Hotel Seward — Hotel in Seward

Advertised as a pet friendly hotel I made a reservation at Hotel Seward on June 22nd 2020. I inquired about the pet policy and the reservation clerk informed me the pet policy they had is that the dog needed to be 65lbs or less. On July 3rd 2020 we checked in with the dog and were handed a full page of policies for the pet. The main policy was that pets could not be left unattended at any time which I was uncomfortable with but realized I had no other choice but to sign because the hotels website disclosed a 72-hour cancellation fee and I had no other reservations. The hotel website does not have any information about their pet policy and as I stated, I was not informed of this policy when I made the reservation. On July 4th after fishing in the morning and not catching any fish the hotel fishing guide offered to show us how to fish successfully. We had our dog with us but put her in the room and the hotel guide informed me that someone had to stay with the dog. The owner, Mark, was also present and I tried to explain how I thought this policy was arbitrary and capricious since my dog has been in dozens of hotels throughout Europe with no problems or complaints. We rotated back to the US after 15 years overseas in November 2019. I agree that my wife would stay with the dog and not join us in fishing, which is the whole reason we picked a pet friendly hotel so we could fish. We kept our dog with us except for one instance when our 13-year-old dog was not feeling well and lethargic. We did leave to dog in the room unattended and when we returned there was a note on the door stating that we violated the pet policy we had signed and would automatically be charged the $100 fee. Upon check out I noticed that my bill was incorrect and brought it to the attention of the front desk clerk. There was a credit for the unattended pet fee instead of being charged so I informed the clerk that the bill was incorrect and let her know I did not want to pay the unattended pet fee. I was willing to pay what I owed but did not want to pay the unattended pet fee because I believe it to be unjust The clerk informed me I would have to talk to the owner which I did. I explained to the owner how I felt entrapped since their website had no mention of their restrictive pet policy and it was not until I checked in with no other choice but to sign the policy or lose money due to their cancellation policy. The owner said that he received a complaint from another guest, a frequent Alaska Railroad employee, that a dog was barking which I find very suspicious. The owner then stated that he went into every room with a dog and charged everyone an unattended pet fee. Seems very suspicious that this complaint came in when the dog owners were away from the room. I suspect that this is a common scenario because the owner mentioned that this happens very often. This is a deceptive business practice because a guest has no clue about the restrictive pet policy until they check in and then they have no choice but to agree and take a chance they will not be caught. Dogs are not allowed in any eating establishments so most guest will have no choice but to leave their pet if they want to eat together. It also states in the pet policy that all pets must be on a leash, which my dog always was. The owner has a dog on the premises, Bella, that I had not seen on a leash one time. If fact, Bella did not like my face mask and came at me in an aggressive way barking. I brought this hypocrisy up to the owner and he stated that he does not have to follow the pet policy. He then proceeded to call me a “punk” and that I had “no balls” for bringing my dissatisfaction with the policy up before check out, but I did discuss the policy with him the day before. I then informed the owner that I was a 100% disabled veteran and served two combat tours during 26 years in the Army. Needless to say I cannot recommend this...

The worse place we stayed while traveling all around Alaska. The only reason its getting two stars is because my parent's room was ok for the most part. Upon arrival, the line was out the door with folks waiting to check in. The front desk attendant worked slower than molasses or perhaps she had found the last remaining Quaalude in existence. I'm unsure, but we waited in line for an hour. We booked 2 queen rooms, but the attendant only gave us 1 room key card at first. When we informed her we had 2 rooms, she had to scrounge up another room and gave me a physical key and informed me I would be in the "historic" section, which was located on the other side of the hotel completely away from my parent's room. Not a huge deal but inconvenient considering there was a connecting room door in my parent's room that was supposed to be for me, but perhaps they gave it away. Anyway the historic section of the hotel.....I have no words. I walked through a bar and down a weird hallway to my room. As I entered my room, I cursed out loud, as this room seemed to be for someone to either rent by the hour with a lady of the evening or perhaps to cause permanent harm to themselves in. The window was open and it had been raining for days so it was very damp in there. But if you close the window it becomes incredibly hot and stuffy and there is no thermostat in the room and no way to cool off. Also it was the ground floor, so leaving the window open was not an option, considering anyone or any animal could break in easily while sleeping. The room was very small, the bed was not a queen and beheld upon it an ancient artifact of a comforter that was probably 60+ years old, the bathroom was so small that my hips practically touched the walls while washing my hands, and you could hear every single sound anyone was making all around you. The doors are incredibly loud to close as well and with there being a shared bathroom for most of the historic rooms, that made for a lot of startles throughout the night. I could hear the bar all night, I heard everyone using the bathroom, I heard someone fart in the room next to me, conversations in the hallway were easy to be a part of, and my favorite was when I drifted off at 2:30am and someone dragged their luggage upstairs and it sounded like someone was being thrown down the stairs outside my room. I can't tell you how many startled awakenings I had. I tossed and turned mostly because it was so hot. I will say once I removed the comforter and matching pillows I inspected the sheets and mattress and it seemed clean, so there was that. I did sleep in my clothes though because I couldn't relax. They had a back door propped open right by my room, where anyone or thing could walk in. My parent's did not want me to stay in that room and spoke to the front desk about it but she said the only solution would be to downgrade to another historic room with the shared bathroom option. I'm not sure how that is at all a solution, but again perhaps a Quaalude came into play? Not sure. They were not remorseful at all, when clearly they gave away my room and put me in a room from The Shining. My parent's tried to find me another hotel but I'm not a wuss and can handle a night anywhere, so I toughed it out. I had nightmares all night that my door kept opening and someone could be in my room or someone was creepily looking at me whilst I slept. My father had nightmares he murdered someone too. Lol. He's a kind soul that would never hurt a fly, so very out of character for him. I don't know what the heck is going on here but I would never step foot in here again. My parent's woke up at 5am and we bolted out of this place. Lastly, if you want the breakfast they offer, it's across the street at another hotel, if that is something you care about. So happy we only booked 1 night. It's a funny story now, but it...

I would give this place a 1 except for the bartender in the little bar and the shuttle driver, both superstars, in particular the shuttle driver.||Let me assure you, my expectations were low from reading previous reviews and having to book a room with private bath (It was actually so small I used the shared one :)).||Started off decent, arrived around noon and didn’t really expect a room to be ready. Went to grab a bite and walk around town, was expecting a call, but never received one so headed back closer to advertised checkin time, New woman at des said they do not allow early check-in (it was 30 minutes prior to time) and shortly a “manager” came from somewhere. he told the woman to just give people rooms in the order they arrived, and some just will not get the room type they reserved, what is that? My wife and I just stared at each other.||We eventually got into our overly “cute” or “quaint” room as some put it, I call it very small, but I knew that going in. The TV was new and large, which was nice (had to throw a bone in there).||We went to a nice dinner and just kind of laughed everything off when we got back to our room, then the next day happened.||Left for a bit to get breakfast and look in some shops before heading back to catch our pre-arranged hotel shuttle to the cruise port, which we had booked for 10:00. I received a call from the front desk and the guy said he was sorry, but the shuttle couldn’t take us until hopefully 10:45. He told me they had a group that ended up being larger than planned and it would take several trips to get them there. Instead of offering to call a taxi company, he told me I would be better off calling for one, nice customer service! We went back to the hotel to try to figure out what to do. The guy had no answer to why I would get moved when I prearranged the shuttle and what made them more important than me. Understand I am a loyalty and status guy, so I understand programs, this place doesn’t nor should it have a loyalty program. I then asked him to see if the shuttle driver could take us in 10 minutes, he told me the shuttle driver was unavailable at the time.||So, being pretty proud of how I kept my cool during this whole experience with this hotel, I went back to the room to get our bags and figured I would try to get a taxi. One minute later my wife came back to the room and said she ran into the shuttle driver and he would be happy to take us now. Then when walking out with our bags, I was greeted by the cleaning crew asking if I was leaving the room. After the experience the day before of no rooms available and blah blah blah, everything just reeked of laziness and arrogance from the management down to the front desk staff, “we have the control”, not the guests.||So again, only as a last resort, and don’t get...