To be honest, my overall rating of the hotel is 2 out of 5, but because of the cheap price I give it 3 out of 5. Indeed, the location is nice and overlooking the falls. The is a free short-term parking (15 min) for the check-in and you can purchase a 24-hour parking slot for $15/day (+tax). The first room we got had a cigarette smell in it, so we complained to the receptionist. She moved us to "a nicer room" which was indeed nicer and with better view. Although the room was smaller than the first one, there was plenty of room in it. The interior is o.k. (no more than that). All the furniture was old, but nothing was broken. The sheets were clean, but again old. To be honest, that I didn't like. Even worth than that, the mattress was horrible. If I don't get a good sleep at night, I won't enjoy the following day. May be it's just me...
Nevertheless, the service was good. The view from our window was nice. It was clean and warm inside the room. As for the dinner - we had it in a restaurant, called "Remington's of Niagara" (part of the package). It was a pleasure to be there and have a dinner there (read my review of the restaurant). Breakfast was fine, not to many choices included. The food was o.k. Let me put it that way - although I was fed afterwards, if it wasn't a part of a package, I would never go there.

We booked for a 1 night stay at this hotel through a group deals website and paid an extra $30 to upgrade our room to a guarantee falls view room and it was worth it! Our package included 1 night at the hotel, dinner for 2 (3 course) at a restaurant which they organise transfers for you, breakfast at the Applebee's next door, casino credit (which we didn't use) and a tour of a chocolate factory which we also didn't use. We thought because it was a cheap deal the hotel was going to be bad but we were wrong!!!!!

Check-in was quick and the staff were friendly. The room was nice and big as well as the bathroom, and we had an excellent view of the waterfall and it wasn't noisy! We were walking distance to everything because we were right in the middle of the town. Yes the hotel is on a big hill but if you don't mind walking up and down then its great otherwise there was a cable car just outside of the hotel a couple of minutes away walking to get down to the bottom where all the shops are.

We were able to stay in the hotel room at night and watch the light show from the hotel so we didn't have to worry about being out in the cold and uncomfortable at night. My partner set up his camera on his tripod and was able to get excellent shots of the water and the colours through the glass and we would sit and talk in while we waited for the next colour.

The included dinner and breakfast were average and the chocolate factory tour was a little out of the way which is why we didn't do the tour.

I would highly recommend staying at this hotel because its at what I call the best end of the fall - the horseshoe, I know I would be if I went back to Niagara Falls.

As usual, our yearly trip to Niagara Falls was great and it all started with the great staff/stay at the Oakes Hotel....We have been going there for the last 3 yrs and are always very satisfied on how clean and odor free the rooms and hotel are always. Will definitely go again without hesitation...Highly recommended.

Paid an extra 30 dollars and landed on the 20th floor with a corner room and incredible view. Room was excellent as was the meal at Remington's and Appleby's. Either the complaints here are from people who are incredibly fussy or were not willing to pay a bit for the upgrade. I have a feeling the lower floors and the annex are not as nice as the room we were in but the reality is you get what you pay for and for what we paid we were very happy.