Hotels in Montreal
July 8, 2012 6:04 PM   Subscribe

I have tickets to Osheaga in Montreal. My boyfriend and I will be taking the train from Toronto. I have left the hotel arrangements to the last minute and now I'm afraid we'll end up on a park bench. Requirements: Private room, less than 150$/night. That is all. Any ideas?

Every hostel I can find seems to be booked. There are cheaper hotels that seem to have rooms available, but I'm concerned about how crappy they may be. We have considered couch surfing, but I am social anxious and don't think I'd be able to handle it.

We are arriving on Thursday, 2 August and leaving Monday, 6 August.

Bonus question: recommendations for gluten free restaurants?
posted by pink_mint to Travel & Transportation around Montreal, QC (18 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
You can stay in a student residence. http://en.montrealuniversityrooms.com/ I did it many years ago. (I have stayed at Concordia years ago, but I have no experience with this centralized booking system that's in place now.)
posted by bread-eater at 6:14 PM on July 8, 2012


I'm in Montreal with an available couch (just big enough for 2, I think... it's a futon type fold down thing). If you'd like to stay at my place (washer/dryer! wifi! air conditioning!), you guys are more than welcome! :)
posted by hasna at 6:15 PM on July 8, 2012


Hotwire still lists a downtown 4.5* at $156/night for those dates and a downtown 3* at $133.

For gluten free food check out Crudessence. Yummy.
posted by Cuke at 6:18 PM on July 8, 2012 [1 favorite]


Have you tried searching on hotwire.com? They offer last minute hotel deals where they don't tell you the name of the hotel until after you book (they give you the number of stars and the general location), at a substantial discount. Plus you can usually figure out the hotel based on the information they give you.
posted by barnoley at 6:19 PM on July 8, 2012


Best answer: The Trylon apartments. I stay there every year when I go to Osheaga. Nothing fancy, but completely adequate, private and way more comfortable than a hostel. It's also furnished so you can cook breakfast if you like. Studios are $90/night + tax. www.trylon.ca
posted by legendarygirlfriend at 6:22 PM on July 8, 2012 [1 favorite]


There are a lot of entire apartments for rent in your price range on Airbnb.
posted by jeather at 6:29 PM on July 8, 2012


Sadly, Le Square Phillips just misses your price range, but it's a helluva hotel for the money, is a short trundle from the station, and they have rooms.
posted by scruss at 6:29 PM on July 8, 2012


have you tried www.airbnb.com ? i know tons of people who post their apartments for rent for things exactly like this. often cheaper and better located than hotels, too.

good luck!
posted by andreapandrea at 6:39 PM on July 8, 2012


I have had friends and relatives stay at a number of places on airbnb.com and vrbo.com in Montreal. They have all been nice and well under $150/night.
posted by picklebird at 6:42 PM on July 8, 2012


Last year at Osheaga my girlfriend and I stayed at Celebrities Hotel and liked it enough that we're staying again this year. No idea if they have any rooms left though. It's one subway stop from Parc Jean Drapeau.
posted by fso at 7:33 PM on July 8, 2012


Zero8 is a restaurant on Saint-Denis in the Quartier Latin that offers food without gluten and other major food allergens.

There are other gluten-free places but fairly far from downtown. If you're staying in an apartment-like place and can get up into Villeray Saveurs de Vivre may be useful – it's a gourmet food counter with both vegetarian and non-veg gluten-free food of all kinds, but it's not a sit-down place. You'd have to take the food to the place you're staying and reheat it but it's bound to be good.

Ottavio has a gluten-free menu (PDF) (beware, parts of their site play loud music) but all three of their branches are ever farther from downtown than Saveurs de Vivre.

Montreal also has a fair number of Vietnamese restaurants where you can get decent cheap meals served with rice or rice noodles.
posted by zadcat at 7:37 PM on July 8, 2012


Both of the HI hostels in Montreal will have private double rooms with attached bathrooms for $90.00 a night for non-members, or $80.00 for members. Both are situated in converted hotels.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:10 AM on July 9, 2012


Just got back from a weekend in Montreal during which we stayed at the New Residence Hall, which was a hotel that was bought by McGill University (my alma mater) and turned into a dorm during school, but they rent it out in the summer as a hotel, and since it was a hotel, the rooms are private with private bathrooms, there is free wifi, and it's pretty nice! The rooms are I think $125 a night (I paid $99 I think as an alumni, though they didn't ask or check for any proof). And the location is awesome, walking distance to both St. Laurent and St. Catherine areas. Highly recommended!
posted by Grither at 5:12 AM on July 9, 2012


The Holiday Inn Express on Réné-Lévesque is usually pretty cheap and the rooms are suites with kitchens and fridges. The rooms are nice and comfortable as well. It's a good place to stay - my go-to whenever I'm in Montreal.

For gluten-free, check out Zero8 on St-Denis. It's not just gluten-free, but free from the eight most common allergens and is DELICIOUS -- and they have gluten-free bread!. Definitely recommended. There aren't many explicitly gluten-free restaurants in Montreal, but many of the more swanky places are the type that don't seem to have a lot of cross-contamination or random flour inclusion in their food and are totally fine if you tell them you can't eat gluten.

Do NOT stay at the Days Inn on Rene-Levesque, though: last time friends stayed there they came home with bedbugs.
posted by urbanlenny at 6:58 AM on July 9, 2012


Nthing Air BnB. My wife and I have used it twice over the past two summers for very satisfactory stays on The Plateau. There are lots of listings there, likely quite close to your price range, even with short notice.

Plus you get to stay in a genuine Montreal apartment, which are all obnoxiously lovely compared to Toronto's housing/rental stock, instead of a cookie-cutter hotel room. One caveat: if hot summer nights are an issue for you, double check that the apartment has A/C.
posted by dry white toast at 10:32 AM on July 9, 2012


I just had a fabulous gluten-free brownie at Café Pikolo (sorry, Facebook link). The barista told me they're made by Almond Butterfly and they they're planning to always offer something gluten-free among their viennoiseries.
posted by zadcat at 1:12 PM on July 10, 2012


Oh, and check out this gluten-free beer if you get a chance. Very nice stuff. The site has a map showing where you can buy it.
posted by zadcat at 8:31 PM on July 13, 2012


Response by poster: Thanks everyone for your help! We stayed at Trylon Apartments and it was wonderful! Very clean, the staff was friendly. The AC and having a full kitchen were key to a great trip. Also having wireless internet in our room. We ate at zero8, it the food was not fantastic but the gluten free beer was.
posted by pink_mint at 5:58 PM on August 18, 2012


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