Minnewaska Lodge — Hotel in Town of Gardiner

Updates to include a response to their response: I left an honest review of what happened during my stay and am confused on why it was taken as odd or malicious. I was there for everything I stated and would never have included it if I was not. Everything I said was true which is why the brides and the guest who was locked out had their room comped for one of the nights, but that has nothing to do with me. This was my personal experience at Minnewaska Lodge. I am not and was never looking for a refund of any type. (Although a how was your stay or an apology upon checkout would have been nice). What I originally wanted was a response to my email (which never came but was so quickly provided after this review). An update that you've learned from those mistakes and have enhanced your safety measures is all I was looking for. I am glad other guests had a great weekend but as someone in the bridal party, I can tell you your staff did not go above and beyond to help us. My review is to simply let others know what my own experience was. I truly hope you did learn from these issues - that your staff is more respectful to guests, someone is actually reachable at all hours of the night, and that most of all the master keys are locked away. I'd also recommend privately responding to all emails as this public review would not have been posted if you had ever responded to my original email that was sent 20 days ago.

Original: From the moment I arrived, the customer service was severely lacking. It was the most unwelcoming check in I have ever received at any place. Throughout the day the front desk employees were nowhere to be found. I came down in the morning for towels but there was no one at the front desk (there was a sign saying they went to retrieve housekeeping), when I came down looking for where the conference room was there was no one to point me in the right direction, there were people waiting at the front desk for awhile also looking to be helped, at the end of the night one of our keys was deactivated and there was no one to reactivate it.

There were rude comments made throughout my stay to various guests for no reason. It was appalling. No matter the age or race of a guest, they should be treated with respect.

At the end of the night when we returned from the wedding, one of the rooms in our group had a deactivated key. We called, texted and left multiple voicemails to all lodge contacts provided with absolutely no response. The next contact with anyone who worked at the lodge was the following morning when the front desk employees came into work. That is completely unacceptable to leave a guest stranded without a room all night.

There were other people staying there who were not in our group who also had trouble with their keys and could not get in touch with anyone. Again, absolutely unacceptable especially for how much you charge to stay there.

We were able to get them into their rooms, over an hour later, after we located a housekeeping master key. If we had not found the key, these paying guests would have had nowhere to stay and the GM and other employees never responded and seemed to not care. Not to mention, it is incredibly unsafe to not have the master key behind lock and key. I am concerned for the safety of your future guests if that policy is not changed. The fact that any guest has easy access to a master key overnight (because there are no employees on site overnight) is frankly unbelievable.

Overall, I am shocked by the lack of safety and customer service for such an expensive hotel (paid over $400 a night). I also emailed them after my stay all of these concerns and never received any response. I emailed them 20 days ago so I feel I gave them ample time to respond before leaving...

We had an amazing stay at minnewaska lodge! It was warm and charming, everything you would expect from a cabin/lodge type property. The staff was genuinely kind and attentive. I perhaps would not of booked this hotel if it wasn’t for the above and beyond efforts of Carlos and Erick. Both were so happy and pleasant to answer all my questions about the property. They were kind enough to email me with information about popular places to eat, sight seeing spots and top activities in the area. Roxie was also welcoming and friendly, we had several delightful conversations during our stay. She was very informative and helpful, and was able to accommodate us with a late check out which we greatly appreciated.

We decided to book the suite for our stay which was absolutely worth it. Along with a bed room area that was separated by double doors for privacy, there was a living room area with a comfortable leather sofa, soft leather chair and a modern rocking chair. The best feature of the suite was the gas fireplace situated across from the sofa. It truly made the suite cozy and warm. Operated with a simple flick of a switch. Perfectly positioned above the fireplace is a flat screen TV. There is a private door that leads to the rear of the property from the living room space that has a private seating area. There is a dining nook around the opposite side of the fireplace dividing wall that separates the two spaces. In the dining area there is a table for 4 to sit for meals, and a 3-4 foot refrigerator that looked brand new. The bathroom was huge! Double sink with plenty of counter space. Two people can easily be in there at the same time. A wonderful feature is the red heat lamp to add extra comfort. Nice size bath tub, very clean. Water temperature heated up quick and the soaps provided smell lovely. Lots of good quality fresh clean towels. Hair dryers are available upon request. Our bed was very comfortable with soft crisp cotton sheets, 4 pillows were provided. Bedding felt clean clean clean! There is a large closet to hang clothing if desired. Also a roll away bed if there are more than 2 guests. There is a flat screen TV situated on a dresser across from the foot of the bed. The curtains are great to give you a total black out for sleeping or a transparent one for some natural light.

The main lobby area is simple and inviting. There are several tables and chairs where you can enjoy the complimentary breakfast they provide, or relax by the fireplace place with a view out the floor to ceiling windows of the mountains. Off of this room are two doors that lead to multiple seating areas outside where you have access to 2 fire pits. Further beyond the fire pits are hiking trails through the wooded area with the option of doing a more challenging rock climb.

Over all minnewaska lodge is the perfect place to stay when visiting the area. Being a smaller hotel, It never felt too busy or crowded. We felt the property was safe and private. I found it to be a fair price for what you get especially compared to surrounding lodging options. We came here from NYC to celebrate my husband’s birthday for the weekend and it was the perfect getaway. We are so happy we found Minnewaska lodge and are already looking to when we can come back. 10 out of 10 rating! Keep in mind the photos with this review are at the end of our stay before we checked out, upon arrival the room was...

I had a great experience at Minnewaska Lodge.

I was supposed to stay at a different hotel in the area, but that quickly turned into a disaster. We made a last minute effort to find a new place, and Minnewaska lodge just happened to have what we were looking for.

I was helped by the front desk attendant, Matt. He was fantastic. I made it very clear to him that we needed 3 rooms within the next 20 minutes, and he assured us we would be getting 3 rooms by then.

As soon as we arrived, it was very obvious this was going to be a good stay. The area is stunning. The lodge is very well put together and the atmosphere is very relaxing. It is also pet friendly.

The staff is absolutely incredible. They're nice, welcoming, and go above and beyond to help you.

I've seen a couple of negative 1 star reviews. I actually agree with some of the criticism, but in no way do they warrant a 1 star review. Here's some of the things I noticed in regards to those reviews.

The rooms are gorgeous. Very well put together, but the walls do feel pretty thin. You can hear very loud foot steps in the hallway, but it wasn't a big deal to me. Everyone staying in the lodge was very respectful of that. Especially at night.

There's 24/7 coffee and tea, and propane fire pits in the backyard. The breakfast wasn't the best breakfast i ever had, but it certainly wasn't the worst either. I've paid over 500 dollars for rooms in other places and got a horrendously bad breakfast. Some things were a hit or miss, but generally I thought it was good.

We stayed on mothers day weekend. The bugs in the backyard were crazy, but there's nothing the lodge can do about this. It's just the way the area is. They do have citronella candles in the back that you can light, and the propane fires do keep the bugs away.

The craziest 1 star review I saw was someone saying the towels weren't soft? Unless that person was using silk towels their whole life, I have no idea what they're talking about. All of our room accommodations were great. Our only issue was the water pressure was low in 2 of our rooms, and the hot water was luke warm for 1 night. It was fixed by the morning.

The price is a little steep, but I've paid more for less in other places. It's not some cookie cutter hotel that looks the same as everything else. This is a truly unique place. The area surrounding it is worth the money alone.

Overall, we loved our stay here. Matt, thanks again for accommodating my family on such short notice. You saved our trip and made it very...