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| - I always try to stay away from the chain hotels, but sometimes my shallow wallet just can't afford the big price tags associated with staying at boutique hotels. Lucky for me, I found a deal that included flight and hotel for $500 for 4 nights. Yay!
I have stayed at the W Hotel in Montreal before, another boutique hotel but I just can't afford their prices without an expense account.
The Hotel Chez Swann is located on Drummond Street which is a hop, jump and skip away from downtown. Peel metro station is located within a 2 minute walk and when Bixi bikes are in season (they stash them away in November), there is a Bixi stand right outside the hotel. We pretty much walked everywhere and downtown was about a 20 minute walk away. Not a bad way to work off the calories from all the yummy food to be had in Montreal.
The hotel itself has all the elements of a boutique hotel. Dim lighting, funky decor, a peekaboo shower and even a plush seating area right in front of the window that looks out onto the street. I couldn't help but feel I had walked into some sort of modeling shoot.
Prior to arriving I had requested a room on the third floor because I didn't want there to be too much noise coming from the street. However, being a factory-converted hotel, with only 3 floors, you could still hear the noise from the street at night. But I slept through it all anyways. We had a room with a great view of the street, thank goodness as I know one side of the hotel faces a parking lot!
The staff are all very friendly although on the first night of our stay, we noticed the sheets hadn't been changed and our toiletries hadn't been replenished - but they took our $2 tip anyways. The next day I left a note requesting the said changes, and for the rest of our stay, these requests were met. A nice thing that the cleaning lady did was stock our room with bottles of Eska water. I guess she saw the insane stash of water we had in our room and saw us working out in the spin room!
We also requested a late checkout as our flight didn't leave until 8:30PM, and they extended it until 2PM without additional charges. However, we didn't want to be wandering around town, so we just forked over the $80 to extend it until about 6:30PM.
Breakfast is served daily from 7AM - 10AM in the restaurant adjoining the hotel, Le Pois Penché. The breakfast selection is heavy - all pastries (pain au chocolat, almond croissants, plain croissants, cheese croissants, muffins, danishes, french baguette with butter, fig jam, and strawberry jam). There is also a selection of juices and milk. But the Espresso machine was a nice extra touch. It was a Nespresso machine, and I was wired for hours! They have about 8 different kinds of espresso, along with the standard coffee and tea. You absolutely HAVE to try the cheese croissants as they not only had cheese on the outside, but also on the inside. I found the sweet pastries to be TOO sweet to eat first thing in the morning. The plain croissants were also good.
If you don't want to be eating croissants every morning you can also visit Q Nutrition House which is located at the very front of the hotel and serves up protein shakes, and healthy fruit smoothies of all kinds - but it isn't free.
For those of you who are keeners, you can use the spin room. It is equipped with a television, towels and complimentary bottles of Eska water. I used it all 4 days I was there. Complimentary phone calls anywhere in North America and free wi-fi (password provided upon check-in).
There was only one night where we could hear rowdy teens coming in from a night on the town (around 3AM). But other than that I have no complaints! I would definitely recommend Hotel Chez Swann and would definitely stay here again.
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