Comfort Inn Montréal Aéroport

Had a wonderful stay at the Comfort Inn in Pointe Claire, Quebec, Canada for five nights, arriving on Thursday and departing on Tuesday in mid-June 2017. Saved a bundle staying here rather than in any of the other three higher cost and higher rise hotels in the area. Also, this hotel has location, location and location for me, being on the same side of the road whereat my business in town was, my purpose for being there. . The best news is the staff here is FIRST CLASS, from the Assistant General Manager, Lyndsay, to Lucie, who checked me in with a big welcoming bilingual greeting and gave me good counsel throughout my stay as I needed it, and especially front desk people Megan and Serena who were on evening duty the two nights this Fathers’ Day Weekend that the hotel hosted a large number of full-of-energy pee wee hockey players and their families, many of whom were also a most effusive bunch, especially some of the hockey dads. There were teams from all over, including the States. It was GREAT. It was a letdown Sunday night when I got back to the hotel and found the lobby relatively placid; I was reminded that the kids had to get home for school and the parents back to work. At least one small group was staying over. They were as quiet as place-of-worship mice, thanks to their excellent adult leadership, I am sure. . There is no elevator in the hotel. When they re-habbed and up-beautified the hotel a short time ago, they discovered the bones of the structure would not support a lift, I was told. An inconvenience for me but I saw some struggling to get stuff up the narrow stairs. I made the best of it and considered the ups and downs on the 14 steps as part of my exercise routine within my life extension program. There is a VERY convenient door to the outside at the foot of the stairs allowing you to bypass the lobby with your bags. I had to make several trips as I take WAY too much stuff when I travel by car. (There is a whisper rumor that an elevator may be in the works in a couple of years. I hope my ancient bones and tired knees can hold out as I REALLY like this place—can you tell?) . My room was extra roomy, beautifully appointed and with powerful and instantly responsive air conditioning, very efficient bathroom with a powerful exhaust fan and excellent shower head, three details that can make the difference between staying in a hotel and REALLY ENJOYING staying in a hotel for me. Everything in the room was first class and worked very well, including Wi-Fi, the TV and the nice, thick curtains on the window that kept the dawn’s early light out of my ancient and tired eyes those mornings the sun beat me up. . There are several great places to walk to (There are a LOT of walkers and bikers in Canada, at least in good weather), such as Wal-Mart, a major grocery store, two great places to eat, Cora’s (Closes at three) and Brasseries Le Manoir, almost always open, and a Subway and Thai restaurant, both a bit further away. Many, many more places, great and very great, if you are willing to drive. Everybody everywhere speaks perfect English. Never experienced any animosity toward Americans. . Please don't give local Canadians reason to hate you--no Jay-walking. Wait for pedestrian crossing lights. Only one of them didn't work in the main intersection in front of the hotel. So, I went the other way to get diagonally across the street and into the Wal-Mart and Home Depot dominated shopping mall. There is a much larger mall, a bit more of a walk, just north over the Trans-Canada highway. There are sidewalks leading up to and on either side of the bridge, all with painted pedestrian crosswalks or lighted crossing lights for pedestrians and bikers. Never once did even one car NOT yield to me when I was on foot. Thank you, Canada. . Holiday weekend evening shift ladies, supervisor Megan and co-worker Serena, had their hands full with sometimes less than best behaved parents and their pee wee hockey kids who found camaraderie and good fellowship in the lobby until after my bed time. I really admired these ladies’ customers relations skills, two pros them. They should’ve been awarded combat pay, in my opinion, for both nights. The hardest worker I saw was breakfast lady Stephanie who ran fast and ran long feeding the hordes on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Good work, Stephanie; very nice to meet you. The Monday breakfast lady did a great job feeding the handful of adults and two kids I saw while I was there before I left for the day. No time for breakfast Tuesday as I left the hotel early as I had many miles to go before I could sleep. . I had a room over the downstairs office in the central corner of the el-shaped hotel. Very quiet except for the ice maker, which I could hear faintly through the wall from time to time. Big tree right outside my window blocked the view of the modern office buildings that surround the hotel in the bank, a lucky touch for me. Other area hotels are much closer to the Trans-Canada highway and all the noise that comes with being there. Even with my hotel full, full, full, I had no problem with parking. Even room for the occasional truck in back. . Pointe Claire is a mix of French and English. The context is 100% French by law but most people I came across were English speakers. All service personnel and almost everyone else also speaks Quebec's version of French, which is not the French I learned in middle school from an American teacher, the wonderful Miss H., whose dear sis was my grade school principal. . TV splits between a large number of both French and English channels. Major US networks are carried. Watched a lot of the Burlington channel to keep myself grounded in small town America goings-on. Also spent time watching several French shows. Very entertaining. Especially a special on zoo animals. Are they bilingual or do their caregivers have to speak to them in French? Your TV viewing results may vary, of course. . This is a great mid-sized hotel in a great location (Very near Montreal’s airport and several sports arenas, thus the hockey players). I highly recommend it. I checked out one of the other hotels in the area, one that I’ve stayed in before, that has since been ultra-modernized. I shivered at how coldly efficient it appears, mechanical almost, magnificence but lacking the warmth and coziness I experienced at the Comfort Inn. I was happy to get back to my hotel where customers can see the General Manager hard at work every day in his office behind the front desk. I asked a pilot grabbing a smoke outside the big box hotel why he choose to stay there. He had no choice. His airline contracts for rooms. He told me he was headed back to his room as he just learned his next flight, to the Caribbean, had been canceled. And yes, he gets paid anyway. . I had a wonderful stay in Canada, separated by two long, awful days of tedious driving to get there and to get back. While I greatly enjoyed my Comfort home-away from home, it was great to get back to my home on Cape Cod. However, I certainly miss the nutritious and delicious breakfasts that Stephanie and others provided and the great job Balwantie did keeping my room neat, tidy and clean. I will miss the front desk staff, especially Lucie, who was a great help to me on numerous occasions, a real gem, she. No more dropping towels on the bathroom floor; no more aroma of freshly brewed coffee in the lobby when I wake, even if it’s the middle of the night. Woe is me. . I wish the best to Lyndsay, a working Mom raising a young family, and her General Manager, with whom I only spoke briefly, who both work very hard every day in every way, their admiring staff told me, to keep their hotel the special place it is, giving shelter to weary travelers, some from distant towns and provinces, various US states united, like me, and from around the rest of the world. Two couples staying there one night lived just across the St. Lawrence, a short drive, an hour at most, I’d guess. One of the wives told me it was an impulsive decision; on the spur of the moment they decided to treat themselves to a hotel stay. Good choice, I told her. . If I wanted to sum up my impression of this fine hotel in a single word, I would have to make one up: ComfortInng. Will I see you here next time I check into this warm and welcoming hotel on the western part of the island of Montreal in the friendly, foreign and near (for many Americans) country of Canada?