Doubletree by Hilton Montreal

Had a wonderful four night stay for the total solar eclipse. The hotel is conveniently connected to the underground city via the Complexe Desjardins which itself has tons of conveniences with a supermarket, food court, etc. You can walk to Gare Centrale, like I did, in 10 minutes. The Metro is across the Place des Arts which faces hotel and is an open plaza. Chinatown is across the street. Old Montreal is a quick walk further, where I took a guided tour and watched the eclipse from the port. The hotel was centrally located for a first time visit. The common areas are clean and smell fragrant. Pool is open 9am-9pm with a lifeguard. There is a dry sauna and gym on the lower level. I could peek into the mall from my room window, which was neat. Check-in is on the 6th floor above the mall. Warm cookie at check in was delicious. Adjoining the check-in lobby is a full service restaurant/bar, billiard table, and club lounge. My room on the 10th floor was spacious, clean, and quiet. Read less

For some context, my husband and I had previously visited this hotel in December of last year and had an amazing stay. As a result, we decided to return with our 2 kids as well for March Break. This time around, we had an awful experience and were left stunned at how two different visits as the same place can be polar opposites. Upon arriving to the room, which was very much on the small side, the first thing we noticed was a lack of soap in the bathroom. This is not an overwhelming problem, but generally after a trip one would like to wash their hands and nonetheless is a small detail that would be appreciated. The next thing we noticed is that the toilet paper holder was barely anchored into the wall anymore; the screws and anchors were coming out of the wall and with a light tug at most, the whole thing was coming right out. In addition to these, the lamp was broken as we found it fallen over, unable to stand-up on its own and the cover for the base had come off. Alongside the fact that it was very dusty and did not smell quite right, needless to say the room felt forgotten, as though no-one had stayed there or bothered to check up on it in quite some time. Due to all of these things, my husband went down to the front desk to get some soap and see if someone could take a look at the toilet paper holder. A handyman came by shortly thereafter to take a look at it, though oddly enough he knocked on the door, came into our room, took a brief look at it, and did not interact with us any further before randomly leaving without having said a word. Assuming he was coming back to fix it, we waited around for half an hour until it became evident that he wasn't coming back; long story short, the toilet paper holder remains hanging on by a thread and likely will remain as such. The next day, despite leaving our room at an early time, housekeeping completely forgot to service the room. Another trip to the front desk for my husband, where he let reminded the concierge (as it was the same woman) of yesterdays problems and informed her of the new problems. The woman at the front desk responded by saying "Would you like to speak to the manager?" to which my husband replied "Will they resolve anything?". The best she could come up with was saying "No, but you might get something free." Not only is that pretty rude and disrespectful, as it implies that she believes we're complaining for the sake of complaining and just looking for a freebie, but it didn't actually help resolve our problem in the least. It was pretty insulting to have her assume that we wanted something free when all we wanted was what we paid for and nothing else. Unfortunately, it does not end there. As part of our stay, we had purchased a room with the executive option which gave us access to breakfast and the lounge on the first floor. The first day at the lounge, there was a young man overseeing it and doing a fantastic job, and on the second day there was a young lady overseeing it who was very warm and welcoming as well. However, for the next three days after that, there was an older woman named Olga. After heading down to the lounge with our kids on the last night of our stay, Olga approached my husband and asked him for our last name and room number, also inquiring if we were diamond members. My husband provided all the info, and clarified that though we were not diamond members, we purchased access to the lounge as an additional feature. This is despite the fact that she had seen us there for two nights before this and curiously enough did not ask anyone else the same question, despite the fact that there were other families and large groups that came down to the lounge over the evening. My husband and I recalled that when we had visited in December, we spoke with Olga and she had mentioned that she had been working with the company for 8 years, so it's pretty incredible that despite such a long career at the hotel, she was so unaware of the hotels offerings that she seemed perplexed at the fact that we were able to access the lounge; at the end of the day, there's no getting unless your room key let's you in by unlocking the door, so if she saw us enter via this method on multiple nights beforehand, it feels a little personal to say the least. There is one highlight at this hotel, and that is the staff that runs the breakfast in the morning. They are absolutely fantastic, super warm, welcoming, attentive, ND friendly. Honestly speaking, our interactions with them and leaving the hotel were the best parts of our stay, and I sincerely hope someone gives the breakfast crew some praise as they were the only thing keeping this from being a zero star review. Read less