The High Country Inn — Hotel in Banff

Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhist, Hindus, Zoroastrians, Atheists, Wiccans, (insert your own belief/lack of belief system) beware, this could be an upsetting experience.

Banff has a tremendously, diverse, international, tourist population It goes without saying, this cultural diversity also encompasses multitudes of religious beliefs and even lack of belief.

Unfortunately, the world seems to be becoming increasingly divisive, and religion too often is the impetus for discrimination, marginalization, and exclusion.

In as international a destination as Banff has become, I was deeply disturbed to see the framed, christian bible verse (picture below) prominently displayed in my room. I was informed by a staff member at reception this bible verse was displayed in every one of the other rooms.

It was explained to me the original owners were deeply involved with the local church, and the framed verse was an homage to them. When I tried to explain to her how inappropriate this was, she had no clue, telling me the verse itself was not offensive (cultural & religious sensitivity training is clearly lacking at this hotel).

Religious hegemony has the desired impact of silencing those afraid to criticize for fear of the aforementioned discrimination, marginalization, etc.

I wonder if you can imagine for a moment, what it might feel like for a Muslim, Jew, Sikh, etc., to see this in her/his room for which she/he are paying hundreds of dollars per night? One strong possibility is outrage, followed by silence (rather than complaining) for fear of discrimination because this is “probably a christian run hotel”.

Even worse, I was given the general manager's (Michael Ullrich) direct email, and I sent him a similar email to the above. I informed him I would appreciate a response before I posted my reviews. One week passed with no response. I called the front desk and indicated I had not heard from him. The receptionist indicated, without hesitation, he was very responsive to any concerns, and would be in the following day. She assured me she would give him my name and email address, and inform him I wanted a response to my email. Another week and nothing.

A hotel in Banff should radiate inclusiveness at all levels, including the absence of any religious displays. Unless Mr. Ullrich has met an untimely demise during the course of my correspondences with him, he clearly has no integrity or compunction about this very important issue.

I will...

High Country Inn is such a warm and cozy little inn. I just want to start off by saying how sweet and patient their staff is. I was flying from Newark airport to Calgary and my flight was supposed to land at 7PM. Due to technical issues with the airplane, our flight was delayed almost 6 hours and my husband and I did not want to drive to Banff at 1:30 AM. Therefore, we ended up pushing our entire itinerary out 1 day to accommodate for lost time. And since I booked my hotel stay with my Capital One credit card, I called them to do the date switch. But turns out my credit card company also uses another 3rd party to make the reservation, who was giving Capital One difficulty (: I called High Country Inn myself to let them know of the situation and El (the manager) was so so kind and sweet to push my reservation out 1 day with no additional charges. I am so thankful for her and her patience because it was a lot of back and forth calls between her and my capital one credit card lol. Thank you again El!

Now onto the Inn, the view is spectacular!! My husband and I would wake up every morning and just lay in bed looking out the window at the snowy mountains. They even had an adorable fire place with a Christmas tree in the lobby decorated for Christmas. The cleaning ladies were also super sweet and checked in on us everyday and made sure our room was tidy and replaced anything we asked for. High Country Inn also has parking below the hotel and you can take the elevator up directly to your floor. This was super easy as I was reading it’s difficult to find parking in Banff, so it saved us time and money from trying to look where to park. The Inn is also located perfectly on Banff Ave, so it’s easy to walk to restaurants and do some shopping. To note, they don’t do breakfast (which we didn’t mind and knew going into it), but as an FYI if that is something you want. They do have a pool, but we didn’t go in if as we spent most of our days just outside exploring the mountains. If we come back, we would love to stay here again because me and my husband thoroughly...

Would you like to paraticipate in a reality show and listen in to your neighbours? Then stay here! Doors have large gaps so you can hear every word yelled out from the gaps from the next door neighbours. Girls were having great conversations in Room 245 on the night of Nov 17. I was in Room 247. They talked non-stop, like tribe ofmagpies, mostly about dating: how a guy cooked at her place when she didn't even really know him. Another guy didn't stand up for her and the recommeded response was "oh I have to go, I have horse riding lessons". I knocked on their door and asked them to keep it down. Then around 10PM I asked the front desk to ask them to keep it down. Then at 1AM doors were opened and closed; people came and went. Lots of talking continued, and at 3AM, I went to hotel's website and found their contact info: Email. frontoffice@banffhighcountryinn and asked them to go to Room 245 and quiet it down. Around 4AM, I realized that my bathroom door had better sound proofing so I curled up in the tub and got some rest. Morning finally came (conversations continued...they didn't seem to need any rest) and I found great coffee with fresh cream from the lobby and told the staff about my night. Their recommendation: come stay here on Monday/Tuesday. They said that lots of young people in groups stay on weekends and they have a hard time keeping quiet! Location was good. Otherwise, room was lovely. It was the worst hotel experience in my 50 years. The second worst was backpacking in Greece on Crete... that reality show had a couple up all night .. and less...