Grand Lodge on Peak 7 — Hotel in Breckenridge

At Grand Lodge on Peak 7, patience, endurance and a good attitude are invaluable. I visited in August.  Summers run on a skeleton crew. This is a ski lodge, so in all fairness that has to be taken into consideration.

The first room they assigned us at check in was on the north side of the facility, which is quite a circuitous journey from the main lobby and most of the amenities.  The wrist bands wouldn't open the door, so I had to trudge back to the front desk.  Fernanda walked back to the room with me to assist, and when she used her master key to finally open the door, we discovered the room was not ready.  The second room they assigned me later in the day was south side; Much closer to the lobby.  A gift basket was placed in the replacement room for the inconvenience.

The lodge is a timeshare. As a day guest vs owner, it takes a while to get a feel for the layout of the lodge, which is a vast and sprawling series of long hallways.  I found myself consulting the map frequently, and even with the map I logged several thousand steps a day.

The wrist band keys are a good idea, because accessing the amenities authorized to day guests requires unlocking numerous doors.  For example, to get to the indoor sauna / hot tub room, aka the Grotto, you pass thru the gym door, then the locker room door, then the Grotto door.

There are many heated and jetted pools in the lodge, some indoors, and some outdoors.  When there is lightning, all water based recreation is off limits, including the indoor pool and Grotto, because as I was told, they all share the same plumbing.  Once the weather finally cooperated, I really enjoyed the outdoor pool.  The pools in general are of course the main attraction in the summer.

There is a 21 and up pool outside where you can order adult beverages.  The cocktail and beer list is extensive, and the bartender (David) was very nice.

The gym is great.  There are treadmills, weight machines, free weights, benches, bands and floor mats.  There's a fountain where you can fill a water bottle.  The locker room has nice amenities like showers, towels, mouthwash and hair spray.

The lodge dining availability was not a good fit for me personally.  Rooms have a kitchenette, so BYOF is a good idea in the summer at least. I'm an early riser, and there doesn't appear to be anything other than the snack room open before 8:15.  Starting at 8:15, there's a waffle bar.  I got a cup of oatmeal from the snack room and ate it in my room.  The rest of my party waited for the waffles, but said they were "just ok".

For dinner, we went to the Sevens restaurant on the lobby level.  It doesn't open until 11:00 am in the summer. It was pretty empty at 6:00 pm.  The wait staff from what I could tell was one person.  She was very nice.  My mother-in-law ordered a draft Stella.  We both tasted it and agreed it did not taste like Stella.  Evidently the beer tap lines are quite long, originating in the bowels of the facility, and there was still a slug of the last type of beer in that tap line.  No problem, she got a pint can of Stella instead.  I got a Guinness draft and it was totally fine.  Guinness typically gets a dedicated tap due to being nitrogen dispensed, so no chance of comingling with other beers.

We all shared the bruschetta, and agreed it was very good, but I should have quit while ahead.

I ordered a D-Lux pizza.  Wish I had had the presence of mind to take a photo for comparison to the online pizza picture, as it bore no resemblance.  I pointed this out to the waitress, and she said that the menu changes a lot but the webmaster doesn't update the photos very often.  Methinks they should have named this pizza something different.   The online picture of the D-Lux depicted a savory landscape of sausage crumbles awash in deep red marinara, and a light sprinkling of cheese, but my version had fat sausage link slices on top of a deep bed of barely melted cheese. 😕

More to say but no more room. In short, my first experience with the Grand Lodge on Peak 7 was great except...

Beware this property. If you are used to hotels and lodging at $200-$300 per night, you will be disappointed at this location.

Suite rooms are sized appropriately but furniture is clearly old or cheap. The cups provided are plastic not glass. The feather sofa has quills that poke out and stab you. The sofa was a sleeper, however the pullout sleeper was unusable. The sleeper mattress was incredibly thin and the springs didn’t hold you level. Either your head slopes down into the cushions. Or your feet slope down off the end of the sleeper. I can’t imagine anyone but children under 7 being able to use this sleeper without significant pain or discomfort the next day. The chair upholstery is clearly old and has an odor about it and that oh so subtle human film of a well used fabric. The carpets are old and I question if they ever get deep cleaned when the whole room has an odor (different than the chair). The bed mattress was acceptable but the bed frame squeaked at any small movement. Turning over in the middle of the night would wake my wife due to the squeaking of the bed frame. When I looked to see if I could quell the squeak I was let down by what appears to be an IKEA or Walmart type bed frame with a Formica laminated particle board topper. Pillows were all one type, so those who like certain pillow firmness or softness, bring your own. The “free” consumables in the room (soap, shampoo, lotion, coffee, tea, sugars, etc) are all low quality bulk items that surprised me when I’m expecting 3+ star lodging. The bedding sheets and covers were thin and of the quality I expect from 3- star hotels by an airport.

Service was overall a disappointment. No where does the facility broadcast they are a NO CASH FACILITY!! Not sure how that’s possible to refuse legal American tender in lieu of a credit card with its credit card processing fees. Even the bartender was cashless, so I guess no tips? The bartender was very kind and friendly in my interactions. Cleaning crew could be seen at all times, not disruptive in itself but it is when they block the rooms or hallway. Many times I would make eye contact with staff and they would avert their gaze and quickly move on, there was no warm greeting or welcoming interaction I have come to expect from 3-4 star hotels. The fact that I was summarily ignored was disconcerting. Many times I would encounter staff on their phone having a conversation that lasted the entire duration of my lunch, in that on my way back to the room, this staff member was still on their phone call. Other staff members playing music on a speaker while they clean. Again at 3-4 stars I was expecting staff to always greet me in passing and make efforts to minimize their presence. The front desk seems to have a limited scope of responsibility because a lot of the questions I asked got me redirected to another person. The concierge desk suggested many places in town to go eat, and when we went to these places they were closed. Not “closed for the day” or “closed in preparation of a storm” just closed indefinitely. Many times the business looked like it may be closed for good or for renovations. In either case, that 3-4 star concierge would have known which restaurants are closed. Especially when Breckenridge is so small and tight knit as a mountain town. There is NO complimentary breakfast of any kind, you are expected to pay even more for your stay to use their waffle bar where every topping costs extra. Even the location of the waffle bar seemed like staff purposefully put it in a place to discourage visitors from using the perk. The only other breakfast option onsite was the hotel convenience store where cups of cereal were $3 each. Something I had come to expect for free from quality hotel stays.

Location: you are only coming here to ski on Vail Resorts mountains. Remember this is a completely unrelated company that runs the lodging vs the skiing. So on top of your lodging costs you need to get an EPIC pass externally, I couldn’t get an answer if you could buy a pass...

My husband and I "won" a 3-night stay at Breck Inn for $79.99 + 90min property tour. I was called the day before our stay to see if we would like to pay a fee to upgrade to a suite at Peak 7 Lodge. We didn't accept the upgrade, but when we arrived, the staff informed us we could upgrade for no cost. We happily accepted and drove up the mountain to Peak 7 Lodge where we stayed in a standard suite. My husband left a detailed review of our stay, but I want to focus on the 90-minute mandatory tour that we were subject to.

We arrived 10 minutes before our tour began and allowed access to free beverages and snacks while we waited. The tour itself (given by Dustee) was informative and we asked a lot of questions, because we were seriously considering the option to purchase in the future or pass on the information to our family and friends who may benefit from the partial ownership in such a beautiful location.

After over two hours of our 90-minute tour, we were hungry (we hadn't eaten yet that day) and having received the offers (there is an offer for day of tour purchase on a green sheet and an offer for 30-day after tour purchase on a white sheet), we requested to leave and have lunch so we could discuss all of the information that was presented and the numbers and figure out if this was something we were truly prepared to invest in.

Instead of allowing us to leave, Dustee brought the sales manager, Eric, to us and he told us he would like to "buy our time" in the form of paying for lunch if we could sit there and make a decision before we left. We expressed our strong desire to go eat and not make rash decisions on an empty stomach, to which he replied that they get busy in the afternoons, it doesn't work out well if we leave and come back, and he would make it worth our while by buying us lunch and giving us a more aggressive deal. We agreed to hear him out, so he sat and did what I absolutely despise, which is the car salesman pressure heavy pitch with personal anecdotes rolled in. He encouraged us to put the downpayment on a credit card when we repeatedly explained we don't have the funds for the down payment, and he gave us all kinds of discounts/payment options. He even told us that he liked Dave Ramsey and investments in our future is something Ramsey approved putting on a credit card. I was taken aback by the pressure I felt to decide to spend tens of thousands of dollars on something we'd only ever heard of that day (I'd never heard of fractional ownership, only timeshares, so this was very new to us). Even when we asked to talk in private for 10 minutes (on two separate occasions) so we could seriously consider the discounts and offers he gave us, our discussions kept getting interrupted in an attempt to persuade us with more stories and manipulation tactics. Three hours in (tired and very hungry), we firmly said "No," yet another rep (the developer) came by to offer us more incentives to give lodge suite ownership a chance. After over three hours with three different members of the sales team, we were finally allowed to leave.

At the end of the long and exhausting wheeling and dealing that we had to listen to, we left with, you guessed it, no lunch purchased by the sales manager, Eric. After stealing our time, I'm very happy that I didn't buy into this property, because I do not like doing business or being associated with companies that do not honor their word. We were promised lunch, we received no lunch.

At the end of the day, the lodge at Peak 7 was a very nice 3-star facility which was marketed to my husband and I as 5-star luxury. In my opinion, the standard suite we stayed in is probably worth $200-$300 a night during peak season, but I was happy to come home after...