Sitka Hotel — Hotel in Baranof Island

TL;DR? Sitka Hotel is ideally located with adequate rooms at a reasonable price for Sitka, but Sitka Hotel has some real problems, mostly related to staff and execution.

Look, you want a room right in the middle of the main street through Sitka, this is your hotel. But the people that run this hotel need a major upgrade, and I’m not pulling any punches. Let’s start at the beginning, I called the hotel from the airplane to make sure the shuttle would be available. I traveled with some friends, and they immediately started the 1.5 mile walk to the hotel. They were correct. We waited… and waited. Even though the Hotel knew we were on the ground, and everyone else had been picked up from our flight, finally, the Shuttle arrived after at least 15 minutes. It was too small to take all of us (a side note here, the shuttle driver immediately announced priority to the aircrew, which intellectually I understand, but it immediately made me feel like a 2nd class citizen. You know, me, a war veteran paying full price every step of my first trip to Alaska). So, after waiting, I walked the 1.5 miles to the hotel anyway. Then, the hotel did not have our rooms ready, and the staff was noticeably unfriendly and unhelpful. After a bit of a boondoggle, we were finally getting our keys, we asked the staff (more than once) to split our bill from our friends who made the reservation. They absolutely could/would not do this for reasons that even now remain a mystery to me.

Upon getting into our room, I noticed a couple of problems. There was no working ice machine in the hotel. I like to have ice; it seems like a standard feature of most hotels. After a while, I learned that the adjoining restaurant had no problem filling my ice bucket. The room was notably lacking in storage. This seems like as good a time as any to point out that the Cable television worked only sporadically. We had plenty of time in the room, despite my best efforts to spend the entire week outside of my hotel room; sometimes, I did want the TV to work. I’ll confess, I didn’t even bother telling the staff, it would not have helped, and it likely would have made me angrier at the hotel. I should also add that the room had no Air Conditioning (not surprising), but the room we were in had a window facing a passageway from the front of the hotel to the main street in Sitka, so noise was a real problem, even with ear plugs. A couple of final notes on room quality, I’m attaching two pictures, lest you think I’m just whiny person (guilty). One is a picture of the fan with caked dust on it. The other is of thoughtfully designed bed drawers at the foot of the bed. In a bigger room, these drawers would have been very handy. In this room, they felt like a deliberate attempt to put me on the floor every night. They are an insane tripping hazard, and they should be removed with prejudice. Finally, I want to add that with one ceiling fan and one window, after a week, the room started to feel… you know… funky. Three dudes, three beds, one shower. It was a room with the minimum requirements.

The breakfast was very weak, and I didn’t have any of it. I actually brought my own food from the states, and I recommend this course of action.

The good: the hotel is ideally located. The adjoining restaurant is seriously good. The shops and ‘downtown’ Sitka are delightful, mostly because the Cruisers need something to do. Sitka sees 2 to 4 Cruise Ships a day. In short, if you are on the fence on this, pick the AirBNB or whatever. Note that the Westmark Hotel is under the same management, I think. Or they share a shuttle. Either way, I would NOT stay at the Sitka...

The shuttle offered to/from the airport a long with the central location are the reasons why I chose this hotel in Sitka. We arrived earlier than expected and they picked us right up and held our luggage while we waited for check-in. Check-in was easy enough. The room reserved was for a family. It came with 2 queen beds and a pull-out couch. The problem with this room is the couch takes up all the floor room when utilized as a bed and leaves absolutely no floor space to walk around. It blocks the kitchenette and bathroom. The other problem with the pull-out couch; there weren't any readily available bedding..comforter or pillows. Upon request, the front desk struggled to find bedding, which I find odd.. why not have the bedding in the room where it is needed and why offer a bed option without having the needed bedding easily available? The nice evening front desk lady did find 1 pillow and a comforter, which was doable. Side note..the pillows are flat..all the pillows we had were the same. The first evening we found the room to not have any hot water. We were informed the hot water was being used at the attached restaurant and we'd have hot water after midnight and until 6pm the next evening. Something to do with the restaurant not having their own hot water at that time. The whole first floor was found to be that way. There was not another room available that would fit our family so we opted to stay and take all showers in the morning. The next morning the hot water was available and the maintenance guy told us he replaced the water heater; upon check out we over heard another room on the 3rd floor had the same issue with hot water. Our first floor room was on a very busy hallway and the walls are thin. The hallway goes to the restaurant and all the smells and sounds travel along the corridor. Breakfast is a joke. Cold cereal and bread a long with a jug of milk and OJ to share with the whole hotel. Check-out was just as easy as checking in and the shuttle runs on a set schedule to return you in time for your flight, which worked out. Overall, would I stay at the Sitka Hotel again, no. It is a 2 star hotel for a reason. I would, however, eat at the restaurant again. The whole family...

The hotel overall is nice, clean and comfortable. My gripes are minimal and likely easily overcome. I wouldn't hesitate recommending to stay here again.

I arrived on a late flight from Seattle which delayed and made me miss my arrival time by 6 hours. When I arrived at the airport and called for a ride at about 23:30, there was no answer. I left a message. Called back in about 5 minutes. No answer again. No worries, had to call a cab, which was $10 and the old boy only took cash.

When I arrived I was greeted by a gal on the night shift. She was friendly but looked like a local just filling in for the late shift. Asked about the shuttle service and she said if we don't have you scheduled arriving for the flight, we don't keep the driver around. Since my flight was delayed and I didn't update them no shuttle. Fair enough, I'm quite good with that.

I was in a 2nd floor room and the rooms were quiet. Too quiet. I have freakish hearing so usually have a fan or some other form of white noise. Much like other hotels, the unit doors have auto closing hinges that close the door with some decisive force. With other guest moving out and about at all hours, if they don't politely close the door, you're met with a definitive slam. This is not nearly the fault of the hotel but the patrons, which brings me to the point. The insulation in this place is light and you can hear a lot of the noise from around the hotel.

A remedy to the noise for me is again, the white noise. Usually a thermostat will have a fan only setting and I'll run that. This had "heat" or "off" for the electric in wall heater. So it was hot in my room needless to say, opened a window to help cool it off. Some mold and moss in the window tracks if you're sensitive to that.

The beds were OK, not great, the pillows were same. Wifi was adequate for my needs and better than I was expecting honestly. I didn't use any of the kitchen amenities or use the restaurant which I heard was quite good.

Checkout was easy and scheduled a ride to the airport with the shuttle easy enough.

Again, all my gripes are minor and the Hotel overall was just fine. I'd...