My wife and I drove to Montreal to visit our son on 5/28/23 and 5/29/23. We made a two night reservation at the Hotel St. Thomas. I asked one of the staff members whether the Valet Parking that they offer was safe and secure as we felt that it would be logistically easier for us than parking at the recommended lot near our son’s condo. I was assured that it was “safe and secure” and monitored by video surveillance, so we decided to utilize the valet service. On the morning of 5/30/23, I requested that my car be brought around to the front at 8:00am (we had a long drive back to our home in Baltimore, MD, USA). My car did not arrive at 8:00am, so at about 8:20am, I asked the person at the desk about the delay. She told me that “your car has been stolen”. Needless to say, we were in shock. We called the police and after a short time a very nice officer arrived and filed a report. He also explained that car theft is a terrible problem in Montreal. He explained that the thieves are very sophisticated and that they target US cars which they steal and take to the nearby port for quick shipment abroad. We called Lexus to have them try to trace the car to no avail (the officer said that the first thing that the thieves do is to disable the tracking system). We then walked around to the allegedly “safe and secure” parking lot to see it first-hand. It’s open air with very easy access. We immediately called our insurance company (Geico) to file a claim. We then had to figure out how to get home. We tried the airlines, but the few flights that were available were outrageously expensive. We then tried rental cars, but there were none available at any of the rental car companies that could be picked up in Montreal and dropped off in the US. We finally found an Uber driver who was willing to drive us to the Burlington, VT airport where we could rent a car from Budget for our drive back to Baltimore. Geico does not cover the cost of a rental car until 48 hours after the event is reported so we had to personally pay for the rental car to get us back to Baltimore, the above mentioned Uber ride, the approximately $1,822 of personal items in the car, and the $250 insurance deductible. After we returned home, I called the hotel’s owner to ask about the video footage of the parking lot. He said that they saw nothing on the video (makes me suspicious regarding whether there really is video surveillance) and to request reimbursement for our out-of-pocket costs resulting from the theft of our car while it was under their custody and care. Honestly, the hotel surely knew of the problem of car thefts in Montreal and should have warned us and forgone the $35 parking fee. If they had, we would have used the other parking facility recommended by our son. The owner passed me off to the hotel administrative staff. I sent the staff an email, and they replied with an offer to reimburse us for the Uber ride ($275.71) and a 15% discount on our stay ($90.08). In summary, our out-of-
Outstanding
100 Reviews