This hotel was "okay," given the discounted rate I got through Expedia. But, had I booked directly and paid their full daily rate I would have been disappointed. Rooms in this hotel are very small and very basic. The "suites" are about the size of standard room in "better" hotels. They won't guarantee a non-smoking room if you don't book directly, and I ended up stuck in a smoking room, where I found cigarette burns on the bedding! Yuck! The place is quite clean, but shabby, and showing its age. In the first room I was given, the air conditioning was not working. I must commend them for moving quickly to put me in another room. However, as I noted above, they gave me a smoking room, even though I asked for non-smoking. In my new room, the air conditioning just barely worked. Had we had a real heat wave, I am sure I would have been miserable. The windows don't open in their small standard rooms in the tower, which made for a stuffy feeling. Breakfast is included in the rate, although it is quite basic: cold cereal, bread and pastries, so-so coffee, watery juice, and fruit (though I can't see what the point was of providing rock-hard green bananas!). The local neighbourhood is somewhat "edgy," and some travellers might feel uneasy walking around at night. However, public transit is close-by, and one can easily walk to the nearby Church and Wellesley "gay village", Yonge Street, etc. It's nice that there is a drugstore and bargain grocery store right across the road, where you can stock up on odds and ends for the small fridge in your room. I didn't "hate" this place, but I can't really recommend it, and won't myself stay there again. One can find better hotels for the same price (or even less). In the past, I have stayed at the Days Inn on Carlton Street, and it is much better for about the same price (on average).

My girlfriend and I stayed here on New Year's Eve 2008. First of all, there is really no reliable parking at the hotel. The closest parking is on the street, which the hotel workers didn't recommend because f Toronto's notorious fetish for towing cars. We had a park underground in a ramp in a not at all well lit/nice looking neighborhood. Very scary. This was underneath the grocery store across the street from the hotel. The room we stayed in had a queen bed, and a tv. That's all there was really room for. The TV sat atop the dresser and the mini-bar/fridge wasn't even plugged in until I had to do it myself. The bathroom was very small, and the door would hit the toilet every time it was opened. They were happy to call us a cab, which never came however, but it wasn't hard to get a cab on the corner (right outside the hotel). They were also very helpful in giving us a wake-up call. There is a free continental breakfast which actually was better than expected.
Definitely not for families, however.

Isabella Hotel and Suites is located on the corner of Sherbourne and Isabella Streets in Downtown Toronto. Driving down Sherbourne from the main expressway certainly had us concerned as it is a very rough neighborhood with lots of graffiti and homeless people. The neighborhood seems to improve as you get to the Isabella. We chose a room with a queen size bed and the room was beyond tiny for $130 a night but it was very clean and quite comfortable. Even though our used towels were left on the floor we did not get clean ones. The temp in our room did not go above 67 degrees farenheit even though it was set at 90. We had to request another blanket to keep warm. I was fairly satisfied with the room considering most hotels in Toronto were over $200 a night. The Isabella was clean and the staff seemed very helpful. I would recommend this hotel to people who are looking for no frills accomodations.

We stayed at Isabella during our recent visit to Toronto. The hotel is clean, convenient and affordable. However, the staff wasn't very helpful nor did it seem like they knew what they were doing. When we arrived, they lost our room and parking reservation because their system crashed. Luckily they had a room available for us - but we didn't get a parking space. So we had to park on the streets, and get up at the crack of dawn to feed the meter every two hours. In addition, our room was incredibly HOT. The thermometer appeared to be broken, and when we asked the staff to fix it, they always claimed they did. We lived in 82 degrees heat for the 3 nights we were in Isabella. The cleaning lady also came at weird times. One day, she could come early in the afternoon to clean, but other times, the room still wasn't cleaned when we came back at 5 pm.