View from the Room: Hotel des Coutellier, Quebec City
This year’s birthday hotel!
The attraction to this hotel that kicked off my month-long birthday celebrations, other than it looking scrumptiously comfortable, is that breakfast arrives in a bag each morning.
Storage
Drawers – two on each bedside and lots of shelving plus two cupboards.
Hangers - 18 including two soft ones. Two single open wardrobes although in a dark hallway.
Mirrors –Well-lit one in bathroom, plus a shaving mirror. Full length by door but that’s a very dark area.
Big comfy bed with one large duvet and sheet.
Pillows – 4 excellent ones & a spare one. Spare blanket.
Power points - plenty but happily there were 3 USB charge points so we never needed to unpack our adapters. Plus a shaver charge point in bathroom.
Refreshment
There is no kettle but a good Keurig machine with a ration of 3 pods a day. We only used two as one was a green tea which never got swapped to coffee despite us never drinking it! Eventually we asked for the tea to be swapped for coffee, although it still never happened. I've never been a fan of the pod machine but this coffee is a delight.
There isn't enough to have with the breakfast that is only served in the room. The only option is to buy extra pods at $1 + tax but it seemed a bit mean when there was no alternative breakfast in a dining room with pots of coffee. Additional complimentary refreshments are laid out by the exit on the ground floor, but that meant getting dressed and leaving the room!
The availability of hot chocolate would have been nice (very happy to pay $1 for that) when temperatures plummeted to 1c every night.
There are four glasses, two mugs plus two plates that arrive in the breakfast bag each morning. The milk pots arrive with the breakfast so I'd advise waiting for that rather than using creamer powder!
The mini bar AKA fridge is available with a key from reception with room to store small amount of your own products.
Breakfast in a bag is excellent. Yoghurt or similar (I don’t eat but anyway, big croissant with butter and two jams and one other muffin or scone, small bottle of orange juice. The timing varied from being there at 6am to after 7am so worth checking if you need it at a set time. It's also all available in reception if needed for any extras or to go.
Room
The two luxurious bathrobes are handy for when breakfast arrives.
Bizarrely, there is a small round table to eat breakfast but no suitable chairs. There is one desk chair on wheels and one low rocking armchair. There is a lonely, heavy armchair by the entrance but that’s only to dump bags and coats on.
A good size desk with a drawer.
Good heating control – and good separate hearing control in bathroom to warm the towels.
Lighting – plenty although a little dark. Lots of individual lamps and lights that took a while to switch off but made the room very homely.
Iron & board
Shutter blinds, roller blinds and dark curtains all in good working order.
Large TV facing bed. DVD player with a list of films available to borrow. (We didn't)
There is an umbrella to use too which can be bought. In fact just about everything in this hotel room is branded and for sale including the bottled water! (We bought our own from the plentiful shops around the town).
Bathroom – exceptional. Loads of towels, shelving unit, plenty of appropriate storage including around the bath. An excellent shower head and a deep, though small bath.
Spare hooks and large towel rail over the controllable heater to dry towels.
Perfect shower curtain with a viewing bit at the top.
Towels – 2 large, 2-3 small (much softer), 2 face & 1 make up remover – a black one.
Toiletries – basic: two types of soaps, make up remover toilettes, shower cap, shower gel, body lotion, shampoo, conditioner. Unfortunately toiletries not replenished after first day.
Two boxes of tissues, cotton wool and cotton pads and regrettably no shoe shine cloths at this place which for a change, we needed it in the wintry conditions!
Service
A good welcome and empathy for our luggage being delayed. We were expecting it the next day and when we asked a different staff member to email us when it arrived, they did. Finally we can get back, unpack and get changed!
There were some little lapses in service: there was no breakfast cutlery on the first day and it was bought up straight away. One of the two beer glasses not replaced but we had water glasses to use. Twice we’ve asked for basic info – where to buy bus tickets, can they call airline company re luggage, are there hot chocolate pods available, can we swap green tea for coffee – and we received unclear/negative responses lacking in confidence.
These were all little things, but then the room was not cleaned on third day. They'd just collected the breakfast bag so we called down, they came to collect dirty glasses, asked what else we needed. I explained room hadn’t been cleaned and bed not made. The staff watched me make the bed rather than saying, ‘look, I’ll send someone up’ after asking more than once, ‘is everything OK?’ A bit of lost in translation perhaps.
Overall, I'm sure the lapses were a one-off as generally staff really want you to enjoy your stay.
