Miette Mountain Cabins — Hotel in Alberta

My partner and I stayed in the Miners Cabin with our large dog during the second last week of May. It was pretty rainy which is normal for this time of the year, and no signs of leaks anywhere in the cabin. Overall, we enjoyed our stay and thought the value was pretty great. We forgot to take photos of the inside of the cabin, but took some snaps of the beautiful views outside the cabins. Here are some pros and cons:

Pros: -Great value! -Pet friendly including large dogs -We were able to check in early as our cabin was ready early -We got a discount for phoning in to book -The seasonal pool/hot tub weren't quite ready to be open to the public yet, but we got a discount for that too -On-site restaurant is available (we did not try it) -Bunch of other fun amenities available on site. Their website has more information on those -Complementary coffee and tea -Reception provided a 15% off coupon for the brewery nearby (Folding Mountain Brewery) -Reception was very friendly and knowledgeable -Our T.V. remote wasn't working properly, but when we called reception for help, someone came almost immediately to help -The cabin was well cleaned -The cabin we booked was private and detached with it's own parking spot. It even had it's own front deck -The trail entrance was a very short walk away and beginner friendly with awesome mountain views, and views of punchbowl falls nearby, plus more -Loads of drawers available in the cabin for clothing and/or whatever else -The laundry detergent used on the towels/bedding smelled very mild -Rocky Mountain shampoo and conditioner was free/available for use in our cabin, plus locally made hand/body soap and lotion -The bed and pillows were pretty cozy

Cons: -The hot and cold settings on the shower/tub were backwards and took us a little while to figure out why cold water was running when we were turning it to hot. Then we turned it to cold and the water ran hot lol (advised reception of this) -There was no kettle in the room (there was a Keurig though) -Our cabin was freezing cold when we arrived and had to turn on the radiators and wait for the place to warm up -The door to the cabin was difficult to close and open. The strike plate looked to have some damage -We were situated very close to highway 16, which is good for easy access but bad for noise. Very busy, loud highway -Though we should have thought to check this, our minifridge temperature was left on the lowest temperature setting, and so it froze our food -We did not...

We’ve driven by the cabins a handful of times and upon arrival they are beautiful… the cabin we were assigned was not an individual cabin like ALL the images on booking.com (what we thought we had booked) but a motel like row of 4 in the back of the property. The charm of Pocahontas ended upon checking in. We turned key to find a dated cabin with a musty smell that didn’t invoke any security in the cleanliness of the room (especially during a pandemic when sanitary practices should be at a height). There were items from previous guests forgotten in the room which also nods to the fact that the place is not cleaned to normal standards. The carpet was so gross that we had our toddlers playing a strict game of the floor is lava as we didn’t want any blankets/toys landing on the floor. This “cabin” had the thinnest walls, we’ve never experienced anything like it; our first night had us in tears as the assumed family reunion we got sandwiched between gave us clear audio of everything. When I say everything, I mean we could hear the key being placed on the table in the cabin, I mean every time a door opened it sounded like someone was bursting into our room, I mean the singing and busting out of a guitar at 1am had us hugging our toddlers tight as they kept getting startled awake. With the completely awful communication (the front desk was seemingly unreachable from our numerous unanswered phone calls over our 2 day stay) we resorted to messaging the property though booking.com... it has been a week and we still haven’t had a response from the property after our midnight SOS messages. Completely negligent. From brutal wifi, plumbing issues, black mold around the shower, fixtures falling apart, and all of the above the steep price tags of over $300 a night leaves us with so much regret that our family holiday turned into a nightmare. Staying here was the most uncomfortable stressful stay we have EVER had. We’ve travelled all over the world and have had better stays in an 8 euro a night hostel. This might seem small, but even the photo of the playground on booking.com (a feature that we knew our kids would love) seems to have been falsified, the actual structure is a third of the size. So many details about this place and the experience they promise seems fabricated and not up to the most basic hospitality standards....

First of all, the main lodge was great, nice coffee machine, cool games room with so many options and a gift shop. The outside was also nice with a hot tub and fires. Once in our room everything was fine, the bathrooms were great, basic kitchen amenities and such. But here’s a few of the issues we faced. First off we stayed in the big cabin that is connected to a bunch of rooms sorta like a hotel. (Void this part if you plan to stay in an individual cabin.)Here’s where there’s a few problems, our upstairs tv didn’t work for one, and we had some sort of problem with our window which meant we could hear the outside (cars and people pretty well). The other thing was that the walls are really thin so if you have neighbours that talk a little bit at night or early in the morning you can hear everything. This meant we had a rude awakening at around 7am by the kids next door. This could be solved with any proper soundproofing legitimately a single small cough can be heard by everyone. The drawer for utensils was also blocked by the shaders so we couldn’t open it unless we moved it out the way which scrutinized our privacy.Here’s where there’s a few problems, our upstairs tv didn’t work for one, and we had some sort of problem with our window which meant we could hear the outside( cars and people pretty well). The other thing was that the walls are really thin so if you have neighbours that talk a little bit at night or early in the morning you can hear everything. This meant we had a rude awakening at around 7 by the kids next door. This could be solved by any proper sound proofing. The mattress and pillows are also not very comfortable but it’s definitely still fine. Our second night was really weird. Random power outage shut off all the lights randomly and water also didn’t work. Really disappointed as some simple things really turned off the experience. To conclude, stay in an individual cabin if you can and make sure to bring a bathing suit and check out the game...