DoubleTree by Hilton Ottawa Downtown

I enjoyed my stay except for two issues. The first, there was no 'do not disturb' sign to hang on our door. We did not want housekeeping coming in to our room, so we stopped by the front desk and told them so. The front desk said they would tell housekeeping not to come in our room. Of course, housekeeping came into our room anyways. They didn't even replace the 'do not disturb' sign in our room. The second is the 'refrigerator' in our room. I'm a nursing mother and I was storing milk in the fridge. After a day I noticed it wasn't as cold as I think it should be. When I called the front desk they informed me that it's NOT a refrigerator, it's a cooler. How idiotic. It's standard practice to have a fridge in hotel rooms for people to keep medicine or other necessary things like breast milk cold. If you are going to provide something that looks identical to a refrigerator but won't keep things cold, there needs to be a label on the appliance, informing you. Really, it should be a refrigerator to begin with. Had I known I needed to bring milk down for the front desk to store, that would have been fine, but why would I when there a 'refrigerator' in my room? Being a nursing mother is so difficult, and realizing that a whole day and a half worth of milk had been ruined because it hadn't been cold enough was devastating. I was so upset I couldn't sleep our last night there. (and this was the first time my husband and I have gotten away from our two children so we could actually get a full night's sleep, so doubling disappointing) I'm still upset, a week later. I didn't think privacy and having a refrigerator were such difficult things but apparently Novotel can't do those things, so I won't be staying with them again. It's a shame because, otherwise the hotel was nice.

Location was great. Right next to Byward Market, walkable to Parliament Hill and other attractions. Hotel was good. Parking was a pain. Little signage and all the spots on P3 were taken so I had to park on P4, but the elevator doesn't go P4, so a real inconvenience. I was happy that the clerk at reception suggested a daily in/out ticket that could be used which cheapens the parking. Thank you for that. The room was good other than a hum in the bathroom that was annoying. The room fit it's purpose, but could use some more light.