Weskar Lodge — Hotel in Puerto Natales

Horrible customer service from Yelka, many things not working, not worth the price compared to others in the area, do not stay here.

The sauna was being "repaired" for over a week, and the fireplace in the main lounge area was also broken - two of the main reasons we were happy to spend significantly more money than the average room per night in the area.

Yelka's response was "you should call the hotel to see if everything we say we have, is working before you pay us money". - and when asked if there was another sauna in town she knows of, she said "you should probably just google it yourself".

Her behaviour got increasingly worse throughout the stay, refusing to help us when we had simple queries like needing an extra plate for our lunch. She got aggressive, and "in our face" telling us that she does not need to help us, when we attempted to find the kitchen staff while our food got cold.

Edit to our review, as the owner as responded:

Hi Juan,

I think Yelka has significantly misrepresented the facts to you. She was very comfortable with us raising a complaint to you, and now we can see why. You don't take customer complaints very seriously, a perfect warning on your google page for any other guests who are considering staying here.

Let me clarify some facts:

1. Yelka, or anybody else at the hotel did not tell us the sauna closed at 10pm - and we asked many times. She told us the Sauna was not functioning at all, period. And told me the same thing when I visited the previous week (which was at 2pm, not after 10pm). When we asked, politely, if she knew of other options - she told us to figure it our ourselves. This was the beginning of her completely inhospitable behaviour towards us.

2. Yelka refused to assist us in any manner. She took pride in making our experience miserable. Every single request we made to her, she put a sarcastic smile on her face while refusing to help, other than the dinner order she put in for us before we arrived via Whatsapp.

3. Regarding the bar incident. We sat for 10 minutes while our food got cold as we did not have a plate, there was no staff in the restaurant or anywhere visible, and when we asked Yelka if she could help us get a plate, something she would be very capable of doing, she said no. I then searched high and low, so we could eat our meal, and I peeked behind the counter of the bar, because I believed there was another room behind it, where other friendlier staff members might be, at which point she ran over to me shouting, and got extremely confrontational and aggressive. Any aggression we had, or she said we had, would have been in shock and defence after being spoken to like that by the "host" of the hotel.

4. I dropped my metal card on the counter as it came out of my wallet, from approximately 1 inch off the table, this caused it to make a sound - and she acted like I had thrown it at her exclaiming "why are you throwing your card at me!!!!". Ironically, she threw the card back at me when she finished using it in a spiteful manner. At this point she was taking delight in upsetting us and causing a scene - with the same sarcastic grin on her face.

5. I paid for the Jack Daniels and the water on the first visit, when your waiter came over to my table. I told Yelka this, she told me she would get the waiter so I could speak to him. I waited 2 hours, working at the table, during which time she did not get the waiter. As we left, and signed for the bill, we were told we still had to pay for it. Again, she chose not to help us or make the situation better in any manner.

With regards to treating local people or staff badly, we take extreme offence to the implication that this was discriminatory in any way. Your staff was disrespectful to us, and instead of taking responsibility as the owner, you are shifting the blame onto the guests of your hotel. This is highly unprofessional, but unsurprising given our experience - and the fact that Yelka was very comfortable with us raising a complaint, knowing that nothing would come of it...

Horrendous hospitality. The blonde receptionist Yelker was incredibly rude to the point of making us feel uncomfortable to be in the hotel.

We wanted to leave but were too exhausted to find another place after doing the W - having come to Weskar for what we thought would be a relaxing 2 days of recovery.

Instead we were told to Google things ourselves (some “concierge”), told to check that facilities work at hotels before booking (because their sauna and fireplace were out of service) and were told that there was no room service despite that being an advertised facility of the hotel.

Yelker got aggressive with my husband when he had to go behind the bar to find a plate so we could share a meal when no one would help us with this. She was hugely sarcastic towards us at check out to the point of being antagonistic.

Instead of treating us like paying guests, we felt totally unwelcome and antagonised by the very person who is supposed to care about a guest’s experience.

Please do not ruin your time in Puerto Natales by staying at this hotel 🙏🏻

Edit to our review, since the owner has responded:

Hi Juan,

I think Yelka has significantly misrepresented the facts to you.

Let me clarify some facts:

1. Yelka told us that the Sauna was not functioning at all, period. And we asked many times. When we asked, politely, if she knew of other options - she told us to figure it our ourselves. This was the beginning of her completely inhospitable behaviour towards us.

2. Regarding the bar incident. We sat for 10 minutes while our food got cold because we did not have a second plate to share the food. There was no staff in the restaurant or anywhere visible, and when we asked Yelka if she could help us get a plate, she said no. My husband then searched high and low for a plate and eventually peeked behind the counter of the bar, because he believed there was another room behind it, where other friendlier staff members might be, at which point Yelka ran over shouting at my husband, and got extremely confrontational and aggressive. Any aggression we had (or rather that she said we had) would have been in shock and defence at being spoken to like that by the "host" of the hotel.

3. My husband dropped his metal card on the counter as it came out of his wallet, from approximately 1 inch off the table. This caused it to make a sound - and she acted like I had thrown it at her exclaiming "why are you throwing your card at me!!!!". Ironically, she threw the card back at him when she finished using it in a spiteful manner. At this point she was taking delight in upsetting us and causing a scene.

4. My husband paid for the Jack Daniels and the water on his first visit. He told Yelka this, and she told his she would get the waiter so that they could discuss the matter. He waited for 2 hours whilst working in the back room, during which time she did not get the waiter. As we left, and signed for the bill, we were told we still had to pay for it. Again, she chose not to help us or make the situation better in any way.

With regards to your comment about being disrespectful to local people serving us, we take extreme offence to the implication that this was discriminatory in any way. Your staff member was disrespectful to US, and instead of taking responsibility as the owner, you are shifting the blame onto the guests of your hotel.

This is highly unprofessional, but unsurprising given our experience and the fact that Yelka was very comfortable about us raising a complaint with you, knowing that nothing would come of it...

Stayed here for four nights in late March to see sights around Puerto Natales before heading up closer to Torres del Paine. |The hotel was a quick 5 minute taxi ride from PNT airport. Plenty of taxis waiting when we landed and only cost a few bucks.|Location is great. I definitely recommend getting a fjord view room as the views are spectacular and the ever changing whether provides a constantly shifting scene. It's an easy 20 minute walk into town along a paved pedestrian path, though Ubers and Taxis are readily available and very inexpensive. |The room was good overall but just a couple minor complaints. The bed was much firmer than I'm used to which make for some uncomfortable nights. Also the rollers for the sliding bathroom door was really loud so we were waking each other up anytime one of us got up to use it. That aside we enjoyed the room and thought they did a good job making use of the space with a small table chairs and areas for storage and baggage - though if you're traveling bag heavy (multiple checked bags + carry-ons) you may run out of space.|We really enjoyed the on-site restaurant where nearly all of the tables are right up against picture windows overlooking the fjord. The included breakfast was what I'd expect at this price point. Hot buffet eggs and bacon each morning along with a selection of cold meats, cheese, fruit, cereals, toast and pastries. |Dinner was a pleasant surprise. We ate there three of our four nights and everything we had was delicious. The "A Lo Pobre" was my favorite but both the lamb and guanaco stews were also very good. |Service ranged from very good to average.|I'd recommend for anyone looking in this...