Building burned | A youth hostel with windowless rooms

The building that fell prey to flames in Old Montreal on the night of Thursday to Friday housed a youth hostel with 20 rooms on the upper floors, where several visitors reported having stayed in windowless rooms.

Some also note the absence of smoke detectors and sprinklers, as well as the uncleanliness and lack of security of the establishment.

Read the article “A large fire would have left two dead”

Contacted by telephone on Friday morning, the operator of the Le 420 Hostel refused to give us information on the number of people on site at the time of the fire and on the configuration of the building.

He also refused to give his name. But according to Tourisme Québec records, the establishment is operated by the company 9395-8585 Québec inc., whose representative is Neir Abissidan.

In the Quebec business register, we also find the name of Robert Sebbag as president.

The youth hostel is the subject of a very large number of negative reviews on the rental booking platform. com, on the Expedia site and on Google.

“If there’s a fire, don’t imagine surviving, the corridors are narrow and the smoke detector is in pieces,” wrote on Google three weeks ago a visitor who left the premises after 30 minutes due to the uncleanliness and lack of security of the premises.

The Press has identified at least five customers who deplore having been accommodated in a room with no window leading to the outside.

“No window in the room, little or no insulation between our room and that of the neighbors,” wrote on Booking. com a person who stayed at the hostel last June.

“No windows, you go crazy quickly. Catastrophic soundproofing,” also laments a tourist in September 2023, supporting photos.

“A room without a window, we generally call it a storage room,” laments another French tourist on August 17.

In March 2023, Neir Abissidan admitted that two rooms in the inn did not have windows, adding that the plans had been approved by an architect and by the City of Montreal, which had granted him his transformation permit, according to Duty.

The journalist who then visited Le 420 noted the absence of sprinklers in the building.

Customers also deplore a recurring lack of cleanliness in the showers, insulation that leaves something to be desired and poor locks. “A few people seemed to infiltrate the building without having a reservation (homeless person),” reports a visitor, in a comment written in 2023.

“Upon arrival, a woman under the influence of drugs was there wandering around the floors. During the night, the police had to intervene,” says a Canadian tourist, in November 2023.

“This is the worst place my partner and I have ever stayed. How is it legal to sell rooms in this state? Stay away from this place. Absolute dump. Thank God we only stay one night in this pile of garbage,” denounced a British traveler on Google, after a stay there last May.

With Vincent Larouche, The Press