Canopy by Hilton Ithaca Downtown

The most disappointing experiences I’ve ever had with any hotel — absolutely unacceptable. I’m not even a guest at this hotel, and after what happened, I honestly wouldn’t recommend anyone stay here. My car was towed from a spot that had NO signage at all — nothing indicating “hotel property,” “tow-away zone,” or “reserved.” Just a bare pole where their sign clearly fell off. Maintaining proper signage is 100% the hotel’s responsibility, and their failure to do that caused this whole mess. Instead of acknowledging their mistake, the front desk staff were rude, dismissive, and acted like it wasn’t their problem. They kept repeating excuses instead of showing even basic courtesy. And the general manager’s attitude was equally poor — no empathy, no ownership, no professionalism whatsoever.

Ok, first the upsides: the hotel is conveniently located near restaurants/shops. The lobby/restaurant/check in area is cool. Lots of nice places to sit, good light, etc. The coffee was decent. Thus the two stars. ||Now the not so great things: We paid over $600 PER NIGHT (including taxes) for a two night stay. You would have thought we were overlooking the sea on the Greek Island of Ithaca for that price. Check-in was supposed to be at 3pm - but our room wasn't ready until after 4pm. At the nightly rate we were paying - every minute counted in that room!||The room was over 400 square feet (superior King) - nice and large. Despite the room size there were limited places to sit (besides the bed). The advertised rooms featured a nice-looking chaise lounge chair/sofa. We didn't get one of thos

We did not spend much time in the room. The weather in Ithaca was spectacular so were outside walking, hiking, and noshing on local treats. We spent time at a conference on campus. Hotel had a decent fitness room for its size, free water fountain and ice, and free coffee and tea in the AM by the Strand restaurant. Staff was friendly and helpful - James at the front desk - and easy to get in and out of the Seneca parking garage for guests. Sleep quality was fine too though not always the case depending on the restlessness of the natives and students around the commons.

Positive: Extremely helpful and friendly staff. Breakfast was excellent, and the decor was really fun. The shuttle was very helpful in getting us up the hill to Cornell. And when they were short on staff and couldn’t send a driver to pick us up, they comped drinks. Negative: ""

So we're locals - have lived in Ithaca for almost 40 years now! We participated in a fundraiser for the local Rotary club and won a night at the Hilton Canopy downtown. Our 35th anniversary was this past week, and we decided to use our night at Canopy to celebrate. Up until our stay, we'd only ever eaten just once at Canopy for lunch - it was surprisingly good, typically don't expect hotel food to be anything special. In any case, we booked our free night and were so pleased to be upgraded to a suite. Our room was lovely - great sitting area, well appointed room, beautiful floor to ceiling windows. Also really happy with the welcoming staff (and the lovely sales manager who upgraded us when he heard it was our anniversary) and the terrific lobby area - just super comfortable with dif