The Stanley Hotel

I've always wanted to stay at The Stanley and I finally got a chance. It was disappointing. The Stanley is a beautiful old hotel that desperately needs maintenance. Peeling paint, tattered carpet, too big furniture that makes it impossible to walk around both sides of the bed, no information in room regarding room service, check out, amenities...,sink handles improperly installed, uncomfortably hard mattress, and a room number sign that was a piece of cardboard with the room number written on it in ball point pen. It's such a waste to have such a lovely hotel that you don't properly maintain! This could be an amazing place, if they took care of it. Finally, when checking out we were being charged for a prepaid stay--luckily I brought my confirmation along! This hotel needs a lot of work!

Short and sweet review: Pros- Beautiful hotel on the outside. Friendly employees. Easy parking. Great to lake estes, estes tram, and downtown shops and restaurants. Tour was great. Food at restaurant on main floor was good also. Cons- Needs upgrades everywhere. Each floorboard creaks, and creaks loudly. So you will hear every single person walking at any hour of the night. It's hot as hell. No AC or window units. Open windows and then hear everything outside all night. No fridge in room, no continental, no area for snacks/ hygiene products.

This is our fourth or fifth time at the Stanley. We came with our two daughters who are now in their 30's. The first time we were here they were 7 and 4. (that was under a different management). We stayed in one of the condos on the hill behind the main hotel. We ate dinner and lunch once each at the Cascade Restaurant. The food has improved a lot since our last stay but it is expensive. Also a stop at the bar in the Cascade is a must if you drink at all. They have a huge bourbon list. In previous stays my wife and I have stayed in the main hotel. Most of the rooms are cramped. Think 1915. But there are a few that are quite large and have nice views of the town. Again nothing is inexpensive here.

If you like history you would love this place. It is very expensive but it was an experience. The hotel doesn't have air conditioning but you can open the windows and get a very nice breeze. They didn't have anything to hold up the windows so the cleaning person told me to use the small trash can in the room. The grounds are gorgeous and there was so much to look at and you could sit on the front porch and enjoy the view. We did have a leak in our room at 9:15pm that night so we called the front desk and they sent someone up about 10 minutes later and move us to The Lodge area from the main hotel. The room was very nice that we were moved to and the breakfast the next day was amazing. The blueberry muffins were out of this world. I wish we had went on the ghost tour but we didn't have time that day.

If you are into old historic hotels, you might enjoy spending a night or two at the Stanley. First the positives: 1) The setting is gorgeous and elk may wander through the grounds; 2) One can take tours of the hotel, including ghost tours, for $20 fee; tours are open to non-hotel visitors and are not included in the room rate; 3) The on-site bar is lovely, good and popular; 4) The breakfast buffet is lovely with a nice selection of delicious pastries, fresh fruit, yoghurt, coffee, tea and other items that make for a nice, self-serve breakfast. However, be forewarned: 1) Even if you book a room here, you may not have secured a room in the old hotel; instead you may have a room located in newer annex (a one-third sized replica of the original) located just east of the older hotel; this smaller hotel is airy, lovely and slightly newer with its own breakfast room; 2) Neither hotel has AC, but it's is not the lack of AC that will affect one's stay; it will be the noise, since hotel visitors will have to leave the window open at night. With the hotel being U-shaped, noise from the internal patios (on the north side) tends to reverberate up and into the rooms; 3) So-so service - for such an expensive hotel, service ranges from poor or unresponsive to average. During our check-in, the person at reception bristled at being asked a second time (respectfully & politely) to confirm that our room was pre-paid. This bristling demeanor reminded us of the type of service we encountered in St. Petersburg, Russia - surly, officious and not at all warm & fuzzy. And not what one would expect from an expensive hotel in the Colorado high country. We asked for someone else to review the reservation and that person was much more polite and service oriented. Other server at the hotel tended to be efficient, again without a warm-fuzzy demeanor more commonly found in the Colorado high country. 4) The hotel has a funky layout, having moved access to registration to the east side rather than directly in front of the hotel. Signage around the hotel provides NO indication of where one should go for reception, plus there is no bell cap, another anomaly for a hotel with $300 + rooms. During our stay, we saw several guests wandering around, hauling luggage up and down stairs, trying to find reception; 5) Food from the hotel's kitchen (which provides food for two on-site restaurants) is good with limited selection and somewhat overpriced for what one gets and the service.