L'oasis De L'île, Refuge Urbain

“Once lovely but now shabby”

We have been staying a couple of times a year at this hotel for many years now, usually for 3-4 nights at a time. Unfortunately, the lovely pristine photos posted by management are no longer representative of the conditions here. The place has become rather shabby and is badly in need of mainte... more

We have been staying a couple of times a year at this hotel for many years now, usually for 3-4 nights at a time. Unfortunately, the lovely pristine photos posted by management are no longer representative of the conditions here. The place has become rather shabby and is badly in need of maintenance and upgrades. To start with, the positives: Most of the staff are very friendly and accommodating when required. The beds (in all the rooms we have stayed in) are supremely comfortable! The weekend buffet breakfasts (Sat & Sun, scrambled eggs, sausages, baked potatoes, muffins/croissants, yogurt, fruit) are pretty decent, and the pared-down version served in your room Mon-Fri is okay, although you don’t always get what you ordered. If they don’t mention in-room breakfast at check-in, bring it up or they will forget you and you will have to go looking for it. The general grounds and area is lovely, serene, and peaceful. We have never used the spa services, but have spent time outside on the spa grounds, which is nice and relaxing. Not that it affected us, but this stay, the main pool was half-empty and therefore not in use. Comments about our recent fireplace room on the 2nd floor: The door key takes a couple of minutes of fiddling before it unlocks the door. As we fiddled with it, another couple down the hall were having the same issue. The floors are sticky and never clean, no matter which room we’ve stayed in, so I’ve taken to wearing white rubber-soled slippers while there. After just a couple of hours/day spent there over 3 days, the once white soles are now dingy blackish-gray, proof that swishing a wet mop around does nothing but redistribute the dirt. The bed table lampshades were zip-tied on (I’m not kidding), and thus sat at crazy angles that left the lightbulbs mostly exposed, and actually one of the lamps’ switches had been broken off, so there was no way to even turn it on. The chair cushions have almost no stuffing in them, where sitting down feels like you might break through the frame, and there was a slash in the upholstery of one of them. There was a nail in one wall, but absolutely no decorative items at all in the entire room, contrary to what is shown in the promo photos. As usual, not enough hangers in the closet, so I always bring my own. The safe was left open in locked mode, and I was not able to reset it. Based on a previous experience with asking someone for help with this, I didn’t bother. The last 2 days of our stay, there was no hot water. No. hot. water. Additionally, the upstairs carpet is beyond dingy and covered with stains and rips. The bistro, which is open only on Fri & Sat evenings for dinner: Over the years we’ve had some wonderful meals there, however the last couple of meals were somewhat lacking, and this time quite disappointing. Although the soup and desserts were delicious, my cod fish was overcooked (dried out and jerky-like), and the dish was not seasoned at all. Definitely NOT worth the $200 it cost us, and we won’t dine there again. Seems to be hit-or-miss these days. Overall, we continue to stay here because of the beautiful setting and how quiet it is, and the fact that there are not many accommodation options in St-Eustache, and this is the cheaper one with breakfast included. Having said that, the owners need to pay closer attention to the finer details and make many badly needed improvements.

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“It was good but with a few hiccups”

The room was great! The dinner on Saturday night was good but the service was very very slow! Was very disappointed on the service. We got our supper before getting our drinks. Had to remind the bartender that drinks were ordered before our diner. Description on the menu should be detailed. For e... more

The room was great! The dinner on Saturday night was good but the service was very very slow! Was very disappointed on the service. We got our supper before getting our drinks. Had to remind the bartender that drinks were ordered before our diner. Description on the menu should be detailed. For example carbonara was ordered but it had blue cheese in the recipe, wasn't able to eat half because I don't like blue cheese. Wasted supper. Breakfast on the last day was awful. It was reheated from the previous day. Yogurt was expired as well. Merci Rock and Josée

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