HI Lake Louise Alpine Centre — Hotel in Alberta

I had an extremely upsetting and disrespectful experience at this hostel in late July 2025.

Around 9:30 PM one evening, I, a young female who traveled there alone, was suddenly woken up in my room and brought to the hallway by a male staff for questioning — without any prior explanation, without any physical loss, and without anyone even bothering to contact me by phone or email first. I was accused of possibly taking someone else’s belongings, even though I had done nothing wrong. The whole conversation took 30 mins and it was so harsh and stressful.

I cooperated fully, yet the staff’s attitude — especially the manager on duty — was cold, accusatory, and dismissive. At no point did anyone apologize for the distress or disruption caused. Despite that the manager was the one decided to send a single man staff to pull me out of my room, she never showed up or talked to me in person. According to my second conversation with that male staff, she even praised that him “did a good job” for what he did to me! She obviously treated me as a simple test for that male staff who just started working there since this April! I requested multiple times to talk to her but she never cared to reply to my request in text (I asked the male staff to text her). Being treated this way, especially as a solo traveler at night, was humiliating and left me feeling unsafe and extremely disrespected. And what they did frankly showed their discriminations and bias against me based on my race, gender, age, and potential economic status.

I later sent a formal complaint to HI Canada, but now a month have passed without any response.

I’ve stayed in many hostels, including other HI locations in Canada and the U.S., and have never been treated this poorly. This incident suggests a serious lack of proper training, guest care, and accountability at this property.

⚠️ I do not recommend this hostel to anyone who values respect, safety, and basic dignity.

——— response for the reply: – My concern was never about your intention in following up a report, but about the actual conduct of your staff team, which left me feeling accused and disrespected. – Saying “no one accused you of anything” does not reflect what happened. The way your staff approached and talked to me clearly implied suspicion and made me feel singled out in front of others. – I emailed HI Canada not the manager, although no response anyway. The manager showed zero interest in addressing this issue with her direct effort when my whole person was there during the two-night stay. Instead, she only sent one staff to talk to me and ignored my request to meet (I even followed up about my request on the third day, before I checked out). If the manager already had no response when I was physically there, how likely that she would take my email seriously, or even open it? Hard to say...

My expectations for a hostel are: welcoming, comfortable, affordable. This hostel at Lake Louise is none of these things.

The dorm rooms were very clean but swelteringly hot and completely airless. Plus three of the beds were accessed by a steep LADDER! Terrifying in the pitch dark and potentially very dangerous. I would have appreciated being warned about that, and offered an alternative if possible.

The kitchen was understocked - the usual amenities that make a hostel so welcoming (free tea and coffee for example) were missing. Given the capacity, I expected more than one kettle for example; and there was a distinct lack of saucepans for the amount of guests using the kitchen.

The ‘lounge’ area was actually just two rock-hard couches at the end of a hallway; and again, stiflingly hot. Not exactly relaxing or comfortable!

The WiFi works only in certain areas and is painstakingly slow - I couldn’t even load a route on Google Maps.

And the cost: we booked over the phone via the central reservation office and were quoted two dorm beds for one night at “a total of” $55.15. That’s reasonable, and in line with all other hostels I’ve stayed at world-wide and within Canada. When we arrived (too late in the day to go anywhere else), we were told it would actually be over DOUBLE. A total of $132. Not only did the person on the phone quote me for one bed instead of two as I had asked, but they also quoted me the discounted member price so it was an additional $22 on the email confirmation I received (which I wasn’t able to read before paying because the internet was so slow!!).

We are travelling on bicycles so are usually unable to leave our belongings somewhere safe so we can go hiking. We were pleased to know we could store our bags at the hostel and they have bike racks and lockers. As we were quoted a reasonable amount, we were delighted with the affordability and actually changed our plans to remain in the area and make the most of the activities on offer. It is a shame that a lovely day ended on a sour note. We are travelling on such a tight budget that this was going to be a real treat for us, but instead it ended up being a real sacrifice; $132 is a week’s worth of campsites AND food.

Hostel International is obviously a business, out to make money; while I understand that this touristy area drives prices up, I am gobsmacked that they can get away with charging so much for a basic hostel set up.

The person on the front desk we dealt with was lovely and she did offer us the membership, but we declined, as needless to say we won’t be staying in...

Dear HI leadership,

I had the worst hotel or hostel experience of my life at the Lake Louise HI today. When I arrived at the hotel late last night I discovered that the water vending machine was not working. I had no cup or bottle of water to refill.

I was without water for 12 hours in a very dry and hot room. I woke up extremely dehydrated and barely able to speak. The vending machine still didn't work and the restaurant staff was kind enough to provide a plastic pitcher of water considering this predicament.

However, when I went to lunch I mistakenly left the pitcher in the restaurant. When I went to retrieve it they refused to provide one even though there were dozens. When I approached the front desk who were aware of my predicament being without a receptacle for water they were equally unhelpful and condescending. His exact words "you're not Canadian are you?"

It was pretty shocking hearing that in what is widely considered the friendliest country. He went on to explain that I can drink from any water source, which was not the concern. I had nothing to put the Water in. Did he expect that I would drink directly from the faucet?

When I decided to move on to accommodations were I might feel welcome and have access to the basic need for water I approached the front desk again. I politely asked for a refund, considering it was not check in time and the hotel was empty and I would not be staying. He refused once again to show any consideration for my predicament.

I hope that the staff at HI Lake Louise can use this as a learning experience. By simply providing a pitcher of water to a guest in a unique circumstance they could have avoided the situation and earned the minimum expectation for hospitality. By providing a refund in this unique situation they might have earned repeat business from a long time customer.

Unfortunately it will be a long time, if ever, that I stay within the HI network again. My hometown of Buffalo NY is home to a very good location and I am very confident they would have taken care of me. Buffalo being the city of good neighbors.

I went across the street to the Lake Louise Inn with many more amenities and much higher level of hospitality and customer service and was shocked to find they had the same rate. It would be very difficult for me to even consider wasting any time inquiring about a Hostel International if there is another option, considering this experience.

Respectfully,

Darren...