The Black Bear Lodge — Hotel in Stratton

What a dreadful place! We stayed there for a weekend event and it was awful. The place smells a mix of musty, mice and chlorine to try to cover it up. Carpets were stained and had not seen vacuum in too long, missing moldings along the corridors. On top of the stairs to the second floor the door to a utility room was large open and shown broken walls, damage and dirty equipment parts on the filthy floor. Ghastly. Our room had stained sheets and stained blanket –thou they seems be washed because they had a heavy smell a chlorine which gave me a headache for most of the time spent in the room. We had no screens at the windows so we can open them to refresh the air. The bathtub had long strains of hair at one end- for sure not ours. The phone outlet was pull off from the wall and was hanging exposing the wires. A loud noise was coming every hour for about 20 minutes and receptionist told us is every once in a while and is created by the water system. The room looks so depressed; I challenged all the reviewers of Black Bear Lodge which said the rooms are pretty if they even stayed at Black Bear. There is no cuteness there. It is the ugliest place I ever seen and unsanitary. This is a rundown student dormitory which seen too many parties and smoking weed and should had been demolished or renovated a long time ago. Once you make a reservation if you cancel it at any time after that the resort is charging 50$ fee which seems to be the real price of the room. 3 days before if you try to cancel the resort retain entire payment so no refunds. No elevator, no personal to help, no room service, no hot water for tea or coffee except in the morning in the lobby– you have to carry your luggage on the dirty corridor yourself. The roads inside of the so called resorts are pitch black in the night. Maybe in the winter season they rely on the snow to make it brighter. We regret to use this place but had no choices since the resort reservations office only offered us 2 and 3 bedrooms condominium alternatives for only 2 people. Just notices the update from hotel that they take safety precocious against COVID 19: that was not our experience: no one asked us to wear mask or even if we were vaccinated or anybody else around us. Most people did not were masks. I did see thou restaurants personal...

Bear Minimum We stayed at Black Bear Lodge in Stratton, Vermont with our two small kids on a recent holiday weekend and it was a pretty lousy experience. But I’ll start with the positives. The location is relatively close to the mountain, walkable for bigger kids and adults. The rooms, though bare bones and not super comfortable, are at least clean. And in general, the staff did try to be helpful but the poor management undermined them every step of the way, i.e. even if they wanted to help they often could not. Now for the not-so-good: the hotel charged us the same as a high end place like the New York Palace in NYC might. It was really expensive, but what in return they give you something that feels sloppy and pretty budget. The lodge itself looks like nothing has been invested in in a loooong time. The rooms have no extra amenities like refrigerator and TV is super small. Most of the vending machines don’t work and even the lobby fireplace is out of service - again, on a major holiday weekend. The dining situation is weird. The breakfast buffet is fine for a chain motel, not a place charging over $300/night. The bar sells cocktails by the can (which in a cheaper place would be expected). Probably the most annoying thing was that they say they seve dinner, but when we arrived at 5p with the place empty, they claimed they were booked for most of the evening yet the place remained largely empty most of the night. When we asked if we could eat quickly before people arrived, they said the manager did not allow them to let walk ins, even though the place was empty and we had hungry small children. What it felt like the real problem is is the hotel management. It seems like someone wants to squeeze every penny out of the hotel without investing anything in it. I don't expect or even want luxury, but if I'm going to be charged that much, I think it's fair to expect good if not great service. And Stratton Resort should realize this kind of. negative experience can affect peoples' view of Stratton as an overall...

Would have given a 4 or even a 5 if this hadn't happened this morning... (4/15/2019)

I went down to the lobby/restaurant around 08:30 to collect on the "hot breakfast" that was promised to us at check in the night before. Each of us were given a ticket that stated valid for 1 free HOT breakfast per person and stated that breakfast was served from 07:00 - 10:00. I walked around the service area to find a toaster and a couple shelves of breads and bagels, and a long empty counter with some cereal and juice dispensers on it. There were a couple other guests in there and a gentleman sitting at the bar. I decided to sit over in the lobby and wait for the rest of our party.

A couple minutes later, a guest walks up to the check in counter asking "does this man work here? He is being very rude and saying there is no hot breakfast today, that it's his last day of the season and that she would have to settle with toast and cereal."

I continued to listen, as I was wanting hot breakfast, and the lady behind the counter informed the guest "today is our last day open, yesterday was the last day of the ski season, there is no hot breakfast, and that there is no where at the entire resort to leave a comment or be refunded."

The guest, her partner and child we're all very upset as they had been promised, and paid for, a hot breakfast. I too, and our party of 5 more we're also very upset.

It's really too bad that this place was not living up to their end of the bargain just because it was the last day of the season. And to have the guy sitting at the bar be so rude and the customer service lady not have sympathy for their guests, really ruined a fun weekend at Stratton mountain resort for at...