Lion Square Lodge at the Gondola — Hotel in Vail

Overall this property was absolutely perfect for our 3 day ski trip. We would stay here again without hesitation. Some items to note:

Pros:

Cleanliness - the room was immaculate and everything was is great working condition. The bathroom showers were insanely clean and the room was like new. Plus, it was awesome to have 2 bathrooms with showers.

Room Location - the room was located in a perfect spot (Lion Square Lodge South 370). It's on the 3rd floor, but this floor is actually the same level as the entry, front desk, restaurant and exit to the lifts. In other words, you don't have to go up and down stairs with your bags, skis, etc. The room is also far enough away from any common areas and we never heard a sound from doors closing, people talking, etc.

Building Location - I always stay in ski-in/ski-out places, but this sets the bar for what a ski-in/ski-out place should be. From the room to the chair-lift took only 2 mins walk. Again, when geared up and walking to the lift, it was awesome to just leave the room, head down the hall and jump on the lift. The lodge is also very close to shops, restaurants and a little grocery store. Parking - when we were there, we didn't have any issue with parking. In fact, we parked right outside the entrance. Best of all, parking is free.

Main Bed - super comfortable.

Ski Rentals - we rented our skis at charter, which is on the 2nd floor of the lodge. It doesn't get an easier than this. It was really nice to just head down a flight of stairs to get the skis and swap them out if need be. Additionally, the guys that run that location are insanely friendly and helpful.

Amenities - I was surprised that the lodge had everything you'd expect from a hotel. Fresh cookies and coffee/tea. Concierge. A staffed front desk. Housekeeping if you need to freshen up the room, etc. The lodge also has complimentary shuttle service to vail village, if you'd like to head over there. This was much easier and more personal than taking the vail bus. Oh, and the Mexican restaurant that is steps from the room is delicious!

Cons:

Pull-out Sofa Bed: saying the mattress is awful would be an understatement. The floor would be a better option. I highly recommend the owners to replace it if they are serious about this being a sleeping option. Even my son, who sleeps on anything, wouldn't...

I’ll leave my prior post below. However after working with Bob the assistant manager, he handled the situation with grace and customer first mentality. I could not have asked for a better experience in the resolution. Understanding and looking for ways to help. Thank you Bob!!! We will now return alll due to your excellence in customer service.

Staff onsite were kind and really tried to help but we had horrible experience with no hot water 3 of our 5 days. Starting on second day we called - one service tech flipped a breaker and said it’s fixed but it wasn’t so we called again. Another came and then was fixed for about 12 hours but then no hot water again the next day. My family of 7 inc three kids under 10 had to shower in the gym locker room twice.

Also the guest bath tub doesn’t drain fast enough so you’re standing in water when the hot water was working. No shower curtain upon arrival and had to call for that. Maintenance warned us to put towel under dishwasher because “the seals are bad”. We also called service Ops to fix the fridge which had no ice and horrible clanking noise. They fixed that after two trips. The location is great and the staff were nice.

But our vacation memories were damaged due to us having to take showers in the gym and no hot water to clean in general. All of this with a three year old. We had to rearrange our schedules to wait for service help on 5 separate occasions. It was not a good experience. We’ve been coming to vail for 26 years. This was just sad. Please avoid as I’d hate for any family to go through what we just experienced. It’s just not worth the risk. I don’t understand the positive posts except the location is great so maybe folks look past some of the issues and maybe the hot water heater issue is recent. Lionsquare Lodge 196 North....

Beautiful landscaping and flowers! We stayed four days and paid an outrageous amount for what we received and didn't recieve. Our room was so dirty! Hair in and on all of our towels. Bathroom sink, shower, mirror and floors were left untouched by housekeeping. An unopened used bar of soap left from last people. All door handles were covered in something? No air conditioning and the heat was turned off!! Couldn't open our patio door without moving the most uncomfortable chairs to our table out of the way!! We tried to use the hot tub but it was full of kids with all the pool toys. We used it twice in four days and left because the kids just jumped from the pool to us. Zero information at the front desk about things to do or food nearby! I didn't want to use the bathroom sink to make coffee in our room due to how dirty it was so I went down to the desk at 5:15 for coffee. It was the cold leftovers from the day before. I asked if I could please get some fresh coffee and was told they don't start it until around 5:30 or so. He did bring some out later after getting on the computer for a while, the whole time I was sitting there waiting. It was lukewarm, so I think it was just reheated. Too bad to even choke down, so had to leave and go buy a cup of coffee. The night ladies at the front desk were the most helpful and nice. Other than these ladies we were never spoken to by any other staff. Not even a hello. We left to checkout, put our key cards in the basket started to walk out and the only thing said was "what room was yours?" Not a how was your stay? NOTHING! BEYOND DISAPPOINTED! If you go and you need air conditioning please refer to the box fan in the closet! Total bust and...