W Montreal

100   Recommended
August 14, 2009 by

 Map | 1 Review | 100% Recommended
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W Montreal
 Map | 1 Review | 100% Recommended

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Liked:
Location
Service
Food
Amenities
Room
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Pre-Arrival
Used two of my free weekend nights from the Q2 Promotion here at the W Montreal. Two weeks in advance I was surprised to find my reservation had already been touched and upgraded from a standard wonderful room to a fantastic suite. Definitely the furthest in advance I have ever been upgraded! A nice touch and shows you how well they treat Platinum Members at this hotel. In addition I later found out that the Rogers Cup Tennis Tournament in town so the hotel was booked solid for the weekend.

Arrival
My wife and I flew into Montreal and took the Via Rail train to Quebec City for 3 days prior to our stay at the W. Mrs. Sleepdoc and I had a fantastic time in QC and stayed at theFairmont Le Chateau Frontenac.

The W Montreal is conveniently situated downtown across from Victoria Square downtown. It is a short walk to Old Montreal, Chinatown, the Metro and the rue St Catherine where you will find the insanely large and confusing indoor mall that stretches from building to building. I can imagine though this would be very convenient during the winters! In addition the Westin is just a short walk away from the W… though we didn’t tour it and just saw it from a short distance. We arrived at the W Hotel quite early on Friday just before noon by train. Inquired about the possibly of checking in early with the friendly FD clerk and was pleased to find that our suite would only take about 1 hour to clean as the guest had just checked out. I took a W scented candle as my Platinum Amenity gift. Not wanting to explore around at that time we headed to the bar at Restaurant Otto and had a few drinks while we waited for suite. My wife and I met a friendly female pair from England and had a hilarious chat with them with over drinks. We did not take partake in the meals at Restaurant Otto but the bar drinks were interesting enough and the selection of premium liquors was plentiful though they were missing a few key ingredients for certain drinks that our newly found friends attempted to order. In the mornings the bar also serves as the W Cafwith coffee and assorted pastries. Incidentally unlike many other W’s the coffee here is not for free and there is nominal amount that one can bill to your room.

W Front Entrance


Main Floor/Concierge Desk in the rear


Restaurant Otto


Fantastic Suite
The FD clerk called us when the suite was ready and we proceeded to head up via the one bank of elevators. All of the floors with rooms must be accessed with your keycard. Typical W mat in the elevator… this one only says bonjour. No switching of mats during the day to reflect the morning, afternoon, or evening as the other W’s in the states commonly do. Hallways and of course overall feel of this W lend to the trendy dark hues and reds with softly lighted corridors.

Elevator Foyer


Hallway with moving LED painting


Only one entrance to the suite, immediately to your right is a large cabinet with a small set of drawers and large amount of hanging space and typical room vault. Next to this is your wet bar with goodies and refrigerator filled with typical beers, hard liquors, juices, water, and sodas. The Fantastic Suite is one big room with a large couch, dual sinks, open shower, separate door enclosed toilet and large bathtub in the center with only a wall separating the bathroom from the rest of the suite. In addition as others have mentioned there is a flat screen TV that swivels to either face the bed or the couch. There is a typical Ipod dock with speaker next to the bed along with a James Concierge iPhone on the desk that sits in a dual docking station. Although nice I didn’t really find the James iPhone to be overly helpful and preferred to use the services of the real concierge downstairs.

Fantastic Suite Pano


W Bed


Suite Living Room


Suite Bathroom


James Concierge


Way Spa
There is no Bliss Spa at this W as we have been accustomed to at the stateside Ws. According the concierge this W does not have a Bliss Spa as there is a minimum square footage that is required but nevertheless the services at this small spa in the lower level was excellent and we would easily recommend it.

Restaurant/Bars/Room Service
Did not partake in Restaurant Otto other than using the W Cafin the mornings for a cup of coffee. Room Service was excellent… we had a nice flatbread along with Middle Eastern inspired chicken skewers with cucumber dipping sauce.

There are three main bars in the hotel. Bartini a very small bar located next to the elevators, WunderBar is on the opposite side of the hallway and lastly the Plateau Lounge located on the Mezzanine level. We only partook in the Plateau Lounge… had one of their famous Maple Mojitos… unless you like your drinks really sweet this one may not be the one for you!

Plateau Lounge



WunderBar


Final Notes/Conclusion
Only two small problems arose during our stay. We had a small leak from the ceiling in the hallway of our suite and later found out that our AC compressor was blocked according to maintenance. They unfortunately were unable to fix it that night. A discussion with the 2nd shift manager revealed that the only other suite available was on the 3rd floor and according to her the noise level in that suite can be quite unbearable secondary to Plateau Lounge a floor below. She did offer us a standard room to which she apologized profusely as the hotel was fully booked and all the other suites were taken. I suggested that we could open the windows (these are locked and have to be opened with a special key), as it was cool enough outside to make the room bearable in the evenings along with the addition of a fan, which I requested. The following day I was assured that the AC would be fixed at the time Mrs. Sleepdoc and I were at the Way spa. Unfortunately the morning manager neglected to read the morning reports and this was not done. He apologized profusely and had it repaired immediately along with comping our room service ordered the night before and sending us a nice bottle of wine.

Platinum recognition as well as treatment is excellent in this hotel. I forgot to mention that the female concierge helped us (actually me!) track down the painting that we had bought in Quebec City which I forgot on the Via Rail train on the way back to Montreal. My French is sorely lacking and she made the process of finding the painting much easier! Merci! She in addition made reservations at an excellent restaurant in the Latin Quarter of the city. The service and friendliness at the hotel were excellent and we certainly didn’t sense any of the pretentiousness or “I’m better than you attitude” that some would describe as the W brand. We would certainly recommend this hotel to anyone visiting Montreal. Another great stay for us!

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