#Schummer14: Summer of Schnyder settles in at the Ritz-Carlton Montreal

I’m able to walk into a Residence Inn by Marriott like I own the place. I hand the front desk attendant our Marriott card, they have our preferences for King bed and quiet room on file, I know about the free breakfast in the morning, let’s get our bottled water in the room’s full-size fridge and the cooler’s ice system in the freezer so it’s ready to use for tomorrow’s portion of the road trip.

Driving up to the Ritz-Carlton in Montreal was intimidating. I wondered if my t-shirt and shorts from an afternoon spent at a nature museum would suffice or if we should stop and change before pulling up in front of the hotel.

We aren’t Ritz-Carlton folk, much the way – as Lee once said – “we aren’t Lexus people.” We tend to stay at Hampton Inns, Courtyards, Holiday Inn Expresses or whatever last-minute deal we find on Hotwire, Priceline or Hotel Tonight. A few months ago, though, we signed up for a Marriott credit card in preparation for our month-long road trip. We had decided to not spend valuable vacation time searching for hotels along the way, so we booked all of our accommodations in advance. Lee found that many of the hotels we would want along the way (based on location and TripAdvisor reviews) were Marriott properties. One of the perks of the card was receiving 60,000 Marriott points after spending a certain amount on the credit card.

When we were looking for places to stay in Montreal, Lee noticed that the Ritz-Carlton was available to book with reward points. It would zero out our points account, but it sounded like a fun way to splurge at what is ranked as Montreal’s top hotel on TripAdvisor.

Was it worth the 60,000 points? Absolutely!

Would I pay the regular $575 U.S. per night (plus taxes) that the room would have cost for the two days we stayed? No. {she says with a frowny face} But only because we need to make our travel dollars stretch, not because the experience wasn’t spectacular.

The Ladies and Gentleman of Ritz-Carlton had emailed us in advance to find out when we would arrive so our room would be ready. We pulled up to the valet on one of Montreal’s busiest downtown streets a little after 4 p.m. The doorman welcomed us as he opened my door and asked if we had luggage. We opened the back of the vehicle loaded strategically with all of our long-road-trip stuff and out flew my MacBook onto his foot, followed by the kitten notebook I’ve been using for Summer of Schnyder planning notes. {awkward}

Thankfully things went much smoother the rest of the time. After giving the doorman our name, everyone who greeted us inside referred to us by name. Lee had mentioned in his email response about our arrival time that we were on a month-long road trip and celebrating my birthday during the trip. Guest relations had taken note and everyone at the front desk wished me a happy birthday. When we got to the room, there was a birthday gift waiting for me from the general manager (a book on the history of the Ritz-Carlton brand).

Oliver, who checked us in, also accompanied us to the room. As we rode the elevator to the 10^th floor, he explained that this was the very first Ritz-Carlton in the world (opened in 1912) and that it had closed from 2008-2012 for major renovations. Once in the room, Oliver spent 10 minutes showing us all of the features and instructing how to use the sensors for lighting, window shades and the toilet. Ahhh, the toilet – it was one of those Japanese intelligent toilets that automatically opened when you stood in front of it and did things you didn’t even know you wanted done.

Oliver showed us the coffee maker and when I told him I only drank tea, he had a tea kettle brought up with a complete serving tray. When the soap was too strong of a floral scent, a call to the front desk resulted in delivery of a tray of three alternatives.

Our room was large, it had a comfortable mattress wrapped in ultra-soft sheets and so many conveniences that we weren’t expecting. Heated towel rack, heated bathroom floor, heated toilet seat. A bottle of room spray near the bed, a personal loofa in the bathroom, a small container of office supplies on the desk. Turn-down service featured chocolates on the bed the first night, eye cream on the second night. You know you are in a fancy place when the housekeeper folds a t-shirt you leave laying on the bed or puts dirty clothes left in a pile on the floor into a Ritz-Carlton laundry bag as a reminder to clean your room. One night we returned from dinner and all of our shoes (dumped from a bag we needed to use) had been neatly lined up on a towel to restore order to the room.

The entire staff was friendly and constantly looked for ways to help. Our first night, the concierge booked our dinner reservations. When we came downstairs five minutes later to head to the restaurant, he had printed precise Google map directions sealed inside an envelope. At dinner our waiter served us a piece of birthday cake as the concierge had mentioned to the restaurant that we were celebrating my birthday while on our road trip.

The common spaces at the Ritz-Carlton were beautiful as well. We spent time at the rooftop saltwater pool each of our three days there, reading on the deck, which was small but never crowded. Everywhere in the hotel you went, they offered you complimentary bottles of water. Wifi was included and worked very well. We rarely heard another guest on our floor although they were sold out our last night.

On our last day, we stored our luggage before checkout time and told the staff we were going to walk up Mont-Royal for a view of the city. They gave us two bottles of water as we headed out. That walk only took about an hour round-trip but we decided to go have lunch in another part of the city while we were out. When we returned to the hotel about 3.5 hours after we left, the concierge seemed happy to see us and relieved to hear we hadn’t gotten lost. He gave us more water and once we had loaded our luggage in the car, two more waters for the road.

I’ve told Lee that now I’m going to expect a higher level of service when we get back to Wichita; I hope he learned a few things from the staff at the Ritz-Carlton Montreal ;-)

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#Schummer14 – Lee & MeLinda Schnyder are turning their home in Wichita, Kan., over to a friend and taking a month-long road trip. They’ll travel from Kansas to Ontario and Quebec, Canada; then through Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. The trip home will include stops in Ohio and Missouri. Beyond the blog, you can follow #Schummer14 on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.