The Stanley Hotel

DO NOT plan a stay here -The Stanley property is under huge construction on the entire grounds. No gardens or landscape only cyclone fences, dirt, and a lot of construction vehicles. No mountain escape feel-you may as well stay in the city. Contstuction is loud and disruptive! Construction starts early am and goes to early evening and every room can hear it. We heard so many patrons complaining of the construction noise. They don’t warn you of the construction at booking and refuse to give discounts once you realize the relaxing stay you wanted has turned into a nightmare because you have to wake up to construction sounds. Horrible experience and expensive waste of a vacation! Also the ghost tour was a bust-little history and little mention of paranormal activity.

Location-Amazing 5 Atmosphere- Historic and Interesting 5 Room 329- Dirty. Not cleaned well at all. Asked the manager to have housekeeping come and remove dust build up (I’m not talking some dust film…I’m talking months and months of neglect) from lamp shade next to bed, bed frame and floor between nightstand and bed where there was also tortilla chip debris). To their credit, they did in fact come back and try to fix with direction given by my husband. My husband said the vacuum housekeeping used was very old. The carpet needs deep cleaning at a minimum. There is debris and food under the heat register. Moved the chair out from the corner to enjoy the view and looks like coffee or pop spill dried on the register and wall. The floor surrounding the furniture under the TV caked dust dirt hair debris etc etc etc. The view out of the window is amazing , however the windows are filthy! You can see someone has letter written with their fingers on the outside of the glass. Also no screens in two out of three windows. There’s also brownish red drip marks on the left window frame onto the heat register. I will say the bathroom (smelled of bleach) is very clean as Is the linen. Went to the restaurant, and the actual menu is different from the menu posted on the website. The selections are less than appealing as are the exorbitant pricing. I’ve been reading reviews and cleanliness seems to be a reoccurring theme that owners and management alike do not put much stock into. That’s unfortunate considering the history of the hotel and the potential. If I had to guess the thought process is who cares people are still coming and they’re still going to pay outrageously for rooms that we aren’t going to put a dime into or manage staff appropriately and set expectations above the sub-par level. As far as the construction noise it is what it is. We were told they’re expanding the parking lot as well as a horror movie museum or something. Tacky, chintzy, hokey, whatever you want to call it. The Stanley could be not only a classic destination it it could be classy. Unfortunately that is not what’s happening currently.

We enjoyed our stay at the Stanley, but I wanted to warn other travelers that it is a massive construction site right now. If I had known, I might have still stayed there, but I would have requested a different room. Right now, the back side of the main building it a dirt pit. Construction starts at about 7:30 a.m. and wraps up at 5 p.m. Because the building has no air conditioning, our room got quite hot. Normally we would open the windows, but the dust from the construction site would come into the room. We would open the windows in the evening to cool it off, which works out fine if you're not in your room during the day. (Pro tip: Sit on the front porch instead!) Other than that, we really enjoyed our stay. We did two of the guided tours, the ghost tour and the Shining tour. They're both fun.

This is somewhere I have always wanted to stay. I had the opportunity to stay this past weekend. I was not disappointed. We stayed in the main hotel. Our room was great. There was a lot of room to move around and there was a nice sized closet to place our luggage and hang our clothes. The windows were very large and they could be opened. The bed was comfortable but there were only three pillows on the king sized bed. The hotel was very clean inside and the grounds were well maintained. The staff were very friendly and accommodating. It was expensive to stay there, but I am glad we stayed there. It was something that was on my bucket list, so I had to stay when the opportunity presented itself. One thing I found frustrating was the thermostat that lit up each time motion was detected. When a person turns over the thermostat lit up for a few seconds. When I mentioned it to the front desk the person working didn't seem surprised. It was disappointing. It was certainly something that could have been mentioned at check in. There is also a lot of construction on the grounds.

This place is a complete rip-off. Three hundred and fifty a night for a room with no air conditioning, no regular cleaning service, no place for more than one suitcase, tiny room, and to top it off an event being held during our visit took all of the guests parking at the hotel. Both front and back of the hotel are going through major construction taking up all of the outside guest areas. And you get to listen to large earthmoving equipment all day long. None of which was mentioned on the website. Instead of updating and maintaining the legacy and history of these grounds the management chose to tout the dubious distinction of being a location used in films Dumb and Dumber, and the Shining. The real horror here is to your senses and bank account. This place is blight on Estes Park.