Togwotee Mountain Lodge — Hotel in Dubois

TL;DR

1. Avoid any rooms directly above the Red Fox Saloon (their bar).
2. Otherwise, expect the noise to last till midnight (when the bar closes).
3. If you ask for compensation, expect no more than a nominal free breakfast.

[END TL;DR]

We lost half a day of our road trip here because:

1. Their bar right below us played loud music until we complained twice.
2. The staff provided misinformation about when the noise would stop and when we could speak with the manager.
3. The front desk manager, Branden French, was in the bar that night but did not speak with us until 10am the next day.

They allegedly refunded us 25% of the room's price, but we have not seen any confirmation or follow-up yet.

Annoying guests with loud music from the bar until midnight seems to be a profitable thus well-established business model at this property.

According to the lodge's layout, there are up to three rooms affected by the bar's noise.Each room's guests would get "complimentary" breakfast only if they complain. Breakfast for each person is $10 (actual cost should be much lower). Assuming two-people rooms, the lodge loses $20 for each room with a noise complaint. That is, dealing with noise complaints would cost the lodge $60 daily at the maximum.The Red Fox Saloon (bar) runs from noon till midnight. If each guest pays $30, the lodge would only need two bar guests in this 12-hour period to break even.There are likely more than two bar guests per night. The night we were there, the music ran from we checked in around 6:30pm till we complained around 11pm.

To complete this model, those noisy rooms may be advertised with lower rates to lure people in. Another review's management response mentioned that different "packages" have different refund policies, and that may help explain why it was hard to negotiate any meaningful refund.

In fact, the staff's response implied that the noise problem is well-known, if not intentional, and that the staff are experienced, if not trained, to fend off customer complaints:

1. When I mentioned the noise in the room, all front desk staff immediately said something like "oh, it's the bar" or "it's usually the bar".
2. The manager was in the bar when we complained but did not respond (although they claimed that the music volume was turned down).
3. When I asked to speak with the manager, all front desk staff tried to avoid putting us in contact. One told us that he was not in (although he was physically in the bar). The other refused to contact him and made us wait an hour.
4. There manager said, both to us and to Expedia, that they only offer free breakfast "for this type of complaints".

I find it hard to trust any company whose customers are not the first priority but just a mean to profit. I was somewhat amused by their employees' frankness about their carelessness for the customers. Here are a few examples:

1. When we went to the front desk to complain at 11pm. The lady said, "the bar closes at midnight." She might have been trying to comfort us by providing an upper bound of our annoyance, but another interpretation would be, "The bar is closing at midnight anyway, so why don't you just hang on for another hour?"
2. Branden the manager was sitting in the very bar listening to the very music and neglecting his customers' problems, and he very frankly told us, "I was in the bar, I just wasn't working."
3. The manager who Branden escalated this matter to cited "company policy" when he refused to either solve our problem or provide a way to escalate. I would usually expect this kind of responses from bureaucratic government agencies instead of businesses.

Thank you for reading this far. To summarize, this hotel has service quality problems which its staff willingly ignore. Therefore, unless you, my brave (and patient) fellow travelers, prove me wrong, I would not recommend Togwotee Mountain...

Terrible experience even worse customer service, be warned, stay elsewhere, would give 0 stars if I could. Booked a cabin at Togwotee Mountain Lodge for the weekend for a family wedding at another lodge on the mountain. Upon check-in was informed the rooms were not ready due to low staff. Also informed that the 24-hour cancellation policy quoted when booked would not be honored when I asked to cancel the 3rd night of our stay. We were charged in full for all 3 nights even though we only stayed 2 nights. We were informed that what is quoted over the phone is not the same as what the lodge will honor in person. Others in the lobby overheard this and commented on it to us later. Our room had cobwebs and dust on the lighting fixtures, the pictures, and walls (everywhere). The room was filthy – bathroom was terrible, old dirty toilet and sink, grime in the tub, a dead roach in the bathroom, fuzz on the carpets. The first-floor room had a broken window latch that wouldn't allow the bedroom window to lock. There was no remote to the TV in the bedroom and it would not turn on at all. The phone in the room blinked message but we couldn't connect the phone to retrieve the message. The Wi-Fi in the room did not work - couldn't use the internet, text or Wi-Fi call and there was no cellular service there. Nobody staffing after 10PM so we had to live with the issues. We spoke to a manger in the morning named Bre who was very rude an escalated the conversation and was embarrassingly condescending - making a scene in the lobby in front of others when we politely and quietly listed out our concerns about the room. We asked for a refund for Sunday because we were within the 24-hour cancellation policy quoted by the reservation service Aramark that they use. Bre insisted she would have to pull and listen to the call first. She also said they would not be able to clean the room and that we should not be concerned about the window not locking because they never have issues. I was persistent and even offered to get something in town to secure the window to which she threatened that we would be charged for damage if we touched it ourselves. We asked again on Sunday when we checked out for the refund and Bre said we would not get a refund and that we are paying for all 3 nights even though we only stayed 2. When we called back to speak to Aramark about a refund they said it should be no issue, we should be refunded, but the lodge manager refused again so no refund. In summary, the rooms are dated, they are filthy, the lighting is so dim that my wife had to do her makeup in the car with sunlight. The Wi-Fi did not work, the TV did not work, the manager Bre is confrontational and condescending and will elevate her voice and escalate and argue no matter what your concern is. Bre even hung up on me when I called back later to discuss. The lodge is short staffed, the customer service is horrible, the restaurant was closed, miles to nearest food, there was no air conditioning and another family member had a poor experience in their lodge room as well. You will spend hours on the phone if trying to call customer service. Their roads are not well maintained, would be hard on a car and they are far out of the way if hoping to see national parks or Jackson. I do not recommend and would advise you to seriously consider Hatchett or Turpin Meadow for your stay on the mountain - even the Old Faithfull lodge inside the park is a better (and much more affordable) option with great customer service which is truly what usually matters most of all. The management refuses to credit or refund even when it is justified and warranted by their own policies. Absolutely worst lodging...

We're shocked to find so many positive reviews here, but understand if a customer's experience was different than ours. This is the first review we have even written, but find it necessary.

The positives: -great snowmobiling -easy rental of snowmobiles -one nice young cleaning staff person who helped us get what we needed even though there was a language barrier -beds not horribly uncomfortable -free refillls on soft drinks in the grill -although overpriced; some good food options in the grill (shepherd's pie, Reuben's, and the fries are decent) -although servers were not friendly, they did their job (It's probably hard to be friendly when you're so over worked.) -linens seemed clean, but worn; especially the towels -nice and accommodating gift shop personnel

The negatives: -lack of friendly or accommodating staff -they have a monopoly here out in the middle of nowhere, so customer service is NOT their first priority -old and rundown; made to seem rustic,with low-lighting so the age does not show -were in a room over the bar, so could not sleep until well after midnight -refused to move us even though we stayed multiple nights, and guests were checking in and out daily; said the season was busy -upon check-in were told quiet hours begin at 10:00 so being over the bar would not be a problem if we complained -complaining did not help; the bar was open until midnight with music playing -breakfasts were high-priced at $15.95 for the buffet, and could not order less; food was so-so -hamburgers from the grill burned to a crisp -most sandwiches had extremely hard buns -food inconsistent; one night the cake did not come with ice cream, the next night it did. One night the entree had a lot less meat in it and did not have complete garnishes, the next night had twice as much meat etc.

If your goal is snowmobiling, partying, and having a place to sleep, this is the place for you. If you want a cozy family mountain lodge experience, go elsewhere.

We travel a lot, and this is the WORST lodging experience we have ever had. Seems to be poor management and extreme disregard for customer service. Because it's out in the middle of nowhere, there are no choices for the customers, and the lodge takes advantage of that.

We checked out early due to inability to sleep and poor accommodations; were charged for the room for the additional night because we had prepaid. We vacated three rooms, and one room was definitely rented for the night because we were in touch with people who had stayed. So, again, a win for the lodge. Got paid twice for the rental of one room.

From reading previous reviews, guests above the bar were offered free breakfast. We were offered nothing. The rooms over the bar should be discounted. Our room was lacking in lighting, just not quite as nice as the other rooms in our party.

The review would have been a two or three if we would not have been above the bar, and had been able to sleep...