I selected this hotel based on previous experiences with HIE and was a bit disappointed. The location is OK - you can walk to several good areas within 10 minutes but there is little to nothing close to the hotel. Be warned the hotel is not 'all suites'. I booked through a 3rd party website and that was root of my bad experience there. I was given a non-suite room on the 3rd floor - a smoking floor, not my preference. If you like smoking the 3rd floor is for you. Not only does it reek of smoke, during my stay there were cigarette butts in the hallway for two days. The staff was friendly enough but did remind me twice that I didn't book directly with the hotel. I was a second class citizen. The buffet breakfast was great except for a busy Sunday morning when they were overwhelmed and broke down everything 2 hours before finishing time. I guess they ran dry. It was OK for my first time to Montreal in terms of location but I won't be staying there again.

We stayed three nights in September 2007 at the Holiday Inn Express, located approx. 500m northwest of Place Jacques-Cartier in Old Montreal and 1 km northeast of Downtown. All attractions are in perfect walking distance. If you like to take the metro, it’s just 300m to the station Champ-de-Mars. Valet parking cost 16.75 CAD extra. Check-in was friendly and efficient. We had a clean, comfortable and surprisingly large-sized queen bed suite, with a separated kitchen and living room. Our quiet room #820 had a tiny balcony with a view towards Old Montreal. The complimentary breakfast was good . They offered toast, English muffins, juice, fruits, cereals, cheese, boiled eggs, cake etc.. However, there were not always enough seats. All in all a great place to stay.

We booked a 2 room suite, using Visa points and their travel agent, which worked out to just over $160 with parking and taxes. The bedroom had a firm queen sized bed, the kitchen/livingroom had a comfortable sofa bed. All furnishings were a bit dated, but clean. Our room 720 had a balcony with a view of Montreal towards the harbour. The kitchen does not have a stove, only a microwave. The room was quiet, and we did not hear any neighbours or the traffic. The AC is a window type, and worked well. All windows opened. There are 2 computers with internet access that you can get to with your hotel key, but they were quite busy. There's a laundromat $2 each for washer/dryer/soap. Breakfast was plentiful and included fresh fruit, but no meat or waffle maker. It was difficult to find a free table to use. The only drawback was the valet parking - totally unnecessary since the hotel has underground parking. The valets took our only key, so we had to bother them whenever we needed something from our vehicle. Everyone was friendly, spoke English and were very helpful. We liked the location, in between the port park and sites, and Mt. Royal and the underground mall and city centre. We did have to walk by a strippers joint which is around the corner, but never felt unsafe. China town is very close by too.

I stayed at this hotel for two nights and it was a great place to stay. It was within easy walking distance of the main streets of downtown and it was very easy to get to the metro from the hotel so we had access to any attraction we wanted to go to. It was also only a short walk away from the greyhound station, making it easy to walk with our luggage to the hotel.

The rooms were very good and a very reasonable price. Upon arriving we found that our room, instead of being a small single room as we expected, was actually a full suit with a second lounge room and a small kitchen. The entire hotel was very clean and the continental breakfast was not bad either.

The hotel staff were very helpful and informative. They gave us clear directions to any place we asked of them, and were very knowledgeable about all the attractions in the city and were able to give us recommendations of where to go. They also were very quick to help out with any special requests for your room (i.e. a second set of sheets).

Overall I would highly recommend this hotel to anyone traveling to Montreal due to its knowledgeable staff, great value, comfortable accommodations and great location.