To preface this: I never review hotels online. Ever. However, I had a particularly bad experience with The Lodge at Mt. Snow and wanted to note it here so that people can avoid what happened to my boyfriend and me when we tried to stay here this past summer.
My boyfriend and I wanted to do a bit of hiking in Vermont over this past summer, and upon researching hotels/lodges The Lodge at Mt. Snow came up. Prior to booking with The Lodge at Mt. Snow, we did a lot of research on the place (clearly not enough) - looked at pricing, location, reviews, and even called and spoke with a rep there - to make sure that this place was legit. All seemed good, so we went ahead and booked a room for 3 nights 6 weeks in advance. When we arrived at the Lodge, the reception desk was empty and a sign instructed us to call "202" on a nearby phone for assistance. We called "202" and spoke with Jim (I suppose he's the owner), who told us that our reservation was changed to The Inn at Mt. Snow, which is right next door. He wouldn't tell us why, so left with no other option, as Jim was "too busy" to attend to us, we went to The Inn at Mt. Snow. When we went to the Inn, we were told:
1) that The Inn at Mt. Snow is in no way related to The Lodge at Mt. Snow
2) that Jim asked the women at the Inn to take us in because he overbooked the lodge and
3) that Jim was probably "hiding" because of the situation.
Now, I'll say this: it was nice that Jim did think enough about us to try to find us another place to stay. However, he did not call or e-mail us about the room situation beforehand and - according to the lovely women working at the Inn - this Jim overbooks all the time. In addition, Jim failed to tell the women how long we were going to stay there and it turned out that they did not have any rooms available for more than one night. They called other hotels and lodges, all of which were booked. They called Jim, and he instructed us to go to Nordic Hills Lodge - which is another town over - because he called them and they said that they could take us. When my boyfriend and I got into the car, I called Jim to ask him about the money situation (we booked the room online and submitted a small deposit), and he said that he would deposit it into my bank account. He then apologized for the situation and explained that there was a "glitch" in the system that caused him to overbook us. I asked Jim what the rep at Nordic Hills said regarding lodging for us, and he tells me that he never actually spoke to someone from Nordic Hills - just left voicemails. So, with no other option, my boyfriend and I drove to Nordic Hills (which is a good 20 minutes away), and the place was completely dark and locked. No one seemed to be lodging there. As we're walking away, Debbie, the owner of Nordic Hills, runs out the door and asks what she can do for us. We explain our situation, and she tells us that she's booked for the weekend and that Jim from The Lodge overbooks and sends people her way for this reason ALL THE TIME. In the end, Debbie was able to accommodate us, and we had a very nice time there and in Vermont.
On the phone, Jim sounds like a really nice guy. However, the fact that Jim did not call or email us to tell us that he overbooked us (which he did know about in advance because he asked the women at The Inn at Mt. Snow to take us in hours before we arrived) is highly unprofessional. The fact that he decided to hide out and not speak to us in person (we NEVER saw him - he refused to speak with us in person), as well as lie about actually speaking to someone at Nordic Hills, is absurd and immature. Also, he never did deposit the room deposit into my bank account, even though I called him several times about the matter and even though HE TOLD ME that he did deposit the money. In the end, I did a credit card dispute, which was approved.
Case in point: If you book with The Lodge at Mt. Snow, there's a good chance that Jim will overbook you, leaving you to find lodging at the last minute. Don't take that chance. Find another place. I recommend The Inn at Mt. Snow (the women there tried to help us find a new place to lodge, a task that was Jim's, not theirs, and they were incredibly nice and helpful; also, the place is beautiful), which is right next to the lodge, or Nordic Hills Lodge (also lovely). read more