Residence Inn Marriott Montreal Downtown Review

Montréal is one of the best cities to explore in Canada, there are too many things to see and do, so you’ll want to maximize your time and stay in a good location with easy access to public transportation.  The Residence Inn by Marriott Montreal Downtown, is downtown and on Peel Street; this is one of the two best areas to stay: Centre-ville or Old Montréal.  But Montréal being such a hot tourist destination, especially during the busy summer festival season, staying in these areas gets pricey.  When researching hotels, I found there was no in-between, it was either a nice (pricey) hotel in a hot location or a dive where you’d run the risk of bringing bed bugs home.  So, we opted for the Residence Inn by Marriott Montreal Downtown, which was rated highly and was a reasonable price with all things considered.

Rooms

One of the nice things about the Residence Inn by Marriott was that the rooms all have a small kitchen.  Things in Montréal are expensive, so if you want to save some money by cooking, you can.  We didn’t cook, but we brought back some cheap food one night and ate at our small kitchen table.  We also heated up food for lunch a couple of times, so we saved a bit of money there.  The kitchen has a full-sized fridge, a microwave, tabletop stove, plates and utensils and a coffee maker. 

And in addition to a small kitchen, the room was large with a comfortable king-sized bed and a large window.  The view wasn’t anything spectacular, but it was still nice to look out at the street below.  Our daughter had a blast playing with all her toys, hiding stuff and running around the large room.

The bathroom was modern, comfortable and had everything you needed.   And despite coming at a few weird times, the rooms were cleaned regularly, and housekeeping did a good job.

Location

The kitchen can help you save some money and the rooms are nice, but a major selling point is the location.  The Residence Inn by Marriott Montreal Downtown, like the name says is downtown, or in the Centre-ville neighbouhood.  The hotel is on Peel Street and is steps away from Peel Metro Station.  Also on Peel are several restaurants, bars and pubs including the famous Peel Pub.

In addition to places to eat and drink, the hotel is just two blocks away from Saint-Catherine’s Street, the shopping and commercial district of Montréal.  The location of the hotel was centrally located and perfect.

Food & Restaurants

Like I said, the hotel is located by restaurants and bars and next door are two excellent restaurants.  There’s Café Noya for Japanese or even some Matcha and then there’s Pizzeria NO. 900, which has excellent Neapolitan style pizza.  I’m not exaggerating when I say the pizza was some of the best I’ve ever had.  We ate there twice and at Café Noya once, both were excellent.  You can order food from these restaurants to your room but why bother when you can take the elevator downstairs and eat on the nice patios next door.

Besides the surrounding restaurants, the Residence Inn by Marriott offered free breakfast, this was another major selling point.  Food is expensive in Montréal, and for all 3 of us, we probably saved $60 a day on breakfast.  The breakfast was typical hotel buffet style, but better than the usual hotel buffets.  The food was fresh, always hot and the workers were constantly adding new fresh food and keeping the restaurant clean.  There were eggs, beans, quiche, sausages, breads and bagels, waffles, cereals and fruits.  The breakfast was similar each day with a few small variations daily.

Amenities and Extras

Right next to where breakfast is served is the fitness center.  It’s a small facility, but has enough if you want to get in a quick workout.  There’s some dumbbells, a couple of benches and a few cardio machines.  I don’t work out on vacation, so I didn’t use the fitness center.

In the room there’s coffee, soap, shampoo and body wash just like in most hotels.  There’s also a small snack bar in the lobby if you want to purchase some chips, cookies, other snacks along with some drinks.  But there’s also a convenience store next door which is probably a better price.  And instead of paying for snacks, each day they had coffee and cookies out in the lobby if you wanted a quick pick me up.