Zion Canyon Lodge — Hotel in Springdale

The WORST hotel experience I have ever had the displeasure to go through. I wish zero stars was an option. I don't ever want to stay in an independently owned hotel again after this - only Marriotts and Hiltons for me in the future.

Why was this stay so appalling?

After my first night (I was staying for 3 days), I spent the day hiking all around Zion - like over ten miles - then get dinner, and want to collapse immediately into my bed. I get to my room, and the key doesn't work. I go to get my key fixed in the lobby, and realize ALL of my stuff is in a pile on a cart in the lobby behind the desk - not locked away, but actually in plain sight (at least it was behind the desk). Someone had gone into my room and haphazardly gathered all my stuff. I had just done some laundry (and had dirty clothes to wash that night), but the wet socks were put in with dry stuff (making EVERYTHING wet), dirty clothes were mixed with clean stuff. I have a few health issues so I had medicines and some (of my) equipment in the room and I had NO idea if it was all there and in what state any of it was in (thank goodness nothing was missing or broken). I also HATE HATE HATE when people touch my stuff (recovering from OCD and I'm also on the Autism Spectrum - and I was traveling alone for the first time, even though I'm in my 30s). Given how exhausted I was, I had a COMPLETE meltdown and panicked. Not only was this all happening, but they'd already checked new guests into my room so I couldn't go back and check and make sure they had everything of mine.

How did this happen? Apparently, 2 rooms checked in around the same time I did. One was for a single night, mine was for 3 nights. However, apparently our rooms were swapped by the new and clearly incompetent front desk person - so the room the other guests had left empty after leaving wasn't cleaned or touched, while my room was emptied (instead of someone checking to see, huh, this person didn't pack up, this person is gone, maybe there was a room mix up). Like, if someone had bothered to check the state of the two rooms, maybe they could've figured this out.

FYI - Zion National Park has no cell signal, so there's no way to reach people inside the park. One would THINK that people who live and work there understand that and work around it, but clearly not.

No attempt was made to contact ME, the owner of my stuff (my name was on PLENTY of it - so they should've figured out the mixup at this point too) - they only contacted the guests who HAD checked out and did NOT own the stuff that was removed.

They said they would refund me at least a night for the inconvenience (they never did). Literally nothing was done to compensate me for any of this. My parents tried to call to handle it (remember, I was having a meltdown and was inconsolable), and the manager wouldn't even give me or my parents her name and was absolutely HORRIBLE to my parents who were trying to deal with what happened because I was in no state for it.

The poor man who was working the front desk and really had nothing to do with the chaos was incredibly sweet and accommodating - he walked me to the store to get detergent so I could redo my laundry and checked on me periodically afterwards, but he had zero power for refunding or actually doing anything about this.

They found a room for me to stay in for the rest of the time I was in Zion, so at least I wasn't left without a place to stay during high season. The rooms were fine - not gross, not sparkling, the bed was plenty comfortable. Not the closest place to stay to Zion, and there are places more convenient to the buses (this isn't inconvenient, there are just better places). Definitely not worth being the most expensive of the hotels on the block - even at high season, not worth $200+.

It's been over a week since I got home from my trip and almost 3 since this disaster at Zion Canyon Lodge, and I'm STILL livid and brought to tears thinking about this.

DO NOT STAY HERE. (I hope the nice man at the front desk can find a better place to work because he...

I wish zero stars was an option. I don't ever want to stay in an independently owned hotel again after this - only Marriotts and Hiltons for me in the future.|Why was this stay so appalling?|After my first night (I was staying for 3 days), I spent the day hiking all around Zion - like over ten miles - then get dinner, and want to collapse immediately into my bed.|I get to my room, and the key doesn't work. I go to get my key fixed in the lobby, and realize ALL of my stuff is in a pile on a cart in the lobby behind the desk - not locked away, but actually in plain sight (at least it was behind the desk). Someone had gone into my room and haphazardly gathered all my stuff. I had just done some laundry (and had dirty clothes to wash that night), but the wet socks were put in with dry stuff (making EVERYTHING wet), dirty clothes were mixed with clean stuff. I have a few health issues so I had medicines and some (of my) equipment in the room and I had NO idea if it was all there and in what state any of it was in (thank goodness nothing was missing or broken). I also HATE HATE HATE when people touch my stuff (recovering from OCD and I'm also on the Autism Spectrum - and I was traveling alone for the first time, even though I'm in my 30s). Given how exhausted I was, I had a COMPLETE meltdown and panicked. Not only was this all happening, but they'd already checked new guests into my room so I couldn't go back and check and make sure they had everything of mine.|How did this happen?|Apparently, 2 rooms checked in around the same time I did. One was for a single night, mine was for 3 nights. However, apparently our rooms were swapped by the new and clearly incompetent front desk person - so the room the other guests had left empty after leaving wasn't cleaned or touched, while my room was emptied (instead of someone checking to see, huh, this person didn't pack up, this person is gone, maybe there was a room mix up). Like, if someone had bothered to check the state of the two rooms, maybe they could've figured this out.|FYI - Zion National Park has no cell signal, so there's no way to reach people inside the park. One would THINK that people who live and work there understand that and work around it, but clearly not.|No attempt was made to contact ME, the owner of my stuff (my name was on PLENTY of it - so they should've figured out the mixup at this point too) - they only contacted the guests who HAD checked out and did NOT own the stuff that was removed.|They said they would refund me at least a night for the inconvenience (they never did). Literally nothing was done to compensate me for any of this. My parents tried to call to handle it (remember, I was having a meltdown and was inconsolable), and the manager wouldn't even give me or my parents her name and was absolutely HORRIBLE to my parents who were trying to deal with what happened because I was in no state for it.|The poor man who was working the front desk and really had nothing to do with the chaos was incredibly sweet and accommodating - he walked me to the store to get detergent so I could redo my laundry and checked on me periodically afterwards, but he had zero power for refunding or actually doing anything about this.|They found a room for me to stay in for the rest of the time I was in Zion, so at least I wasn't left without a place to stay during high season. The rooms were fine - not gross, not sparkling, the bed was plenty comfortable. Not the closest place to stay to Zion, and there are places more convenient to the buses (this isn't inconvenient, there are just better places). Definitely not worth being the most expensive of the hotels on the block - even at high season, not worth $200+.|It's been over a week since I got home from my trip and almost 3 since this disaster at Zion Canyon Lodge, and I'm STILL livid and brought to tears thinking about this.|DO NOT STAY HERE.|(I hope the nice man at the front desk can find a better place to work because he...

I am 35 and have stayed at quite a few cheap hotels. And with the exception of a motel that stole my watch, and one that had holes in the walls between rooms, this is the worst place I have ever stayed.

The manager is completely rude & ignorant. He will lie to you and he doesn’t care about the facility at all. The cinder block rooms remind me of the military barracks I once lived in. Every little thing is clearly done as cheaply as possible; even the TV is dumpy (although you really should be enjoying Zion NP if you are here!). The WiFi is very unreliable often going down which will require a trip to the office to beg the manager to reset it (he likes to make up stories that the foreigners who stay here upload their vacation photos and that bogs down the bandwidth, but the WiFi will be down, it has nothing to do with bandwidth, I tried explaining this to him, but I feel like there may be something shady going down).

The wall mounted A/C was installed by a team of monkeys and you can see through to the outside along the edges of the unit. The shower was hot, but my SO said that she was getting low water pressure (probably multiple showers going at once). The drapes didn’t function (open and close), and due to all the lights outside and the low quality draping, it felt like we were sleeping during the morning all night long. The bed is the lowest quality you can buy, some sort of bouncy springy sunk-in-center POS. I actually gave myself a sheet-burn (like a rug burn), which I didn’t even know was possible, but I guess if your sheets are rough enough, my arm was under my pillow and I guess I pulled it out too fast?

We found a bottle of half used lube between the bed and nightstand, which was considerate, but ultimately gross and an indication of their house keeping. The only interaction I had with the maid was fine (I asked for another ice bucket bag and she pleasantly obliged). The “free included” breakfast consists of coffee (with no options of type, creamer or sweetener), some sort of crappy off brand cereal in a most hygienically unkempt giant container, some gas station mini donuts, and if you get up early enough a few preservative laden supermarket bagels.

You must see the pool if you come here (it’s been so long since they maintained it that the half filled pool water was black). I trekked up to a hill right behind the motel to get a great view of the town (fun and quick). Make sure you buy everything you need before you get to Springdale, the locals here will rip off anyone they can (for items like sun block- $19.99 for an 8oz spray type SPF50!!!). All of that said, if you want the cheapest place in Zion, you can’t beat 50 bucks a night. You get what you pay for and in this case that is a rundown dirty motel, get any sleep you can from this place and get into the park where everything...