ROOMS:  Either you receive a relatively large room (with W’s slightly irritating monikers such as Cozy, Wonderful, Mega, Wow and Extreme Wow) with a view of the neighboring office building and its atrium (Hello, cute clerical staff boy— wanna come over for a romp on this big bed?) or you receive a somewhat smaller room with a view onto Victoria Square.  So what’s it gonna be: the lad or the view? 

Once inside your room, you might be forgiven for feeling as if you’ve been here before.  Many of the design elements have been in use for some time now: the shiny filmy curtains, the splashes of bright color, metallic fabrics, glass walls, dark headboards.  You know the look: chrome and ebony.  Of course one doesn’t easily tire of a rainforest shower—even if you must bear the stares of your partner from across the open room.  Modesty has no meaning here—not when there’s no barrier between bed and bath.  All the requisite amenities are present—DVD players, robes, flat-screen TVs—along with Bliss bath products which deservedly have a cult following. 

For gay people, W Hotels can be particularly welcoming, thanks to their Pride 365 package which includes a number of special gifts—and most of all, the sense that here is a major hotel chain which openly embraces the gay community—which is no small thing in today’s often intolerant world. 

PUBLIC SPACES: Housed in what was once a Banque du Canada edifice, W Montreal faces Victoria Square with the kind of imposing presence long-associated with financial buildings.  Inside, the large and grand lobby is called The Living Room with long low seating which invites loitering and lingering and even a board game or two, while upstairs there’s the more intimate Blue Room.  There’s also a waterfall—and mood lighting and the kind of chill-out down-groove music now immediately associated with catwalks, hotel lobbies and lounges.

Off the Living Room is Wunderbar, something of a VIP-establishment for Montreal locals and celebs—or so it thinks it is, and tries to be—and which is, on certain nights, the cause for a velvet rope and stanchion out in front of the W’s entrance—which irritatingly necessitates that all guests flash their room cards before the ropes part—and which quickly becomes the singular most compelling reason not to book again at the W Montreal.

BREAKFAST:  Ristorante Otto is the W’s in-house restaurant and the room where breakfast is served.  It’s very quiet.  Upholstered in a rather strange (to us) color scheme of red, gray, taupe and olive, the room provokes a kind of narcolepsy.  There are moments when you wonder if you’re about to hear your plane called.  You could be in Virgin Atlantic’s clubhouse.  As for the meal itself, it’s fine—but nothing to race downstairs for—and quite honestly, it’s probably better not to bother dressing for breakfast—and instead, order in for your room—where the shower next to the bed provides its own kind of morning entertainment. 

PERSONNEL:  They’re pretty—that much can be said.  And personable.  Lovely smiles.  And happy to talk with you—and even run for a cab.  Which is something to celebrate right there.  The sight of one of those pretty boys racing across an intersection to flag you a cab more than compensates for a kind of generalized vapidity.  One often has the sense that this is the first service/hospitality job held by many members of this staff.  They might wish to be helpful—but they’re confused by the concept.

LOCATION:  On Rue McGill, right on Victoria Square, a lovely and recently renovated boulevard and park with its own flower stall at one end and the St. Lawrence river a quick stroll beyond.  All of Vieux Montreal is within easy walking distance and, in fact, anything that might bother you about the W will probably be mitigated by the convenience of its location. 

OVERVIEW:  By now, nearly everyone is familiar with the W’s strengths as a fun, funky and stylish place to lay your head and kick up your heels.  The W Montreal combines these elements with a bit of Gallic chic (sans Parisian pretension) and the resultant combination is akin to relaxing into the familiar with a twist of the new.