Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello

We stayed at Fairmont Château Montebello recently to celebrate my honeymoon, expecting the high standard of care Fairmont is known for. Unfortunately, our experience was deeply disappointing due to a serious lack of respect for my dietary restrictions as a practicing Muslim. Upon arrival, I let them know that I require halal food and emphasized how important this is to me. I also reminded staff upon arrival on email and was promised the right food and was assured that my meals, specifically the beef options, would be halal. To my shock, I was served pork/bacon in the burger — despite the clear instructions and promises. This not only violated my religious practice but also made me feel incredibly disrespected. After I raised the issue, I told the hotel I would make food arrangements outside, but they convinced me to give them another chance, even introducing me to the chef who promised a special halal meal the next evening. Sadly, the same mistake happened again. To have this happen not once, but twice, on such a special occasion as our honeymoon was incredibly upsetting. It showed a complete lack of understanding and care toward guests with religious and dietary needs. This experience left a lasting negative impression and took away from what should have been a joyful and memorable celebration. I sincerely hope Fairmont takes steps to better train their staff and ensure all guests are treated with the respect and care they deserve.

This is a Canadian icon of a hotel. It has the famous fireplace in the reception hall. I have been a guest there a few times and even hosted our daughter’s wedding shower there! We went again the other day and had lunch. It was delicious, had the clam chowder!

My family of four stayed at the Fairmont Montebello for four days. We were expecting a rustic, modern Fairmont-type stay. We arrived, and our first thoughts were charming as entering the hotel is quite magical. From the entrance upon driving into the main fireplace entrance, the setting is quite wonderful. This would be the main reason for my stars. The check-in was quite busy, and the staff were very welcoming. Our room was located in the hall leading towards the pool, which was extremely loud at most hours of the day. There were also a lot of families with small children situated there, so a lot of crying and screaming was heard throughout our stay. We were on the first floor, so we could also hear heavy, loud footsteps above us in the early morning and late night, which was quite disruptive. Our room was described as a luxury two-bedroom; however, we did not feel it should have been labeled luxury at all. The bathrooms were renovated and quite nice but extremely small. The rest of the room seemed re-painted at most. We felt the rooms were not luxury nor updated. We could hear everything outside our door as if the door was left wide open. Our beds were extremely uncomfortable. We wish the luxury aspect of the suites at least included comfortable beds. Reviews that stated stains were seen on their comforters were quite true as we had some as well on ours. The rooms were somewhat clean. We found lots of dust and small hair in our bathroom, which wasn’t ours. Our room was very warm even as we had turned the heating off. We turned the fan on the entire time, however, found at times it was difficult to breathe as the room became extremely stuffy. We were unable to use our coffee maker during our stay as it did not work. When I brought it to their attention, I was told I did not know how to use a Nespresso machine, which was far from the truth. The pool area was quite beautiful; however, there were towels left everywhere and therefore nowhere to sit. We found that the staff tried to keep up with the cleaning of public areas however, perhaps they were short-staffed. We had reserved the bubble for activities and were told by the concierge at a later date that someone reserved the entire bubble for 4 hours and therefore cancelled our reservation made days prior with no apologies. Our children were looking forward to playing tennis and soccer and were very upset. We had tried to cross-country ski and were told to come back. We had done so and on the third visit, we were finally able to obtain skis. We hope they start checking skis and waxing them. Ours definitely could have used some. We also found out the skating rink was open on the third day of our visit after being told during check-in it was closed. We happened to walk by and see that it was indeed open. Some boys from town were playing hockey on the ice, so we had to return a few times for access. Once we finally skated on the ice, we noticed it was quite bumpy, and I attempted to remove snow from the rink with the shovel left there. We do wish staff would have checked the ice for better upkeep. We found staff for activities and the concierges were not very helpful with directions and details. We found ourselves asking guests and others for direction and service questions. An example would be trail details for skiing as well as that there is a heated cabin for changing into skates with skating aids there for children. Also, when we booked the horse & carriage there were three extra people booked rather then the proper amount. We paid $91 dollars to have half a butt cheek on our seats for all four of us, all because the concierge overbooked the ride. We were disappointed to not be told that it wasn’t just our family ride as well. We had no idea that 12 other people would be on the same horse & carriage. Effective communication needs to be encouraged by management at this establishment, verbally or by pamphlets upon check-in. Maps should always be given upon check-in. We are also bilingual and found most staff preferred to speak English even though it appeared they were quite uncomfortable doing so. Further, once we wanted to enjoy a snack or even some rest time in the lobby around the fire, we found zero seating. On our second-to-last evening, we had to stand on the outsides of the area in hopes someone would leave. At 11 p.m., after 45 mins of looking and waiting, we finally saw someone was leaving a seating. As I approached them to ask if they were leaving for the night, a woman started yelling at me from afar. She was quite rude, and I found her behaviour disgusting. My husband saw that she had literally just entered the hotel. We found during our stay that many families were travelling with grandparents. The grandparents or one parent would literally stay all day at a seating area around the fire, leaving absolutely none available for others. None of them were ordering food or drinks from the hotel. They brought outside food, dishes, and drinks in and stayed for hours even with children under 5 yo. We saw many children under 8 yo walking around on their own with no supervision. Also note that you are not served food unless you are seated. Once we found a seat, they stopped serving food. It was quite disappointing. Finally, we found this hotel to be more like a « Holiday Inn » rather than a Fairmont Type hotel. For those expecting luxury this is not what we experienced at all during our stay. Please do better with service, as we found our stay quite frustrating. We would not return nor recommend.

Yet another great stay! I cannot express how amazing the service prior to our arrival and while we were there from the concierge team and especially Nicko who answered so many emails of mine prior to our arrival. The rooms arent huge but thats not why you come here. We had a small issue with our AC unit making some noise but it was quickly fixed the next day after a quick text to the concierge team. The ability to text them is fantastic, I had a question if reservations were required for a 12:30 pm lunch at the buffet during the week and I received a text back saying yes we recommend them and they've already set them up for us. Excellent service! Room service was great, turndown service and mid-day cleaning so there was never a feeling of being rushed to leave the room early. We used the pool, sports center with the big dome in the back. Its setup for just about everything (NOTE: Make reservations for the sport you'd like ie: pickle ball, tennis, badminton, golf, etc and the sports staff will have it all setup for you). Tubing outside was a bit of a let down - the tubing itself is amazing and the hill is GREAT - but the lift doesn't work and its one heck of a workout to get up and down it with the family! Meals were great, Nymark is a great new addition and while traveling with children authentic local foods sometimes arent they're favorite so the restaurant staff had a kids menu and even let them pick from the main restaurant next door should they want. Express check-out and check-in made things that much smoother and let us have our room earlier and an hour later. On site car charging was great, 5 or 6 Tesla chargers (30amp) and 2x J1772 (1x30a and 1x50a) which are all free and please respect the 4 hour limit if you see the chargers are filling up. Only thing I would suggest some attention be paid to - the hot tubs, its tough to maintain a spa when you have so many people in and out I understand that but the water wasn't the best looking and there are tiles missing here and there. Please consider replacing these older tubs with something newer and nicer. All in all a great stay, friendly staff as always, sitting around the fireplace and having a drink while the kids played was exactly what we were looking for. Tip: Send the kids to the front desk or concierge office and have them do the scavenger hunt, if they complete it they get a prize (bag of candy), its not too hard but will keep them nicely occupied!

My husband and I stayed for a long weekend for Valentine's Day weekend. The grounds and massive log cabins were absolutely stunning and beautiful. A truly impressive lobby and huge fireplace. We played cards and read by the fire, went snowshoeing, had a massage at the spa, went to the pool, and had breakfast and dinner there. While my husband and I had a major personal inconvenience while we were there, the GM and his staff were very helpful and we are grateful for all their help. Staff were very friendly and professional.