I had picked Le Centre Sheraton Montreal because of the great reviews I've seen regarding it's location and club lounge.
We arrived in Montreal on a red-eye flight, so we got to the hotel around 9am. Our room wasn't ready, which is understandable, so we had to store our bags. They charged $3 per bag since we were storing them before 11am. It wasn't an astronomical cost, but certainly the first time I've seen a charge for bag storage. If I was more awake, I probably could have put some of my smaller backpacks into our larger luggage to reduce the total cost, but I wasn't thinking clearly at that time.
We returned in the afternoon at the regular check-in time, and our room was ready by then. We were upgraded to a larger suite, which was nice. The room is typical looking for a Sheraton. It was roomy, and the beds were pretty comfortable. WiFi worked fine, and there is a in-room safe and mini-fridge. So the room was pretty much as I expected for a Sheraton.
As an elite member, I had access to their club lounge. As far as Sheraton lounges I've visited before, It's definitely better than most, but not top tier either. It's located on the top floor, so it had a nice view of the city. It's fairly large, so it can accommodate a good number of guests. The breakfast offering is pretty good in that there are more fresh fruit options (whole, sliced, berry cups and smoothies) than I would regularly see. However, I noticed for hot foods, the only serve a meat (like sausage or bacon) and an egg option (scrambled, omlette). I would normally see a potato option, but never saw it the 5 nights I was there. On weekends, they did have pancakes and waffles. There is only one automatic espresso machine, which got long lines. For evening hors d'oeuvres, it was hit and miss. Sometimes it could serve as a light dinner, but sometimes it wasn't appetizing at all. During the meal times, there is a staff member checking your room number, but off hours, there is no one checking. I should also note that this Sheraton does generally follow the standard rule of elite member plus one guest. So children, depending on age might need to pay extra.
I used the gym, and it was pretty good. It pretty much had all the cardio equipment and weights I needed.
I was happy with the location. Central to most places that I needed to get to, or within an easy walking distance, including the central train station, Eaton Shopping Centre, McGill University and plenty of restaurants.
I did run into a few significant issues during our stay:
1) the hotel had a water line break one night, so we had no water the following morning. They did an admirable job of dealing with it. They had a large supply of bottled water immediately available in the lobby if anyone needed it. They announced the issue over their Public Address (PA) system so each guest knew what was going on. They advised that washrooms on the conference room floors could be used since there was enough water pressure to use the toilets. The situation was rectified by the time we came back in the afternoon.
2) in relation to the water line break, our sink and toilet eventually got working again, but our shower did not. We had to ask Engineering to look at it that evening, but was eventually fixed too.
3) That same evening, I got stuck in one of the elevators. Shortly after one guest exited to their floor, and the door closed, the alarm bell started buzzing, and the elevator would not move. One of the staff called into the elevator to check us on regularly to make sure we were OK. Eventually, after 10-15 minutes, one of the engineers/technician's got the door open using a crowbar, and we safely exited.
Although inconvenient, I felt the hotel did a pretty good job of addressing all of the issues I ran into.
Overall, it was a pretty good stay. It's a good hotel that met all of our family needs. It's well located with good amenities (and lounge), and I would consider returning.
