Suite 1742 - a room to remember
Written: Feb 09 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great hotel in its own right, the suite is just the icing on the cake.
Cons: None - apart from any suite we stay in now seems to lack any significance!
The Bottom Line: To stay in the suite is a profound and memorable experience. It certainly changed our life!
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| sarajackson's Full Review: Queen Elizabeth Hotel |
This year we stayed for the third time at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal. I wrote a general review of the hotel a couple of years back (which is under the 'Fairmont Queen Elizabeth' category) but as this year we had a rather special room, I thought it warranted a review of its own!
We made our reservation through the Presidents Club (the Fairmont frequent guest program) Gold Members hotline. Uncharacteristically indecisive, we only decided to try and get a reservation for Grand Prix weekend a month beforehand. We had nearly given up whilst surfing the net for a room at the Queen Elizabeth (our first and only choice), when as a last resort we decided to try the members hotline. We were amazed that they found us a room, although the hotel appeared technically full, and this extra benefit of the loyalty program impressed us, as if we could be much more impressed! The rate was $429 per night plus taxes for Grand Prix weekend, (a little more than £200 per night) which was rather steep, considering you usually can get a room there for about half that. We were ecstatic though, as 3 star properties that were available at that late stage were charging similar prices.
As we had a certificate entitling us to an upgrade to a suite, I e-mailed the hotel prior to our stay to ask if we might use it, and requesting the view we would like from the standard room if we could not. I did not get a reply, but while my husband was talking to the concierge soon after to make a dinner reservation, he was told we had been given a suite. We were very very excited! Suddenly £200 a night was looking very reasonable indeed.
We had known since the first time we stayed at the hotel that it had a very big claim to fame; in that John Lennon and Yoko One had their Bed-In for Peace in suite 1742 at the hotel in 1969, and recorded ‘Give Peace a Chance’ there. In fact last year when we were staying at the hotel we even sought out the room, taking a photo of the door, thinking that would be the closest we would get to it!
The weekend before our trip, it occurred to us that it might be a good idea to ask if suite 1742 was in the same room category as the one we had been allocated. We put our cheeky hats on, and mentioned that if this was the case, whether we might be allocated that particular suite. After I sent the e-mail, I cringed - how presumptuous to assume such a great suite would be available that weekend, especially to nobodies like us.
We received an e-mail back much to our surprise saying that the suite was available, but for the package that included champagne, fruit, breakfast on one morning and other little touches, it would cost $559 plus taxes per night. We noticed that our room rate viewable online had changed to this new package rate, and as we did not want to spend any more than the original $429, we e-mailed back to say this. We were sorry that we wouldn’t be able to have the suite but glad that we had asked anyway.
On entering the hotel again on our arrival, we noticed a big, and very welcome change since last year. The lobby area had been refurbished, which in my original review I mentioned was becoming necessary. The floor, which had had a bold (and increasingly dated) burgundy patterned carpet was now in a shiny marble effect, the square dark wooden (and depressing) columns have been replaced by stylish round cream coloured ones, and the whole area which used to be overpowered by an overload of wood is much more light and airy. All around the lobby is a wood effect fascia with effective uplighting and even the original flock wallpaper behind the reception desks doesn’t jar any more. The ugly ceiling tiles have been removed and instead there is a modern light ceiling dotted with spotlights. Where some rather unappealing shops used to stand is now a really useful area with chairs and comfy sofas, and I am glad to say the Queen Elizabeth really looks the part now – such relatively simple alterations have had an amazing effect.
We checked in, having psyched ourselves up to be bold and ask if the room was still available, but in the end we didn’t have the nerve. As it happened the check in clerk said we had been upgraded to the John Lennon Suite anyway. On the way to the lifts we could barely contain our excitement. Never before had a room upgrade filled us with quite this much anticipation. What had started out as a last minute decision to come back to Canada this year was turning into something very special indeed.
The room, 1742, is on the 17th floor, at the end of a corridor at the Boulevard Rene Levesque/Rue Mansfield corner of the building. Last year this room appeared very anonymous from the outside and if you hadn’t known the significance of room 1742, you would have thought it was any other room. This year the room is distinguished by a door plate with the name ’John Lennon Suite’ on it.
On entering the room you are struck initially by the deep claret coloured carpet, the light coloured walls and the spacious entrance lobby with imposing chandelier. A hall table is positioned straight ahead between two double French doors leading to the two main rooms of the suite. Both of the French doors are set off by opulent rich coloured striped curtains. The only full length mirror in the suite is also in the lobby between the entrance door and the door to the connecting room. Off the lobby is a closet, kitchen/servery and the bathroom. There is also a door to the connecting room 1740 which appears (from the plan on the back of the door) to be an above average sized room, which I believe John Lennon also reserved in 1969 along with the small room 1738.
The closet is amazingly compact considering the size of the suite, and doesn’t allow a lot of room for your possessions, but the joy of suites is always that it isn’t difficult to stow your belongings away someplace else. The servery is a practical size with sink, minibar and lots of base and wall cupboards as well as wall shelving. This was really useful for preparing/storing items for picnics etc, and after having a couple of suites with such a servery, you wonder how you’ll ever manage without one again!
The bathroom also off the lobby is similarly quite compact, probably the same size as bathrooms in other rooms in the hotel. We commented last year about the Fairmont Gold room that the bathroom was quite small, and it seems to be an idiosyncrasy of rooms at the hotel. Probably because of the era the hotel was built, little emphasis is put on huge bathrooms, a priority that seems to have come to the fore only in recent years. The bathroom however is stylishly appointed with black marble vanity tops and a rather small (even by my 5’ 2” standard) shallow bath with shower above. However what would be a criticism in any other room fades into insignificance here – you have ample space that a compact bathroom is immaterial. You are kept well supplied, as always, with appealing Fairmont toiletries.
The main space of the suite consists of the lounge and bedroom, both accessed through the French doors from the lobby. There are also French doors between these two main areas. The lounge area has a large window nearly the width of the room looking directly over the Reine de la Monde Cathedral, and with views looking directly down Boulevard Rene Levesque. This is the same view we very much enjoyed last year from our Fairmont Gold room, and it is really attractive. It is the kind of view that you can just look at for a long time without getting tired of it. Our friends after seeing our room last year made a point of requesting a view overlooking the cathedral this year, and it is definitely worth requesting. Unlike many North American cities, the downtown area isn’t dominated by many skyscrapers and the wide sweeping streets contribute to better views from downtown hotels than perhaps in an equivalent city like Toronto.
The lounge area was large with TV unit, sofa, chairs and coffee table, as well as a large work desk. The room is accentuated by various side tables and lamps. The large window has the same type of striped deep burgundy and rich coloured curtains as in the lobby, which are complemented by subtle green curtains behind that you could draw. The main centrepiece of the lounge is a large framed photo of the bed-in with gold disks and musical notation. The lounge has its own separate air conditioning, and was a really lovely place to relax. In fact relaxing and chilling out seemed to be the dominant temptation in this suite. The lounge has a clock radio/CD player, but is one of the standard hotel types (as opposed to the rather good Bose ones you sometimes get) and so the quality was appalling. I am sure John would not have approved at all!
The other main room was the bedroom, which you entered through the French doors from the lobby or from the lounge. It was slightly smaller than the adjoining lounge area, but very generous nonetheless, with a window on the North side of the hotel. This looked directly over Boulevard Rene Levesque in the direction of Mont Royal towards the downtown commercial and shopping districts. The view from this window too was really great, as the impressive Sun Life building stood just across the street. Before our stay we had debated whether the view to request might be overlooking the cathedral or the Sun Life building. As it happened we got the best of both worlds.
The bedroom benefits from a large (and high) wooden posted bed with stylish modern predominantly white with black trim bedcover. The bed and covers were exactly the same as we had in the Fairmont Gold room, and it was actually nice to have the modern style here in a suite that has purposely kept the same tones for the carpet and walls as in 1969. A large comfy chair with footrest is placed in the corner between the two French doors and an ottoman is at the bottom of the bed. Another hefty wooden TV unit with drawer space is also in the bedroom area set at an angle in a corner of the room.
Much to our surprise, we had also been given the extra items included in the suite package. Waiting for us in the room was a bottle of champagne, and a large fruit basket (with apples, bananas, strawberries, grapes, pear, kiwi fruit, mango and orange). Shortly after our arrival in the suite, a bellman brought us up a souvenir folder with some background information about the suite, lyrics from ‘Give Peace a Chance’ and a photograph. The Bellman made conversation for a few minutes, and told us he had actually been the member of staff who had checked John Lennon in 34 years ago. We also received a phone call to make arrangements for breakfast in our room on the following morning. The fact that we had not paid for the package but had been given the various benefits regardless was really appreciated and we again were blown away by the fantastic attitude to customer service always shown by Fairmont Hotels.
Our breakfast arrived at the time we ordered and was set up for us properly in the lounge area on a really clever wheeled extendable table. We had been told beforehand that the breakfast was the same (or very similar) to the one ordered by John in 1969. The breakfast consisted of a cooked selection of scrambled eggs, bacon, seasoned potato slices, tomatoes and mushrooms. Large bowls of fruit salad were also provided along with thick toast and various jams and a ‘Spanish Smile’ - orange juice and honey. Having a suite really makes breakfast in the room a treat, as you are able to have the meal properly set up for you, and it certainly makes a change from loads of other hotels where you get a breakfast trolley just dumped in your room. We made a decision that in future whenever we have a large suite like this (the one at The Lowry in Manchester was also ideal) we will order breakfast the first morning in the room – it really makes for a special start to the day.
The room contained most items that other rooms in the hotel would have. A small hairdryer was provided, which was a slightly better idea than the nearly useless wall mounted hotel ones; the two separate air conditioning units were efficient and quiet. The minibar in the kitchen was the standard hotel type, maybe it could have benefited from being a slightly larger refrigerator type. Surprisingly in a room like this there was no safe, and we were disappointed that an umbrella wasn’t provided as is usually the case in Fairmont Gold rooms, and that I would usually assume would also be the case in a special suite like this. As we got absolutely soaked on the Friday at First Qualifying, we tried to borrow an umbrella, only to find they had none left, so it is a pity there was not one in the room. An iron and board was provided in the compact closet, which is always a useful addition, and I can’t really think of anything that was seriously lacking. Only small things would warrant criticism, mainly due to the facilities (minibar, bathroom etc) being exactly the same in this suite as in the other rooms, but I would challenge anyone to actually come away feeling anything other than total satisfaction with everything about the suite. With a room as important as this one, little things fade into insignificance.
One little concern we had about the room was the connecting door to the adjacent room. This door had a lock on both sides, but our side must have been unlocked when we checked in. As a result one evening when we returned back it was obvious someone had been in the room, as it smelt of strong cigar smoke, and then at 3.45 in the morning we were woken up by the two men from the next room rampaging through our suite. This is quite disconcerting obviously! If you have this suite or any with a connecting door, I would definitely double check that the door is locked when you arrive. Even this strange episode though couldn’t mar our stay.
We enjoyed immensely our four nights in the suite, and I constantly tried to remind myself about what a big deal all of it actually was. In the current climate of war and hate, it seemed exactly the right time to stay at a place where someone who wanted much better had also spent such a famous few days. Maybe even some karma may rub off on us. If you fancy staying somewhere a bit different I would definitely recommend suite 1742 – the opportunity of staying in a room with such significance is rare. It is surprising that the room doesn’t feel like any other, 34 years on, and this I think is testament to the Queen Elizabeth keeping some decorations similar, whilst ensuring the room still fells like a luxurious suite. You wonder beforehand if the suite will have a strange atmosphere, and although there is a definite feeling in the room, it is one of calmness and contentment.
Now a couple of months after our stay, it is still something I think about on a daily basis with real fondness. Having stayed at loads of great hotels and been treated exceptionally well in many, especially Fairmont Hotels, it is amazing that our stay at the Queen Elizabeth manages to surpass everything else. I’m not saying the suite is just another tacky romantic getaway, somehow it manages to be something much more profound. Considering neither myself nor my husband were born in 1969, you may think it strange we should think the role of the suite has any relevance whatsoever. However having grown up as children of the eighties, and suffering on a daily basis from the misplaced media adulation of celebrity nobodies, it is humbling to cast a thought to John Lennon and a time when celebrities tried to use their fame to make an important stand. I also know that the whole experience is one that will change us forever – not least because we now expect our first baby – no doubt joining a long list of John Lennon Suite babies!!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
sarajackson
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Location: Grantham, UK
Reviews written: 22
Trusted by: 3 members
About Me:
I am 28 and live in Grantham, UK
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