Kootenay Park Lodge

My sister and I stayed at the Kootenay Park Lodge the night before starting a backcountry trip. Based on the photos on their website, we were very excited-- it looked great. When we arrived it was a very different story. ||The reception area felt abandoned. What was once likely an information hub/visitor centre for hikers embarking on the nearby Rockwall Trail, it now contained a disarray of boxes, garbage, empty shelves and display cases where brochures and maps would be. When we walked in there were no lights on and no staff, making us think we were at the wrong place. Eventually someone (who spoke little English) checked us in. We asked for a map of the area and were given a map of an entirely different park. When we expressed that we were seeking of a map of the park we were in, we were told they didn't have any. We were also told, when we asked where the restaurant was, that it was closed that day. We had intentionally not eaten dinner in Canmore because the Lodge's dining room looked great. Because I'm a celiac, we checked the menu on the website earlier that day to ensure there would be options for me. It listed the hours of operation (7 days a week) and did not indicate that it was closed. Based on the fact that the restaurant windows were boarded up and the front door was swinging open, exposed the interior to the elements, it was clear that it hadn't been in use in a while. When we asked the staff member about this, he claimed he didn't understand what we were asking. The lodge is remote and we didn't bring things for dinner which meant that the day before we embarked on a multi-day hike, my dinner consisted of potato chips and an apple. When we asked to speak to a manager, we were told that they weren't available.||The room was dirty and in terrible repair which was sad because the structure itself was beautiful. Clearly there was no respect for the history of the site. All of the screens on the windows and door were torn, the curtains were filthy, the curtain rods were hilarious (some were hung upside down; others were simply nailed right into the wall, and mismatched), and there was no hot water. The renovations made to the bathroom were sloppy and embarrassing. In the middle of the night a mouse got into our room which meant we got little sleep. There was no use trying to shoo it out since the multiple gaps in the walls meant it would have come right back. ||When we checked out in the morning we again asked for the manager and were again told he wasn't available so we asked for a phone number so we could follow up later. ||When we got home, we called the number multiple times and left several messages. We also sent many emails and included photos of the state of our room and the property. There was no response. We then contacted Visa, BC Tourism, and the Better Business Bureau to file complaints. After the BBB was in touch with the manager, he finally got back to us and told us that he'd refund us 50% of our stay. Not surprisingly, we never saw the refund despite multiple attempts to contact him. ||I wish I would have read reviews of this place before booking. Based on the reviews, it looks like it used to be nice but went downhill after it was sold to new owners. The sad thing is that it has the potential to be beautiful under the right care. It might be the worst place I've ever stayed at.

This place is absolutely NOTHING like advertised on different sites. The pictures they use are unreal and do not represent the accommodations at all with the cabins being really run down, no restaurant and the grounds being unsafe.|The cabins are run down and unsafe with an excessive amount of vermin feces, wires from addition of water and such hanging free in the cabins, along with not having the same amenities in each cabin. The first cabin we stayed in leaked during a storm, so they moved us to another one. The first cabin had a little refrigerator, microwave and a radiator heater. The second one had NO refrigerator, a microwave and NO heater. We went and snagged the radiator heater from the first cabin so we would have heat. Also, an excellent decision to take our car refrigerator saved us! After we used a few towels to clean up the leaky mess in the first cabin, they informed us that we would need to take our towels to the new cabin, because they didn't have any more clean towels. The kid working here was very kind, but the rest of the staff did not speak English well at all, and you could tell he felt stuck in the middle. We eventually got one more towel so that we could shower.|They advertise having a restaurant on site, which is NOT true. They have built a nice deck off he side of the defunct restaurant. We counted on them having food, so with no food on site, we had to go get food to bring back to the cabin, which cost us extra time and money. Radium Hot Springs saved us! They have some excellent restaurant and store choices, along with some live music thrown in. |Around the lodge grounds they have building materials, power tools, broken picnic benches, run down buildings, and they only mowed around the cabin they first booked us into. If you have children, they can not be left unattended due to the many things kids could get hurt on. The grounds are just a mess. |They do have a trail that leads down to the creek, which was beautiful. The scenery was definitely the only saving grace to this place.

Kootenay Park Lodge looks nothing like the website promises; instead, it is derelict to the point of looking abandoned and is a dump. My sister and I booked this lodge for the night before a backcountry hiking trip on the Rockwall Trail. Even though it was pricier than we would normally spend, we decided to splurge for the night before our trip on the trail. We specifically did not eat in Canmore and planned to have dinner there because the place looked so charming. We couldn’t believe our eyes when we arrived. The lodge lights were mostly out, and the shelves in the reception / gift shop area mostly empty. Despite the fact the website shows photos of well-kept cabins, our cabin was falling apart and dirty, and had ripped screens on all the windows, and some of the windows did not close. We had a mouse in our room and had a horrible sleep. And despite the fact the website advertises that the restaurant is open seven days a week, it was closed and clearly had not been open this summer at all. The patio was full of cardboard boxes. We had no food for the night before our backcountry trip and if it wasn’t for the kindness of strangers from Syria who insisted that we take food they had with them in their car, we would have gone hungry. We told the people at the front desk that we refused to pay for the cabin and wanted to talk to a manager; we were told a manager would be on-site in the morning. There was no manager in the morning so we said we wanted to talk to the manager when we returned. The manager did not return our phone calls. They did reply to one email message and said they would charge us half the price, but when my Visa bill came they had charged the full amount. We’ve tried to let BC Tourism know, as this place should be fined and shut down. It is a scam.||

It’s a basic wooden cabin. No coffee machine or TV or cell service. No breakfast included. There no other facilities. The Resturant is not open in the afternoon. So if you arrive hoping for an evening meal - you are on your own. Not worth the money to stay here - sorry. The staff were very understanding and gave us free food and drinks. So that was nice. Very close to the river.

I'm not very picky about lodging, but Kootenay Park Lodge failed even basic standards. The next night I stayed at a hostel which was much more comfortable than this place and only cost 30 dollars. ||Some issues with Kootenay Park Lodge I could deal with- for example, there was no curtain over the window in the bathroom so any neighbor walking by can see you shower or use the toilet, so I put a towel over the window. There was a large 3cm gap above and below the door in cabin 2 where bugs could crawl in, so I stuffed towels there too. The restaurant was closed and this wasn't mentioned on the website and there were no others within 45 minutes, so I bought microwavable pasta from the general store to eat. ||However, too many other things were dealbreakers. Cabin 2 did not have a working shower, so I was moved to Cabin 6. Cabin 6 had a working shower, but no hot water in the shower so I took a cold shower. The worst was that the toilet in Cabin 6 did not flush. I went back to the front desk when I noticed this around 9pm, but there was nobody there. I gave up and just didn't have a working toilet all night. In the morning I noticed that the smoke detector in Cabin 6 was opened and didn't have a battery in it- and each cabin has a woodburning fireplace.||I understand that they are in the process of remodeling, but they are not ready for visitors and should not accept bookings. For over 260 dollars a night, I would expect at least indoor plumbing and basic safety.

I booked a cabin with 2 double beds for the night. (This was approximately $40 more expensive than a cabin with only one double bed at the time of booking.) Upon arrival I was told that this cabin had no hot water and that I could have a cabin with 2 twin beds. I said this would not work for us. After some clarification, I was told the cabin being offered actually had 1 king bed and 2 twin beds. I said sure and I was taken to the cabin. The cabin I was brought to had one double bed. I explained that not only was this not what I was promised, but that this cabin was in fact less expensive than the one I booked. I was then taken to one of the newer cabins which has one single bed and one pull out couch. At this point, the check-in process had already taken about an hour so I said sure. ||||Since the restaurant on site is closed, and since there are no restaurant or food options nearby, the only reason I booked a stay at this hotel is because the room advertised a full kitchenette. When we got into the room I saw that only a sink and a mini fridge was available. There was also no cookware, utensils, or amenities in the cabin - not even soap or handsoap. Luckily I had my camping stove and the hotel attendant provided us with a pan that we could use to cook the burgers that we brought with us. They also provided soap upon request. ||||The cabin was heated by a propane stove. The stove was turned on when we arrived and was kept on the lowest setting. By the middle of the night, the heat was unbearable and our thermometer read 29 degrees Celsius. We made the decision to turn off the stove and hope that the heat would hold at a reasonable temperature until morning. There must be very little insulation in the cabin because by 4am the temperature read 18 degrees and it felt chilly. The propane stove is NOT straightforward to turn on so this was fun to play with at 4am. Needless to say this was a sleepless night and anyone traveling with children would find this to be a huge inconvenience.||||We packed up at 8am and left the key on the counter in the room because no attendant was to be found. I also want to mention the very aggressive dog who was kept on a leash next to the front desk. I love dogs and have been around them my whole life but I was terrified when this large dog lunged and me, baring it's teeth and barking. I felt extremely lucky that the leash didn't break. I hope this review paints a better picture of why this is at most a 2-star establishment. I will say the cabin we stayed in was very clean and spacious.

We stayed for 2 nights my girlfriend and I (really not picky people) and I Strongly DON'T recommend!! This place must have had new management that don't care about the place anymore. They are lacking in so many criterias such as; - there is NO service after 8pm, so basically we were 2 couples to arrive at the same time, a closed gate, no one to answer after calling them multiple times, the lobby completely dark and closed. Very difficult to reach someone to check-In. - No basic room stuff; no hand soap, no curtains, no shower curtain, no wi-fi or phone signal in the rooms. - There were MICE in our room, no kidding, saw them twice!! Room #3!! Had to close our luggage and make sure they didn't sabotage our stuff during the night. - Everything is crooked and super small. Someone commented earlier that if you are over 5"8, you won't fit... it's 100% true. - The owners have a aggressive and loudly barking dog which would wake everyone up whenever he would bark for several minutes. And for all of this, the room cost us 252$/night!!!! Please save your money and find another place! The surrounding towns/cities have that same sort of "forest cottage" experience and looked so much better.

The lodge was perhaps one of the worst experience we ever stayed. Once arrived around four pm (16:00), we were not informed that the restaurant was closed for some reason so we drove 45 miles one way to the nearest one for dinner. As for the room, the floor was slightly sloped; therefore, the headboard bed side was on the lowest slope so we had to elevate the pillows with towels and our clothes since there were no extra pillows. For its steep price, there were many ‘malfunction’ in the room which are: one of the two ceiling lights wasn’t working. The toilet papers were sitting on the bathroom window sill; the kitchen was not user friendly as the microwave was not plugged in; and the fireplace was not set up. The office with gift shop is poorly lit as well needs a lot of upper fixing. Even the lodge is sitting by the mountain, it is not well worth the money…