Christmas Experience at Omni - Mont Royal
I know that this thread is a little old but I couldn't find a more appropriate thread to post my thoughts about the Hotel Omni - Mont Royal.
After checking out the rate that I could get my normal hotel for in order to see some SPs after Christmas, I decided to give Priceline a try and bid on a 4 star hotel and it was accepted by the Omni - Mont Royal.
I found the hotel to be nice but I preferred my usual hotel for personal reasons even though Priceline ranks my usual hotel as a 2.5 star and gives the Omni - Mont Royal a 4 star rating.
I stayed at one of the non-smoking rooms right in front of the elevator. In terms of size, I was satisfied with the size of my room. My room didn't have a balcony (not sure if the other rooms do since this was the first time that I was staying there).
When checking in, the front desk gives you a magnetic keycard as well as a regular key (for the minibar fridge/cooler). The first thing that I suggest to anyone checking into this hotel is to open up the minibar fridge/cooler and make sure that everything listed on the sheet of paper inside the minibar is actually there. The price of the drinks charged are outrageous (but what else is new). Just as examples: A small vodka bottle (amount of a shot) will set you back $8.75+taxes. For the price that the hotel charges you for a small bottle shot of vodka, you can go to the SAQ which is very close on Ste-Catherine and purchase a 500ml bottle of the same vodka. A Tropicana ~300ml orange juice will set you back around $4.00+taxes. For that price, going to the big drug stores (Jean Coutu or Pharmaprix) on Ste-Catherine, a 1.89 litre of cartoon of the same Tropicana orange juice can be purchased at a little more than that same price. Softdrinks in a regular can size format is around $3.00+taxes if my memory is correct (you can get a 2 litre bottle of softdrink at that price). The next thing that you should check is the snackbar which isn't locked. In my room, it was located in the television stand. Make sure that you have everything listed on the card and report any discrepancies immediately to the front desk. My issue with the minibar is that it keeps things cool but does not keep things cold.
I neglected to verify the items and was overcharged on the "incidentals" when I checked out. I had used 2 of the vodka bottles but they also charged me for something else that I didn't use and the SPs that I saw didn't use. I had used the orange juice during my encounter but replaced it immediately after my date ended so the person that counts the items in the minibar every afternoon did not have a chance to notice. I complained about the extra charge when I arrived back home and they issued me a credit for the charge that I disputed (I only agreed with the 2 vodka charges since the orange juice was replaced within 1 hour after the SP left in the evening so only the SP and I knew that we used the orange juice). They informed me that the extra charge was for a 1 litre bottle of water which I never used and didn't have a clue about. The only thing that I did notice was that when the person came in the afternoon to check the items in the snackbar and minibar, besides replacing the 2 small vodka bottle shots, he also placed a 1 litre bottle of water inside the television stand which wasn't there when I had checked in.
The room that I was staying in had some issues which I didn't notice until later in the evening. The first thing was that there was not enough power outlets near the table adjacent to the television set. In order to plug in my laptop, I had to either remove the television plug or the desklamp plug. Another thing regarding my room is that 50% of the electrical outlet inputs were broken or it wasn't the correct size. I noticed this in the evening when I wanted to charge a few items. When I plugged in my cellphone charger to an electrical outlet, my cellphone charger plug would fall out of the outlet. There was nothing wrong with my cellphone charger plug because I've used it and never had any issues with it slipping or falling out of the electrical outlet. Also, when I swapped the power cables into the different outlets (like moving the night-stand radio cable from the top outlet to the bottom outlet, it would also fall out).
In the bathroom, the items not found in most of the other hotels that I've stayed at included a bathroom scale, a bathrobe, a magnifying face mirror, and a special red light with timer.
The gym facilities are the best gym facilities in a hotel that I've stayed at. They have about 6 treadmills, a few cross trainers, a few stairmasters, free weights, etc. They also had a heated outdoor swimming pool that people were actually using in December. Another thing that they had was a heated whirlpool which felt very nice.
I'm not crazy about their parking where I believe that it is around $25 some odd dollars per day for valet parking (doesn't include tipping the valet driver when he brings your car) which allows for multiple in/out throughout the day or $17 per day for self parking indoor/underground parking about a block away which does not allow for multiple ins/outs.
They have free unencrypted wireless internet so absolutely no hassles in trying to connect (with having to worry about usernames and passwords and encryption keys). The only thing to worry about with unencrypted wireless internet in terms of the user is that people monitoring the network can see what you are doing (i.e. what webpage you're going to, what passwords you're entering if not going through https, etc.). The speed/connection/strength was consistantly very good although they blocked me from connecting directly to my home network but I've noticed a few hotels are doing this now. I found a way around it by first connecting to the VPN at work and while connected to the VPN at work to then tunnel into my home network.
