Douglas Fir Resort & Chalets — Hotel in Banff

Firstly, I called this hotel 5 consecutive days to modify our booking and add an extra night (months prior to our vacation and well after we had already booked) and not once did anybody answer the phone. I tried multiple numbers, the hotels virtual chat and sent an email yet was never able to get a reply or speak to anybody. At one attempt i was on hold for 3 hrs and simply gave up. Upon check in I informed Peter about this and he simply said "you must have called the wrong number". I ensured him that the phone ringing in the office behind him was again, me on hold calling before we got there. Zero accountability nor an apology. We booked through Expedia which wasn't a wise idea but the booking was for 2 queen beds and full use of amenities. We received a single queen bed. Again, no sympathy or compensation. Next we added another night and it was more than our original booking price even after considering the complaints we already had, no compensation or discount. The hotel was okay for a 3 star, however multiple facilities were under construction, the outdoor hot tub was as warm as a heated pool and the pool table and air hockey were pay to play. Another issue was the garage door opener for parking wasn't operating half of the time. Biggest issue was that we didn't have hot water in our shower for 3 of the 4 nights stay. The solution: no hot water and they compensated 2 nights of our stay with 33% off. I did the math and it was actually 20% so we had a refund credit of $90 which I said was unacceptable considering the other issues. I asked for the owners or managers number for a second time and was only provided with an email which I can ensure you will not be replied. Safe to say there are far better hotels and even cheaper hotels in the area for a similar nightly rate. Do yourself a favour and choose a different place to spend your vacation in Banff. I can guarantee you none of the other hotels had any of these issues and had far better professionalism and customer service. We asked around in town and walked into many other hotels realizing we should have done more research. The only positives for Douglas Fir were the in-suite accomodations like full kitchen to coffee, tea and coffee maker, the wood burning fireplace with firewood provided and the waterslide plus indoor hot tub (thankfully that was actually hot). They also blatantly lied to us at check in and said the place was fully booked for the duration of our stay so they couldn't offer us the room we paid for. Talking to others staying there and observing for myself I would reckon the place was 30% full for 2 of the nights there and 75% full on the 2 weekend nights, so nowhere near close to full capacity meaning our requests could have been easily accommodated. More compensation would have been a first step but $75 off on a 4 night stay doesn't quite cut it....

Avoid! This is a long one but a ridiculous situation I must share.

This hotel has the worst customer service and are not transparent over their “hotel policies.”

We booked a room here back in December or 2024 for 4 adults in September of 2025. We only booked the reservation for 2 at the time as we were unsure of who of this group would be able to attend but chose this room as it was suited for 4 adults. This room has a queen bed and a double pull out and stated it was for 4 people. Note this did not specify how many adults or children.

When we got confirmation that the other two group members would be able to join the trip we notified the hotel to update our reservation. To our surprise we were told this was not doable as according to the person we were emailing this room was for 2 adults and 2 children not 4 adults. This came as quite the surprise as this was not communicated anywhere and to this day this room still comes up as an option when searching for a place for 4 adults. We shared this with the hotel and called them out for not disclosing this very important information and asked if they would be able to accommodate. They said we could not stay in that room as it was against their “hotel policy”, which again isn’t disclosed. We were told we would have to cancel and rebook to the one bed condo loft they had available which according to their website sleeps 6 which is an unnecessary amount of space for our group.

We decided to call the hotel as this didn’t make sense as this policy is not disclosed and surely if they don’t have this info available they should be reasonable. When calling the hotel and explaining the situation they told us that “too many adults complained about the pull out couch now only kids can sleep on it,” yes that was their reason here. Failing to address that they didn’t disclose their policy.

After reading reviews I have come to learn that we are not the only group this has happened to yet they still fail to make their policy available. Odd. We ended up finding a great alternative and we look forward to our stay and the cleanliness and amenities of our new hotel.

Definitely a blessing in disguise as after further looking at the reviews I’m shocked by the amount of people finding massive hair balls in their room, people complaining about the smell of mold and checking in to dirty rooms.

When we originally booked our room here we got an amazing deal and booked for a very low rate during travel Tuesday. After reading so many complaints about this place going downhill and not getting renovated since the 80sI can’t help but wonder if they are just looking for a reason to cancel our reservation so they can charge double our rate as they seem to be tight for cash, but that’s...

My bride and I stayed here for almost a week during our honeymoon. We chose it for the price as it can be very expensive to stay in Banff and we were working with a budget. Having worked hotels before, I understand that you generally get what you pay for. However... On arrival to our room it was hard to miss the large splits in the ceiling tiles, the soot stains on the wall and ceiling above the fireplace, the broken window clip-lock on the bedroom window, the stains in the carpet. The window lock issue was attended to immediately upon reporting, to their credit. The staff here were generally friendly, and most seemed interested in their work. A handful were uninformed or otherwise preoccupied with themselves or their distractions. The location is a fair distance from the main run of things in Banff, which allows for quiet and serenity, and the hotel provides free transit passes to guests. Many of the hotels features were out of service during our stay, such as the sauna, the adult pool, the waterslides (available the last two days), and the hot tubs were mostly luke warm tubs with non functioning jets. This was disappointing, especially since the street signage shows them available. We would have asked for another room, but there was no vacancy the duration of the visit. Our until was a basement level unit, which was fine until the people staying above us made considerable noise when walking around the unit. The TV cannot be connected to with wireless devices, so you won't be watching movies from your Netflix or other services. Not a big deal, but it would be nice. Overall the stay was fine. Having worked hotels before I was surprised there was no recognition of our honeymoon, as places I have worked generally did with something complimentary. We mostly were out and about, so the lacking details weren't a huge inconvenience as we mostly used the room to sleep in. It would have been nice to have a heads up regarding the closure of streets due to the 46th annual run/marathon I discovered two nights before check out. When I called the hotel immediately upon discovering it through FB, the call taker at the hotel said she had never heard of it (!?). Would I recommend staying here? If you are operating on a small budget like we were, then yes. If you would like a polished and beautiful hotel, that repairs floor to ceiling cracks in walls, keeps paint looking fresh and wooden statues looking photo ready, light posts upright (near the entrance) and properly communicates with customers, this isn't the place you're looking for. I don't know what it costs for them to keep this place going, but it wouldn't hurt their image to spend a bit more...