- Restaurants |
- Nightlife |
- Shopping |
- Coffee & Tea |
- All
Auberge Chez Jean
Category: Hotels & Travel Hostels Hostels [Edit]
4136 Henri JulienMontreal, QC H2W 2K3
(514) 843-8279
4 reviews for Auberge Chez Jean
4 reviews in English
-
Review from Steve A.
3/10/2009
This is the first hostel I ever stayed at, and also at the first time I ever visited Montreal. Consequently, the next several times I visited, I went to the same place.
It's located in a small neighborhood in a prime location, and it's a quite different experience from your traditional hostel. In fact, it more feels like you're staying at a friend's house when you're here. A downside to this is that when it's crowded, that can mean staying in a room that's not much more than a curtained off area. If that creeps you out, this may not be the place for you.
Jean, the proprietor, is amazingly friendly and has always gone out of his way to help us find things around the city. The staff, although always different, generally has the same friendly and helpful demeanor. The environment is clean, including the kitchen(which has free breakfast) and the beds, while a little short for an abnormally tall person like myself(but this is true everywhere) are always comfortable.
For me, this is a great place-it may not be perfect for everyone-but if it weren't for the nominal($20CAD/night) fee, I'd feel like I was staying at a friend of a friend's-and that's a really nice feeling when you're visiting somewhere new. -
Review from raccoon m.
8/15/2011
Auberge Chez Jean is a unique hostel. It's slightly disorganized, haphazard, and quirky. It has a hesitant spiral staircase in the back, and offers a van as a place to sleep. There are several long term residents staying there and you may have to cross through their living space while they are watching TV in order to get to your room. You often can't tell the difference between the people who live there and the people who work there. Sometimes it's the same and that's fine, but just a little confusing. When someone was available at reception, they were friendly and helped us find a place to park our car.
The biggest warning I can give you about Auberge Chez Jean is that it has BED BUGS. We stayed in the Blue Room (where the lock on your day is a padlock. Hey, but at least there's a lock, right?) and ended up with bug bites all over our bodies when we woke up. It also smells like insect spray, which is an indicator that they did not properly treat the room for bed bugs.
A little info on bed bugs: for 80% of the population, the bites are insanely itchy. You can track them back to your place of residence and they can quickly multiply and infest your home. Getting rid of them, at least where I live in the US, can cost you at least $450 for an exterminator, $200 for mattress encasements, plus you will have to buy tons of XL ziploc bags to encase ALL your personal belongings. Then you'll probably want to heat treat all your personal items with a $300 Packtite. This takes forever as you have to heat your stuff to 120F for at least 60 minutes. You have to launder ALL your clothes and bedding, and dry clean anything that can't be washed on high heat. You may also have many sleepless nights because you are afraid of being bitten.
Defeating bed bugs is a long and expensive process, and probably easy for Auberge Chez Jean to ignore, but given the cost YOU will have to pay if you track them back home, the price and the uniqueness of this hostel is not worth it. As with any hotel/hostel, despite the star rating or price per night, you can still get bed bugs. Just be warned, Auberge Chez Jean, has had them. Do you want to risk staying there? -
Review from Alexandra T.
12/9/2009
This was my first time staying in a hostel, and at that time I liked it, but since staying in others I realized that this place is definitely not one of the best.
It said online that they had 24-hour check in and this was one of the biggest reasons my friend and I chose this hostel. We knew we would be arriving in the early hours of the morning. We arrived at 1:30AM, and with nobody at the front desk or anywhere else to be found. After waiting for about 20 minutes and wandering around like creeps we ended up sleeping in our car. We still got charged for that night since we had reserved it online.
Otherwise the place was alright, but not great. It's really just someone's house that they use as a hostel. We stayed in a large room with many beds, and it was not very accommodating. Also, there were no lockers for us to put our stuff. I would not come here again.
I think if you got a private room instead of the "dorm" it might be a little more accommodating. -
Review from Molly L.
7/27/2009
Do NOT stay here! I woke up after the first night with several bug bites on me. Thinking nothing of it, I stayed two more nights. When I got home, I discovered that I was still getting bites during the night: I had brought bed bugs back with me from Chez Jean. It has been a horrible, humiliating, stressful experience that I would not wish on anybody. Do NOT stay at Chez Jean! [I have since searched the internet and found other reviews that warn of bedbugs at this place, going back a year or more -- if only I had done more research before staying there!]
