Le Grand Hôtel

A decent experience at Le Grand Hotel in B-C. The location is nice and it has a nice, old vibe. It also has a bar / restaurant on the main floor. Plenty of street parkings available and the staff was nice at the desk. Overall, I would recommend it.

We stayed at Le Grand on a bike tour of the Gaspésie and Côte Nord. There weren’t many options in Baie Comeau and we picked Le Grand even though it was a bit more expensive than other options because it had a restaurant. I received a confirmation email with a “total” price. Turns out the “total” did not include the tax but didn’t state that anywhere (all other places we stayed did). This brought the real cost of our night there to be much higher than our other options and I certainly would have chosen one of them had I known. The restaurant was closed, even though it was Sunday of a 3-day holiday weekend. The web site stated it was open every day. The staff was completely indifferent and unfriendly. The room was large but tired; the furniture was old and the chair sagged notably. If we ever return to Baie Comeau, we will stay elsewhere.

Unfortunately, our stay was not stellar. When I booked, I did not realize this hotel did not have an elevator. I have since reviewed their site and could not find any mention of lack of elevator. I did read that a recent facelift allowed many modern conveniences to be added. Seriously? I have knee issues, and my husband has a bad back, so carrying suitcases up two (2) flights of stairs was a challenge. We asked for another room only to be told that they were fully booked. Our room was on the third floor overlooking the so called parking lot. Additionally, the front desk clerk was less than helpful, she mentioned that she was waiting for a large tour bus to arrive so perhaps that was her focus rather than helping the guests in front of her. Although our room was clean, it smelled musty so we opened the windows to let in some fresh air. The room was quite large, with two double beds, a work station and a bar fridge. The furniture was very worn, some even had holes but the TV worked. Their literature states that parking is available, but the area is set-up strangely and there are only about 10 spaces. We did not visit the pub, although I checked the menu and prices seemed to be on the high side. On the positive side, the hotel is located in town and one can walk to the nearby park. Do I recommend staying here, categorically no.