Hotel Review: Canalta Hotel, Melfort SK

The Canalta Hotel Melfort

Points required for a free night : 25,000 Canalta Rewards Points for standard room

Almost a year ago the Rewards Canada family stayed at the Canalta Hotel in Humboldt Saskatchewan and really enjoyed it. The hotel was awesome for the type and star rating. You can read the review of that hotel here.

Fast forward to March 2016 and we have more travel to rural Saskatchewan where hotel choices are slim pickings. Lucky for us and many other travellers, Canalta Hotels is springing up in these smaller towns across Western Canada where previously only hotels that aren’t very good exist. This time we were north of Humboldt in the Melfort area and seeing that Canalta has a hotel in Melfort it was the most logical choice. They also have one 20 minutes away in my wife’s childhood stomping grounds of Tisdale. All I can say is the other hotel options in the area aren’t so appealing so we are very happy to have Canalta around. In fact I believe this move by the Drumheller based company to open up nice, clean, comfortable hotels with decent amenities in rural spots is a very smart one.

The Canalta in Melfort is very similar to the one in Humboldt although smaller. It does not have a pool and waterslide like Humboldt, only a very large hot tub with steam room. We had a
standard 2 queen bed room that looked and felt just like the one in Humboldt although once again smaller. The rooms next to us were a bit bigger based on the fire exit map on our door and the build of the hotel, so I believe it was one of those larger ones we had in Humboldt. The little bit of size difference could be felt however with two adults and teen and a tween all with our own luggage as the room did seem a bit stuffed. We do love how they give pillow options of firm and soft (the choice is embroidered on the pillow cover) but for some reason we found the beds not very comfortable even though they are probably the same ones in Humboldt? They are very ‘loose’ in that you can feel every little movement in them. Perhaps I’m nitpicking a bit but the fact is all four of us didn’t have very good sleeps. Other features we like in the room are the microwave and fridge. It was nice to have fridge to place our drinks etc. as that is one item I seem to miss in a lot of higher end hotels. Even though the Sheraton in Saskatoon we stayed at on the same trip (review coming soon) had a smaller mini bar fridge which was usable only if you removed the items for sale. Here are some of my pictures from the room.

The bathroom had your standard hotel fixtures, nothing fancy at all but appropriate for this type of hotel. This is the picture from the hotel website as I didn’t grab a photo myself:

Just like the stay last year in Humboldt what impressed us the most was how clean the room and the hotel was.
Canalta definitely knows how to take care of their properties and have employees who take care in keeping the hotel in great condition. The shower and
bathroom were spotless. The same goes for the carpets, beds and other room furniture.
They didn’t show signs of aging, stains or anything else.

Probably the most lacking part of the stay was the Continental Breakfast that was included. Compared to the one in Humboldt this one needs work.  Unlike Humboldt there wasn’t any hot meat items, only what seemed to be powdered eggs which were horrible and not very warm hashbrown patties. If you are making your way through Melfort and stay here I’d suggest avoiding the hot foods and go for traditional continental breakfast items or utilize the make your own waffle station. There is always another option, Tim Horton’s which is 30 seconds away on the other end of the parking lot.

Overall I would stay at this location again or the Tisdale one as it seems to be a duplicate build but chances are more of our future Saskatchewan travel will be a bit south so we’ll base ourselves in Humboldt at the larger Canalta with the pool and waterslide with the better breakfast. In general though I really have to commend Canalta for their rural presence and providing some great hotels to stay at when all the other options are well not so good.

Have you stayed at any of Canalta’s locations in Western Canada? What
are you impressions of this small Canadian chain? Let us know by
commenting below!