Madeline Hotel & Residences, Auberge Collection — Hotel in Mountain Village

Don’t stay here if you have a budget planned for your trip. If you always keep about $1,500 extra dollars on you then you’ll be fine. My boyfriend is a medical school student and I’m in college. We are not naive and realize this is a beautiful facility and that somewhere like this will be costly. We have been saving for this trip since August and booked our room in early September for our visit the second week of December. We left with around $1,800 dollars which seemed like plenty for a five day trip with two people, note we paid for our room “in full” at the Madeline back in September which was $987. We came back with a whopping negative $250. All thanks to this place’s bad business and crazy extra fees. We get there and they inform us that the cheapest parking the actual facility offers is $30 per night or $25 if you want to park down in the gondola parking lot, which is what we opted for, $125 just to park on our vacation. They then ask if we have a card they can use for an incidental fee. We happy go luckily hand over our card with all of our budgeted trip money never imagining that they would place a $400 hold on our money for the week just for an incidental fee for a room with one bed. We wanted to have a good time and not worry about finances so I ask my grandpa if I can borrow $400 promising to pay him back as soon as I receive the money back, knowing that my boyfriend and I would not cause any damages. My grandpa is very generous and sent the money right over no questions asked. Along the way we lost my card which had all the funds on it so I sent them to my boyfriends account and we began to use his card on the trip. Upon check out we have in total around $450 left in our budget for the 25 hour road trip home. Seems reasonable enough figuring our gas would be around $200. As I go to check out a lady at the front desk informs me that we owe ANOTHER $197.20 in taxes and “resort fees”. This is when I almost lose it but I calmly ask my boyfriend to borrow his card, a different card than mine that we lost which is the one on file for paying the incidents fee. I know that we have around $307 in the account at this point and $150 cash left in our budget so the card should easily go through. The young lady first types the card info into a computer and makes me wait for around 15 minutes saying that it sometimes takes a while. She then looks at the card reader and says ohhhh and puts the card chip in. The card reader asks me if the amount is correct and I click yes and the machine says approved. The woman then proceeds to tell me that our card was denied and has me swipe it two more times in which it actually was denied because they had charged the card $197.20 and there were no longer sufficient funds. I tell my boyfriend to show her where it took the money out of the account and she said it was a “pending” charge which means it’s denied. This girl did not speak proper English and I was very confused as to what she was trying to say considering there was $307 in the account before swiping the card and now there was $110. She tells me that we can be on our way and if something needs changed a supervisor will call me. All is well we’re now down $197.00 for the trip home but I receive the $400 incidental fee back into my account within around three hours of checking out. However, I’ve lost my card anyways and don’t touch that because it is owed back to my grandfather. Three days later I notice a charge out of MY account for $197.20 from the Madeline Resort. Now I actually have lost it I call the hotel I call the banks. They only HELD $197.20 out of my boyfriends account but for some reason released it back with no indication on his bank statement so he didn’t even realize after his card had been used for gas and food on the way home. They then proceeded to charge my card 3 days after we had checked out without informing me of any of this. This leaves me with insufficient funds to pay my grandpa back so thank you...

Wonderful experience staying here! We flew into Montrose and after a scenic drive, we arrived at the hotel with a very warm greeting by the valet. We made our way to check in where another smile was waiting for us at the front desk...and a glass of welcome bubbles! The main lobby put off an incredible mountain lodge vibe and the decor matched perfectly. Around the corner from the check in desk was a giant rec area with a large fireplace, multiple comfy seating options, shuffleboard, and a pool table. We booked our stay through the AMEX Fine Hotels method, which included daily breakfast for us both, and it was a nice surprise to learn we’ve been upgraded to a one bedroom suite! We were shown a quick tour of the hotel before being escorted to our room. On the way, we were shown the water station where a fixture would provide still or sparkling water along with three other water containers, each containing a special “ingredient.” The first container was labeled “Binchotan Charcoal” and had visible charcoal blocks at the bottom to promote cleansing. The next was labeled “Gemstone Water” and as you could guess, had gemstones at the bottom with an energy healing idea. The last container, and my favorite, was the “Chlorophyll” water with a greenish tint where the intention was to hydrate and alleviate altitude sickness…something anyone checking in could appreciate since the hotel was at 9,500ish feet. Our room was very spacious with a dining area, good sized kitchen, and a super comfortable sitting room. There was a fireplace in the middle of the room and on the other side was the bedroom. Everything in the room was laid out very well and the decor was comfortable. The bathroom was huge with a walk in shower, tub, double sink, and water closet. The shower had phenomenal water pressure, something I always appreciate! Our view was nice and overlooked the courtyard below with the mountains in the background. The first night, we grabbed a quick bite and drinks downstairs at the Timber Room. It had a great atmosphere and since it was so nice outside, the doors were all opened up to the courtyard. The food was tasty and the drinks were made to perfection. We experienced great service everywhere we went within the hotel, which the exception of Black Iron Kitchen + Bar…which was another restaurant associated with the hotel and where breakfast was served each morning. Everyone we dined there, the servers just seemed lost and didn’t pay much attention to the customers. The food was fine but the service was a real turn off for such a luxury property. The property was in the heart of Mountain Village so there were shops and other restaurants all around. There was also a free gondola nearby that would take you up to San Sophia station where you could hike and take in the views and then on continues on to Telluride. It was a wonderful 12 minute ride from Mountain Village to Telluride and much more convenient than driving 20+ minutes by car and then trying to find a parking spot in downtown Telluride. This was another perfect reason to stay where we did! Overall our experience here was excellent and this will most certainly be the place we stay...

Jacuzzi and pool are wonderful. The welcome drink and the water stations with the chlorophyll and charcoal were very cool. There is an ice skating rink right outside which is enjoyable.

The rooms were beautiful and some have kitchens and steam rooms in the bathroom. We enjoyed the gummy bears and hot chocolate at the ski valet.

It was one mistake after the next with staff. While they were very friendly and accommodating, they were a total mess.

When we switched rooms I special requested from front desk that they make sure to transfer a cardboard box full of food I put right on top of my suitcase. Instead they lost the box of vitamins, teas, food, and a large Stanley thermos, when it was returned, it was returned nearly empty with two bottles of vitamins and the thermos only. The special tea leaves from peru I can’t replace were gone. The manager comped us some gifts from the spa gift store to make up for it and free breakfast which was considerate. She was great and very responsive. The breakfast we had included a poached egg which had a large egg shell in it and the breakfast food is very heavy on the oil or grease.

The ski valet also mixed up all of our stuff when we switched rooms and we got a bin that was half our ski gear and half someone else’s. Then the ski valet guy really insisted on knowing what the reason for our room switch was.

The restaurants all close by 9 pm in mountain village and one cannot get food anywhere after that which is good to know in advance.

Turn down service walked into our room when we weren’t dressed which was awkward and uncomfortable. We had just gotten out of the shower. The doorbell isn’t a sound that one could recognize from the bedroom or shower, also it’s not a standard sound. There are privacy buttons that you can press right next to the door. This isn’t standard so it would have been nice if someone had explained that to us at check in. Some days there were little gifts by the bed other days there weren’t. It was just inconsistent. One day the filtered water wasn’t replaced and the tap water tastes horrible. The valet also took my shoes when he got our bags and the front desk didn’t answer so I had to go down to the lobby barefoot to get my shoes back. It was just a consistent amount of small inconveniences that happened over and over.

Important to note the parking lot we assumed was through the hotel but it’s a municipal parking lot. You don’t pay through the hotel at the end when you pay the bill you have to pay it daily through a machine which would have been nice to know in advance since we ended up with 3 days of parking tickets. Truly we just got confused as another hotel in mountain village previously had us pay for parking at the end. Communication about this would have been appreciated. The ski valet Doug had a total attitude about it and made a comment that we thought the signs didn’t apply to us. His animosity towards guests was the icing on the cake that finally made us decide that we will seek other accommodations in the future.

While this place is nice in so many ways, the caliber of service doesn’t match the price you pay for...