Holland America Denali Lodge — Hotel in Alaska

Service: staff is rude and dismissive. Most are seasonal and legitimately don't know how to answer you. A lot of the staff are exchange students and speak little English; they're nice enough, but in contrast to the cruise staff, it is surprising how abrasive and condescending some of the local staff are. While trying to get off the very hot non-air conditioned bus, the staff essentially told me to hold my questions and complaints until he could finish his speech instead of just letting us off the boat to go through orientation. This came off as a power move and he acted like I was giving him attitude. Which at that point of the ridiculousness of the situation, I was happy to. Other staff also told an older lady to not question him and that he knew how to do his job. During our stay one of the staff barged into our family member's room after knocking once to drop off a flier while she was changing. The staff here here are basically lower wage temp workers. It's not great. *addendum. I needed a luggage tag at 12:40 am the night before going out. They hand delivered one at 12:43. That was super helpful. I've updated my rating to reflect this.

Location: The resort itself is located in an area near Denali national state park. So that is a plus. Also you do have nice views. But that's the whole area so all the resorts have that in common and isn't much of a selling point.

Rooms: we were split up from the rest of our party and family and placed in the older area (cottonwood). There's no wifi, no working ac, and the building is very far from the main building and the exit to the street. Meanwhile, the rest of our party was housed in the much nicer ridge view building which had wifi, heated floors, and was just genuinely nicer and more modern. Also our family staying in ridge view received free smores vouchers while we did not. When we asked the front desk about it they said there was nothing they could do about it. When pressed and asked why even though we all booked through one travel agent in one booking we were essentially being provided with a lower level of service, the front desk manger representative said cotton wood was separate and offered is the solution that we could purchase what was provided for free to others. This came off as ridiculous, insincere, and again, dismissive. In the cotton wood area it's old, dingey, dark, and over all just very poor compared to ridge view. Honestly, why is it so dark. It has 3 functional lights not including the bathroom and each bulb is a 45 watt incandescent bulb. It makes the place so dark and depressing. The shower faucets are weak with no shower wand. The shower is old and gross. The curtain looks like it came from the 80s and the anti slip mat looks moldy. We had to open the windows just to get air into the room; it was awful hot and the a/c didn't work and this was the only way to cool the room. Also one of the windows didn't work, so thank goodness at least the one worked. Further, we were located too far to receive wifi apparently. TV options are a joke. Some channels had no audio and it's essentially a basic cable package. The room itself is spacious however with 2 queen beds that are very comfy. So with the room cooled with natural air, we were able to get a very comfortable night's rest. But that's it. No magic is happening in this gross room. Gentlemen, treat your women right. Don't book this room. Overall, this was definitely the low point of our trip.

I wouldn't recommend this resort, unless you can ensure you're in ridge view, then I'd upgrade the rating for location and rooms to a 4 to 3.5 star review with service still making the overall experience pretty negative. So overall with cotton wood: 2.5 to 3, ridge view: 3 to 3.5 with...

Holland American runs this. About a two-three star hotel.

Your star level has no impact on which building you end in. We were in roughly the furthest from lobby we could be, & we are 4 star, & everything begins or ends in the lobby.

There are buses that run around the property, which you can catch. Always a wait for the next one. Hold ~20 people.

Room fairly comfy, missing refrigerator & more importantly NO Safe. We were in room #712 in Cottonwood cottage. Carpet stained, didn't appear dirty, just stained.

The beds weren't bad, though the mattress on my bed was broken down on both edges. Plenty of covers and nice sheets. Towels fair; not HAL ship quality, not soft & thick.

Food; Not a terribly friendly place if you are Celiac; Gluten Free medically. The big restaurant down by cottages has only three GF options.

The Steak House in lobby can accommodate you, be sure to ask for waitress or waiter, who understands GF. Or, ask for manager. This is much smaller venue, so you are safer.

RestaurantsWarning: They are 'reservations crazy.' Keep that in mind. Opens at 1630. Bar (small) also starts serving dinner at 1630; bar 'snacks' before that. Restaurant's close early, about 2100. So ignore the bright sunshine, & go eat dinner before 2100.

There are four restaurants next door at Princesses lodge. Not Celiac friendly either; although both pizza place & "Q" have Gluten Free food available.

Coffee shop in lobby of Chalet has good coffee, almost always busy, NO gluten free snacks, except yogurt.

Room #712 has a faulty thermostat. Room stayed hot despite thermostat turned to zero. We opened window. There is a ceiling fan, but it is in corner that projects out of the room, so it doesn't really move air around efficiently. There is a fan on floor in the small - adequate - closet. Could use if needed.

Bath: Basic small fiberglass shower. No grab bars. There is grab bar outside(?). Water closet with no grab rail either. Nice basic sink. Granite countertop & roomy. Hard floor that is wood & not slippery. Nice feature. So, it's quite usable.

This is not a three or four star property. Basic two at best, if you are honest, about a Holiday Inn Express.

Food for Celiacs: We had brought Red's Mill Oatmeal with us, lucky for us, so we had breakfast before the park. We'd recommend you carrying it too. You can get by at dinner, if you advocate for yourself, by asking...

I was a guest (rented two rooms) on in Sept 2023 at the McKinley Chalet Resort & wanted to provide some feedback on my experience at the hotel during my stay. I had booked the reservation nearly 9 months ago for a trip with a couple of friends to Denali & when we went to check in on Saturday, desk associate Tyrone was the one who checked us in. When I inquired as to potentially extending my stay an extra night, Tyrone replied that there was vacancy but that "the rate would be a rack rate of $305 a night because they couldn't honor my rate (which was $206/night), but to go online & I could probably find a better rate".

I checked into my room & did as he mentioned, finding a rate for $199 for the next night, but when I went to book it online, it said I needed to contact the hotel because it was within 24 hours of the date requested. I decided to call Westmark/Holland America to try & extend via phone, but it was after office hours Pacific time on Saturday & the message said they wouldn't be back until Monday. So, I trudge back up the hill to the lobby to ask Tyrone about the rate at which point he goes to speak, allegedly, to a manager & returns telling me they can't honor the rate online, "but we can do a rack rate of $405 if I want to do that instead?"

First off, if there was availability, why wouldn't you honor the rate when I showed it to your people on my mobile from your site live? Second, why even show rates for the next day if they're not bookable/you won't honor them? Third, why did the rack rate go up $100 in the 20 minutes from me asking about extending the rooms another night to when I returned to the lobby? In hindsight, it was probably for the best that it was only for a night as the property was dated, the rooms were well past their prime & the customer service we experienced nearly everywhere on property except the guest activities counter & one bartender at Karstens was atrocious. It was like everyone there had mentally checked out for the season already & was just waiting for the next week or two to pass to join their mindset in body.

This was my first experience with Westmark or Holland America & I can certainly tell you that it'll give me great pause before doing business again with either. The 3 stars is only because of the location, view & my...