Omni Hotels – Montreal

A while back, I attended an event hosted by Omni Hotels, promoting their celebration of French cuisine – available at their hotels around the country.  Though that promotion has long passed (and I failed to post about it for a number of reasons), at the event, I was gifted with a voucher for a free night at one of their many locations.  When DLS and I discussed going on a road trip for MLK weekend, I immediately thought of it – and when I discovered the hotel is pet friendly, it was decided. 

Since I was in charge of food, DLS made the reservation and joined their loyalty program as well – Select Guest, which offers immediate perks instead of making you earn higher levels.  Don’t get me wrong – there are higher levels of rewards to earn, but even at its most basic, you’re entitled to some benefits that we immediately enjoyed, like free wifi.  Right there – the program is free, so why WOULDN’T you sign up?! – free wifi is something I really take for granted in hotels, until it’s no longer there… like in Hawaii (gripe gripe).  In any case, one of the other perks is complimentary breakfast beverages – they give you door hangers with choices on it, and you hang them on your door by 2am each night.  You can choose from juices, coffee, tea, etc. – and add on some other items if you choose.  I wished they had hot chocolate, but orange juice and grapefruit juice are so much healthier…  One of the other nice things is not only can you choose what time they show up – you can choose between ‘in room service’ – ie, someone knocks and comes in – or you can have them leave it outside your door if you don’t want to be disturbed.  AWESOME.  Fresh fruit is an addition available on there, but for our two weekend mornings, they just gave us apples, while that Monday we only received the juices.  Not that I’m complaining – I really enjoyed this perk. 

As for the room itself – it was neat, well-kept, and they were extremely nice about everything.  Because… umm, well, let’s just say Keywee is getting older 🙁 and therefore has been prone to some night time accidents lately… There was a one-time pet fee of $50, regardless of how many nights you stay, but that was fine.  (And honestly, that’s cheaper than putting her in a kennel, plus this way she gets to enjoy my trips too!  Well, I don’t think she enjoyed Montreal, but more on that later.) 

 

The bathroom was pretty big too – you can see the toilet peeking out in the back on the right, but across from it was a bidet.  Interesting, haven’t seen one of those in a hotel in a long time…

The room itself was pretty big, too.  Oh, and see the black box sticking out on the bottom right of the photo?  Our in-room fridge wasn’t working, though we didn’t really need one (it kept our drinks cold, but it wouldn’t have been the end of the world if we didn’t have that), when I called down to check if I was supposed to turn it on somehow (a lot of places I’ve been to keep them unplugged or off, and you just turn it on if you want to use it), they sent someone up to check it for us.  When it was discovered it didn’t work, the maintenance man insisted on bringing a new, better one up for us, which was great. 

As for Keywee… well, the weekend we went was unseasonably cold.  I mean, it averaged -17 degrees Fahrenheit every day.  That’s NEGATIVE 17!  She had a lot of trouble walking around outside because the ground was frozen and super cold, so I took her to a pet store and bought her booties.  While they worked great, they were a pain in the butt to get on properly – and would sometimes fall off as well!  So one night, we walked her, and then went to dinner… and I foolishly decided to leave the boots on her, even though she hates wearing clothes and shoes apparently are no different.  While we were at dinner, she unfortunately started howling and crying because she hated them so much.  The hotel tried to call us, but service was really weird up there for our phones, so we missed the call and didn’t get the message. 

And here’s where excellent customer service comes into play.  The concierge/front desk took matters into their own hands and entered the room, tried to calm her down, and eventually removed her booties, but brought Keywee – and her food/water dish – downstairs to hang out with them at the front desk until we got back.  Of course it helps that she’s not a giant dog with huge teeth, but they basically played with her and talked to her, calmed her down so she’d stop howling/crying.  I appreciated that a lot – I’ve never seen Keywee accept someone that I didn’t introduce her to, so this was pretty surprising – but I liked that they didn’t freak out but instead just figured a course of action to take, then took it.  Also, when we returned from dinner, they recognized us and called out to us as we passed the front desk – I don’t even know how they recognized us, since aside from checking in, we hadn’t really been to the front desk at all – to tell us that our dog was with them.  Because lord knows I’d have FREAKED out if we went back to the room and she was gone (though I suppose upon noticing her food bowl was gone, I’d have figured out to call the front desk). 

In any case, I really enjoyed our stay at the Omni Montreal.  It wasn’t the newest or fanciest hotel by a long shot, but it was comfortable, clean, and I really felt the customer service went above and beyond to make our stay great.  I’m really big on customer service – there are some things that are simply beyond your control, but they did a fantastic job of working with what they had, and just being friendly and awesome. 

Oh, and valet parking was free, which is doubly awesome.  I’ve been charged as much as an additional $40/day in downtown San Francisco for parking… ridiculous.  I recommend the Omni Hotels to anyone looking to travel with their pet hassle & worry free. 

Please note that though I received a voucher for a free night, I was under no obligation to post about my experience, positive or negative, and received no monetary compensation to do so.