Jay Peak Resort — Hotel in Jay

Pay for Everything, Get Nothing: Our Jay Peak Resort Experience

Oh, where do I begin? If you’ve been desperately seeking a vacation spot that masterfully combines disappointment, dehydration, and the creeping suspicion that you may have made a mistake, look no further. Jay Peak ski resort has truly perfected the art of charging luxury cruise ship amenity pricing for the privilege of….. getting pretty much nothing.

Let’s start with the check-in process, which doubles as a psychological experiment. Guests are invited to show up at the designated checking areas, only to find out they decided to change it. Now it’s time to wander a maze of buildings across a vast campus, each one offering the faintest glimmer of hope and the crushing reality of “Nope, not here.” Spoiler alert: the only building that actually is check-in? Yeah—it’s the only one that doesn’t have a single sign. Not a number, not a logo, not even a sad little welcome mat. Just an unassuming portal to your upcoming disillusionment.

And once you finally crack the code and get to the front desk? Oh, don’t worry—they’re in no rush. You’ll be gently reminded not to check in before 5pm. You know, 5pm—the time when everything on the property closes. Ice skating? Nope. Rock climbing? Shut down. Arcade? Don’t make me laugh. Clearly, they want you to take it easy—very easy. So easy, in fact, you won’t actually do anything on this vacation.

Dinner? Ah yes, the one single restaurant that remains open, where you’ll enjoy a long, long meditative wait (think DMV meets rustic chic) to reflect on your dwindling expectations. Then it’s off to bed, where you can rest up for the real challenge: finding coffee in the morning.

We woke bright-eyed (okay, not really) and ready for caffeine—only to discover that the resort is deeply committed to keeping guests as uncaffeinated as humanly possible. Every single opportunity for coffee? Extinguished like a love lost.

One spot in particular really got our hopes up: “Buddy’s Mug Coffee Shop.” Sounds promising, right? The name alone whispers, “Come in, friend, we’ve got hot java and good vibes.” But guess what? Absolutely no coffee. You know why? Because they were CLOSED. Not temporarily. Not “back in five.” Just closed.

No problem though, right? Because by the time we figured it out, it was after noon—and that means espresso martini time at the bar! Except… enter our bartender. A true icon. A raging thunder cunt in the most textbook sense—equal parts apathetic, irritated, and openly hostile toward anything resembling a drink order. She let us know, without an ounce of apology, that she would only be making drinks with two ingredients or less. Salt on your margarita? Absolutely not. “Salt doesn’t stick to plastic cups,” she snarled, as if I’d just asked her to split an atom.

Defeated, we made our way to the waterpark snack shack in search of something—anything—edible. And what a treat: we were greeted by a dedicated employee who bravely showed up to serve heat lamp culinary cuisine with what appeared to be a full-blown case of pink eye. Nothing says “bon appétit” like an oozy, red stare and a tray of desiccated heat lamp nuggets.

And if all that wasn’t enough, the staff was more than happy to remind us—constantly—that we were just plain foolish for coming during the “off-season.” You know, off-season—that magical time when it’s literally snowing and half the country is on spring break. Silly us for thinking that a ski resort in the middle of snowfall might actually be… operating. Apparently, we missed the memo that their definition of “off-season” just means “we don’t feel like doing anything right now, and it’s your fault for being here.”

In the end, if you’re looking to spend all-inclusive money on a resort that offers no real excursions, no available activities, no caffeine, and no joy, Jay Peak has you covered. Come for the confusion, stay for the pink eye. Five stars....

It is ok. The skiing is phenomenal. But it is extremely confusing with not enough maps to tell you how to get where. One of the only places in the East with an enclosed gondola, so that is awesome. But the bigger issues are with the hotel itself. There seems to be a big disconnect on what the staff know or are told to tell customers. We were trying to stay one night and both ski and do the water park. There is a specific package for exactly that. We wanted to ski the first day, so we could come back to the room after a long hard cold day, hit the hot tub, have a good meal, and relax. Well, two problems with that plan. We talked to two different people on the phone. They both told us it is absolutely impossible to use the ski ticket the first day. That it HAS to be used the next day after arrival. They didn't care that this makes no sense. Who wants to wake up, ski, then go home? But I called back a third time and spoke to someone by the name of Percy, that said "absolutely you can do that, we do it all the time. Just stop by the front desk when you get here the first morning. You can't check in until later, but they can get you ski passes for that day." Ok! So we did. What was weird though was the front desk had no clue who Percy was. But they were able to give us the ski passes, so whatever.

Then I asked about the hot tub. Note: there are two hot tubs. One for use by hotel guests and one attached to the water park. BOTH are outside. The front desk told us, there is only one Hot tub, and you have to pay for the water park to use it. So....there is no hot tub for normal guests to use? "No" she says... Well there is (I inform her).... It is right next to the outdoor pool. but, it is not open in the winter. She had no clue that existed. And insisted it didn't. Whatever.

So, how in the world is your staff so confused on such simple but important things? The hot tub thing is very simple. There are 2, but the only one open in the winter is part of the water park and can only be accessed 10-6 and by paying $45..... But secondly, WHAT?!?!?!?! there is no hot tub for normal guests to use in the winter....seriously?! Even though you can see it from the summer-only hot tub and pool, you are not allowed to use it?!?! Yeah.....that is unacceptable. This is a massive complex with several seperate housing buildings, restaurants, water park, and skate rink, that probably float $50 million to build...yet there is no hot tub to use unless you pay $45 to use the water park.....and only until 6pm?! That is the most retarded arrangement I have ever seen at any hotel anywhere. Heck each hotel building here should have its own hot tub....but NOT EVEN ONE DOES?! are you out of your minds?!

So yeah, that is insane, and will make me not stay here again. Why even bother having a hot tub if overnight guests can't use it? And it would be a super simple fix to make guests be able to use it. It is outside right next to the summer-only pool/hottub. It would be super simple to make that accessible to guests without those same guests being able to access the indoor water park that is through closed doors right there, unless they have the wristband all water park people have. Like, I just fixed your problem right there.....why? How?! Infuriating. Insane. And ridiculous.

So please get your hotel staff on the same page. You CAN use your included ski pass the day you arrive. And there needs to be a hot tub, or several, available to guests. In the picture I posted from our room, you can even see both hot tubs in the same courtyard. The open 10-6 $45 waterpark one on the left, and to the right, the summer-only pool/hot tub..... Ridiculous. Figure it...

HOTEL: 1 star I never write reviews, but I can't let this one slide. Our room at the Tram Haus Lodge was run down and dirty. As with any hotel, one would expect basic cleanliness. There were piss stains and random hairs on the mattress (no zip cover), stains on the carpet and sofa, blood stains (or lipstick, we hope?) on one of the towels, some of the cutlery in the drawer had crusted food stuck on it and a water glass had a mouth print on it and had clearly not been washed but was put away. To be clear, the room had been made up by housekeeping. Also there were random other things like a leaky faucet in the bathroom that dripped all night, paper thin walls, a fire extinguisher on the wall that wasn't properly secured and random wiring sticking out where it shouldn’t be. The sofa bed was the absolute worst, don’t even think of sleeping on it. The mattress is so thin you can feel every spring. Honestly, we’re not usually very picky people, and any one of these things on its own we’d be pretty quick to shrug off and give the hotel the benefit of the doubt, but somehow all together it’s just really not up to expectations, especially given the price. Also, they valet your car into the hotel garage when you arrive… but on the morning you check out (presuming you want to ski that day before heading home), you have to first stow your luggage in your car and then move the vehicle to the main resort parking lot… never had this issue at other ski in/out hotels we’ve been to, where the valet usually has a luggage locker and takes care of your car until you need it. Just not the sort of thing you’d expect from a hotel marketed and priced like this one; felt more like a 1 star experience. They're cutting corners everywhere at this place.

LIFTS: 1 star Most of the chairlifts are older (not detachable, very little padding, a bit clunky) and the lift pass scanning gates were hit or miss. A lot of people were getting stuck and had to take their passes out of their pockets to get them to scan. Also, the tram and Flyer quad were on wind hold for 2 out of the 3 days we were there, which obviously greatly reduces the amount of skiable terrain you can access. This makes the full lift ticket price seem a bit unfair. Wind is obviously not the resort’s fault, but it’s a huge downer when you can’t ski half of what you wanted to hit and spend the day doing the same stuff on repeat. There were few to no updates on the app about the lift status during the day. Seemed like they made the call to shut the lifts before the day started, and then didn't try to re-evaluate.

AMENITIES: 2 stars The Provisions general store had awesome deli sandwiches, and the tramside Arcade was pretty fun. The rest is all very meh, if it was even open. Good luck doing anything after 6pm on a weekday. A hotel bar that closes at 9pm just isn't normal. The Jay burger on the menu is very boring for $20. The cafeteria food was greasy and overpriced.

SKIING: 5 stars To be fair, the skiing itself at Jay is incredible and deserves 5 stars. The powder was abundant and the conditions in the glades were perfection. Go for the snow, and you’ll be happy, if you can...