> The hotel is new.

> The staff is friendly and helpful - concierge showed us all of the room amenities upon check-in.

> The furniture and floors are great - modern accents, dark hardwood

> The breakfast in bed was a nice touch; light, but nourishing. Delivered to your door each morning.

What a great place!

The rooms are gorgeous and huge. You enter a long foyer with dark-wood modern chests of drawers and a marble shelf. At right is the bathroom, which is large, with marble floors and a glass shower with a built-in steamer.

There's a step-up as you enter the area where the king-sized bed is. Hardwood floors throughout, a gas fireplace, a small minibar-type sink with a fridge beneath, gorgeous linens. Restrained and tastefully modern dark-wood furniture and some scarlet trim on some walls. Exposed beams overhead, from the days when the place was a milk factory. Whoever did the conversion really got it right.

Your stay includes a free breakfast each morning--brought to your room! It's not huge by any stretch, but it includes coffee, juice, a bit of ham or granola and muffins. There's also a coffee maker in the room.

The staff was great as well--very friendly and happy to give directions.

The location was perfect: somehow very close (2 blocks) to the Vegas-like strip with various neon-adorned amusement musems--but yet just far enough to be perfectly quiet at night. The area seems to be very safe; it's quiet at night, but there's no one on the street save the occasional tourism employee or tourist.

The guests seemed exclusively to be couples; we saw nary a kid the whole time--which made the place very tranquil and civilized.

Parking was free and plentiful.

We booked directly with the hotel and got a 10% AAA discount, which made it cost $6 more than the dismal Old Stone Inn half a mile west, in the so-so section of Niagara. The regular rate I believe was $145, so we paid $130 per night. Much less than the nasty-looking chain hotels marginally closer to the Falls and packed with loud, ill-mannered families.

My only suggestion for the management would be to upgrade the exercise room: It needs a water fountain and a free-standing bench. However, it's adequate for most, with a treadmill, elliptical trainer, dumbbells, and universal-gym machine. There is no pool, but guests have permission to use the one at the Days Inn down the street.

We only saw the spa from the outside, but it looked very fancy. Same for the restaurant.

If you don't need a view of the Falls from your room and prefer a quiet location to a raucous one, then the Sterling Inn will be perfect for you.

Hotel is located a couple of blocks away from the action which made our stay quiet, yet close enough to get where we wanted to go. As our departure date approached and I already decided where we wantd to stay, I kept checking on line for the lowest price. It paid off with us saving an additional $75 on top of the 20% discount received for a 3 night stay. Upon arrival, we were told that since we were staying for 3 nights, they upgraded our room to a king suite.

The people were great as well as the room. The only statement that was a little misleading was their claim of a complete breakfast. It was more of a continental breakfast, but it was delivered to the room. They did let us mix and match items. If you prefer a large breakfast, there are many places one block from the hotel that are reasonable priced.

If we go to NIagra Falls again, this would be the first place I would consider.

The room was very clean and almost everyone was friendly.

One night after dinner, we came back to the room late and wanted coffee and dessert. The girl at the front desk arranged for room service quickly. We were impressed with her level of service. Unfortunately I did not get her name.
Everyone at the desk seemed very nice.

My problem was with the spa. One rainy day I called the spa to see if I could squeeze in a quick pedi. The person in the spa told me she would call me back, she did not. I mentioned it at the front desk and they got me in the next day. Unfortunately that did not work with the plans that we had. I was very disappointed that I did not hear from the spa manager.
If you are going to this hotel for the spa, I do not recommend the level of service that you will receive.
Unfortunate for a hotel marketed as an Inn and Spa!