Boulder Creek Lodge — Hotel in Nederland

We stayed at the Boulder Creek Lodge a couple weeks back for a wedding in Nederland. Partly out of necessity (this is the only hotel in Nederland) and partly because reviews of this location from years past paint it as a quant mountain lodge. Recent reviews and our bizarre, at times upsetting experience make it clear that there is new ownership and management.||||When we arrived around 530PM on a Friday it was unclear if anyone working was there. As it turned our the young lady sleeping on the couch in the lobby did in fact work there and the young man dressed indiscreetly in a hoodie and jeans was the manager for the day handling a full block of check ins. After check in with the very polite front desk guy we lugged our luggage and baby gear to our family suite. We arrived to a room where the door was propped open, turns out this was because of a broken door mechanism that didn’t allow the door to close. Due to having a new baby, my wife was understandably unsettled. We were refused a new room, but first came help from someone other than the guy who checked us in. I later found out it was the hotel “manager” (guy named Lexi - long bleach blond hair and piercings) who left us upset and without fixing the door because I asked to be moved to a room with a working door and a lock, he was expressing how it wasn’t his problem since his shift already ended. Finally the guy who checked us in arrived with a screw driver. He fixed it so the door could close but had to shrug his shoulders that both manual lock mechanisms didn’t work, turns out none of the rooms had functioning deadbolts or slide locks… he said he would take care of us at check out with a reduced rate since he couldn’t get us a new room and the person he sent to help had been so rude. ||||Once we actually got settled in I took in the room we fought so hard to be locked into… it was dusty, outdated and seemingly lived in. We ignored the accommodations and enjoyed the wedding weekend of close friends, staying as far from the hotel as we could for all but sleep. Naturally other members of our party and even folks not staying with our group complained of lock issues, missing towels, joints left in drawers (found by kids), dirty spaces and broken furnaces. Our furnace worked but emitted a strong plastic burning odor so we shut it off and brought in extra blankets from the car. ||||On Saturday evening, Lexi felt it appropriate to express his displeasure with the fact that we sold out his hotel for the weekend by calling the mother of the bride and leaving an expletive laced voicemail during the wedding. Of all the gross and unacceptable things experienced at the hotel, this was the worst thing that was done during the weekend.||||To ensure no one carried over to the hotel and avoid confrontation we contacted and awesome local brewery who agreed to stay open late and host the wedding party after the reception (bars and restaurants in Nederland close around 8 or 9 on a typical night)||||I’m saving the best for last somehow.. on our final night in the room, while my wife got ready for bed and I put down our two month old in her travel bassinet, my curiosity got the best of me. I walked in the kids room of the family suite, equipped with bunk beds and twin bed, I started opening drawers… I had to conceal my shock knowing if my wife heard what I found we would be sleeping in the car, and I waited until we were leaving the next morning to show her the strap on sex toy in the top drawer of the kids area, next to some headphones and a coloring book. ||||Looking back I was grateful that we didn’t switch rooms possibly leaving one of the family’s with older young children to get our room where the kids could have stumbled on and touched this device. See the photos for the upsetting proof and book an Airbnb or camp out if visiting...

Stayed here for the weekend and can't say I'm impressed. The lodge is nice enough and certainly clean and decently comfortable. But beware if you're thinking to stay here overnight to ski at Eldora. Lastest checkout is at 11am so you would need to pack your things and check out prior to skiing(no showering after skiing). When checking in the day before it was not made clear that check out was this early. When we confronted management about the issue after being notified that they had moved some of our belongings out of the room they were reluctant to let us back into the room to double check that they really had removed everything. After gathering our stuff and getting ready to leave, a manager came out insulted an employee we had expressed liking (who no longer works there) and fussed at us when we left. For the price of $140 a night, a broken hot tub, and no breakfast service, I would say its not worth your time or money to stay here.

Edit:

Can't say that the check out time is "clearly posted" if its typed on a normal font on a white peice of paper on a counter with other white peices of paper. Might I suggest highlighting it or presenting it in a way that catches someone's eye? If the person at the front desk isn't going to tell who ever is checking in what the check out time is? And you mention that the check out time is posted in the rooms as well? I dont even know where that was posted, I never saw it. Maybe post it on the door by the note that says you'll fine someone $300 if they smoke in the room (for clarification, I have no issuse with that policy, I just remembered it because it was in a spot you couldn't miss)

Also, I would like to apologize if we made your employees feel uncomfortable, working in customer service is a hard job and I always try to give people the benefit of the doubt. I dont recall much turbulation with them though. Only that one of the girls wouldn't let us check that all of our items had been removed (which they hadn't) and I insisted that I be allowed to double check. Besides, we didn't really say anything to the manager that came out to the lobby, other than an apology for not knowing the check out time and an expression that we liked an employee that worked there in the past. I dont quite understand how that's enough to warrant insulting the former employee and proceeding to be rude further. Perhaps brushing up on what good customer service looks like will do you...

Sad to say that this lodge is NOT the great get-away place that is was when we stayed a few years ago.

The first tip off was the heavy lysol odor that reeked as we first walked in. Just turned my stomach - I hate that stuff. Hubby said it smelled like they were trying to cover up an outhouse smell. The place had really gone downhill, and it showed.

We had reserved one of the last rooms, at nearly $200 (almost double what we have previously paid). The gal who took our reservation told Hubby that there was a 'jazz and blues' music festival in town, so the rooms were at a premium. Ok, we thought - good enough, and we may even be able to enjoy some music whilst there. HA! Turns out, it was 'NedFest', and more like a Phish or Dead fest, with the whole little town was full of barefoot, dreadlocked, stinky folks. And most of these hippies smoked and had attitude! No worries, we thought, we can make our own adventure.HA!

Got to bed last night around 11:30pm, and was looking forward to a peaceful, quiet sleep. Round about midnight, you could hear people coming and going throughout the halls, talking loudly and banging doors, and then the music started. And I didn't think much of it as I thought it would settle down soon. I mistakenly thought it was from the festival, but no, it was from the room next door. The music was continuous, with a bass beat very loud on each song. About 2am, we called the front desk, and it immediately went to voice mail. We called the room, and that went to voice mail. Then you could hear a gal out our open window say something like 'now they are calling?' Like she may have been partying outside with the music on inside??? But the music continued .... until 5AM!!!! Maddening! During that time, we called and visited the front desk a few more times to ask for relief, to no avail. We also discovered at that time that the lodge hall doors were not only unlocked, but propped open with a large rock. Extremely unsafe.

When we mentioned this to the desk clerk this morning, she was nonchalant and gave no compensation whatsoever. We did get the owner's card, and we will attempt to take it up with him.

Needless to say, what a waste of what was a lovely place to visit. And a big waste of money, and time. We will NOT be returning there, unless they change their operations, security,...