Van Gilder Hotel — Hotel in Seward

DO NOT STAY HERE. DISHONEST STAFF AND COMPANY. See 2 emails:

Email #1 Aug 14 2024 IGNORED. NO CALLS RETURNED.

Hello, my name is Kelly Willmes. I booked two nights at your Van Gilder hotel for Aug 5 and 6. We arrived on 5th and checked in. It was raining quite a bit and still raining into the 6th.

We had booked a cruise for the 6th, we went that morning to see if they were cancelling the cruise. They said we could cancel as we wouldnt be able to see anything or go the entire way. We were disappointed to have to cancel.

We didnt know what to do in Seward in the rain so we went to the hotel and asked the attendant, a middle aged blond kind woman, if we could check out with a refund for the 6th because of the heavy rain and bad conditions, to go back to Anchorage.

This woman, whose name I do not know, also was attending to the coffee/tea station and initially we found her when we knocked on the employee door in hall behind the front desk.

She said she would have to call a manager to get approval for cancel and refund, which she did. She discussed with Dianne/Dianna the rain situation and we heard her tell Dianna we were nice and she would like to help us out, that we werent leaving because we didnt like the hotel, it was because of rain. We had booked through a 3rd party and would need hotel approval for refund, we observed them discuss all of this.

While still on the phone with Dianna, this woman told us that because it was 3rd party, they would have to call Dianna for her to give approval and gave me the number for them to call. I typed this in a chat to travelocity while she told me this. The attendant told me to have them call Dianna and she would approve the refund.

I sent that chat to travelocity. I verifoed that we had approval for refund BEFORE we checked out. She said it would be taken care of so we checked out.

Later that day Travelocity sends me an email that they cant get ahold of Dianna so I will have to contact the hotel for the refund since hotel was paid. The desk attendant also showed me hotel had been paid on her screen.

I call the hotel line back, get a new manager whose name starts with an S, and she tells me no that is against our policy. I say well we got approval from Dianna for refund before we left. She says she will call Dianna and ask. She calls me back and says Dianna never said this! I ask to speak with Dianna. She tellls me Dianna will call me Mon or Tues. That was on Friday I believe. It is now Wed and I have not reveived a call.

I was looking at your corporate website and I noticed it highlights responsibility and integrity as your operating principles. Your staff allowed us to check out and told us they would approve the 1 night refund. Then, they go back on their word and lie about approving this? Two of your staff were involved with this entire conversation!

We were approved to check out with a refund for Aug 6 stay, and I would like your company to stand by your word and process the refund. We were polite and communicated well and clearly with your staff. We were good guests and the awful weather was not our fault. We would not have checked out had Dianna not approved the refund amd told us to have travelocity call her to approve it.

We were told the booking fee for that night may not be refundable and we said that was understandable.

Sincerely, Kelly Willmes

Email #2 Aug 21 2024. Same email forwarded again and IGNORED.

Aug 25 2024, NO RESPONSE IN ANY FORM FROM THESE DISHONEST PEOPLE.

AVOID AT ALL COSTS. It is not a nice...

I have stayed in a lot of not-so-great hotels, from hut in the wildlife refuges in Vietnam to bargain motels in Yakima WA, to little holes on the outskirts of Addis Ababa. The Van Gilder is hands-down the worst hotel I have ever stayed at.

It's worth noting, I think they gave us the best room they had. It's one of a few with a bathroom. It's on the top floor so you can't hear people overhead. Therein is the best I can say about it.

Firstly, if I hadn't seen it sitting out, I would have guessed they don't own a vacuum cleaner.

It's a very old building with not much put into maintenance and repair, so it looks like the set of an old-west distopian future. Wallpaper peeling, crumbling plaster, cheap laminate replacing missing wood trim. Dirty spotted carpets missing in places. The overhead light fixture in front of our room was broken with dangling wires next to a fire exit door that has such a bad seal that it sufficiently lights that end of the hallway.

The room has been retrofitted with electricity and bedside lamps, but on the wall opposite of the bed. There is a high-up tv stand with no TV, an unattached phone for decoration, and a nonfunctional radiator. You can see out to the outside underneath the window sill. The bed frame was a falling apart and of brass, so you can't lean against the headboard, not that you could read in bed anyway because the lights are on the wrong wall. The bathroom has a tiny shower with the showerhead far too low and the shower too small to bend down and wash your hair without getting half way out of the shower...which is okay, because the shower curtain is mounted too low and there is no way to be in the shower without it clinging to you if you have it closed.

There were wooden plaques above the bed with hooks mounted to them that I couldn't figure out the use of. They were those simple hooks like you use to lightly secure a gate to a fence post to stay closed.

The decorations overall are rather slap-dash. Framed need articles from the 1930s, some wooden furniture and inexplicably am old Remington typewriter sitting on the floor of a landing.

Staying here was more of an adventure than I expected. Probably won't stay here again. Oh, and if you found this hotel because you were searching for a place with a fridge and a microwave, the microwave is in the coffee room and there are 3 mini fridges in the lobby. So that's why the rooms are listed with microwave and fridge. And if you don't specify a room with a shower, you have to use the communal showers.

I guess if it were advertised as a hostel and cost $50/night I would have enjoyed...

This hotel was horrible. There was no hot water. We reported it and were told that it was an old building, and that the owner was not planning on repairing it. I discussed with about 6 other guests. They by the way all approached me! No one had hot water. Everyone was mad. I asked for compensation and was lied to. The front desk manager told me that Expedia collected my money so I needed to go through Expedia for a refund. She stated that she would have given me a refund had if I did not pay through Expedia. I then checked my credit card and realized that was a lie! The Van Gilder charged my credit card directly. Expedia confirmed that. The hotel was dirty, the hallway lights were out, You could not see your door to put the key in, the walls were stained and disgusting as you can see from my photo, and every guest that I talked to was angry. A British doctor told me that the Van Gilder was the most disgusting hotel she had stayed in anywhere in the world. I had to agree. Alaska is a beautiful state but the Van Gilder ruined our Seward, AK experience. I called Expedia. Expedia tried calling the Van Guilder but stated that no one would answer nor return their calls. I called after leaving and realizing I had been lied to with the same result. No one answers the phone. Do Not Stay at the Van Gilder. Look on VRBO or AirB&B. There are lots of nice places to stay in Seward. I will be personally taking this up with the city of Seward. They really need to revoke the Van Gilder's license to operate. I am also taking this up with my credit card company. I am now in Homer, at a beautiful hotel. Everything is new. Water is hot. TV is 2-3 times the size. I have a freezer and refrigerator, neither of which I had at the Van Gilder, the walls are freshly painted, I have hot water etc. Everything you should expect from a...