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The Ramada Plaza Niagara Falls Hotel, Groupon.com and the city of Niagara were misleading in their advertising and cheated us out of what could have been a pleasant trip in the following 8 ways (in order of importance). We advise that you consider this feedback before buying a Groupon deal, since many of the deals offer essentially the same ‘perks' regardless of the hotel you stay in:

1) After an 8-hour drive, we arrived at the Ramada to find that they gave our reserved room away. They refused to provide an explanation. They were trying to instead put us up in nearby motels and would not consider putting us in a hotel of equal or greater value. After spending nearly an hour "checking in", we could see what their business model was. They could knowingly overbook the hotel, and selectively rebook those who booked with cheaper rates (such as through Groupon) elsewhere. As long as those rebooked customers had prepaid reservations, the Ramada could rebook at rates equal to or lower than what was prepaid and then reap the reward of hand-picking rates without having to come out of pocket.

2) Niagara, Canada has something like a 16% tax. To put this in perspective, if you buy $50 of food and drink at a restaurant, after 16% tax and paying 20% tip on the entire bill (including tax), your total is now $70 (effectively 40% more than the $50). Some employees around town said that Niagara has a "tourist tax" built in.

3) Undisclosed to anyone, casino vouchers provided in the deal were for a casino on the American side of the falls which requires a back and forth across the bridge, going through customs and waiting on that very time-consuming line to get back into Canada.

4) The activation fee for the $50 Dave&Busters credit is $17, thus eliminating 1/3 of the card's value. Also, if you purchased more than one Groupon, you have to pay the $17 each time to redeem the D&B credit even if redeeming them in the same transaction and onto the same gaming card.

5) The $40 voucher for the Skylon Tower Restaurant "Spinning" restaurant was only valid if you spent $120 on a dinner for 1-2 people.

6) You will find hotels gifting you restaurant coupons/credits for $20 dollars or so. For example Red Lobster, Outback, and TGIF hand out these "coupons." Firstly, they are only good for 1-2 people dining and require you to spend a certain minimum amount on food. What is even more frustrating is that these restaurants are "resort style" but are not advertised as such. Resort style restaurant menus are very limited and more expensive than their other chain locations. What this means is they jack up their prices, allowing them to give hotels these $20 off coupon credits to hand out to customers, which lure in the customers, who then find themselves paying $20 more for what the meal would have cost at another chain location.

7) We bought two Groupons for a 2-night stay in Niagara and therefore received two casino vouchers. Unfortunately, even with two people, the casino forced us to make two separate trips to the casino since the vouchers are linked to the room and one "room" could not use a voucher within 24 hours of another.

8) Parking anywhere on or near the strip (main street of downtown Niagara Falls) was time-consuming and expensive. Safe to say, it is not worth it to stay anywhere "off the strip" like the Ramada included in this particular Groupon.
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