cheap Montreal hotel for stopover?
 

I will have a 17h stopover at YUL so will probably need a hotel for the night. AirCanada Stopovers cheapest option is at $94, but I am wondering if there is anything lower than that with shuttle service. Would also consider using Priceline as long as there is reasonable chance to have shuttle service included.

I'd go into the city using the 747 bus and stay somewhere nice. The airport is really nowhere. There are lots of deals around. Expedia.ca's secret deals have been better for me than any other. Choose one of the downtown zones.

It's been a few years, but Pricelined an airport hotel for a very good rate. Don't recall if it had a shuttle, as it was my last night (very early flight in a.m.) and had a rental car.

You may want to check out another forum for info on Priceline - perhaps online travel agencies IIRC.

Montreal is not that cheap a place. Why do you want to go downtown? You are going to pay more, and 17 H doesn't give you much time to look around. Check the rate of the day for the Sheraton Montreal Airport at:
http://www.spghotescapes.com/search/montreal
Then see if you can beat it on PriceLine!

Well it will be in September so weather may still be decent and after a long flight Walking around the central area for a couple of hours may be fun, like the old city and the mont. Haven't been there in maybe 2 or 3 years.

So if I stay near the airport in a hotel with shuttle service ... how difficult is it to get into the city and back in the evening with public transportation e.g. subway or bus?

see post # 2 above
 

Your best option is the 747 bus (see post # 2 above). I don't know its frequency but it will be easy enough to find on the Montreal public transit WEB site!

So trying to figure out best option. It is likely that they will not take my luggage after I went through customs, and I certainly do not want to haul that on the express bus. So I guess I could drop luggage at storage and pay the $15 or whatever and take express bus downtown where hotels seem to be around $100. Or I take an airport hotel with shuttle which may be cheaper and leave luggage there, take shuttle back to airport and then express bus for an evening downtown, and then bus and shuttle back to hotel. Option 2 seems to be cheaper ...