Trailborn Rocky Mountains Outpost — Hotel in Estes Park

Wanted to share some feedback about our stay when we were visiting Estes Park. My husband and I live in Colorado with our two kids. We were excited to squeeze in a little mid-week get-away in July.

Prior to our arrival: We had booked a kids tent experience in advance and our kids were excited! The day we were leaving, we got an email cancellation. No call or explanation as to why this booking was cancelled. We were looking forward to this fun surprise and then had disappointed kids. I called the hotel and the woman told me they ran out and had to cancel ours.

When we arrived: We thought we booked at the Trailborn Rocky Mountains but realized we booked at the Trailborn Rocky Mountain Outpost. Pictures online were misleading and we had no idea there were two properties. We thought we were staying at the property with the pool, hammocks, restaurant and s'mores (this was a big selling point with two kids).

We pulled out of the Rocky Mountain property and went to the Outpost. My husband checked in. We went to our room and the property felt incredibly run down and we were told the pool was broken (huge bummer). We walked into our room and there was poop in the toilet. Very disappointed. The walls were also paper thin and the first night we heard people walking around from about 2am-the early morning.

They told us we could use all the amenities at the other property so we checked the time of the pool closure and it said 10pm. Great, we can grab some dinner and head over to the pool!

Pool Situation: We got to the pool around 8:30pm. A hotel staff member came by and told us the pool was closing at 9pm (even though the sign on the side of the building said 10pm). Kids left sad and disappointed.

The next day: we went back to the pool since ours was under construction. The pool was HOT, really hot. It basically felt like a hot tub and our son who loves to swim kept asking to leave because it was not enjoyable. I understand the pool is heated, but it was not pleasant.

The day we left, we went to throw away trash by the ice machine since the ones in the room are really small. They were overflowing with diapers, beer cans and it looked very unsanitary.

There is also no place to sit in the breakfast area which makes it hard. A couple tables and chairs besides the lobby would be nice.

We were very disappointed with our stay and experience overall. I am not one to complain but feel like there were multiple things that did...

Terrible hotel experience. If I could give this hotel zero stars I would! Where to begin….

Let’s start with reservation shenanigans- I had booked a Rocky Mountain Double Queen which was supposed to have a balcony and a view. I was also supposed to receive a 20% discount for signing up for the mailing list. Received neither- when we went to check in, was informed there was a “housekeeping issue” and we were given a ground floor room with no view. Also never received the 20% discount. In addition, couldn’t help but notice before we arrived that the hotel had significantly lowered its rates from the time we booked and emailed representatives from Trailborn asking whether they would honor the day’s “walk-in” rates which were lower. Despite receiving email confirmations from representatives of Trailborn that they would honor the lower walk-in rates, they never did. Representatives of Trailborn stated in emails they would refund me the difference but they never did (if you read other Google reviews you will see promising refunds and not following through appears to be a pattern with this place).

Perhaps all would have been forgiven if the stay had been wonderful but it was the opposite of wonderful. Outdoor swimming pool was full of green sludge and declared “out of order”. As was the outdoor swimming pool at the sister Trailborn property. One of the reasons we had even chosen the hotel was so that our kids could have a place to swim after hiking. Property is an old motel that has received a new coat of paint but at the end of the day you pay exorbitant rates to stay at an old motel with very slick marketing. Nothing looks like the pictures on the hotel website. Breakfast was mediocre. Room was cramped. You could hear everything in the room next door. Have never felt so ripped off by a hotel in my life! Do yourself a favor and stay somewhere else...

I really wanted to rate this hotel higher. But this Hotel lacks management and staffing. The website says check in is at 4pm EST. so MST it would be 2pm. When we came in to check in the staff person was very disregarding and made me feel like I was bothering him when I stopped by to see if we could check in. We couldn't check in till 4pm and would receive a call when our room was ready....4pm comes and goes, no call. So @ 4:45pm we come in and there is a different staff person at the front and he apologized and said that they are short staff and our room wasn't ready yet, but it would be ready in an hour. At this point I noticed other guests milling about looking frustrated. We decided to go grab a bite to eat. Came back an hour and a half later, again room still isn't ready. At this point I spoke to other guests and they all had the same experience. One guest said they had been there a few days and they waited an hour for breakfast to be set up and extra experience they paid for were not set up for them. Others had to move rooms because they were not cleaned. One lady told us she had to sweep her own room. When we finally got to our room there was still hair in the bathroom and the floor was dirty. No coffee or tea in the room with a hot kettle. No way to stream shows on the TV. I can hear the TV of the other rooms and people talking next door. I want to be clear the front desk staff person we talked to @ 4:45 seemed to be trying to do everything he could all by himself with no support. He was very understanding, listened and did his best to get people into their rooms. My question is why was he on his own on a busy holiday weekend??? Where was management??? Only for this reason did the rating for service get 2 stars. It wasn't his fault that this place is poorly...