MountainView Lodge and Suites Bozeman Montana — Hotel in Bozeman

I stayed here with my mom and a friend while on a road trip. Bozeman was our last stop and we had two nights booked at Mountain View Lodge. I want to preface this review by saying that 99% of our stay was wonderful and all of the staff we saw around the hotel were wonderful. This review is strictly around the extremely unpleasant interaction we had with the owner/GM.

As I mentioned, our room was booked for two nights. We also had two cars, since I joined the road trip partway through in my own car. On the morning after our first night, we all consolidated our stuff into my car and headed up to Big Sky for a day of exploring and mountain biking. We left our other car parked at the hotel since we would be coming back for our second night and saw no issue with parking our car in the hotel parking lot. At the hotel where we paid to stay…..

While we were at Big Sky, we received a phone call from the reception desk of the hotel, asking if we can move our second car because apparently there was some kind of paving project scheduled. We said we couldn’t because we were an hour+ away and had paid for our mountain biking lift tickets at Big Sky. Reception said it was no problem at all. About 20 minutes later, we got another call from the hotel, this time from the GM. From the get-go, he was extremely rude and unprofessional, yelling and talking over us. He demanded to know why we aren’t able to drive the “30 minutes” back to Bozeman to move our car and why we didn’t ask the front desk if it was ok for us to park our car at the hotel during the day. Huh???? Why would I have to ask that when I’m staying at that hotel for another night as a paying guest?? This was not before or after our check-in/ check-out time which would’ve been more understandable. Furthermore, and as an aside, there was NO signage anywhere warning us that construction or asphalt work would be taking place that day. The front desk didn’t mention anything about it when we checked in and notified them we have two cars. There was nothing reminder or heads up anywhere around the hotel. Including in the morning when we had breakfast right next to the reception desk. Nada. The GM accused us of not paying attention, yet there was nothing up in the parking lot in the morning when we left for Big Sky. No signs, no construction equipment, no cones or tape blocking anything off. He asked “didn’t you notice that half the parking lot was a different pavement?” No? Why is that something that I need to take note of? And why is it the customer’s responsibility to check if they’re going to be hypothetical construction in the parking lot before leaving for the day? That is absurd. Ive never had anything like this happen anywhere else.

Being spoken to so inappropriately and unprofessionally by the GM of the place was horrible. You’re supposed to set an example to your employees and treat your guests with respect. I felt like a child that was being scolded for misbehaving in school. It is not your customers’ fault or job to bear the brunt of your lack of planning and adequate communication. We aren’t mind readers who can guess that our hotel might have construction happening tomorrow. Why would you expect that to be the job of your customers? It’s YOUR job as hotel staff and GM to make sure you’ve made appropriate arrangements ahead of time.

Oh, also - the GM said that they’ll have to call the paving company back out from Billings to do the work (literally not my problem, there are paving companies in Bozeman too) and that we couldn’t move our car that night when we got back but it better be moved by 9am the next day. We attempted multiple times to move the car between 6:30 ans 9am but the construction tape was still up and there was no one at the front desk. So finally we just moved the tape ourselves and left.

Horrible customer service and I’d rather pay 3x as much to stay in a different hotel next time than ever deal with anyone treating me...

tl;dr: hotel management won't honor your reservation. I would stay away from it if you want to count on having a room to sleep in after a long trip. Breakfast was, essentially, two mini muffins. There were trains passing by, frequently, all night.

We made a reservation more than two months in advance and got a nice deal for the king suite with spa. The same day we were supposed to check in, just two hours before we could arrive driving from Yellowstone, they left a voice message saying the room we reserved was not available. When we talked to Derek at the front desk, he stated the room was not available because booking.com had overbooked it and the hotel never actually approved us getting that room. I explained I called Mountainview one week before to make sure our payment information was correct and they said, after locating our reservation in their system, that everything was fine, and we could provide any other needed information during check in. So, this was not booking.com overbooking anything, because the hotel had our reservation more than one week before. He offered the double queen room instead (with no spa) saying that we could take that or go to any other hotel. At that moment, that felt like extortion, because booking a new place for the same night would cost much more than our original reservation made a long time ago after careful planning. Resigned to have our relaxing night using the hot tub and drinking wine stolen from us, we asked if he could do something to compensate for all this inconvenience. He said he was going to give us our room at a discounted rate of $40 off. It turns out, it was $40 off the price of the same queen room for a new booking that same night. The discounted price was exactly the original price for our reservation for a better room. You can call it a free downgrade. This all feels a lot like bait-and-switch. They got us committed to this place by making us believe we had the king suite with spa. Then, they probably sold it to someone else at a higher price. Then, they told us we could either accept a lesser room for the same price or find a new hotel for the night after a long drive. Honestly, I would never go back to them. This are very shady practices. The whole point of making a reservation is controlling how you are going to spend the night. You don't want to get to your hotel to get extorted into accepting a lesser room for the same price by an impolite front desk agent.

Breakfast was given you in a paper bag due to COVID. It included: 2 mini muffins, 1 mandarin, and a bottle of water. Additionally, you could get fountain juice. Picture included.

The hotel is close to a train intersection, so you'll hear trains honking many times at night. I counted 6, after I was in bed, the night I...

This hotel is beautiful! The lobby is absolutely gorgeous. There is a crackling fireplace as you walk in the door. The sitting area is clean and comfortable. Like a beautiful log cabin, so comfortable and cozy. Lush velvety chairs in the corner… in the center of the sitting space are a large overstuffed leather couch, and chairs. A rustic, lodge feel to the whole place. Neutral colors and incredibly comfortable beds! The room we booked was a not quite going to work for us since we had suddenly needed to bring our autistic son with us. The hotel manager so kindly upgraded our room. We had a lengthy discussion over our unique circumstances, he found favor with us and treated us kindly. We were prepared to pay for the upgraded room, just not double the cost. When we discussed it, I was about to turn the larger room down, he made it affordable for us. It was such a beautiful and kind moment. I was blown away by the kindness he showed us. My son did way better than he likely would have in the smaller room for 3 days. The staff was all incredibly friendly and professional. Housekeeping was very professional, did a great job when we asked for something.

Four stars because there were dirty dishes in the cupboards in the kitchenette, would recommend bringing your own plastic ware, disposable cups/plates. The toilet paper almost ran out, the tissue box did run out. There was also a bit of a musty smell in the room we stayed in. I think the room likely just needs a bit or remodeling or freshened up. I can’t speak for the other rooms, I assume most, if not all, are in better condition as the manager said the one we stayed in hadn’t been used in quite some time. However, that being said, it’s a corner room, so it was incredibly quiet! The breakfast was a typical hotel breakfast, waffles, eggs, sausage, oatmeal, cereal, yogurt, coffee, juice, muffins, etc. also…. The coffee cups are actually 12oz. Which seems to be rare at hotels! Overall, this hotel is definitely worth the stay! We will definitely stay again, and...