The last time I was at Ch. Mont Sainte Anne was 20 years ago. They have done some upgrades to the 80s decor of the outdated lobby, to bring it up to date. The hotel has very old rooms, unless of course if you stay at the newly renovated ESPACE NORDIK.
Booking was nightmare as the website does not always work, and does not have a lot of photos. We ended up having to call in to make the booking, which we have never done before in the internet age. Still they made mistakes, and we had to call in to make changes.
Our family of 4 stay in a Studio unit, with a nice King Bed, and a pull down murphy. Both mattresses are like new and firm, (unlike the junks at various locations of Mt. Tremblant which badly need replacement). The Espace Nordik rooms is well worth the money, and we will definitely come back. They are very nice !!
Granite counter tops, dishwasher, fridge, Nespresso machine, the kitchen is fairly equipped, though there was a lack of serving plates. The room was clean, free of smell, and very specious. The dinner table fits 6. They even renovated the hallway so if you walk in the hallway of Espace Nordik rooms, vs the old rooms, the Espace Nordik hallways are much nicer.
Check in was easy, and the bellman was very helpful. Internet WI FI has strong signal, and no bandwidth problems. We even watched a movie.
Ch. Mont Saint Anne is a true Ski in Ski out hotel, you re literally 30-40 feet from the Gondola. Nobody salts or sand the pathway to the Gondola, which was a sheet of ice. So be very careful treking up this small hill to the Gondola. The Ski storage room has no ski locks or lockers, so we saw a lot of people taking the skis up to their rooms.
Now the Ski In Ski Out part is only true if you have a ticket. My friend wanted to use the GRADE 4/5 SNOW PASS, so he has to walk to the ticket office located at the far end of the ski resort. This adds an extra 15 mins. each way. The ticket office is ridiculously far away, and line up is super long and super slow. They should put another ticket office near the Gondola.
If you want a Tremblant Style village, go somewhere else. You have very limited restaurant choices for lunch(1/2 of which was closed, including the one at the hotel). So you are pretty much left with Greasy burgers, horrible fries, stale soup, and fighting for cafeteria seats of Mont Sainte Anne......... YUCK. So no lunch is served in this self proclaimed 4 star hotel, strange. The ski shop at MSA is not a full service shop. There are no stores, and distance between places are far, unlike the Stowe, Tremblant or Stratton Village. MSA is not there yet.
Nearly every major ski resort we have been too, has done away with 70s/80s style cafeterias, MSA has not catch up in this regard. They will need to upgrade this in order to entice the crowds from Tremblant, Killington, Stowe or Whistler to come here.
But we say again, the Espace Nordik room is a gem. Stay away from the old rooms though.......