Not up to the Hilton name
Written: Nov 10 '00 (Updated Nov 10 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: good food, nice view, attached to underground gallery
Cons: snobby service, over-rated, expensive, not much amenities offered
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| maceyr's Full Review: Hilton Montreal Bonaventure |
The Montreal Hilton Bonaventure hotel is another over-rated hotel. With a well known name like Hilton, I was expecting the same level of service, facilities and quality of the Hyatt Regency Westshore in Tampa, Florida. But I was wrong and was quite disappointed with my stay there. For more information on the Hyatt Regency Westshore, please read my review:
http://www.epinions.com/lodg-review-1EA8-1C75BFF0-3A0640AD-prod5
First off, we arrived at Montreal's Mirabel airport, located 45 minutes away from downtown Montreal, where our hotel was located. We rented a car and foolishly took the driving instructions of the rental agency's staff, looking vainly for the exit that did not exist. Referring to maps and brochures, we ended up circling around the streets of downtown Montreal, looking for the hotel. It was quite frustrating to search for it. There were no big lighted signs along the hotel's building like the Delta Inn or other big, luxury hotels. There was just a metallic Hilton sign at the front, but then, the main entrance or street entrance was off to the side of the building and not facing the street as you would expect. If you look at the building, you wouldn't know that the Hilton Bonaventure was just above the Place Bonaventure exhibition center. Hilton needs to seriously revamp their signs and design of the main entrance because unless we were looking, we wouldn't have known that the Hilton was there. And, of course, I wasn't aware that the hotel was a "penthouse" hotel.
At the entrance, we sadly discover that we weren't at the lobby and needed to take the elevator to get up to the main lobby. Apparently, the Hilton Bonaventure is quite unique in that they are a "penthouse" hotel, occupying the top two floors of the Place Bonaventure exhibition hall. Thus, we had a bit of problem looking for it because it was only two floors high, and at the top of an exhibition center. Oh. Anyway, the elevator looked old and scruffy, a minus, considering the Hilton name. We took our luggage to the front desk, located a walking distance from the elevator. There was a waiting area nearby. Once we got our room keys (plastic cards), we proceeded to take our stuff to our room. I was quite annoyed to find that I had to climb several short flights of stairs with my luggage to get to the rooms. Obviously not wheelchair accessible. But then, I found that Montreal was quite unfriendly with regards to accessible facilities without much wheelchair accessible doors. Although I didn't personally need it, but when taking my son around with a stroller, it would help greatly to be able to open those automatic doors without struggling with it.
We arrive at our room. It was nice and spacious with the usual amenities such as air conditioning, cable TV with pay per view in room movies, pay per play video games with consoles, AM/FM alarm clock, coffee maker, hairdryer, iron, ironing board, minibar stocked with snacks and beverages, telephone with voice mail, message indicator, and data ports for computer hookups. There was a table with a desk lamp and a night table. We had two queen sized beds. The bathroom was a full bath and stocked with bathroom amenities such as shower cap, shoe shine cloth, shampoo and conditioner, mouthwash. Our room overlooked a great view of downtown Montreal, looking towards the highway to the airports. Since we weren't facing towards downtown, it seemed like a better view of sunrise and sunsets. The windows open for fresh air access but there are safety bars to prevent it from opening up too much. It was nice to get some fresh air. Some other rooms have a view of the heated outdoor pool or of the garden so I guess we got a good view.
The hotel has a total of 395 rooms and houses 2.5 acres of landscaped Oriental garden inhabited by resident ducks and pheasants. It has a fitness center, accessible from the outdoor heated pool, located at the center of the hotel and surrounded by various rooms on two sides. The rooms are situated almost in a square-like fashion, with some rooms spreading out along corridors leading away from its edges. It has two floors of rooms so regardless, you will either need to climb a set of stairs up or down to your rooms. They have non-smoking and wheel chair accessible rooms available.
The hotel has a casual dining restaurant called La Bourgade. The restaurant offers menus of international cuisine, buffet or à la carte. The buffets are usually quite good but I prefer the dinner buffet. I once had a dinner buffet with rabbit stew in orange prune sauce. It was delicious.
Fine dining is found at Le Castillon, with floor to ceiling windows offering views of the hotel's gardens. I once dined there and found the service to be quite poor. Maybe it was because I wasn't "dressed" up to demand the service, but it took literally 20 minutes for the server to acknowledge me and ask for my order. I didn't care as I was reading my paper but I was a bit ticked off. It seems that the Montreal people are not very friendly, and quite like the French, snobby. I was originally tempted to have a lobster tail and seafood combo dish but ended up settling for prime rib. The food was great and a bit expensive but I would have preferred better service.
The lounge, Le Belvédère, a piano bar, is located right next to La Bourgade and across from the front desk. It serves a lunch and light menu and is a great place to settle down and have a nice drink. It also has an expresso/coffee shop bar at the end for a quick coffee grab and go.
There are several large and small meeting rooms for conferences located on the main floor as well as on one floor below.
The hotel is directly connected to Montreal's underground shopping complexes and galleries via the hotel's elevator. From there, you can travel to the nearby VIA rail train station, subway station, Molson Center, Eaton's Center, and many other boutiques and shops. It is within walking distance to Old Montreal and close to the Casino.
As I may have been spoiled by my previous experience with the Hyatt Regency Westshore in Tampa, I could only recommend the Hilton Montreal Bonaventure half heartedly. For someone who has not stayed at a luxury hotel before, this may be a great experience. I found the Bonaventure to be old, snobby (at times) and did not provide much facilities or services that I expected from a luxury hotel. The furniture of the rooms were somewhat scuffed and old, although they were still nice looking. The rooms were clean and spacious. Room service, on the first night, forgot my order and I ended up waiting for food that wasn't coming. Although the food was served hot (with hot trays), I still found my numerous requests for room service to be below what I expected. Thus, I would somewhat recommend Hilton Montreal Bonaventure. If I were to visit Montreal again, I would not go back to the Bonaventure for the reasons stated. I probably would search out a better hotel.
Thanks for taking the time to read and rate my review.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
maceyr
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Location: Canada
Reviews written: 129
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About Me:
I hardly have time for Epinions anymore but do try to read and rate.
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