Hotel Le Mirage

The attached Italian place had great food at good prices, and check-in was easy with a very nice guy. I was hoping to relax with a meal and a few drinks during my trip east, but the bar with slot machines really soured the night. I put $20 into a machine and played for about 15 minutes. My last few pulls won $102.75. When I took the ticket to the young Asian cashier, he gave me $100 and said the remaining amount was his tip. He later gave back a toonie but kept the 75 cents, saying that's how they do things there. I told him tips are earned and left to the customer's choice, not something you just take. I also said a slot machine cashier isn't a dealer providing table service, and the bartender doesn't get tipped from the machines. There were only two people playing and about 15 empty machines, despite the hotel parking lot being full. I said that might be why it was empty, gave the toonie back, and told him keeping money like that was theft, not a tip. He shrugged again. I dropped the coin and left. It aggravated me and spoiled my evening, and I didn't go back in to play.

After hours on the highway, I arrived late to find the first room hadn't been cleaned. The bed had clearly been used, and there were pizza boxes. They moved me to another room that was somewhat less dirty, though there were cigarette burns in the bedding and crumbs on the desk. After all that, I asked for a 25% rebate. The representatives were difficult to deal with, ignored the problems, and wouldn't admit any mistakes. Don't waste your money.

The rooms were clean, and the place was very quiet and remote, about 40 minutes' drive from Montreal. Still, if I'd known it was a motel with no hotel facilities, or that check-in wasn't allowed after 9 p.m., I wouldn't have booked it. Highway construction caused a traffic jam, so I arrived late with my family after booking two rooms. There was nobody at reception, and we couldn't check in. We asked for help at the bar on the same property three times. The bartender just said “fermer,” French for “closed,” then called the police because we were bothering him. We stayed in our car until 8:30 a.m. before checking in, and our whole programme was ruined. That's their policy, but it should be clear when booking. It's a motel, and the owner should change the name.

The beds were really comfortable, the staff pleasant, the water pressure decent, and the price was fair for the location. But I had no towels, and I'm not sure the bathroom had actually been cleaned. It was clean enough, yet there was hair in the tub, the shower curtain wasn't fully hung, and the toilet paper hadn't been changed. When I pulled out the bed to reach the plug, I could also see that nobody had vacuumed behind it in a while.