Teton Mountain Lodge & Spa — Hotel in Jackson

I stayed at the Teton Mountain Lodge for the nights of 15 and 16 August 2018 after traveling from Arco, near Craters of the Moon National Park. I thought I would treat myself given that the previous evening was not expected to be wonderful (a separate review).

The lodge is wonderful. It is nicely located in Teton Village, a short walk to the cable car that takes you to the top of the mountain (you should do this). The room is comfortable, with great furnishings. I like the idea of the gas fireplace. And the double shower – that’s the first time I have ever seen that in an hotel room. There is, however, not a comfortable chair in the room so you are forced to sit at the dining room table whose chairs are hard and not comfortable.

There is a rooftop pool / sitting area. I ventured there on my second night but it was too cold to be enjoyable so I quickly retreated into the warmth of the hotel. I did not discover the indoor pool until after I had checked out and by then I could no longer gain access since my cards had been disabled. But it looked like a good way to spend a lazy afternoon.

The guest laundry is useful despite it initially stealing USD 2 from me. I entered four quarters (and then again) into the machine but since it was out of washing powder it took my money but did not deliver on the powder. This was rectified by the front desk so no issues there, other than the frustration. Despite choosing the ‘hot’ setting my laundry was cold washed and not particularly clean. Anyway.

For my first night I requested a seat in the restaurant. Unfortunately when I arrived there was a LARGE party of guests so I was forced to walk to the restaurant just down from the outside of the hotel. Not a major issue. On my second night I ate in the in-house restaurant since there was not a large volume of people as there was the previous evening. I must say I find the restaurant confusing. The chef is obviously super talented. But I believe his talents are more suited to an upper class French restaurant than a lodge in Teton. People prefer not to have to wait for 25+ minutes for a plate of food that looks like it stepped out of an art show when they prefer a quick wholesome dinner of reasonable quantity. The dinner was expertly presented, more like something you would expect in an upper class restaurant than a lodge in Teton. But the wait was too long for such perfection. All in all the restaurant is fine but aimed at the wrong market I believe.

I enjoyed my stay at Teton Mountain Lodge, despite it being reasonably expensive. The views from my room were nice, over towards the cable car and up towards the mountain. The room was comfortable, except the seating arrangements, and the staff were friendly. If I was in the area again I would certainly consider staying there again. I managed to get a lot of good ideas for my future lodge planned in South Africa and / or my house...

We arrived on a weekday for a 3-night stay. We got up to our room and saw it faced construction in their parking lot. Front desk offered to upgrade us to a first floor suite, but wanted us to look at it first as it also faces construction. Definite yes because we have 2 kids and the suite has WAY more space. However the suite we were given had tons of issues and we think it sat unused for a long time- maybe we were their test dummies to work out all the kinks?! There was a thick layer of dust on the living area window sill, no lightbulbs in 2 of the 3 bedroom lamps, one bathroom faucet was really loose. Then the bathroom light bulb burned out first night. I tried to plug something into the island outlet and it sparked! The fridge needs a new water filter as the ice from the ice maker tasted very old. Bedroom curtains don't close tightly, so at night, car headlights would shine in the room (I finally used a hair clip to hold the curtains together). The suite ac/heater is programmable and they had the night time AC temp set to 85*. We would turn it down before bed but then wake up sweating when the program automatically over-rode the temp we selected. The fans in both bathrooms were extremely loud. I couldn't help thinking that if we had paid $1,400+ a night for this suite, I would have been very upset at the lack of attention to detail.

HOWEVER, the staff were wonderful, especially the bellhop Ryan. He had such a great attitude, was very helpful and provided top-notch service with a smile. We enjoyed the outdoor pool and had a good dinner at Spur. The lobby is beautiful and the rooms were very nicely appointed. If the room didn't have so many flaws and issues, I would give the resort 5 stars.

We were VERY surprised to find out that only 3 of the Teton Village restaurants are open after 5pm. Our first night there we tried to go to dinner around 6:30 and found out that the majority of the restaurants were already closed! We ended up going to The Deck @ Piste ($60 for the 4 of us to ride the tram up!). View was great and the food was decent. When we come back to Jackson Hole, we will not return to Teton Village as everything closes up too early for us and the traffic getting into Jackson is a disaster, so it's not worth driving in...

The good: Location, location, location. It is really nice to be able to get your ski rentals from within the hotel and be just a couple minute walk to the lifts. They store your skis so you don’t have to deal with that. The lobby seating area was great as it has two fireplaces and a gentleman was making smores for the kiddos. He greeted everyone that came through the lobby and was extremely nice. Nice leather chairs and couches to sit on. The pool and hot tub area was really nice as well. The Spur restaurant was good and most items can be shared as they are larger in portion. For example, the nachos would probably serve 2 adults easily. The jacuzzi tub in the room was really nice after a long day on the slopes.

The not so good: We arrived at the hotel at 1:30 before the scheduled 4 p.m. check in. Our room wasn't ready so we left our bags at the front desk to be stored. Received a call that our room was ready and returned to the hotel to retrieve the keys from the front desk. They told me that our bags had been delivered to the room. When entering the room, our bags were not there and the right reading lamp was hanging off the wall by the electrical cord only. Had to go back downstairs to get our bags and I let them know about the light. They sent someone up right away to fix the light which I appreciated the promptness. Neither of those items were a big deal - more of an inconvenience. The right window frame was completely rotted out and the latches did not work. Due to COVID they aren’t cleaning the rooms during your stay, which they let us know when we checked in. They did however change out the sheets on our 3rd day of a 4 night stay.

Overall we had a great trip and enjoyed our stay at Teton Mountain Lodge and Spa. Probably will try Hotel Terra next trip as it is newer and just a stones throw closer...