Gite Du Survenant Apart-Hotel

I booked through Expedia for a budget trip to MTL and the biodome, but the host never showed up. There was no email, nobody answered the phone number, and I never got the entry codes. I had to find somewhere else to stay, so the visit ended up costing a lot more than planned. I'm furious, and I doubt anyone will get back to me since I couldn't reach anyone by email either. Save yourself the trouble and book elsewhere.

We had a short, nice stay, and the price was a good deal. The owners replied quickly, and our apartment had two bedrooms, its own bathroom, and kitchen utensils we could use. It's also very close to the stadium. There isn't any parking, the floors creak, and the wifi is pretty slow.

The biggest problems for us were the noise and the poor upkeep. Construction at the neighboring house started at 6 a.m. for several days, and a compressor ran for half an hour at 4:50 a.m. the day before we left. Inside, the floors creaked so loudly at night that you heard people going to the bathroom or coming in late. One person left at 4:40 a.m. one night, and another night we could hear someone rocking a crying baby upstairs the whole time. Our room window wouldn't close properly because its mechanism was broken. Towels were supposed to be changed daily and bins emptied every two or three days, but we had to do it ourselves. The cleaning lady put our butter in the fridge without asking whether it was ours. The washing machine was dirty when we went to use it, and its seal looked as though it hadn't been cleaned in months. Even the outside door code was hard to read, especially at night, so you had to memorize where the numbers were. With all of that, I can't give the place a good rating.

The room was surprisingly clean and nicely put together when I stayed here alone on vacation about two and a half months ago. It was under $80 a night for me, which was probably the best surprise. The guest house is also well placed, near a metro station, the botanical gardens, and Olympic Village.