The Arrabelle at Vail Square — Hotel in Vail

Place could have been 5 stars, but for reasons below they got 3 stars. Would I go again? Probably not because I know there's other places now of more interest, but I wouldnt write Arabelle off entirely.

Good points: Front desk staff always helpful. From where to go, what to do, and how to get there... they were always helpful. Great location if you want to be near the gondola in Lionshead Village. Vail Village is a bit more lively/younger crowd/more restaurants but Lionshead is a little more mature/adult and kind of prices out a certain type of crowd if you know what I mean. Hotel had complementary private transport (sans a tip) to the other villages. Worked out well for trying out restaurants. Guys were ready to roll on a dime and would be only 5 minutes out to call and pick us up again. Hotel is generally well maintained and decorated. Rooms are pretty nice. Almost like a JW. Hotel did comp breakfast and would only charge the fees around it. Breakfast for two was about $25 in fees/tips after delivery. Hotel had a fast ski equipment valet in front of the gondola making it easy to ditch our equipment throughout the day.

Areas for Improvement: They charge 35% on top of nightly room rates in fees. It adds up quick when your base room charge is $600 per night. The property next door called Montanegros is a Hyatt property that charges 14% in fees when I checked (more bang for your buck there). So theres not a whole lot of cost clarity in what they advertise versus what you pay. We knew there be some changes during first winter since COVID started, but you arent told what you arent getting until they sneak an email out to you at night a couple days before you check-in sharing only part of the amenities that are being hacked. You'll learn of others upon arrival. They dont really go out of their way to offer any service that you would otherwise be entitled to without having to ask. You have to order everything on this in-room tablet and the in-room requests seem poorly executed (you'll get notifications on your phone that the request has been completed when it hasnt... then have to follow up or call someone to get it done). So you are left in a room with no fresh towels, no fresh linens, a one day supply of coffee/tea, no water bottles, etc. After asking for pillows twice via the app we gave up with trying to get fresh linens, towels, trash taken out, etc. We'd be micromanaging the hotel staff our entire day if we'd done it all through the app. In-house restaurant/room service was some of the most carelessly prepared items I'd ever had. Think American Airlines economy class food. Wife and I barely touched what they delivered. Oddly enough the included breakfast was half decent. But ordering a meal outside of that was something we avoided like the plague. The HVAC is always running even when the fan is on auto. This, combined with already low temperatures, equates to incredibly low to no moisture in the room. I stayed a week and by the last night my face was cracking from drying out. Would constantly wake up with lips dried out, dehydrated, and needed to drink water throughout the night. Had to turn the room into crazy town and fill sinks, ice bin, glasses, and trash cans with water. Even had to hang wet towels on luggage racks to get some humidity in the air. If you go in the winter, I'd strongly suggest bringing a humidifier. The guests next door to us brought one. Hotel should offer them to guests. They're cheap... but helpful. That is unless they can fix their HVAC needing to run 24-7 to maintain a max...

I am updating this review in light of a conversation I had with the property manager this morning. After receiving the original 1 star review, my file was pulled and the GM was apprised of the situation that was being handled by their 3rd party reservation service. In short, the GM apologized for the process we underwent and the customer service which fell below that of the excellent service we experienced with representatives at the actual Arabelle property. He offered to refund our money in its entirety, which was a much appreciated gesture and one we did not expect but greatly appreciate given our current situation. To be clear, the 3rd party, Vail Resorts Management Company, is the first, second and third contact we had and all were unsympathetic and uninterested in listening to our extreme predicament. The GM today was the first to express regret for our situation and was willing to work something out acknowledging that sometimes policies don't always fit the situation, and building relationships and customer loyalty is more valuable than immediate financial gratification. For its actions, the Arabelle will get exactly that from us. I gave it 4 stars and not 5 just because the 3rd party arrangement is not satisfactory because that organization demonstrated on multiple occasions they cannot live up to the Arabelle's high expectations regarding customer service.

Original Text for context only. We booked the Arabelle Resort several months prior to our February 19th, 2021, departure. On February 15th, we experienced an unprecedented winter storm (declared a federal and state disaster area) lasting for days that completely knocked out the entire state's energy grid, leaving us with no power for days in subzero temperatures. As a result, our pipes in our home burst on February 17th. At this point, we could no longer attempt to make the trip as our house is no longer habitable. Reluctantly, we canceled our reservations and were issued refunds by all parties except this corporation which refused to offer any recompense for any portion of the 8 day stay we booked due to their cancellation policy, which we missed by a matter of days. We spoke to management on 3 different occasions and were not offered even an attempt at empathy for our situation much less any willingness to help with any portion of the $6,000 cost for the 8 day stay. This organization is supposed to be in the hospitality business but clearly lacks any feeling for its patrons. We would have happily scheduled a stay next year assuming we could save the funds again in acknowledgement of their understanding and as a show of loyalty, but this experience is so despicable, that I will NEVER give my business to these greedy people again, and I hope you don't either. This is the type of behavior that only changes if its consumers...

We were so excited to spend a week at the Arabelle. We were big skiers and had the experience being good, would've wanted to return here regularly. However, we didn't feel that the Arabelle value its customers. The staff often overpromised (or lied?) and underdelivered. For the price and the branding, our experience with the staff was simply unacceptable and some might argue that the staff's outright lies were unethical.

The types of interactions we experienced should never have occurred anywhere within hospitality, let alone at a so called "top notch" resort:

We were promised champagne by the concierge prior to check-in and was instead given two drink vouchers that can only be obtained after purchasing a meal at the Tavern.

The hot water was stopped towards the end of our trip (Feb 4th). No hot water at a ski resort in middle of winter! My husband spent the entire afternoon calling/waiting for resolution while the front desk staff gave non-committal responses as to when the situation will be resolved.

5 hours later we went down to speak directly to the front desk. We were still given non-committal responses. To Arabelle's credit, they waived our lunch.

8 hours later we were told after calling that the entire Vail didn't have hot water...seemed a bit fishy since the hot tub upstairs was working fine.

The next day when we checked out, Andrew at the front desk (who was there morning of Feb 5th) told us that all our resort fees for our entire stay would be waived. We found out after we got home that it was a complete LIE. This made us feel that Andrew just wanted to dismiss us and pushed the problem onto the next person.

After several back and forth with the Arabelle, the final invoice we promised/received did not match with the credit back to our credit card, causing us more back and forth with the credit card company WEEKS after we checked out.

We were promised by several staff member that the manager would be contacting us for resolutions and no one had called. When we finally called and spoke with a manager (Dante), he claimed it was the first time he was informed of this problem.

We completely understand the glitches happen. But how Arabelle staff handled the situation was very disappointing. We felt we were often given lip services.

Stay here if you want to risk spending hours trying to work with the Arabelle for resolutions in the event of a problem; weeks...