The Stanley

No doubt, this is an elegant, old hotel with a rich and interesting history. I spent two nights there and I will likely not stay there again. The hotel is an impressive sight and will likely meet your expectations for an old, historic property. The lobby is wrapped in dark wood walls and trim. The stairs are built from the same dark woods and creak the way you would expect them to when you walk up and down. The elevator is small and slow and gives you a feel for life in the early 1900s. There are old photos hanging on all the walls showing how people vacationed when the hotel was new. The rooms, which, of course, have been upgraded over the years, have some features that have otherwise been left behind in more modern hotels like thick wood trim around all the doors and windows, and wooden crown and baseboard moulding around the ceiling and floor, and marble countertops in the bathroom and bedroom. So, if you come to the Stanley with the intention to soak up the history, maybe take advantage of some of the tours and other experiences that are offered, and if you appropriately set your expectations to match what you would see in a 115 year old hotel, you might be satisfied. But I ran into some, admittedly small, but some other not so small problems. I'll talk about the small (some would justifyably say "nit-picky") problems first. It would have been nice to have a larger mirror in the room, maybe hung on one of the doors. There was no chair or desk in the room. There was no trash can in the bedroom. The lighting in the bathroom was poor (very dim). There were no soap dishes on either the bathroom sink or in the shower. What are you supposed to do with the bars of soap that the hotel provides? The bathroom sink was poorly installed leaving an unsightly, sloppy gap between the sink bowl and the marble countertop. (This oversight was inconsistent with what I expected from a somewhat more expensive hotel and simply introduced a bad impression about the overall, underlying quality of the maintenance of the hotel and, of course, the hotel itself.) There was no safe in the room. There was no refrigerator in the room. Here are some of the bigger issues that I ran into. The information I received said that the rooms in the main hotel (where we stayed) had no air conditioning. OK. I knew that going in and decided that would be OK. When we got to the room, there was, in fact, something like an air conditioner "connected" to the window and sitting on the floor (see photos). It was ... interesting, and I think it might have worked, but was certainly unexpected. The shower in the bathroom and, specifically, the shower faucet control was a real puzzle (see photos). First, when you rotated the shower handle, it just went around and around without any specific starting or stopping point. I mean, it was not loose. It felt functional, but there was no way to tell what was "on" or "off" or where hot or cold was. In fact, when I first rotated the handle, I cou

Very disappointed with our room. I did not have a chair, so I found it very difficult to put on my shoes. We also did not have a place to hang up the clothes, as there was no closet The bathroom lighting was terrible, although it’s recently renovated, and had no good lighting to make up for it. We were also disappointed in the staff; no one was at the concierge desk most of the time. There was no signage, so finding where things were located was difficult.

Lacey, at the front desk, went above and beyond to make sure we had an enjoyable and memorable stay! We had some issues with the appliances and overall electricity in our room, but Lacey treated us with friendliness and professionalism to resolve our concerns. The hotel grounds are gorgeous, much like the surrounding Estes Park, and we will plan on returning at some point in the future! Thank you Lacey!