Pro's and Con's about your Hotel stays

[breadman]

Figured having a section where you can mention the pro's and the con's of your hotel stay might help others out in their choices.

I stayed at the Hotel de la Montagne for the first leg of my trip. Liked the location, the balcony facing Crescent street, the rooftop pool, the room setup was great...wireless, great shower with lots of water pressure. Got the 88 per night special months back so the rate was there as well.

Negatives...probably a couple of items, but the hotel employee's trying to enter the room 3 times a day was the most annoying. "knock, knock"...and before you can even get up they are in the room. After every escort came into the room, had to make sure all the locks were locked. Every day at 6pm the next day weather forcast would arrive and instead of sliding it under the door, they wanted to enter the room and place it on the escort I was seeing at that time.

So lock your door at this hotel.

 

[EagerBeaver]

Breadman,

Since you have created this thread, here is my own "pro and con" review of the HDLM posted on 4-30-07 in the hotel bidding thread:

I recently had a 5 night stay at the Hotel de la Montagne and offer my detailed review.

I booked the hotel for $82(USD) per night on Travelocity after learning of this deal from Doc Holliday, who along with the hobbyist AlexK also booked the hotel on the same nights I was staying there. I had previously been a guest invited to social gatherings in the rooms at the HDLM, but this was my first extended stay.

I found the room (deluxe with king size bed) to be quite large and I had a balcony looking out at Crescent Street, from which I could see the front entrance to the Hard Rock Cafe. The bed was a lowrider (which I like for purposes of sexual activity), with unimpressive linens and a hard, uncomfortable mattress that would not pass Special K's (or anyone else's) critical muster. The main problem with the room, however, was that it was for some reason uncomfortably warm, and I had to keep windows open and the air conditioning on at all times during the evening even though it is still April. It should be noted that I checked with Doc and AlexK and they also reported that their rooms, which were on higher floors than mine, were also unusually warm. This is a big problem for me as I need to sleep in an ice cold room cooled to meat locker type temperatures.

The hotel staff was excellent, but as reported by Tom and others in this thread, there is no ice machine and on one date I shelled out $4 ($2 service charge and $2 tip) for an exceedingly small plastic bucket of ice. Also, there is no gym! And as everyone knows the only swimming pool is the outdoor rooftop pool that is closed until mid-May.

Valet parking with in/out privileges came to $17/night which was reasonable based on my experience in Montreal. However when I went to retrieve a forgotten item (umbrella) from my car, I observed that they crammed my brand new luxury car into an exceedingly tight space between a wall and another car. The space was so small that I could not walk between my car and the one next to it, as the side view mirrors were almost touching. I guess that they really don't care what kind of car you have, all that matters is cramming those cars into the tightest possible spaces so they can make money.

I tested the hi-speed Internet by using Doc Holliday's laptop. It sucks! Everyone is on my case about not owning a laptop and instead using Internet Cafes but after experiencing firsthand the vagaries of the hi-speed Internet service crapping out in late afternoon just when most agencies are posting their schedules, I got a news flash for you guys: RIP OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This does not happen at Internet Cafes and you pay less!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was left with an overall unfavorable impression of this hotel, despite it winning the hotel poll I started about a year ago. It has now motivated me to start another poll, soon.

Overall pros and cons:

PROS:

1. Best located hotel in Montreal - Wanda's is next door, Crescent Street is a walk through the tunnel to Thursday's away, there is a Cafe Depot and Depanneur almost across the street, and Eggspectation is less than half a block away. Location does not get any better.

2. Large room with king size bed/large bathroom. Friendly and professional hotel staff.

3. Balcony was very nice, but I was on the 4th floor and could not see too much of Crecent Street except for the front of the Hard Rock Cafe.

4. Very nice bar/lounge which was active every night.

5. Reasonably priced valet parking although all cars are crammed into that garage like sardines.

CONS:

1. Weak amenities. No ice machine which is standard almost everywhere else, no gym, rooftop pool is closed until mid-May.

2. Rooms are warm, had to keep windows open and run air conditioning at night to cool room off.

3. Hi speed Internet is highly unreliable, especially during the critical late afternoon time frame.

4. Although the water pressure in my shower was adequate, the shower head sprayed water diffusely in all directions rather than in a concentrated stream as I like, and it was not adjustable.

 

[Big Daddy]

I don't like Best Western Ville Marie and Sheraton because the walls are thin and when a SP leaves, I think people next to your room know about it. I have gotton funny looks from the people that I don't know.


I like Delta Montreal and Ritz-Carlton for low rider beds. These hotels provide more privacy. I prefer the location of Delta Montreal. Delta centerville is not bad either, but its location is slightly away from main downtown area.


Sofitel beds are somewhat high, but the rooms are excellent. But cost is very significant and you may consider this hotel if you are on business trip and your company is paying for it.

 

[jacep]

My "review" of Hotel Ruby Foos is located within this thread: https://merb.cc/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=20116

My "review" of the Marriott Residence Inn Montreal Westmount is in this thread: https://merb.cc/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=256066&postcount=12

 

[Doc Holliday]

Hotel employee's trying to enter the room 3 times a day was the most annoying. "knock, knock"...and before you can even get up they are in the room.

Same thing happened to me on a few occasions over the years. Once, i was lying face-down on the bed doing daty on my guest. Next thing you know, i hear a knock & the door's suddenly wide open. I turned my head to see what was going on, only to see a maid quickly covering up her eyes with her hand & walking out. My guest & I both found the episode quite funny, actually. The last time i had a similar thing happen to me, i was on the bed & proceeding to put an end to the main event in the doggy position. I thought i heard a knock & by the time i turned around, i saw one of the maids quickly exiting the room & shutting the door behind her. My guest never noticed a thing!

One other negative you might have forgot to mention: the hotel charges for ice.

 

[Firewire]

The Delta Montreal is a nice hotel with good amenities, but my problem with it was the noise carrying in from the hallways. It's been a couple years since i was there, but I think the doors are on those automatic shutting things, and when other guests' doors slammed shut it would always wake me up.

 

[Doc Holliday]

Omni Mont-Royal

My beef with the Omni is that the rooms are so ancient! Time for major renovations, people!

Other than that, nice lobby, friendly staff, nice location, great spa/swimming pool.

 

[Turbodick]

Gave the Hyatt a try and found the following disappointing:
the hallways smelled of some weird chemical.
my marble countertop had a chunk loose that you could actually pull away.
the place is a maze (not just my opinion - SP too).
no sewing kit as needed by a guest
worn out lettering on AC control, so didn't know which way was more ac or less - and darn near froze.
desk drawer kept sticking.
chair and footstool seemed to be mismatched
a piece of the headboard came loose when a visitor grabbed it
No openable windows
parking $26 a night
elevators were incredibly slow
Pen was from... HDLM
all are minor. The place has plenty of good qualities for sure and was a great Priceline value overall.

 

[jacep]

... but the hotel employee's trying to enter the room 3 times a day was the most annoying. "knock, knock"...and before you can even get up they are in the room. .

I think that hotel employees do this not as an exception but as a rule. This happened to me once at a different while I was DATY but luckily my door was locked. In fact with the television and my laptop's CD player playing, I wasn't sure that it was someone trying to get into the room. The SP that I was with was the one that noticed that someone was knocking and trying to open the door.

The rule for all hotels should be to lock the door as soon as you're in the room and you don't want to be disturbed.

 

[jackyo8193]

Is it enough to hang a "Do not disturb" sign on the door?

I have not been to the HDLM but this is what I would do.

Or would a sign saying "DATY in progress" suffice?

 

[Ben Dover]

My beef with the Omni is that the rooms are so ancient! Time for major renovations, people!

Other than that, nice lobby, friendly staff, nice location, great spa/swimming pool.

I agree 100% with this comment. These rooms are TIRED. The beds are tired, the walls are tired and the furniture is tired. When I left, I was tired too.

The reno is long overdue at this property. In the meantime they should be charging less. I have see nicer rooms in many lower rated, cheaper hotels and would not book again unless I knew I would be getting a much nicer room.

BD

 

[metoo4]

For hotel staff knocking and entering immediately, I can only say one thing: complain to management.

The following is from the manager of the Marriott I usually stay at and, according to her, is a condensed from Marriott guidelines:
Employees are instructed to knock, announce themself and WAIT at least 20 seconds, then KNOCK AGAIN!!
If the DND sign is up, they are instructed to IGNORE the room, act as if the room wasn't even there. When DND sign is up and they absolutely need to enter the room, they should advise the coordinator (gouvernante), who will decide if access is really needed and if so, will then phone the room and request access. According to her, the coordinator will often judge access isn't mandatory and you won't even know somebody asked to get in your room. But human nature being what it is, if they can save those 20-30 seconds, they'll do it, unless there's consequences.

It happened to me a few times, while I was in the room but only once, in an embarrassing situation: I was on the toilet! the maid just walked in: knock knock, zip the mag card and in she was! Took about 5 seconds! I don't know if that's more annoying than when we are with an SP? At least, if we are with an SP and if the maid is cute, we could ask her to stay!

 

[Turbodick]

When I stayed at the HDLM a few months ago there were a couple of times when staff did want in to make up the room, but I found they gave me plenty of time to let them know I was in the room. With appointments later in the evening or night I don't think there are any housekeeping staff around to worry about, but from now on I'll use the extra lock.

 

[Doc Holliday]

Sheraton Center

Pros: Great location, nice gym & spa, nice tanning deck/yard, very nice lobby & bar.

Cons: Rooms are decent, not more. Some rooms are quite small, but i lucked out last time & got a normal-sized room. I hate the fact that as soon as you remove a drink from the mini-bar, it gets automatically charged on your bill. My biggest beef is with the cost for internet use ($14.99 per day plus taxes).

 

[CocaCola]

Hotel Godin now Opus

I found this to be a great hotel with great rooms. I like a large room plus it had some nice mirros which were fun. These are the kind of amnities I look for . The room did seema bit dusty and there was a pill on the end table from a previous guess which leaves me the impression they just make up the bed and dont clean up as well. I woudl stay hear again but always on a budget I try to keep rooms under 100 a night. I got a package deal for 3 nights airfare for under 800 including taxes but I dont think that deal can be had anymore. There rates have gone up but what I found funny is I dont think the hotel was terribly busy for a weekend in Aug.

They had ok room service, no restaurant. I found the location to be a little out of the way for tourist purposes but not bad at all. The front door placement seems awkward as there is really no place for cabs to line up, upon arrival my cab drive let me out on the opposite end of the hotel I guess he didnt want to fight traffice to pull in to the front door, but what do I know I only perle vou anglais.

Guys I see there are negatives for HLMG, Omni, Hyatt. Well what is the best hotel that has spacious rooms and general good value? If you look on expedia for hotels Omni comes up first with the cheapest package prices but they have options to upgrade? Has anyone taken the upgrades at Omni and been satisfied?

Im actually considering making my next trip shorter maybe 2 days and staying at a nicer hotel. The girls tire me out in a day anyway and I like to stay at a nice place that has those amenities that I like.

What month coming up do you expect prices to drop the most for Mtl? May be coming for a winter visit.

 

[jacep]

more on Marriott Residence Inn Montreal Westmount

I already posted a review of Marriott Residence Inn Montreal Westmount above but in my last 2 stays at this hotel, the internet connection is good for simple web browsing and maybe downloading small files. For file sharing or streaming video/movies or remotely accessing another PC, the internet connection at this hotel doesn't appear to be reliable.

I was using their internet connection to remotely access my home network in order to watch some streaming videos from my server and the speed would go up and then drop down while I was watching my streaming videos. This isn't an issue with my home network because I've done the same thing while connecting to my home network from work and the throughput doesn't drop/fluctuate so significantly as it does at this hotel where my video is streamed between 10kbps to 700kbps whereas at work, it is almost a steady 300-500kbps.

 

[jackyo8193]

Winter in Montreal is not a bad time to go

What month coming up do you expect prices to drop the most for Mtl? May be coming for a winter visit.

Its not as hectic as in the summer and there are more girls to choose from, from my experience.

There is, of course, snow on the ground and if you have to step out of the hotel winter boots and a down jacket are necessary. It tends to be colder too than my hometown of Bahstan.

I'd also not drive my car there just to avoid sliding all over the place.

I'd try to find a hotel with easy access to the Ville Souterraine so that I'd at least be able to go for walks without having to step outside.

I'd avoid Christmas and New Year's just cause there are a lot of things going on. The quieter months of January and February are preferred.

If you stay at the Hilton Bonaventure they have a heated pool so you can go swimming outside even when its way below freezing. I've tried it and its pretty cool. That hotel though is rather out of the way and its like a labyrinth.

The hotel I enjoyed staying at the most was the Sofitel. Its very modern and nicely located on Sherbrooke.

The Sheraton, Hyatt, Marriott Champlain, Omni, Delta and Novotel are all acceptable though mostly functional.

The most downscale I've ever gone was the Days Inn.

 

[rollingstone]

I haven't been to Montreal that many times, so I only have 2 Hotels to talk about

Omni:

Pros:

1. The suite I got (junior suite) was very spacious, 2 bathrooms. At the time I booked it, it was only $30 extra per night over the deluxe room so I went for it

2. Hotel staff never barged in, always respected the do not disturb sign. Can't believe this has to be listed as a 'pro'. but apparently not all hotels are like that!

3. Nice view of the Mount Royal from the room.

4. Bathroom was equipped with heater (thermal light, dont know what its called). Was very pleasant to use after a shower.

5. I was never charged for use of the mini bar - though this probably was a fluke occurrance.

Cons:

1. They were overbooked and I had to wait 2 hours to get into my room

2. The wireless internet was not entirely reliable. It was OK for general surfing, but I had not brought a large music collection with me and was relying on streaming one of XM radio's 100 channels. That didn't work out so well.

3. Room service is not prompt (used it for breakfast only)
--------------------------------
Spring Hill Suites - Old Montreal

Pros

1. Location was nice. Several convenience stores and an SAQ all nearby. Old Montreal in general was very nice.

2. Upon arrival, I was promptly given my room key (as opposed to Omni)

3. Wired Internet. This is a pro because 'reception' was not an issue as it would be with wireless.

4. Free breakfast in the Mezzazin (spelling?)

Cons

1. Room had no wine glasses.

2. The balcony might as well not be there. It is shared with the adjacent rooms and so close to the building across the street that an un-athletic man can bridge the gap with a short jump. It also meant I had to have the curtains drawn when with an SP, since the proximity was far too close for comfort, even if you factor in any exhibitionist desires!

 

[metoo4]

I was using their internet connection to remotely access my home network in order to watch some streaming videos from my server and the speed would go up and then drop down while I was watching my streaming videos. This isn't an issue with my home network because I've done the same thing while connecting to my home network from work and the throughput doesn't drop/fluctuate so significantly as it does at this hotel where my video is streamed between 10kbps to 700kbps whereas at work, it is almost a steady 300-500kbps.

So YOU were the bandwith hog killing the internet connection! Share a bit man!

 

[EagerBeaver]

Le Centre Sheraton

Pros: Great location, nice gym & spa, nice tanning deck/yard, very nice lobby & bar.

Cons: Rooms are decent, not more. Some rooms are quite small, but i lucked out last time & got a normal-sized room. I hate the fact that as soon as you remove a drink from the mini-bar, it gets automatically charged on your bill. My biggest beef is with the cost for internet use ($14.99 per day plus taxes).

I recently (this past week) stayed at Le Centre Sheraton which I got as a Priceline 4 star hotel for $95, my 6th or 7th bid. I have stayed here many times in the past. I would basically agree with Doc Holliday's analysis and add the following:

I found the room I got on this stay to be a definite pro. Although as Doc said there are small corner rooms that they will stick you in (especially on a PL booking), I insisted at check in that I not be stuck in such a room. I further insisted (politely, but firmly) that I be given a king sized nonsmoking room on a higher floor, preferably facing north.

I got a king sized bed, nonsmoking room on the 31st floor, facing south. Within seconds of my entering the room and examining it, I got a phone call from the front desk asking if the room was to my liking. I told them that it was. This customer service is very much to be commended.

Although the view looking north is preferable, I had a very nice panoramic view looking south towards the St. Lawrence River. I could also see the Adirondack Mountains (I assume) looming on the southern horizon, like silhouetted sentinels. I also saw a building which had on its roof a large neon sign which said, "Farine Five Roses." Not sure what this business is. Across the street and in front of the Bell Center is a large building which partially obfuscates the view.

Valet parking is $22.82 a day plus tax.

I worked out in the gym, and swam in the swimming pool, both of which are located on the 6th floor. The gym has a few state of the art exercise bikes and treadmills. Adjacent to the pool is a men's and women's sauna and a jacuzzi. There are also two shower stalls in the men's area and apparently in the women's as well.

The hotel is surrounded by a variety of restaurants on Drummond, Stanley and Peel (1 block over). I got a decent pepperoni and onion pizza at Santa Lucia, which is also on Stanley, just north of the hotel and south of St. Catherine.

The hotel delivered a complimentary Globe and Mail to my door every day and the room was cleaned promptly and thoroughly every day. I left a generous tip for the cleaning staff, mainly because they were thorough and they organized my razors and shaving equipment on the bathroom counter every day.

The beddings and linens are satisfactory. The room is not ultra modern, but as Doc Holliday stated, it was decent. I did have one guest chair but no loveseat or sofa, which is one advantage the Omni has over this hotel in the 4 star category.

I was overall satisfied with my stay, and understand that although $95 is far more than I ever paid on Priceline for this hotel in the past (which I regularly used to get for under $75), we are entering a new reality of bidding economics in which the US dollar and the Canadian dollar are essentially at par. The days of getting this hotel for $75 on PL look like they are over.