This place is super cute! My sister and I stayed here on a three-day, two-night stay to Montreal,…read moreand we felt like we were actually living in the city as opposed to visiting.
I considered a number of places to stay in Montreal, and I don't usually think about staying in a B&B, but I chose this place for three reasons: location, character, and price.
Location: This B&B is about two blocks away from McGill University in a residential neighborhood that is convenient to Downtown, Vieux Montreal, Plateau, and Parc Mont Royal. Being in Montreal for three days, I wanted a convenient, centralized base from which we could explore all of the neighborhoods. Being in Vieux Montreal or Downtown would mean a crazy trek to get to Plateau or Mile End, and vice-versa. With this location, we could do Vieux Quebec in the morning, come home late afternoon to refresh and change, and then go out to Mile End in the evening.
The residential neighborhood that this B&B is in also has a ton of character. Most of the buildings are beautiful, historic stone buildings. There were a lot of students around, who clearly rent apartments in the large buildings. Eateries were only a few blocks away, but the street we were on was quiet and residential.
Character: When I stay at a hotel, it's important to me that it has character. For that reason, I was attracted to some of the auberges in Vieux Montreal - but unfortunately, those didn't work for me in terms of location or price. The University B&B is stunning from the outside - a beautiful, grey stone building. On the inside, it's eclectic and cute. Not the way I would ever decorate my home, but it totally worked for me as a place to stay for a few days. The building is divided into two halves - one half has the office and two or three rooms, and the other half has six rooms. We were in the half with six rooms, on the third floor. We were given a key to get us into that side of the building, as well as a room key.
Our room - the Red Room - was like a cute small apartment decorated by an eclectic grandmother. It had a small kitchenette (fridge, stove, sink), small living area with a sofa and a breakfast bar that was open between the living area and the bedroom, which featured two twin beds, as well as a spacious closet. The bathroom was tiny, with just enough room for a small sink, toilet, and shower. We also had a back porch! The living area featured exposed brick walls (yes!). I live in a small apartment, so the size of this place was no shock to me. It makes a great B&B room for a couple people, or it would make a great apartment for a single person. (My sister and I could both imagine ourselves living right there!). The room had great amenities, including an A/C unit that worked well, a high-quality iron, a large flat-screen TV, and an iPod/iPhone dock alarm clock/music player.
Price: The price of this place really sweetened the deal for me. Hotels in Montreal are expensive during the summer and become even more expensive once you add Canadian sales tax onto the hotel price. This place came out to be a good $75-$100 cheaper than most other hotels with good reviews and character.
So, on those three factors alone, this place was perfect for us. Other notes:
Staff: The staff who helped us out were friendly and helpful. They were both young women (college aged, probably).
Breakfast: Breakfast is served in the office, which also serves as a kitchen and dining area. There was a nice selection of cereal, yogurt, hard boiled eggs, fruit, bagels/pastries/toast, and drinks. It wasn't as fancy as some B&B breakfasts I've experienced, but it was healthy and filling with a good selection.
Wifi: The free wifi was okay. It had the tendency to go down randomly, but in those cases it was usually back within five minutes. The speed was decent when it was working. Probably not the place to try to do business work, but in terms of browsing and email, it was fine.
Parking: The B&B has three garage parking spaces, which you book online head of time for $15/night. There is street parking, but I didn't want to have to worry about hunting for a place and paying attention to street parking rules. The garage parking was hassle-free. I got the instructions ahead of time, so once I found the place, I pulled right into the garage, where we could unload our bags. It was proper European-style parking, where there's barely enough room for the driver to get into the car when its wedged between the other ones, but that's largely because my car was stuck between a huge pickup truck and a van. Still, great to just be able to park my car there and forget about it until check-out time (although if I'd wanted to, I could have taken it out).
One thing to note is that it's a decently steep flight of stairs to get up to the third floor (there's no elevator), so if you're elderly or won't be up for it, then be sure to get a room on a lower floor.