Jason G.
Yelp
My partner and I stayed at Manoir Hovey for three nights for the New Year's holiday, and overall I felt that it was a quaint and charming hotel, but for the price we paid, the service was lacking.
We book their New Year's package, which was a two-day affair of food and drink -- and even a sleigh ride. We tacked on an extra day to explore the countryside. We were at a superior level of room, which is on the lower end but not the lowest. I will say that we had an amazing view of the lake from the main house, but the room was very small. Small as in the vanity and sink were both in the bedroom and there was only a very small room for the toilet and shower. I'm not saying that I was unhappy with the room, it was just smaller than we expected. But at the end of the day, this is an old manor and we were staying in the older part of the hotel, so I'm not exactly complaining.
The dinner service was delightful, as were the New Year's festivities of drinking and dancing. (However, I did a separate review for the restaurant, because it was very good.)
Before we arrived, we read a lot about how the "Best Hotel in Canada" award usually goes to Manoir Hovey or a hotel outside of Toronto named Langdon Hall. By chance, we had gone to Langdon Hall for their New Year's celebrations two years ago, and unfortunately for Manoir Hovey, Langdon Hall for outshines this establishment. While this hotel is rather quaint, the spa was not impressive nor was the layout of the main house. At least in Langdon Hall there were a few common areas, whereas here, there's only one sitting room, and you can't bring your own drinks. The actual hotel is not very large, and when it is cold -- basically, most of the year -- there's not many places to go to relax besides your room.
What normally separates an R&C property is the service, and I was let down by Manoir Hovey on that front. For instance, we asked the concierge -- aka anyone who was at the front desk, apparently -- to assist us in making a brunch reservation in Montreal, and they consistently dropped the ball. One time, they told us that they couldn't help us because the restaurant was closed, but then many hours later when it was open, they said they forgot and it was already closed again. I mean, this is not a large hotel with 1,000 guest requests coming in every hour. When you're paying $500 or more a night, service is the differentiating factor, and Manoir Hovey let us down. However, at the same time, I don't want to go into every single peccadillo from our stay.
Also, I would say that the state of the rooms is not amazing. The housekeeping, in my opinion, does not do a good job. We had a dresser in our room and put some items on top for storage. Apparently the top had not been dusted in quite some time, because there was dust everywhere when we removed the items. And also, with the sink and vanity in the main room, underneath the cabinet was borderline disgusting -- we dropped something so had to go and find it on the floor, and under the sink had not been cleaned for at least a year it seemed, and this is in the main room! The housekeeping itself was half-hearted, and the daily cleaning was not comprehensive. They didn't even take away dirty, used wine glasses and plates, we had to call the housekeeping to have them removed. Groan.
Ultimately, I am on the fence about whether I would recommend Manoir Hovey. For it's price point, I don't think I would, even though it is a very charming hotel. Yes, it had small room and some service issues, but I felt it had a nice location and a very nice restaurant.