A great hotel in a great location
Apr 22, 2024 HiggerTor London, United Kingdom
As is standard with my reviews, I will look at the Good, the Not So Good, and the Weird.
The Good:
General: Check In and out was quick and pleasant - the rooms overall were nice, clean and had good amenities. Perhaps on the small side for a Club level room, but big enough for 2.
Room: I thought the room was nice, my requests ahead of time were…
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As is standard with my reviews, I will look at the Good, the Not So Good, and the Weird.
The Good:
General: Check In and out was quick and pleasant - the rooms overall were nice, clean and had good amenities. Perhaps on the small side for a Club level room, but big enough for 2.
Room: I thought the room was nice, my requests ahead of time were done (we checked in super late arriving from the UK, so I would hope so!). The big table in the room was good (see below on how it can be improved) and the little buttons in the centre made the table rise or fall like a powered standing desk! Excellent feature - I used it a lot!
Plug sockets in this room were plentiful!
Toiletries nice, with hand soap, body cream and a bar soap provided. As well as the usual body gel, shampoo and conditioner in the shower.
Lounge: was excellent, newly refurbished and having dual aspect windows across two different sides of the building with plenty of different seating options, and power at most of the larger tables. Breakfast is served daily and is a muted, but perfectly good selection, with bacon or sausage and an egg dish alternating each day as the main ‘hot’ option. My favourite day was bacon, pancakes and maple syrup - of course! But shout out to the French toast day too. There was also a vast arrangement of continental style cold breakfast food. In the evening from 5 til 7 (at the time of writing) small plates were served, and it was something different each day. I do wish these were labelled though, if only for allergy reasons. Just a printout, or even a hand written label would have been a nice touch. I didn’t always want to ask the staff. The dessert platters were second to none. Some of the nicest petit fours I’ve had. Out of breakfast and evening, there were always teas, coffees, soft drinks and snacks available (usually nutri-grain bars, or pastries)
Special mention must go to Sandra, who was both a fountain of Montreal knowledge but probably one of the most attentive & kind hotel employees I’ve ever come across. If you end up reading this Sandra, we never did manage to get to the beignets a second time, but the drinks you recommended were lovely!
My bonvoy nights and points were posted promptly. 


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The Not So Good:
General: At the start of our stay, the lifts were prompt and quick. As time went on, I think one or two of the 4 went down, so the lifts became crowded, and very slow. Only 2 sets go up to the lounge as well, so lots of frequent changes to get up to floor 37, down on floor 36. It was often just quicker to walk the 3 or 4 flights up from our room level, than wait for potentially two lifts. I say potentially two, because it often was more than 2 lifts, because boy are these lifts quick off the draw! If you don’t have your keycard out, at arms length and POISED to hit that sensor and press the button, you will be travelling somewhere you don’t intend to.
Room: The curtains for the window were too short, by a couple of cm/an inch or so. This meant that in the morning all the light flooded in under it (as well as the city lights at night). I ended up having to put my backpack in the window shelf and some rolled up towels just to block out the light.
The hot water in the bathroom sink was terrible and barely ever heated up. I complained about it and they did promptly send someone up, but it never really got any better. I suspect it is just a larger issue with the plumbing given the age of the building. The shower, mercifully, was always a great temperature.
The a/c is LOUD. these units face out onto the outside of the building, so you do get good fresh air from it. But not one for sleeping with unfortunately.
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The Weird:
Room; The duvet wasn’t a normal duvet cover as I have had in every single hotel I’ve stayed at everywhere in the world. But instead, two ‘top sheets’ sandwiching an uncovered duvet. Genuinely weird, and quite uncomfortable to sleep in as they all separate at night, and wrap themselves around each other in a tangle.
The bathroom has a frosted perspex door. Annoyingly common in hotel refurbishments now. So will wake up anyone left in bed if the other person needs to use it in the night. Also the lights are so complicated in the bathroom. The switch for the mirror light is inside, the dimmer for the mirror light is outside (but doesn’t turn it on or off). The switch for the main lights in the bathroom, is a tiny switch near the dimmer, on the outside. Even writing that was complex 😂
I wish there had been a second ‘dining’ style chair in the room. Having the big table, and only one chair, seemed like an oversight.
Lounge; I wish there were more than one full-coffee machine in the lounge. It often had a queue - not many people used (or I suspect realised) there was also a Nespresso machine halfway in the lounge - I felt like this would have been better as a 2nd machine like the main one. I also wish the toaster had a bagel setting! And in Montreal of all places!
General Information that I usually include & a transportation tip:
The windows in this hotel do not open (not that I expected it, given the age and height of the building. But fresh air is constantly added by the A/C, even when off)
Phone signal on Rogers or Telus was 1-2 bars. Patchy but usable, mostly. The Wi-Fi was functional and what you expect.
As the hotel is on the airport *side* of the city, get the 747 bus and save yourself a tonne of money. It didn’t take long, perhaps 10 mins longe than the taxi. If you arrive on the weekend you can load an Unlimited Weekend pass for all the public transport in Zone A for next to nothing, and if you arrive at the start of the week, the weekly zone A tickets start on Monday and run til Sunday, also for next to nothing. Check out the STM website for more details! Though a tip for the 747 bus - at the airport if the bus is only going as far as the metro, just get it. The metro it goes to is in the city centre and on the orange line, so just a couple of stops from the hotel! I wish I’d known that, would have saved us waiting 10 mins for the next one!
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In summary:
All in all, a great hotel, in a great location. Very handy for both the main run of museums just a short walk away, or the bonaventure metro station on the orange line to get you pretty much anywhere else in the city. The Bell Centre is also just a stones throw away. If I return to Montreal, I would certainly stay here again.
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