I stayed at the Cardinal Suites for 2 nights. The hotel was priced better than most hotels in Ottawa ($88/night). For that price, this hotel is excellent value. The rooms are large, with a kitchen, full fridge, appliances, television and wired Internet. Our room was clean and presentable.

The bed was not particularly comfortable, but it was liveable. Additionally, this is quite far from downtown, so not the hotel for you if you want to tour and walk around.

I would recommend this hotel if you are looking for a bargain and you have a car in Ottawa!

We were travelling in a group and few of us had booked this hotel through its website. Being new to ottawa and to stay with group I booked this hotel on my arrival here. I found that rooms were quite small in size with no space to walk around or living space and absolutely no place to keep things. The refrigerator also was quite small. I wasn't knowing what is meant by kitchenette, it means you get an extra hot plate and a pan for cooking. In my room the smoke detector was directly above the hot plate and use to make false alarm often. I faced lot of problems with cooking due to this alarm. Interestingly, the smoke detector use to make sound even when you use Toaster. When I complained, I got advice to keep main door little open and to turn on bathroom exhaust fan.
One night I heard somthing running around and making sound, later in the morning I found nuts being spilled all around. I suspected it to be a rat and complained. I was assured that it will be looked upon. Later one day I saw the rat(at least it resembled like rat) myself!! and complained again. I thought they had taken some acton since I didn't hear that sound for few days. Today is my last day here and I heard it again!! If you want to stay with rats and pay for it - yes, now you know the place!!
The location itself is not nearer to any shopping centres/downtown or easily reachable, if you plan to use public transport. You often need to change atleast one bus to reach any place. The customer service also I found quite poor, rather be ready to get some lectures.

Cardinal Suites is a independently-owned hotel (the owner lives on the second floor) that doesn't have a whole lot of frills, but gets the job done for a good price. It's not downtown, but then again it's much cheaper than being downtown, and still only about 15 minutes away from everything.

The Executive Suites are not really what you'd expect (it's just a single room with a bed, sofa, dresser, table, and work area), but it's nice to have a kitchenette with a few pots/pans, coffee and tea, and a full-size refrigerator. My room was clean and comfortable, although guests should note that there is only minimal maid service (i.e. trash collection), sometimes daily, sometimes every other day.

No on-site breakfast, no pool, no exercise room - don't expect much in the way of amenities. But if you need somewhere that is cheap, clean, and with friendly staff, Cardinal Suites is a good choice.

Finally, a word about the staff. The owner of the hotel lives on-site, as I mentioned, and will often be staffing the desk. He can be gruff but friendly - gruff, in that he'll stop a group of teenagers all heading for one room and ask them what they're doing, but friendly if you can engage him for a chat. Be aware of what to expect from him, and you'll be fine. (The rest of the staff is very courteous).

When I initially booked with Cardinal Suites, I booked with Aircanada.com. For me it was the easiest way to see all the available hotels in the city and it gave me price quotes and availability, which was what I needed. So Cardinal suites seemed like a good deal, I checked out their website and the room that I thought I was booking was the "Executive" Suites. What the Aircanada website doesn't tell you is that its actually the "Executive: Standard Suites". So the room was not what I expected it to be and let's just say I was disappointed. This was all just logistics to be honest, but when I went to the main desk to see if I could switch into an "Executive" suite, they were all booked, which was fine. So I asked about their cancellation policy (we had already paid for 4 nights). I believe I was talking to the owner, and he sat me down and lectured me for a good 20 minutes about how I have no respect because I booked through a third party and that all us "young kids" want is the lowest price. He would not let me say two words as he continued to lecture me like I was a kid who got caught doing something wrong. It was absolutely ridiculous. I'm sorry, I don't care if I'm 23 years old and this gentleman is old enough to be my grandfather, I am his customer, and the way he treated me was rude and disrespectful. All I wanted was the answer to a simple question, and instead I got lectured like I was a child. I was absolutely stunned at the lack of courteously and customer service at this hotel. The place itself is what you would expect for the price, but just because the customer service was so horrible I would NEVER book with them again and would NEVER recommend them to anyone. My advice, pay a little more for a nicer hotel in downtown Ottawa where they treat you like customers, not like children.