another important factor in case motor skills may become impaired during the course of the evening.
As it turned out once it became known that two of us had booked rooms in the Ramada, the party both started and ended there, with only a brief 8-10 hour interlude in a couple of Guelph’s better quality drinking establishments. At least I think it ended then. I staggered down the hall back to my room around 4:00 am.
The Guelph Ramada Convention Centre is what I would call a pretty standard suburban hotel complex, no surprises here. It’s a typical chain establishment with basic amenities and a reasonable price.
Its located south-east of the Guelph city centre in a residential area and literally across the street from the University of Guelph. That makes it extremely convenient for those with business there. There is a small strip mall with several stores and a couple of restaurants, sports bars across the street about a two minute walk away.
Downtown Guelph is about a 5-10 minute drive away ($10.00 taxi) and there is a bus stop for regional buses in the University campus as well as the one downtown. The location is convenient to the major highway systems that service south western Ontario.
The hotel has 104 rooms all with either two Queen sized or one King sized bed, although in some cases the second Queen sized bed is a sofa bed. There are both smoking and non smoking rooms available in separate wings. As my colleague was booked into a smoking room and presuming (correctly) there would be either a pre or post pub get together I booked a smoking room. He was two doors down the hall, a fact discovered after we’d emailed each other from our respective rooms.
The hotel as the name implies is equipped for conference with several meeting rooms able to handle groups of up to 300. These facilities are also available for banquets and weddings.
There is no spa or similar facilities, although there is a small outside pool and sundeck. December is not a good time to go frolicking in the water so my bathing suit stayed in my luggage on this trip. There is plenty of parking in the rear of the building and the hotel is equipped with handicap access.
There is both a lounge bar and a restaurant on the premises although both were closed during my stay. The mall across the street has several good restaurants, pubs and a couple of fast food establishments. I recommend the Portly Penguin and a flyer in my room advised me that Ramada guests get a 10% discount on their bill. Naturally I found that after coming back from dinner. For those not inclined to go out, there are also a row of vending machines on the second floor and the front desk can provide change.
The web site states it has laundry valet service, although I had no need of this. There is also a room service menu located in the rooms with the standard hotel package of info and local attractions/services.
Booking the room was easy using their web site and 1-800 number and both check in and check out were simple. A single for one night set me back $109.89 with all applicable taxes and discounts factored in. All major credit cards seem to be accepted. Well they took mine without a fuss, which means they must have a pretty open policy in this area.
The room was a pleasant surprise. First of all it was big, much bigger than I was expecting and the cathedral type high ceilings made it seem even larger. My colleague pointed out that usually when given a smoking room it’s a dingy cramped alcove in the most inaccessible part of the building, not so here. The smoking and non smoking rooms appear to be comparable in size. In politically correct Ontario this is a nice surprise.
My room had both a Queen Size bed and a similar sized sofa bed pull out that to be honest looked a little worse for wear. This was in contrast to the rest of the room which was clean and all the fixtures appeared to be fairly new. The sofa’s only occupant was my overnight bag.
There was the usual closet space completed with those theft proof hangers, and plenty of drawers should I actually have chosen to unpack. One whole wall of the room had a lengthy built in desk shelf on which the TV was located. The rest of this made an excellent work station for my lap top. All rooms and common areas are equipped for high speed wireless Internet connection. There are plenty of electrical outlets located on this shelf for convenience.
There were two phones, one conveniently on the bedside table by the clock radio, and a second on the shelf near the TV, lap top area.
The room was climate controlled with air conditioner and heater. Controls were simple to work out, once the nice lady at the front desk showed me that is.
There was no mini bar, but one could request a mini fridge from the front desk. Knowing that at least one of the rooms may, and in fact did, act as a hospitality suite, and that my colleague had a fridge in his room I declined one. He’s more of a gracious host than I am anyway.
There was a standard TV in the room, with remote. Basic cable and local channels were available as was the standard selection of pay per view movies. A brief check of the menu options showed that lonely business travelers are out of luck as the closest that they had to “adult” movies was a yoga program.
The bathroom had a full sized tub and the usual amenities including a hair dryer, a selection of mini toiletries and an ample supply of fluffy towels (I counted). There was a unique addition of a sun lamp on a timer, very useful on cold winter mornings.
The shower nozzle was one of those multi purpose contraptions that usually require a manual the size of Les Miserables and a degree in rocket science to master without getting second degree burns. Considering I was clothing challenged when I noticed this and remembering my embarrassment earlier with the heater controls I declined to call down to the front desk. The Ramada brand shampoo and body wash make a fairly effective expedient burn ointment.
All rooms have the modern credit card sized “key cards” so misplacing your key is not an issue, misplacing this small piece of white plastic in your wallet though while that’s an ongoing struggle. The card fortunately do appear to be connected to some sort of energy saving device that shuts off the air conditioner, TV, lights etc when you leave the room.
In conclusion, not a bad place and value for money if not overly memorable, which is about what I expected when I booked it. I can’t say I’ll be in the Guelph region anytime soon, aside from the court case and I understand that according to my lawyer they’ll be taking care of the accommodations then, but I’ll certainly keep Ramada in mind for any future needs.
Ramada Guelph
716 Gordon Street (Gordon and Stone Road West)
Guelph, ON CANADA,
N1G 1Y6
(519) 836-1240 or 1-800-56-9240
Fax: (519) 763-5225
info.ramada@rogers.com
http://www.ramadaguelph.com/
Recommended:
Yes
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JAMES23
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Member: James Smith
Location: Toronto Ontario CANADA
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