Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello Room & Resort Review

The Fairmont hotel chain has built brand recognition around some pretty unique hotels throughout the world. The Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello is no exception to the brand. This hotel is an upscale, log cabin-style accommodation perfect for a summer or winter getaway. While it definitely fits the upscale vibe, it is still accessible to many. The following is a complete review of the Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello.

Since Le Chateau Montebello is a destination unto itself, the review is going to cover the room, facilities, food and beverage, amenities, and activities. Therefore, this post is the first part of a four-part review:

• Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello – Room & Resort Review
• Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello – Amenities & Activities
• Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello – Food & Beverage
• Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello – Town Activities

History

The building that houses the Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello was constructed in 1930 by the Canadian Pacific Railway. The building was designed to serve as a private club for prominent business and political leaders of the time. In an amazing feat of construction, this gigantic log structure consisting of 200+ guest rooms was built in just four months. The building follows a Scandinavian style of construction that was overseen by a Finish master-builder, Victor Nymark. Upon opening, the private club was given the name “Seigniory Club.” This originates from the French name for the stretch of land on which it was constructed.

The Seigniory Club operated for forty years and hosted very many distinguished guests and club members. These included Lester Pearson (Prime Minister of Canada), Princess Grace of Monaco, Crown Prince Akihito of Japan, and Harry Truman (President of the United States).

In 1970, the Canadian Pacific Railway converted the building into a public resort. For the first time, anyone was able to visit the building. After opening to the public, the resort also held several large national political gatherings. These gatherings included the 1981 G7 Summit, 1983 NATO Nuclear Planning Group, and the 2007 Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America Conference. The Canadian Pacific Railway split a number of its hotels into its own company. Shortly afterwards, this Canadian Pacific Hotels group bought the American Fairmont company. In 2001, the name of the hotel officially changed to the Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello.

To this day, the hotel claims the title of the largest log structure ever built.

Location

The Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello is located in the small town of Montebello, Quebec, Canada. This town only has 934 permanent residents as of the 2021 Canadian Census. Due to the small size, almost all of the town’s economic output is tied up in the tourism impact of the Fairmont resort.

The Fairmont Montebello is located on the banks of the Ottawa River about halfway between Ottawa and Montreal. This river location provides access to water activities as well as water transportation to the resort. Plus, the nearly equidistant location between two major Canadian cities provides access to multiple airports when visiting the resort.

Because of the remote location, renting a car for a visit to the Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello is highly recommended. Montebello is located at least an hour’s drive from Ottawa and an hour and 15 minutes from Montreal. Once at the Fairmont, the town of Montebello is walkable, but many will want to have a car for going to dinner or enjoying other nearby activities.

Guest Room

Those who visit the Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello website may feel like the resort has a huge variety of guest rooms based on the twelve types listed. However, many of these are separated based on the view that they provide or if they have been recently renovated. There are actually only a few different room sizes. These include: a standard room (210 square feet), a deluxe room (305 square feet), and a signature room (305 square feet). While the deluxe and signature rooms are the same size, signature rooms are located at the end of a hotel wing, and therefore have a more open layout and more windows.

In addition to the room size, accommodations are further subdivided by renovation status. Some hotel rooms have undergone renovations in the past ten years and some have not. Finally, as with many hotels, the room view (river view versus no river view) can increase the price. For our visit in April 2023, we stayed in a “luxury” room which is a standard renovated room without a river view.

Bedroom Area

When guests first enter the room, they walk into the main bedroom area. Immediately to the guests’ left is a closet with sufficient space to fit one week’s worth of clothes for two people. Also included in the closet are robes, slippers, an iron, an ironing board, and a floor mat for dirty/wet shoes.

Centered on the furthest wall of the room is the bed (we had a king bed according to our reservation booking). Flanking the bed on each side are bedside tables with lamps and built-in storage. One of the beside tables houses the safe in the bottom drawer. The headboard contains built-in reading lights. Of note, the electrical outlets available on each side of the bed are lacking. This isn’t a surprise necessarily. Many hotels have this issue (especially those built prior to the advent of personal electronics). Furthermore, historic hotels often have structural elements that they have to work around creating an unfortunate artifact in the middle of the room. This was the case here where a pillar is situated at the foot of the bed. While it doesn’t impact the function of the bedroom in any way, it is an unfortunate sightline in the room.

Moving back towards the door, there is a sitting area near the foot of the bed. Consisting of a comfortable chair, an ottoman, a floor lamp, and a sizeable side table, the sitting area is a perfect place to relax. Directly across from the chair and ottoman is a cabinet with a small TV. While the TV is serviceable, it is probably only 30 inches in size and didn’t appear to have a great resolution. If you’re visiting this resort, I recommend focusing on the outdoor activities and not the television for an overall better experience.

Inside the cabinet are a few drawers that could be used to unload your luggage. However, the number of drawers are fewer than expected. The interior of the cabinet also contains the mini-fridge, a coffee maker, and an electric water kettle. In addition, the room comes with a set of water glasses, mugs, and wine glasses, an ice bucket, and all the supplies necessary to brew tea and coffee in the room.

The final area in the guest room is a desk and chair creating a great work spot if needed during your stay. However, the hotel also has tons of excellent seating areas throughout. Therefore, I would suggest searching for a great place to work in the lobby rather than staying in the room.

Overall, our room was very comfortable. The room may appear a little on the small side to some unless you’re coming from Paris or New York. However, it is workable for two people. Most won’t spend too much time in the room when at this resort since the lobby and activities/amenities are the main draw. While the renovated rooms tone down the intensity of the log cabin feel compared to the unrenovated rooms, they still embrace some of the rustic/woodsy elements.

Bathroom

As guests walk into the bathroom, they would be forgiven if they think they have moved into a totally different resort. The rustic/woodsy feel of the guest room gives way to a completely modern and sleek bathroom. While there is only a single vanity, the bathroom has a lot of countertop and storage space. There is also a nice amount of light coming from the illuminated mirror and ceiling lights. This is a noticeable difference from the guest room which can feel dark at times due to the lack of lights and rustic aesthetic. Finally, the shower is a decent size with custom-tiled floors and walls. The glass enclosure makes the space feel larger than it is. The hotel provides common toiletries and wall-mounted shampoo, conditioner, and body wash which are becoming more common these days.

Parking

The Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello offers two parking options: valet and self-park.

Self-service parking is included in the resort fee and is no extra charge. There is a large, paved parking lot located on the west side of the resort building. This is where all the self-parking options are located. The downside to self-parking is that the lot is not connected to the resort via any type of covered walkway. When it isn’t raining, this is a non-issue. But when it is raining or very cold, it’s about a 4-minute walk from the parking lot to the main resort building.

The other option is valet parking which includes a covered carport at the main entrance to the Fairmont. The cost for valet is $39 CAD + tax per night of the stay. In my personal opinion, nearly $40 CAD per night isn’t worth the 4-minute walk each way to the self-park lot. However, if this is something you value, the hotel will be happy to provide this service.

Finally, the hotel does have about four electric vehicle chargers on site. This may be a small number during the busy summer and winter seasons, but it’s nice to know that the option is available for those who are driving via electric vehicle.

Service

Throughout our stay, the service at the Fairmont Le Chateau was great. While it was obvious that the resort was in a transition period between seasons, the staff were happy to try to accommodate us. We ordered room service breakfast several times during our stay, and it was promptly delivered with everything required. Housekeeping was offered daily. The front desk was always helpful with inquiries, and the concierge helped us set up several activities at the resort. While we didn’t have any particularly tough requests for the staff, I don’t recall the service being out of line at any point during the stay.

Cost

Room rates vary widely throughout the year at most hotels. Fairmont is no exception to this rule. The Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello has two high seasons: winter and summer. Because of the location, it is able to provide both winter sports (cross country skiing, snow shoeing, curling, and ice skating) as well as summer sports (tennis, golf, kayaking, and bicycling). Each high season attracts large numbers of guests increasing the cost.

It’s very common for the room rates to start around $425 CAD/night + resort fee during the high seasons.

In between these high seasons are the low or shoulder seasons when the weather is changing. These are great times to get a deal on staying at the Fairmont Montebello. However, these deals do come with a tradeoff. Because the changing weather is somewhat unpredictable, it’s hard to know what activities will be available during your visit. For example, without snow and/or cold temperatures, many of the winter activities are not possible. If it’s early in the season change, some of the summer activities may not have started yet. This can leave guests who choose to travel during this time without many activities and amenities.

Room prices during the low season drop down to about $380 CAD/night + resort fee.

There are a few sales and discounts that guests can take advantage of throughout the year. First, a 10% discount is offered to all Accor hotel loyalty members. This is a free membership program to join, so there shouldn’t be a reason not to take advantage of this. Second, Fairmont runs a sale around the Christmas and New Years timeframe almost every year. Many times, this sale offers an extra 15 – 20% off the normal rates, so this can be a great time to book a stay at the resort.