I spent 3 nights here for a friend's wedding in mid November. We were excited to come and have a romantic getaway, I'd heard so much about this place that I was looking forward to it.
Pros: the location is gorgeous. Beautiful spot, surrounded by nature, elks wandering all over the property, lake right beside the cabins with a lovely walking trail around. You'll be staying in an individual cabin or lodge, within a short walk of the main building where the restaurants and other facilities are. There's a planetarium on site for dark sky viewing (unfortunately it was too cloudy the nights we were there to check this out) and lots of relaxation facilities such as spa and pool and gym. Probably a lovely spot to wander around on a warm summer night looking at the stars and the wildlife.
Cons: way overpriced for the rooms you get. Maybe if you splurge on the $500+ per night rooms you get better quality? But we were in the "Lake View" rooms (which are still $250+/night even in the middle of November) and very unimpressed.
Heating/air quality
Knowing guests would be arriving, I would expect a quality hotel would have turned up the heat in the room in advance. But nope - the rooms were freezing cold and took ages to heat up, we ended up bundled in jackets huddling over hot tea. Since we are in covid times, I had a portable CO2 monitor with me to measure air quality. In the main lodge it was actually generally pretty good; under 700 ppm for the most part, outside of peak times/evening crowds. But in the room itself the ventilation was AWFUL. The first morning we woke up to find it was reading over 2000ppm which is entering ranges that can affect breathing and sleep quality. After that we slept with the window cracked open even though it was -18C outside overnight. Compounding this, the bathroom didn't even have a ventilation fan; I actually called to check this wasn't just broken, and the maintenance guy came by but said these rooms didn't have a extractor fan, just "passive ventilation". As a result, after every shower the bathroom was like a swamp and let out clouds of steam into the room. I had assumed summer would be a better time to visit, but I see from other reviews that there is no air conditioning either so I'm really not sure what would be a good time to come here.
Lack of convenience/luxury
The room itself was very bare - a bed, two side tables (one containing a safe) with a tiny drawer in each, and a TV stand that also contained a coffee maker, kettle, and fridge. One small dining table and two dining chairs. And that was it. Maybe .... a chest of drawers would be nice, to have somewhere to actually put your clothes? Sure, there was a big closet, but there weren't many hangers in it and even if there had been, that doesn't give you anywhere to put things like socks and underwear. No spare blankets, despite the weather; only one spare pillow. And the bathroom was ridiculous - so poorly laid out that you had to close the door in order to even access the shower. Not enough room for two people to be in the bathroom at once. There was a huge basin and counter that was almost entirely wasted space which took up half the floor room. Insufficient towel racks to hang wet towels. A magnifying makeup mirror that failed to stay in position and slowly drooped downwards while you tried to use it.
Lack of responsiveness
Given the cold weather, the stone floors were pretty chilly to walk on when going to the bathroom in the night. When housekeeping came around the first morning to ask if there was anything we needed, we asked if there were any robes we could use since it was so cold. The lady said she'd have some sent over. Later in the day, my partner got a text message checking in and asking if we needed anything; since the robes hadn't arrived yet, he reminded them we would like a couple of robes brought over, and was told they would be. Guess what we never received, for the entire time we were there? Yep, no robes ever materialized. Why aren't these standard in the room in the first place? I certainly expect a "luxury" hotel to supply complimentary bath robes for use on site.
Food quality
The food was okay, but not amazing. For the price they charge, it did not meet expectation. If I pay $12 for a smoked salmon bagel, I expect the bagel to be fresh, not a day or two stale. Friends at the wedding reported receiving the worst eggs benedict they'd ever eaten for breakfast. The wedding dinner was also fairly mediocre. We ended up eating in Jasper whenever possible - highly recommend "Downstream" for amazing steak. In the rooms themselves there was no room service menu, which made it inconvenient to figure out what was even available to get. And although there was a selection of tea and coffee, all the creamer was artificial chemical stuff, not real cream.
So, overall, this place is a nope from me. Next time I'm back in Jasper I'll pay the same or less and stay elsewherin a nice cabin with its own kitchen. read more