The Queen Elizabeth Hotel (Hotels in Montreal)

Member Name: sarajackson

Product:	Hotels in Montreal
Date:	04/09/02 (76 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Central Location, Reasonable rates, Lovely Fairmont Gold floor

Disadvantages: Public areas need refurbishment, Slow Fairmont Gold Lift!, Restaurant needs updating

This year the first stop on our Canadian trip was Montreal, where we had stayed four years earlier at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel. We were taking in the Grand Prix during our stay and the obvious choice was the Queen Elizabeth again. We started looking into securing a room probably two years previously, and managed to book our room 18 months before our stay through a UK hotel website. We had accepted we may be lucky to get a room over the Grand Prix weekend at any really good hotel, and so were amazed when we paid an incredible $209 per night, for, wait for it, a Fairmont Gold room on the private floor. In our case it certainly paid to book ahead - combined no doubt with an oversight on Fairmont's part of offering these rooms at such a knock-down price!!

The Queen Elizabeth's exterior is fairly uninspiring, being a 1950's concrete block, which just manages not to be too ugly, but certainly wouldn't immediately identify itself as a sister to the Royal Yorks and Banff Springs of this world. Once inside the hotel, the standard appears slightly more obvious. The lobby is large with high ceilings and this is certainly no tourist class hotel. However since our last visit, there appear to have been no alterations to the public areas, and these appeared dated four years ago, and severely need a refurbishment programme now. It is not that the Queen Elizabeth appears worn or grubby, but just dated. There is a profusion of dark wood, bright burgundy carpets, less than sparkling chandeliers and the dreaded escalators which give the lobby a feeling of being a bit like a train station!! There is much potential here, and I am sure Fairmont are planning a refurbishment programme. Montreal has many luxury hotels, the Queen Elizabeth being one of them, but maybe it has to be careful not to lose its status due to its rather tired feel.

We checked in on the Fairmont Gold floor, which is accessed by a private glass elevator, which offers a vie
w of the busy Boulevard Rene Levesque on which the Queen Elizabeth is situated. One major irritation of being on the Fairmont Gold floor (and possibly the only) is the terribly slow elevator for which you usually have to wait an absolute age to arrive. Considering the elevator only stops on three floors, it is incredible it takes so long!! It is actually quicker to take the normal elevators to the 12th floor, from there you are an equal distance away from the check in desk as the 'express' elevator. Once we had tried our patience, we eventually arrived at check in where our reservation was quickly and efficiently found, with no raised eyebrows on the price (a fact that has been born out on numerous occasions at Fairmont hotels - no matter what price you are paying the check in agent never treats you like "what do you expect, you only paid $x.....". Even more surprising when often we try and use an upgrade certificate too!).

Our room had been refurbished only a month before and was in a very different style to the usual classic Fairmont image. The room size was adequate, although I am sure before the refurbishment you would have said it was generous. The new style of furniture made the room seem rather small, consisting of a huge (wide and high) bed with chunky posts, a large desk with two chairs, a bookcase in the corner and a big square armchair. I was constantly moving the chairs around to get past, and you could feel a little claustrophobic. The entrance to the room however was wider than usual, with large closet and mirrored minibar/hospitality area just inside the door. The new image of the room was superb, off-white walls, dark inlaid wood furniture, leather chairs, light beige and black dotted carpet, black and white mock-curtains and crisp white bed covers with geometric patterned scatter cushions. I would imagine the style is a slightly watered down version of what you might expect from a minimalist hotel. A kind of W
Hotel inspired room for people who aren't sure if they want to pay top money for a under-furnished room with a lava lamp!! You could also say that Fairmont have jumped on the modern/minimalist bandwagon, without the total conviction to follow it through entirely, and it is debatable whether they should even have tried. Maybe if they had have gone the whole hog and been entirely minimalistic the room may not have seemed so cramped - but then that style would have been very non-Fairmont. I do also realise why the Queen Elizabeth Hotel wouldn't want to follow the Royal York's lead in its style of Fairmont Gold, which is very traditional, in-keeping with the hotel. Maybe the Queen Elizabeth's general lack of definite style has meant the new rooms seem a little detached and half hearted. The bathroom was also elegantly appointed but also suffered badly from a lack of space, or rather too much large furniture, which included a large vanity unit, which seemed to dominate the room. The unit was intriguing with small drawers, which unhappily did not open. With the lack of space and the cramped feeling, there wasn't much room for all your toiletries and it would have been ideal if the drawers had been practical and not just for decoration, if only to make the room look less cluttered. The lighting was very good, and the bathroom was aesthetically pleasing, but again, it was trying to get modern style furnishings in a room that was desinged for a more compact style of units. The room had all the amenities you would expect - minibar, coffee maker (tea supplied but I am still curious how you make tea in a coffee maker), iron and board, hairdryer, radio clock alarm with rather tinny CD player and even an Umbrella. The usual problem with fairmont rooms still existed, the only usable mirror was in the bathroom. There was a full length mirror in the room foyer, but with bad light, I had to wait until my husband had finished in the bathroom and the ste
am had cleared, before I could use the mirror. Not good if you're in a hurry. From our room on the 12th floor, we had a panoramic view of the city, overlooking the Cathedrale Reine de la Monde and down Boulevard Rene Levesque. The twinkling lights at night were a spectacle and some friends remarked they would definitely stay at this hotel next year ... as long as they could have that view!!

The general hotel service was on the whole more than satisfactory. The Guest Services Manager on the Fairmont Gold floor was extremely helpful and friendly, and we were pleased that he was happy for us to bring our friends, who were staying at a different hotel, upstairs to see our room and the Lounge. He made them feel very welcome, and as a result they are planning to stay next year. The maid service was efficient and we always found our room had been serviced on our return, which is by no means always a foregone conclusion. We did experience a slight confusion on checking out when we wanted our suitcases to be taken downstairs ready for us when we had picked up our hire car from just down the road. Because of the slow elecator, we were still waiting to go downstairs when we noticed the bell boy arrive at the Fairmont Gold reception to pick up our bags. Then when we did eventually return to the front entrance to collect our luggage, the doorman seemed rather confused what was happening and rather irritated that the bags had been waiting for us. However the main complaint about our stay was in relation to minibar charges. I do not know whether we are just unlucky, but whenever we stay at Fairmont we regularly find charges appearing on our bill for items from the minibar which we have not consumed. Usually they are refunded without fuss, but at the Queen Elizabeth this year when a rogue charge was made for a can of beer, we were made to feel quite guilty and were told they would have to investigate. In the end, the charge was refunded but this was by n
o means done willingly. Maybe the problem lies with the bar not being checked properly when the last guest checks out or simply the maid getting confused, but I would definitely recommend guests keep an eye on their bill!!

The Queen Elizabeth's dining options include the legendary Beaver Club, an informal restaurant, Le Montrealais and a lounge bar, Les Voyageurs. Le Montrealais offers good quality food, relative to other hotel restaurants, with steaks, seafood, pastas etc. When we dined there this year the service was very good and a vast improvement on the somewhat unfriendly service we experienced there 4 years ago. The furnishings and general image of the restaurant may be slightly bland and dated, and it lacks a focus or view. Because the only windows look out on the street it would be nice if the internal views were more interesting. The same could of course be said of the Acadian Room in the Royal York before the revamp, so hopefully le Montrealais is due for an overhaul pretty soon. The bar serves some great cocktails and also light snacks. The birdbath Martinis are pretty famous here and rightly so - as well as the service being ultra-efficient and the staff really knowledgeable and helpful.

To sum up, I would definitely stay at the Queen Elizabeth when I am in Montreal. I am loyal to Fairmont Hotels and the service and standard of accommodation at the Queen Elizabeth still lives up to their reputation. I really do hope that soon the public areas of the hotel and the bars and restaurant get a much needed updating, in a style that can be followed through in the whole of the hotel - then the Fairmont Gold floor perhaps won't feel so detached from the hotel it is part of. The rate we paid was so amazing that it is tempting to say everything was fantastic (which for $209 of course it was) but I am well aware that the standard rate for the Fairmont Gold floor is substantially more, and that the problems with the size of the
room would still exist, so I am trying to detach myself from the amazing bargain we found!! Saying that though, for a standard room, the cost is very competitive for a famous hotel with such amenities.

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