Gateway Canyons Resort & Spa — Hotel in Spanish Valley

WOW! What an amazingly beautiful resort! We spent our honeymoon here for 5 days, and truly felt like we were in paradise-- in the middle of the desert, surrounded by mountains, nestled at the foot of the Palisades. Truly a 5 star resort (we had a Casita) with craftsmanship that others in the "luxury ranch" category lack or overlook. There were beautiful common areas, an attentive staff who went far above and beyond, amazing pools/hot tubs, and the best hotel bed we have ever had. Daytime activities we did include horseback riding (AMAZING!), UTV rides, free cruiser bikes, hiking, and exotic car rental (we got a speeding ticket within driving ours 1 hour! haha).

Our only negatives involve the lack of choice in dining and nightlife. There are only 2 restaurants on site for dinner, and both of those close at 10pm. The menus are limited, and although the ingredients were quality, the food was consistency mediocre at best. In fact, the pool bar menu is the eerily the same (almost) as the dinner Paradox Grill menu. Breakfast at Entrada was amazing, however. With huge portions, well done classics with a twist, and an amazing fire pit, the breakfast we enjoyed alfresco couldn't have been better!

However, with the nearest ANYTHING (gas station, restaurant, bar, store) being 50 miles and nearly 90 minutes away, the lack of nightlife was shocking. Everything on site at Gateway closed at 10pm. Everything. No food. No music. No bar. It was dark and a desolate wasteland at 10:01pm. We actually drove to Grand Junction over an hour away to get some snacks and drinks for our room, since we knew we would be on our own once 10pm rolled around. Its just unfortunate that such an amazing space in the middle of nowhere did nothing to entertain or accommodate the nightly downtime of its guests. Daytime activities are great, but what about when it's time to unwind and take a breather? We so wanted to enjoy a cocktail and maybe see some acoustic musicians, but sadly, we were left to watch TV by ourselves with our gas-station-bought wine each night as we retired to our room. Overall, this place is amazing, and we would absolutely recommend it to anyone looking to enjoy nature, relax and unwind in the lap of luxury. Just be prepared for quiet nights in, or stop in Moab on the way in and grab some wine and snacks (and maybe bring cards or a board game if you crave...

We just returned from our stay at Gateway Canyons. While the property is beautiful and the hiking trails are nice, the rest of our stay was not worth the price. We had booked two Casitas with a joining room. We were not told that bicycles came complimentary with our stay, and only learned this information a day later. However at that point they told us that all the bikes were out and the other half were all broken. The staff at the adventure center told us that at 3pm that would be able to bring some bicycles but they never did. We never got to use them for our entire four day visit. Our casita had a hot tub but it was lukewarm. We asked for maintenance to come have a look at it. When maintenance showed up he told us he had been working on it since the morning and that it only went up to 93 degrees. He couldn’t figure out why it wouldn’t heat up, but he said he could put a cover over it for us. I’m not sure what good that would do when we wanted to use it. Both of our outdoor showers had been winterized and we were not able to use them till halfway through our stay. The pool was not opened till Saturday, and the bar at the pool was never opened. We were told that all restaurants would be open but come to find out only one was open for dinner. It also appeared to all of us that the staff was not prepared for guests. Every time we showed up for breakfast or brunch, we were treated very cool, almost like we were a bother to the staff. We asked for room service to come and replace our coffee but had to remind them everyday. Our room service order was wrong on multiple occasions. The porches were full of dog hair and we asked for them to clean it up but that was also ignored. The floors in our casitas turned our socks a dark color as if they were not cleaned at all. They left bags of our trash and dirty dishes on our porch all day. And only took it away when they came to deliver us some ice and saw that it was still sitting on our porch. I work in hospitality and I understand the complications that arose from the pandemic. However I don’t feel like you can charge the same amount that you did pre-covid, and have less than half the amenities. Something has to give. I would not recommend staying here until they have had time to evaluate the services and adjust the prices...

We stayed from June 7-11 2022 with a company event. Our initial day was a day earlier than our company reservation plan. Upon arriving (which by the way is a good 45 minutes from Grand Junction) at approximately 730 Pm we were first told our reservation could not be altered and they had no king beds that were not spoken for. We stood at the desk for 20 minutes + while the front staff attendant grumpily tried to make changes. After I asked him to speak to a supervisor he wanted to speak to our marketing director. Who he said made the choice of our room and only he could change the room. After speaking with our marketing director we found this was untrue. When we had called ahead for availability we were told there would be no problem and all attempts would be made on site for our stay. I was told that there were absolutely no king beds available in the facility that would be available to us. This was untrue as we found out at a later date. When we got a price from the front desk attendant it was 200.00 more than the online price when I was standing directly in front of him. They finally cut the total amount for our first day in half. For callling themselves a 5 star resort they fail in 1) accommodations our 2 queen bedroom with one sink bathroom was dirty and we found bugs in them daily. There were Broken floor tiles and broken refrigerator. We were placed on the second floor with no elevator and no luggage assistance. 2)facility was unmanicured and the sprinklers often went off when we were making our way from one event building to the next. 3)The restaurant meals were good but the buffets they provided for the group were not very accommodating to Personal diets. In saying all of this I want to mention their serving staff, bartenders, and spa personnel were wonderful! They were always attempting to give assistance in their attempts to even find things that were not always provided as a whole to the planned event. I gave them a 1 star for the first encounter and despite being told we would have a follow up call from the manager on duty. We...