Fox Hotel & Suites — Hotel in Banff

My wife and I stayed here for our second year anniversary, in an king room with a balcony view and kitchenette. It was a little pricey for the off season but the service was phenomenal both at the front desk and in the Chili’s restaurant. We showed up fairly early expecting to only get a bag hold and to wander around for the day before coming back to check in, but to our great delight we were able to check into the room early and the receptionist advised us of the best room to choose. Another notable mention of the lobby is the design and wood burning fireplace. Lots of seating, and then there is a gorgeous water feature keeping with the grotto theme. It’s spacious and lit up nicely, with doors that go into the courtyard as well. It’s easy and also fun to navigate this hotel in my opinion. There are walkways around the upper levels of the court yard keeping with pleasant cabin theme. My one comment is the walkways should not be carpeted in a wintry town, especially outside. It shows.

The biggest feature of this hotel is definitely the hot pool on the P level, which opens up to the outside. Don’t be worried about “P” (for parkade) it’s quite a classy hallway leading to the pool, vending machine and computer area, and the underground parking as well. The pool area itself is great - in the winter the cooler air hits that hot steamy air and creates the most dreamy sauna effect, filling the fake cave with steam. There are also fun little portholes. I also wanted to comment on the shape of the hot pool, it twists and turns and makes three private seating areas with a waterfall in between. It’s a fantastic design. Only one area of seating has very strong jets though. And of course the most coveted spot is the one under the “skylight” there is nothing like the cold air when being in the hot tub. There is a lovely little courtyard that the hotel wraps around, and in the centre is the hole down into the pool. I also appreciate that they maintain the pool everyday between 12-1. My one comment is the sauna could maybe use some attention as I looked down between the seat bench and there was a bandaid. Just as an aside the note in there kind of makes me laugh I wonder how many people poured water over the dry rocks. Back to the cave pool, there are also several beautiful clearly custom made live edge wood benches for towels wrapping around the cave walls. The towels were kept replenished and the change room was very tidy, which is impressive as it can get quite wet in there, (shout out to housekeeping) although only toilet stalls no changing stalls for the shyer of us. Our room was great. It was very spacious, with a long hallway, thermostats in each section of the room that were responsive. The balcony had two chairs, it could use a little side table. But you couldn’t beat that, as Cornelius Van Horn called it “million dollar view” and we looked right out onto a mountain. There was a coffee machine with really good coffee which is impressive for a hotel, and things in the room such as cutlery, mugs, wine glasses and a cutting board and knife. The TV in the living room was a little touchy but the one in the room was great, having two TVs in the room is a great touch especially if you are travelling with kids. The room door has a neat system to make sure you don’t leave your key in the room you need to put it in to close the door from the outside. The Rocky Mountain Soap co Soaps in the room were amazing, I especially liked the attached refillable pump style in the shower. We even called the front desk to ask if we could take them, they said no ( very politely!) so we did not haha. Also the shampoo made my hair very soft, the lotion made my skin very soft, it was great. Another thing throughout the hotel that I appreciated was the fox theme was thoroughly detailed in little branding things like metal decor foxes on the lamps, and the cozy cabin feel throughout. The bed was great, a perfect amount of soft and a little bit firm so you don’t feel lost in it. We would...

Two stars because the staff was good, but a lot was just not up to the expectation that came with the extreme cost of the room.

This place can get very noisy. The doors that connect rooms internally are very thin, and we had an issue where no matter how many times we knocked on the shared door, our neighbor would not turn down their TV. We went to the front desk and they called the other room, and the issue was promptly fixed. We had a separate issue the same night of people having the world’s loudest adult activity session in another room next to us, and repeatedly slamming and screaming into our shared wall. We went to the front desk and the desk worker actually came upstairs and knocked on their door to get them to stop, which was great. But by time all of the loud noises were finally settled, it was 12:30am, we were wide awake, and we had to get up at 5:30am to drive to the airport to catch our flights home. So we barely slept the last night we were here, which is crazy for the cost of the room. Not necessarily the hotels fault, and the employees did help a lot, but for the cost this disturbance was completely uncalled for.

Beyond the noise, the room was just not that nice for the amount it cost. The hotel used a non-waterproof shower curtain and a shower head that was not adjustable, which meant water poured out of the shower every time we used it. This left our bathroom soaking and us using multiple towels to mop it up no matter how we tried to stop it the 3 nights we were here, because water would always hit the curtain and just seep out onto the floor. There was no working fan in our bathroom either, so I don’t think this place will hold up well to water damage in the long run. Our toilet bowl was weirdly sweating the entire time we were here, and it sounded like we were breaking the toilet every time we flushed, and the pipes in our walls would rattle if any of the rooms around us flushed. There were also a few small holes in the wall/patches of ceiling peeling, which was not that big of a deal, but it looked like a cheap motel, and was not what I expected for the cost of the room.

The cleanliness of the hot pool was also somewhat gross. The floor and every surface in there looked like it needed a desperate power wash, and obviously the hot pool is meant to look natural but you could see a layer of grey grime on everything. The water was not the cleanest looking either, and again this is not the hotels fault, but multiple times I saw adult men get out of the wood sauna sweating, and immediately get into the hot pool, which was gross.

The wifi was really crazy bad at this hotel. I struggled to use my phone for more than 3 minutes before being disconnected, and having to constantly reconnect it. It was not possible to stream any TV shows on my laptop because the wifi would keep disconnecting before anything could load fully, or if it stayed connected it was a single bar that could not load anything. I can’t imagine trying to work remotely from this hotel because the wifi is not stable enough. This was a big shock as we had just spent the previous few days in a much more remote area of the Rockies with no issues with wifi, and then we got here to the city for our most expensive hotel on the trip and the wifi was nearly unusable.

The hotel had nice features too. Again the staff was very nice, both the front desk and the room cleaning staff were wonderful. The Chilis in the hotel lobby was super convenient and had a wide menu with lots of options. The landscaping of the hotel was super nice, and it was beautiful with the fall colors changing in the courtyard. The front desk had lots of good activity information. I’m just shocked by the cost for a room here as it wasn’t good, let alone the great room required to...

Stayed at this hotel for the second time in 4 years 2 weeks ago. Was aware that the conditions in the hotel are okay, not amazing, but good value compared to other hotels in the area. However, on this occasion, the stay was on the ground floor. Horns, engine, and people talking from the parking garage could be heard clearly through the vent in the room- closer inspection of the vent revealed some sort of screen that is possibly used for sound dampening behind it, and yet these sounds could still be clearly heard. This led to serious concern about exhaust gasses from the garage making their way into the room should anyone in the parking garage run their vehicle for an extended time. During the stay, both of the room keys stopped working at the same time and the front desk had to provide new ones. The next day one of these keys also stopped working. My child spilt a small amount of drink on a step leading from the basement/ parking garage/ hot tub level to the first floor- not a large spill by any means, but enough that it was able to be monitored and allowed notice that the steps were not cleaned for at least 3 days- steps that guests frequently travel while barefoot going to and from the hot tub. A sensitivity to beef led to ordering a chicken burger from the Chili's- was given a hamburger 3 times in a row; the host finally went to the kitchen and didn't return until he had an actual chicken burger in hand. So ridiculous that it could have been a funny story if it were the only issue with the stay. Finally, an interac debit was used to check in, and the amount was charged directly to the card- the cost of the stay plus $100 for a damage deposit. Days after check in, the account was charged again for the same amount less the damage deposit. Made a call to the front desk, was told the initial charge was on hold and would be returned within 5 days. 6 days later, another call to the front desk, was told, "I don't know who told you 5 days, it can take up to 10 days, but you should check with your bank" 11 days and several calls later, the bank is stating that there are no attempted or pending returns to the account. Another call to the desk, and told that nothing looks out of order, but they'll send an email to another team to look at it within 2 days or "when they have time." Asked if that team could be asked to look into it quickly, was again told more bluntly, "They'll look into it when they have time."

In short, would recommend if you're looking for a bargain, have low expectations, and have 2x the amount of your stay handy to have tied up for a few weeks.

Edit* 10 days after the second charge hit the account (12 days after the charge was made) contact was made by email by a manager explaining that the $100 dollar deposit was being refunded to the account. After another reiteration of the total refund needing to be the cost of the stay in addition of the $100 deposit return (as fox billed the cost + deposit, then the cost again days later) the manger made contact again apologizing, stating that the full initial charge was being refunded (cost of stay + deposit), in addition to another $100 for "the issues and inconveniences you had encountered during your stay."

Which is great, but no motivation existed to mention inconveniences encountered during the stay was found when speaking on the phone, as just the larger issue of the double billing was taxing enough.

The conclusion is that complaining via public review is what finally accomplished the goal, instead of issues being taken seriously over the phone.

Accounts settled in the end with some compensation for inconvenience, but be prepared to struggle if...