Pensione Popolo

I think this place is awesome! It's affordable, has cool art and comfortable beds, and is located in the heart of Mile-End, a central hub for Montreal's artistic and musical communities. It's close to several metro stations, and you can catch the St-Laurent bus right outside the front door. Downstairs, enjoy excellent vegetarian food and catch a great show. If you stay up late drinking St-Ambroise, your bedroom is right upstairs. The people who work at the bar and hotel are very kind, and it's super convenient to be able to check in at the bar, no matter how late you arrive. If you're interested in Montreal arts, culture and food, and you don't want to spend hundreds of dollars, this place rocks!

We were looking for a cheap, clean place to stay for a night after deciding to go to Montreal on a whim. This place looked really cute in the photos but was quite different in person. We drove hours to get there and were exhausted by the team we reached it. Couldn't figure out how to get in ... ended up asking at the bar next door which is where you have to check in. They handed us an envelope with a code to get in and sent us on our way. This place has a lot of stairs....not fun to lug huge suitcases up and down. We got to our room on the 3rd floor, passing the kitchen area which smelled of spices. We couldn't get the smell out of our clothes and suitcases for a week. They do have free wifi though. I'm rating the service a 5 because we didn't have to talk to them at all, so I have no complaints. We chose a room with private bathroom which ended up being a waste because it wasn't worth it. The room was clean but the beds were uncomfortable and the pillows were old and flat. The bathroom was clean to a point but we didn't want to shower there. It was a really noisy place. The bar downstairs stayed open all night and typically we'd join but this was a night we really needed to get some sleep and that wasn't fun. We had to move our car off the street by 7am and just ended up leaving. To be honest, the bar next door looked like (and sounded like) a blast. It might have been a different experience if we were looking to party that night. Our hostel days are over, and this place felt like that's exactly what we entered into. Location was on a good street in a good neighborhood to walk around in. Lots to do but it's further down the street - we would have liked to stay a little more central but it didn't matter as we had a car.

The Pensione Popolo was a nice, clean, and affordable place to stay during my visit to Montreal. Great location for cool local bars and music, plus you get a free ticket to a show downstairs at the famous Casa Del Popolo (birthplace of Arcade Fire and Godspeed You Black Emperor... wow!). Everyone was super nice to me too. Plus it has GREAT vegetarian burritos.