AWOL Stowe — Hotel in Stowe

We had a fine stay at AWOL Stowe. 2.5 of 5 stars.

One very nice thing was that the lodge was very well located. Close to the main street of town and near restaurants and shops up the mountain road. The common area was cute and breakfast one of the days was really nice but the other days just ok. They didn’t have the fires going all the time inside, which you would expect when some of the days were between 8-15 degrees outside. I think the outside firepits should have been going from late afternoon as well to feel inviting for the guests.

We stayed in a cabin for 3 nights and if you are traveling in the winter I would NOT recommend it. (We didn’t see any of the other rooms).

The cabins are a good few minute walk from the main lodge.

When we arrived the room wasn’t ready at 4pm and they apologized and comped us some drinks and food, which was nice.

The first cabin they put us in had no heat or water (hot or cold) so they told us they were going to move us to another cabin. The kid at the front desk said we could come and pick up a key to the other cabin! No apologies or anything at that point. I said that it was about 14 degrees out and he could bring it to us, especially since we had partially unpacked already and had to pack everything back up. You can’t park in front of the cabin so you have to make trips and drag your stuff up a snowy path.

Even in the next cabin, there were drafts that came in from under the door and the windows had terrible insulation. They brought us blankets to put on the floor in the “foyer” (there was no rug on the freezing cold rock floor) and two space heaters.

The design of the cabins are AWFUL and they are TINY. Only the area with the bed in it has a heating unit so the sitting area and foyer were freezing (space heaters helped). The sitting area was completely unappealing. The loveseat was something you might have in your dorm room. The bathroom sliding door had no handle so you can’t really close it all the way and to open it you have to wedge your finger between the door and the frame. The walls of the cabin are all unfinished wood and my husband got a terrible long splinter in his finger. The bathroom was IN the bed area, so when you were laying in bed you were staring at the toilet, so a proper door would have been very nice.

The thing that was absolutely mind-boggling was that there was no dresser or even a single shelf in the cabin! My husband had his clothes in piles on the couch and I had my suitcase open in the freezing foyer. There was a hanging bar in the foyer with 4 hangers, so that was helpful I guess. Imagine standing on a rock floor with a drafty door to get to your clothes in 8 degree weather! Where is someone supposed to put there wet snowy clothes or boots after sking? It’s crazy! In the bathroom there was a tiny narrow shelf under the sink that we couldn’t fit all of our toiletries on so we ended up pulling the side tables outside the bathroom to rest things on.

The bed side table was wobbly and tiny also. The garbage pail in the bathroom was a cheap plastic pail with the sticker still on it. The body wash/shampoo/conditioner pumps in the shower were flimsy and the pump didn’t work well. The conditioner container actually broke while my husband was using it.

There was absolutely no thought or care put into the design of these cabins.

For an upscale resort like Stowe, you should expect better. The experience was very disappointing. If you want an elevated glamping experience...

We booked this place to stay for our only night in Stowe. Upon arrival, it looked cute and nice with the exception of the muddy/gravel parking lot. We were a little confused on where to go as they have no signage for the main office. There are like 5 buildings, and no information on where to check in. We asked someone who appeared to work there (groundskeeper I guess) and she was short and sent us in a vague direction, then mocked us because we went in the wrong direction. We overheard her laughing about it with another grounds keeper, saying “so dumb” because we went the wrong way to the office that had no signage. She hollered at us that we were going the wrong way and pointed us another direction around the building. We finally find where to check in and we wait in there for 5 min because the person handling check in is also the bar tender and the waitress for the restaurant. We get checked in, find out that our room is one of the furthest back. No big deal right? Nope…parking is over 100 yards away. So we think we’re going to have to hump in with 9 days worth of luggage and bags to our room through the muddy grounds. The nice guy who actually checked us in end up allowing us to pull our car up closer, just that after we unload we have to park at the parking area. So we go to pull up, and there is a barrier blocking where the guy told us to drive. So I get out and go to move it and the same grounds keep flips me shit for moving it. I tell her that they said to pull up here and she snapped back at me “we don’t usually allow that.” By this time, I was borderline ready to just get a refund. But we were tired and Stowe is hard to get accommodations. All this at a place that costs over $450. Insane. So we get to our room, which was actually quaint and cozy. Bed was comfy, and most other things about the actual room were warm and fitting. It was missing some things like water bottles, accessible toilet paper roll (hidden under the counter behind the toilet). The bathroom door doesn’t actually latch. The main entrance has no actual internal additional lock. Anyhow, with better service and an actual parking lot and walking paths that are isn’t mud and gravel, this place could be decent. There are wooden paths that you can walk on but not from the parking area. They are reserved for closer to...

On the plus side, the staff was really great and really responsive. They personally helped me merge two Lark accounts so I could get a free night for our stay last weekend. It ends there.||For the price we (we going) to pay - $1,200-- there is ZERO value for the money. We checked into one of the a-frame cabins and that's where the issues began.||It took about 20 minutes to get the heater to work. Then, it blasted at an ungodly hot temperature. Maintenance came with a heavy space heater to compensate.||There are absolutely ZERO places to put anything....no nightstands with a drawer, no dresser, no bureau, no nothing. You have to be ok with living out of your suitcase for days if this is ok. And the lack of storage space extended to the bathroom where there was a very narrow, shallow shelf beneath the sink....barely enough room to fit a make up case. There were TWO hangers in the entryway.||Let's talk decor....or lack of. We were so disappointed because the pictures looked great. DO NOT be fooled. The walls were an unfinished knotty pine which I got a sliver from because I had to take off my shoes and balance against the wall. The nightlights look like there were purchased at a discount shop, and there was no ambiance or coziness at all. Even the couches in the sitting area were stiff with colorless pillows. Even upon entering, there was no rug to wipe your boots/shoes or even a boot mat. This is Vermont! And this is where I got the sliver because I had to balance on the wall to get my boots off! A small chair would have been nice.||The bathroom floor was one of the coldest I've ever experienced....even after the room had "heated up." You had to spread towels over every square inch if you didn't want to freeze.||We ended up not even unpacking and asked if we could check out and get a refund. Again, the staff was SUPER nice and granted that immediately. We were lucky to get another hotel for the long weekend. Otherwise, we would have been stuck in a cold/hot, uncomfortable, unwelcoming space for 3 nights. We've stayed in motels that were more comfortable and welcoming....||Lark Hotels: You can do much...