Sonder Lambert Apartments Old Montreal

Giving 2 stars for amenities since the AC faces the living room rather than the bedroom area, which instead is in a corner BEHIND the AC. That corner is therefore warmer than the rest of the apartment making it very hard to sleep even with the AC on 16.

Great location, but poor customer service. No human to speak to. No early check-in option even though this is a Marriott property and I am a Marriott Bonvoy Platinum member. No place to store bags as advertised (lockers were full). Had to spend 30 minutes trying to figure out the situation and how to contact the hotel. Was finally told we could pay $55 to check-in at 1pm instead of 4pm. Nice quiet space but absolutely zero front desk or on-site staff or help. You’re just on your own with a door code that strictly doesn’t work before or after the assigned check-in or check-out time. But the room is very large, very nice, and has everything. It has a kitchen and the location is fantastic. Right outside the door is quaint streets for shopping, art galleries, food, but the apartment building is tucked away in a quiet corner. I would definitely stay again but just know it’s not really a hotel and more of a managed apartment building and there’s no on-site personnel. They do have cleaning staff that come in.

The ‘experience’ of this boutique hotel would have been 5 star except for 2 things. First the good. Very clean and well furnished and in perfect location in the old city. Close to many attractions, restaurants and bakeries - easy walk to all. Checking in was easy though our access codes did not arrive until shortly before we did. The room was very quiet on the weekend but noise was a problem during the week (see below). Expect no service as this is basically an unattended property (we knew this) and were quite ok with it until we needed towel replacement. Now the not so good. We were awakened at 7 monday morning to the sound and feel of very loud thunder. It was from nearby construction that was dumping from upper floors to trucks waiting on the street. Though the dumping finished by around 9, construction noise continued throughout the weekday, including the next mornings. Besides the early and abrupt wake up, that did not bother us much b/c we were out and about most of the day but perhaps explained the presence of ear plugs next to the bed! We stayed for 5 nights and our bath towels needed replacement along the way (even though we hung them to dry each day) but no extras were to be had unless you possibly communicated with Sonder thru their app, which we chose not to do (sorry, but I hate installing apps for very short term use). I saw the housekeeper in the hall servicing the room next door and asked for replacement towels but she refused (odd). So two small inconveniences but not deal breakers. Suggest Sonder provide a few extra towels in advance for stays of more than just 1-2 days and not make guests ask.

The location and the building were great. The room was clean and had all the necessary amenities. The check-in was an issue because the lock would not let you in until a few minutes after 4 pm. So, plan to stand outside the door for a bit. My biggest issue was the power outage during one of our days. We were informed less than 2 days before our arrival about the outage (from 8 am to 6 pm) so there was not much changes we could make to the itinerary. Fine. We did try to stay outside until close to 6 pm. At 5:57 pm, we got an email stating that the outage would extend till 7:30 pm. Well, not much we could do again so we waited for the time to pass. 7:30 pm come and gone but still no power. I texted Sonder and was told that the outage would last till 8 pm. At this point, the room was getting dark and I asked for a flashlight. The rep said someone would bring that to us but that NEVER happened. We decided to head out for dinner and by the time we returned, around 9 pm, the power was finally restored, i.e. after more than 12 hours of outage. Then, the next morning, the internet was out. I texted Sonder but no one replied for over 20 minutes. When I finally got a reply, the rep said there was another issue affecting the internet. In sum, customer care did not exist in this operation. Sonder did not send sufficient updates on the power outage status, they did not care if the guests were tumbling in a dark room. The only thing they care was that a guest could not enter the room unless they got you to pay an extra 20 bucks.

The good: Very private and spacious. It was nice to have a full kitchen, dining table, and sitting area. Now for the “bad”: the mobile key only worked at the main entrance door so we had to enter the pin each time to get into the room, you couldn’t see the Television from the bed (well), it was all the way across the room, and we used the washer/dryer and the washer was clearly in need of a cleaning, our clothes came out stinky. We had to run the drum cleaning cycle, then rewash. Not a huge deal, but it did take time that we hadn’t planned on. Room was overall very clean and comfortable.

Great location, easy self check-in, all the amenities necessary, comfortable room. The recommended parking wasn’t too expensive, and we could walk to just about everything we wanted. Would appreciate a few more hooks on the walls for coats, but overall loved it and would stay again!

Great location. Walkable to everything. Next to Notre Dame. Quiet building. Highly recommended spot. Only small gripe would be the mobile key was unreliable on our room door but worked everytime on the main lobby door. We ended up using the code to get entry most of the time. Washer and Dryer could use a good deep cleaning as they are musty. But we didn’t plan to do laundry on vacation anyway. Would stay again next time in Montreal.