HomerJ

...I paid $135.00 for this property and felt overcharged. Now I think complaining about no restaurants in the area is a little silly (its an airport after all) and all you have to do is go up the 13 or the 15 and in 10 minutes there are plenty. There is a PLAT amenity of 250 pts. but that means to me it should be priced as a 4 pts. is priced...now for the not so great 4 pts. down the road I usually pay $99-109. That seems more inline, and had I been charged that I would have felt this comparable to the 4 pts. and stayed here instead. But because of the price difference and the lack of value, my business will go to the 4 pts down the road.

SASfan

I'm wondering if the 'W-lite' decor is responsible for the slightly higher price.

Is there any kind of club lounge?
Did you get breakfast?
Is there an in-room mini-bar?

socrates

No
Yes for a fee
No (at least I'm pretty sure there isn't one)

3Cforme

Point taken, but Starwood isn't going to get 'a couple of years' to fix or re-price: the damage will be done very quickly, as these critical posts note.

The idea of W-lite attitude and 4P furnishings at a Sheraton price has absolutely no appeal for me.

1AAFlyer

I had 2 rooms there this weekend. The rooms are smaller, as airport hotels are. The hotel is clean, hip/chic decorating, complimentary wireless connection, BUT NO CELL SERVICE in either room. 2 different carriers, no service except in, get this, the elevator, lobby and exterior. I have no idea what the problem is, but I would hesitate staying there again because of the lack of cell service in the rooms. I hope that can be addressed.

3Cforme

Would you care to identify the carriers and let us know their responses to your complaint?

1AAFlyer

The carriers are Verizon and AT&T. Both said the same thing...some sort of interference in the rooms preventing the cell signal. Somehow the "interference" disappears in the elevator shaft and lobby. The point is, I don't want to stay in a hotel room where I can't use the cell phone or receive email on the blackberry. I reported it to the front desk and at first the woman thought I was telling her the hotel phones didn't work and when she understood it to be the cell phones, her comment was "oh".

traveldog

Stayed there on August 1 -2. Had no problem using my cellphone in the room or receiving calls on it while in my room. My carrier is Rogers / Fido.

Shareholder

Both Verizon and AT&T should have connected to the Rogers/FIDO system here in Canada. Perhaps you had a room in some back alley, but I'd have expected Montreal to have excellent coverage for these carriers because Fido was HQ'd there.

DivMiler

See this link.

Canada101

I have generally lurked on this forum and not bothered to post but felt that I could add something to this thread on the YUL aloft.

I have now stayed at this hotel 7 times since it opened and have to say that I generally like the look and feel of the hotel. It is definitely the nicest hotel in the immediate Dorval airport area (which is more convenient for me on some visits to Montreal than downtown especially now that the roads in/out of the downtown core are screwed up due to construction. Ah, Quebec!)

The staff are nothing special -- definitely a far cry from the W downtown (where I prefer to stay when I have business downtown) -- and while generally pleasant, hardly seem polished or well-trained. (There is one evening reception clerk who seems more with it than others and at least tries to go out of her way to recognize me for having stayed there so often.)

Most of the staff are also clueless about the various rate plans they have on offer. As mentionned on another thread, they try to charge you $10 for parking even though it is included in your rate and know absolutely nothing about the apparent "complimentary continental breakfast".

I have also never seen any managers around -- just the one clerk at the desk and the bartender.

As mentionned elsewhere in this thread, SPG status really is meaningless at this property. There is no paper at the door in the mornings (they are stacked on a bench by the elevator on each floor -- and seem to often run out of the English paper so be forewarned).

The rooms are as described on the website so I really have little to complain about there. The beds are new and generally comfortable. The LCD TV is an excellent feature as is the channel selection especially when compared to some of the other hotels in the airport area (although they could do with CNBC or some other financial channel.) I agree with the observation that the rooms are generally better than at the Sheraton Center downtown which tend to be a little on the grimey side but no where near the rooms at the W.

My one giant pet peeve is the still extremely strong paint and solvent odor in the rooms (as mentionned in the NY Times review). After about two months since opening, the rooms still have a strong paint/solvent smell and management is seemingly unable/unwilling to do anything about it despite me mentionning it on several occasions. As a result, I've basically decided not to stay at the Montreal Airport aloft any more until I am confident that this issue is rectified.

I'd say the hype behind aloft is a little overdone. Definitely not a W by any stretch of the imagination and more like a Four Points in drag. Between the Montreal Airport Four Points and aloft, however, my choice would be aloft hands down simply because it is cleaner and newer. Again, given the dearth of good accommodation choices in the immediate vicinity of the airport, aloft stands out as a good alternative. Other than the convenience of being near airport area appointments, I'd choose the downtown hotels in a heartbeat.

Canada101

Just completed my 10th stay at this property. The smell of paint/solvent is still extremely strong in the rooms and I complained yet again. The staff attitude at check-in was a complete joke -- zero Plat recognition and when I asked if the 250 point amenity was added, the clerk barely looked up and almost sneered.

If it weren't for the convenience of this location versus the W downtown for my meetings, I'd boycott this property until they get it right. The staff attitude could use a real upgrade (as I said before a far cry from the W Montreal -- so they're doing the W brand a real disservice by linking aloft with it).

If any Lurker stumbles on this, I'd make sure this feedback is provided to local management. Given Starwood's investment in the aLoft brand, it really needs a lot of work.

mfabbi

I stayed here during the past week. There's nothing special, especially for a platinum, though they new I was Plat and confirmed that I wanted the 250 points. It's clean and better than anything else close to Dorval. My biggest complaint is that they went the cheap route with the windows. Most airport hotels will triple glaze the windows facing the airport to keep the noise down. Here they went with cheap double glazed and when flights gear up at 6am you certainly have no need for an alarm clock. Anyone staying at this hotel should be asking for the back side.

yyzvoyageur

We were going to stay there a couple weeks back, but never made because my daughter ended up in hospital. It was a non-refundable rate I booked, so I knew I'd be charged for it. I called them anyway just to let them know I wouldn't be showing up. The guy at the hotel seemed really confused and told me I'd be getting a call from SPG because I booked through the website. No call received, so I called SPG. The CSR was great and called the hotel directly and the manager said she would give me a refund for compassionate reasons. That was far more than I expected, but two weeks later, no refund. I did book a non-refundable rate, so I never expected a refund, but it is a bit annoying to be promised something that never materialises.

Starwood Lurker

There is bound to be record of this somewhere on our end. I would encourage you to call back and escalate it to a supervisor if an associate cannot assist.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Online Guest Feedback Coordinator
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]