Vogue Hotel Montreal Downtown, Curio Collection by Hilton — Hotel in Montreal

My stay at the Vogue Hotel, booked as a diamond member through FHR, had a wide range of experiences.

Checking in: I was initially told at 10 a.m. that my room was ready and just awaiting inspection, but upon arriving at 12:30, I had to wait another 20 minutes. Although I did get in before the standard 4 p.m. check-in time, this early check-in experience pales in comparison to other FHR hotels where I’ve routinely been accommodated much earlier, usually in the early mornings at the Langham NYC, as has been almost the norm during my countless stays at FHR hotels.

The experience at the front desk was a bit prolonged unnecessarily. After being told my room would be ready soon, I ended up waiting in the lounge for almost 20 minutes. When I inquired again, the room was finally ready, suggesting they might have forgotten about me. The inconsistency with early check-in times, especially compared to other FHR hotels, was notable.

Room: The first room offered a view of a dirty roof and what appeared to be a pile of trash, coupled with no doorman to assist with luggage—a service lapse unexpected at a hotel within the Fine Hotels and Resorts program. However, the extensive array of Le Labo Santal 33 products—hand soap, lotion, shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel—did lend a luxurious touch.

My ‘second upgrade’ experience was another letdown. I was moved to what was termed a ‘suite’, but in reality, it was not a suite at all. Having stayed at numerous luxury hotels, I know the difference between a room and a suite. This so-called upgrade was just a slightly better version of the same room, two floors up, with a marginally improved view and a larger bathtub. However, the showerhead in the upgraded room was immovable, making it awkward to adjust the water temperature. I had to stand outside the shower door, poke one arm inside to adjust the water temperature, and wait until it was okay to get in. Additionally, the minibar contained expired chocolate, which was a disappointing discovery; the chocolate was comped due to this issue. We were provided with a soft, double-layered bathrobe, though, which was a pleasant touch. I would say this is my favorite bathrobe out of all my FHR stays.

Dining: A real highlight of this stay was dining at the Yama restaurant within the hotel, which I've reviewed separately, awarding it five stars for its exceptional food and service. The $100 USD credit from FHR, which was converted to $126 CAD—less than the current exchange rate—covered a significant part of our dinner. Breakfast at Yama was also delightful, featuring various eggs benedict options and standard choices, with the FHR credit covering most of the costs. No additional breakfast credits were provided or stacked with my Hilton Diamond status over my two-night stay, but they wouldn’t have been necessary anyway.

Overall, the Vogue Hotel aligns with the standards expected of a four-star hotel. If the check-in process had been smoother, the term 'suite' had not been misleadingly used for the room upgrade, and there had been no expired items, my experience could have been rated five stars. I appreciate honesty in service, especially as both an FHR and Diamond member who is typically upgraded based on availability, and I did not appreciate being misled about the...

We booked here at the last minute, after some transportation issues, so did not have a lot of time to research the Vogue. Turns out it was great. It has an excellent downtown location directly across the street from the newish Four Seasons (where we stayed later due to a prior reservation) and a block south of the fading RItz-Carlton, the other two hotels we considered. It is at a price point that’s much lower, but the rooms were really high quality and very large. Not quite five stars but contenders. You won’t get great views here, but that’s true of a lot of Montreal hotels. |You are located next to a vacant parking lot (which is a bit of an eyesore at street level) but it gives this hotel’s north-facing rooms some much needed space. Other rooms look directly across the narrow street at the all-glass Four Seasons and the renovated retail space housing the deserted and extremely expensive Holt Renfrew department store. |Very elegant, very spacious rooms and a huge bathroom (which looks a little more dated than the rooms but was in great shape other than the quite small, slippery shower). Slept well... comfy beds and good soundproofing. Didn’t use the other facilities or lobby, but they look nice. Whoever did the relatively recent remodel did a really good job.|Check-in was easy and really pleasant… we got our early arrival honored and a warm greeting from Mohammed at the front desk. Very nice guy. In fact, all the staff were great… including those manning the entrance. The Four Seasons could use a little training from them as far as consistency greeting returning guests.|With our stay, we had a room credit we used at the very good restaurant in the lobby, Yama (which also does the room service). Our waiter there, Kenta, was excellent, as was the food. The room service menu seems to have fewer options than most, seeing as it’s coming from a Japanese restaurant (we didn’t end up using it), but we had two excellent meals at Yama itself (dinner and breakfast) and it worked out well.|In truth, the Carre Dore (Golden Quarter) of Montreal has seen better days… a lot of vacant retail all around you… but it’s still more vibrant than most downtowns these days. It’s very easy to get to both main streets of downtown… you’re sandwiched right between them. |Speaking of sandwiches, you can get excellent ones at the pastry shop in the lobby, Cafe Bazin. If Bazin didn’t exist, we’d go hungry because there aren’t a lot of good casual dining options nearby. The big underground malls and food courts are a few blocks walk away.|Based on price alone, I would seriously consider staying here if I visited Montreal again. The Four Seasons is definitely snazzier, but the Vogue offers a very good value. Lots of style for your dollar. And the people who work here were uniformly wonderful. Really nice experience from...

The rooms were okay and the bed was comfy. The cleaning lady and the door man were very nice, that's where the positives end here. We called to reserve a room for our honeymoon and specifically requested the room with the whirlpool tub. When we checked in we noticed that we were given a room with a regular bathtub. When we informed them, they simply said "thanks for letting us know" and did not explain or apologize, let alone offer to fix the problem and give us the correct room we booked, which was odd but we let it go. On our second day, we recieved a call from the hotel while out and upon our return, our key cards did not work. When we went to the concierge to inquire, they said we had been smoking in our room (we had not, neither of us smoke). When we asked why they believed that, they said that they smelt smoke coming from our room and so they entered the room while we were out to see and believed it was us smoking... Obviously couldn't be the case as neither of us were at the hotel at the time, however incredibly unsettling that they entered our room while we were out without our permission and locked us out of our room. Concierge staff did not treat us very kindly and we did not feel welcomed at all the entire time. I highly suspect it is because we do not outwardly appear to be their typical high class guests. Their judgements passed were definitely noticed by us and reflected in their behaviour and treatment, particularly accusing us of smoking. We did not receive an appropriate apology for being locked out of our room or being put in an embasassing and demeaning position by the front desk employees.

Our car window got smashed and our car got broken into in the lot beside the hotel, so while the location is convenient, it is a sketchy area and there is a lot of drug use and homelessness in the alleys immediately beside the property from what we saw when walking around.

Upon checkout, we watched them check several guests out and ask if they had taken anything from the minibar and they said no. They were checked out promptly and left. When it was our turn, they asked if we had taken anything and we said no. The front desk employees told us that we had to wait for someone to go up to confirm we had not taken any minibar items and we had to sit and wait for them to check before they would let us check out. Just another example of the poor treatment we recieved which we felt we were treated differently from the older or better dressed guests who had checked out before us.

We just wanted to book somewhere special for our honeymoon where we could be comfortable and feel a bit pampered. We did not feel that way the entire time and don't feel this was worth the money based on how we were treated and how the employees...