Manoir Hovey

Very pretty location and staff quite accommodating. However, service at breakfast was a one hour wait and dinner service painfully slow. Much front desk misdirection around us asking or a breakfast box as we were leaving early. Resort is tired and in need of a major refresh and the carpet in our room was dirty and there were holes in the wall and torn wallpaper. Substandard for Relais property and overpriced.

Don’t waste your money on this hotel! If you are looking to book a stay with this hotel, look at all the negative reviews 2 stars or less & see how the hotel reacts, it says A LOT. They call out anyone with a negative review as being untrue & how they are a Family Business for many years. Not sure how that makes it ok. 1 star because at this level/price point you expert PERFECTION. A beautiful room, comfortable bed, gorgeous bathroom, clean room, amazing experience, exceptional food, service and that is far from what I received. The hotel stole a vacation from me, my time, traveling to get there, my time off work. I regret ever going to this hotel, here is why. For context, I am comparing this hotel to the Four Seasons Montreal, St-Regis Maldives, Ventana Big Sur, Four Season Whistler, Park Hyatt New York, Little Nell Aspen. Luxury Hotels all around 1k to 3k a night. *Take Note we complained to management & they allowed us to leave early & gave me a massage I had previously booked & cancelled due to the horrible experience I had. They have also said our negative review is unwelcome and untrue. We were told dogs are only allowed in the suites, not the ‘new’ rooms. Because god forbid a little Shiba Inu would lay on a bed in a luxury hotel. Honestly our generation is more of a dog generation than any before & hotels need to catch up but that’s another bigger issue with hotels in general. Prior to booking, we called & emailed concerns to ensure no misses. The front desk said, comfortable bed, duvet cover, luxury bedding, room doesn’t smell & with their reviews I took them for their word. When we arrived and I walked in I could hardly breathe. It smelt like your grandmother's house who burned a wood stove every day. Heavy musty smell & for someone with a serious health issue it was impossible to stay, but I had no choice. All questions were answered like it would be the Four Seasons Montreal, not an old rundown cabin with black mold growing on the bathroom shower floor, mold on the ceiling because they do not have a fan in the bathroom. (Note they did let us leave early and didn’t charge us the full amount but how does that make up for missing out on a 5 day, 4 night trip to what should have been a luxury trip.) To anyone who has stayed at a Four Seasons, St Regis, Park Hyatt you know a good bed. This hotel's bed was atrocious, so hard with two table cloth sheet smacked together. That’s what cheap motels do bc it costs more money to have a luxurious duvet cover and fitted sheets. I called ahead of times asking about this & their staff said yes of course we have a duvet cover. We get there no duvet cover & a duvet that doesn’t even touch the edges of the bed let alone hang over the side. When I asked them about it the spa manager said I was being difficult & all Chateau & Relais hotels do it this way. I was frustrated with her response bc she needed to do her homework, NO THEY DO NOT. The Little Nell has gorgeous bedding and they have a duvet cover & sheets not tablecloths for bedding. When you work in Customer Service & your lack of understanding & calling me out as a person who leaves bad reviews is Uncalled for an Unprofessional. You work in the Luxury Hotel business. Customers are allowed to be unhappy with your hotel and service. It means you aren’t delivering premium products and should take the feedback & make changes. I’m sorry but I work in Customer Service & the customer has to write an opinion, to express that opinion, discontent with the product you are offering especially when they are using their allotted time off for the year to visit your hotel and feel disrespected & misled. I honestly don’t know how you are a part of the Chateau & Relais Group or how I can ever stay with the hotel group again. I would rather stay with the Auberge Group, Four Season, Hyatt who have standards and expect PERFECTION.

Awful Horrible experience. Left vacation early. Severely disappointed with suite, service, and overall experience. Would never go back, and do NOT recommend. Does not belong in Chateaux & Relais, and should NOT have any awards. I expected this to be on the same level of luxury as Four Season Montreal, Little Nell Aspen, Ventana Big Sur. LOOK AT MANAGMENT RESPONSES TO NEGATIVE REVIEWS! That should tell you all you need to know. They try to disparage the customer and make them sound like liars, for providing honest feedback!! Is that who you want to stay with?? Birches Suite smelled bad / old, and was well worn. Not luxury at all. Grandmas dusty cabin. Bed hard, old wooden framed made so much noise when you moved at all, waking up partner. No proper duvet cover / envelope (do sheets instead), duvet too small for bed, table cloth feeling linens. The main reason for our disappointment is not being able to get a decent night sleep.: Super hard mattress, on an old wooden frame that creeks extremely loud and wakes up your partner when you move at all. The other main issue was just the overall condition of the "suite". It smells bad, is well worn, and was just not a place we wanted to spend time in. My wife's chest hurt from the air. Maybe their new Spa or Lakeside Pavilion Suites are beautiful and newer, but understand you don't allow dog there so couldn't relocate us. Additionally, it was just the numerous small issues. - old cabin smell in room. Wife had trouble breathing. - no air purifiers available. - uncomfortable bed. Way too hard. - Wooden bed frame moves & creeks loudly when getting in /out or shifting weight, waking up spouse - No luxury bedding. pillows / sheets "tablecloth feeling". No proper duvet cover. (It’s not a personal preference.. all luxury hotels in the world use duvet covers for a reason, not 3 sheets). 3 sheets is just a cheaper cost cutting measure for hotels. Duvet doesn’t fit bed, it should drape the sides, and fit the duvet cover properly. Spa Manager (who is part owner) gave me attitude stating they can't change all 52 rooms to have a proper duvet cover just because it's "our preference" - was a very bizarre conversation, and not what you would expect from a luxury hotel - excuses... - lots of flies in room, killed 4 during our 2 days, but there were many more - dirty basic slippers in room, hairs on them - black mood in shower - wallpaper peeling in bathroom - very dirty bathtub (after we used it), presume from jets dry cycle shot out black stuff? - service at Bistro, one server rushing constantly, overwhelming, thinking going to hit our elbows while eating. - bad lamb at Bistro, wife left hungry, no service recovery - tv volume doesn’t work. Need to lower/ raise volume (That doesn't work). Then mute /unmute, to get it to adjust. Took a while to figure out this 'hack' - no hand soap, body lotion, or hand lotion in room (only the bars of soap). Suites should have even better offerings than regular rooms. - no ceiling fan / vent in bathroom. Humidity / heat got really high. - discolored lights in bathroom (vanity yellow, ceiling bright white) - no gym clearly listed on website, so brought our own weights, but you do have a gym we saw above Bistro (never got to use it) - no tiles in shower floor. Painted. Weird. Slippery. - Clogged bathroom sink - No 3D room tour available online - Awful breakfast service the second day. Major issues with food. The mushrooms on top of my egg souffle had something extraordinarily hard in it , maybe hard crystals or salts? Thought I broke my teeth they were so hard. Young server in training, just wasn't polished, and was bad service. The gentleman who would occasionally stop by was excellent, as was the woman who studied in Australia who made me my latte. My wife hated the waffle, saying they were cold and hard, and didn't like the liquor flavor. Took a lot to switch it out, and the oatmeal was okay. The Discovery plate at the beginning should be allowed to be eaten, before the main dishes are brought out. Felt rush, and a million dishes on table, with dirty ones also not being picked up. Anyways, $100 bfast not worth it. Hotel provided 1 free massage & no charge for checking out early. Management responses to this review, calling me a liar for my feedback....Horrible. How do people like this work in the hospitability industry, if they blame the customer for their feedback and point of view, and unable to accept criticism? Positive: - Spa facility is very nice. Wife enjoyed massage. I enjoyed the thermal circuit. - Breakfast service was excellent (on first day only), awful on second day - check in was very easy and professional . - Front desk staff have been very professional, and a pleasure to deal with. - Amazing dinner at le Hatley. Extraordinary. Only meals in my life that come to mind are Frasca in Boulder, CO, and Restaurant Stéphane Derbord in Dijion.

The hotel clearly lives up to its billing as a low-key, but luxurious resort on a beautiful lake. Our room was quite comfortable, and the staff was very accommodating. Our one negative comment would be in regard to the restaurant, that we found to be substandard for a Relais & Chateau property. Once we were seated, it took nearly 30 minutes for the waiter to stop at our table. Rather than offer us wine or a cocktail, he hurriedly asked for our dinner order. When I asked to see the wine list, it was another 15 minutes. The entire meal proceeded in this fashion. In addition to very poor service, we found the food to be exceptionally unexceptional (we would rank it a 7/10). We have stayed at numerous Relais & Chateau properties through the years. Like most people, we associate the R&L brand with great ambiance, service, and food. This particular hotel has the ambiance, but the dining room lacks the other two key ingredients. Will we go back? Probably not despite the nice accommodations. If there were other fine restaurants nearby, our answer would undoubtedly change.

We spent 3 nights at the Manoir Hovey as our first stop on a leaf watching trip to the Eastern Townships and Charlevoix. We arrived the first night in the dark and rain after driving from Montreal airport and were revived by a warm and well presented dinner in the Tap Room. Our rooms (2 couples travelling together) were spacious and had beautiful views across the lake. Lighting was good for reading and the fireplace was a pleasant feature. Breakfasts in the main dining room were more than enough! The discovery plate was a great starter but to be honest was large enough that we only had it once of the 3 days we had breakfast there. Main courses were inventive (squash pancakes were really excellent) and well presented. Dinner in Le Hatley dining room was a highlight with the table d'hote menu being both creative and pleasing. Staff were all very helpful-- a special shout out to the concierge who showed us great route to take for viewing each day and also the most scenic way to get to Quebec City on our way to Charlevoix on our last day. This is a luxury hotel and the prices match that but we felt that we had received excellent value for the price and would certainly return and recommend.