Quality Inn Saint-Jean-Sur-Richelieu

This hotel is centrally located and close to all amenities. However it is no longer the Holiday Inn Express. It is now a Quality Hotel. Staff is very friendly.

I needed to book a hotel south east of Montreal to avoid staying overnight in the city itself and I was moderately surprised to find that it’s slim pickings for chain hotels in that area. I did not find anything from Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, or Accor… with one of the very few choices being a Holiday Inn Express in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. The hotel is right besides the highway so the location was perfect during a road trip and I booked a stay there. My overall takeaway is that it’s quite overpriced for what it is, but not having much local competition is a great thing to keep prices high and get customers nonetheless. The hotel was not cheap and I don’t think upgrades would matter at this hotel as all rooms are the same except some have 1/2 queen and some have a king bed so I pretty much received no elite benefits as IHG Diamond guest. The hotel was a blast from the past. First off the style was very much like a motel, except that we did not have a door from our room to the parking lot (only a window) plus the fact that the hotel had two floors not only a ground floor. But the room itself was from a different era with some kind of plexiglass shower / bath combo, a large bulky dark wood closet with a mini-fridge inside, paper thin walls which was the main problem. I was woken up in the morning when I heard very clearly some kind of conversation, in fact it was so clearly audible that I would distinguish every word spoken such that I thought the radio clock had turned on with low volume due to the alarm. I got up and tried to find the alarm clock to turn it off but realized there was not even an alarm clock in the room. The conversation was entirely coming from our neighbors who were speaking fairly quietly in the room next door. Breakfast was a sorry affair with the room completely crowded although in the hotel’s defense they opened a meeting room on the other side of reception for additional seating. Many dishes / breakfast items were missing as staff could not replenish quickly enough, and the food was entirely forgettable although for a Holiday Inn Express brand hotel, it would be unfair to expect fine dining. Overall for the price paid this hotel was not cheap given that rooms are not very spacious, upgrades will not happen, rooms are old-style however I would not say it was worn out, nothing was broken and it was still in decent condition. Considering that we can get hotels of this caliber in Montreal proper for about the same price, it seems expensive to pay that price tag in a cheaper suburb but for people who don’t need to expose themselves to Montreal traffic, there are not many other choices than this HIX in the south of Montreal.

The only thing I have to say is I am a woman who is traveling alone for work and at the front desk during my check-in the man said my room number out loud twice. It is very dangerous to do so and it was negligent of him. There were guests in the lobby and you never know anyones intentions.