Westmark Fairbanks Hotel & Conference Center — Attraction in Fairbanks

We spent 2 nights too many at this hotel at the end of our Holland America cruise/land tour. The hotel as others mentioned is cruise central for Holland in Fairbanks, with buses coming and going daily and lots of people hanging out in the lobby waiting to depart. On the positive side, staff are friendly and helpful, the lobby and rooms are attractive, towels are replaced daily and room trash is emptied, there is a fridge and coffeemaker in the rooms (no microwave), and the bed was comfortable with plenty of pillows. |Now the numerous problems: Hall carpets are filthy and need a good cleaning and the walls are gouged and woodwork dinged throughout. As soon as we entered our room, we noticed the carpet had not been vacuumed and the room was uncomfortably warm. The heaters under the window were blasting heat, but the gauge on the wall said the heat was turned off. We tried the AC, but it couldn't compensate. Family members in another room tried calling us and we tried calling the front desk, but the room phone wasn't working. I went down to the front desk, and they sent a maintenance person to our room. He had to reset the phone, and took the heater covers off to turn off the heat. He left, and we noticed that the heater was still sending heat out of the wall. Meanwhile, we turned on the tv and discovered it wasn't working. (We found out all of the tvs in the building were turned off for awhile.) I tried calling the front desk again but it was consistently "busy". Our family members came to our room and said there was a puddle of water around their room toilet. They tried calling the desk, got "busy", so went down to report and were told it was just "condensation". They kept a towel around the toilet. I went back to the front desk, they said I might have to use the fan that was in the closet, but they sent the maintenance person back. He unlocked our door and walked in without knocking. He opened up the heater again and said he had turned it completely off. Heat continued to come out of the wall unit, so we gave up and kept the window open, ran the fan, and had the AC blasting the rest of our stay. |When I got ready to go to bed, I noticed one of the pillow cases had a small blood spot. When we showered in the AM, the hot water was inconsistent becoming cooler and hotter. The tile bathtub surround was a mess of weird grout treatment, and the grout along the floor was discolored and dusty. Our door lock malfunctioned and wouldn't respond to our cards without multiple attempts to get in our room. The hotel is noisy at night with slamming doors and the sound of running water. The bathroom had just bare amenities. |We tried to eat dinner at one of 2 hotel restaurants but one had a $50/pp buffet the first evening and the other had a 45-60 minute wait. They didn't take reservations. We went without dinner and ate snacks. Breakfast "buffets" were $19 for a small continental breakfast (cereals, yogurt, fruit, oatmeal, pastries), or $23 for hot items. It was a total ripoff, but there are no restaurants within close walking distance so they have a captive audience. Some package deals had breakfast "vouchers", but ours did not. |We would definitely not stay here if ever in Fairbanks again. The rest of our trip had been good, but this was a disappointing way to...

I'll preface this by saying staff members were pleasant. Unfortunate the stay/ room itself left much to be desired. Starting at check-in I was given key cards to a room in the 'B' tower. A considerable distance away from the main hotel that led to a less desirable, old brown annexed bldg. Had to reload the car after unloading to check-in so I could drive around to the dark side.

Once there I found my way to the 3rd floor in an elevator that opted for grinding gears and knocking noises rather than those annoying smooth jazz instrumentals one would normally suffer thru. It was already well past midnight so I made my way quietly to my assigned room only to discover a "do not disturb" sign in the handle. Confused I contemplated going in anyway but thought better of it and lugged all of my bags back to the concierge phone by the noisemaker and called the front desk. The front desk assured me this was a normal practice of housekeeping (perhaps to deter others or for funsies) so I preceeded back down the hall to try my luck. Let's just say I'm glad the occupant of the room wasn't awake enough to stand their ground against an intruder (me) because the moment I pushed the door open it was immediately and loudly stalled by the secondary locking mechanism. The door, being obviously locked from the inside, was an indication of the room in fact being occupied. I hurried back to the phone and expressed my discontent. Then made my way back down 3 floors, back to the front desk to get assigned a new room and key because they could not leave thier post to bring me one. It's now past 1am and I am heading to the 4th floor. Back into rickety ride I go and up 4 floors, wary all the while that I am a suspect in an attempted burglary on 3rd. Nonetheless i made it without incident and started to settle in. But oh the bathroom disco! I was met with the flickering bright light of an LED ceiling light in the bathroom and no other recourse but to risk a seizure while I accepted this new reality and showered anyway.

The rest I will express in a string of commas and absurdities for the sake of time... tub faucet loosened from the wall with a considerable gap, a broken window that would not close all the way, a leaky soap dispenser that left an ever-growing sticky blue stalagmite in the tub, brilo-pad textured face towels, a questionable stain on the floor in front of the sink, and a television I'm convinced is sabotaged by a malicious AI entity that delighted in going in and out of service.

To thier credit I did let them know of the blinky light the next morning and expressed a desire to have it fixed. They sent maintenance up right away and it was replaced.

All in all not the relaxing, stress-free experience I had hoped for tho. But the soup in the restaurant is really good. Hence the 2nd star.

I would not recommend based on the experience I had but willing to give it another go in the far...

We, my wife and I, stayed here on the final nights of our Holland American cruise and land tour. ||After a 3 hour bus trip we were obviously tired and needed refreshing before going out for dinner. We got to the hotel about 5:30 PM. ||We went to our room on the fifth floor. Walked into the room. Our luggage was there and then a shock. The bed was unmade. Towels in bathroom floor. The room had not been cleaned! Never in 50 years of travel has this ever happened to us. ||We walked out and went to Holland’s service desk. They seemed unconcerned and told us to go to the hotel desk as there was nothing they could do. ||We waited in line for 25 minutes. I timed it. The representative was a little apologetic and got another room for the same comfort and price level on the second floor. She assured us the room had been clean as it said so in the computer. OK? So how were we assigned a dirty room in the first place if the status shows up in the software? Promised to deliver our luggage as soon as possible. ||This room had at least been cleaned. But the carpet was old and very dirty. Many stains and food residue in several places. The carpet not been cleaned in many years. Mold in the shower in several places. ||Other: A pole lamp was loose at the base. We leaned it on the wall so it would not tip over. Window sill was dirty and the crank to open the window was broken. The conditioner in the bathroom had separated into two colors. Looked like it not been changed in a long time. ||At this point it was late and so we had no choice but to accept it. ||Then. We were out the next day, and the room was not serviced. We were out of coffee and almost out of toilet paper. Back to the front desk and they told us the rooms are only serviced and cleaned after a guest checks out. We complained again about the issues. Then this rep, who was different from the first one, did offer us a free breakfast buffet for the next day. That was nice. But why was this gesture not made at the beginning? ||After staying at top level accommodations from the ship, in Seward, Anchorage and Denali one would expect the same here. ||This place needs severe cleaning and renovation. I have heard since then that Holland used to own this hotel, but sold it earlier this year. Maybe that’s why they don’t care. ||I’ve attached some photos of the second floor room. Don’t stay...