Best Western Desert Inn — Hotel in West Yellowstone

My wife and I checked in on the evening of June 9 and unpacked. Tried to use the toilet and discovered it was stopped up. Immediately called the front desk and asked for someone to fix/repair/unclog the toilet. A maintenance employee worked for 10-15 minutes and declared the toilet was fixed and left. Soon after I attempted to flush the toilet with no success. Called the front desk again about the toilet and this time the desk manager responded. He also worked for 10-15 minutes to unclog the toilet with no success. After his attempts failed, he told us he wanted to move us to another room, obviously with a working toilet. At first we weren't too happy to have to pack up again and move to another floor, but gladly relented. After settling in, my wife determined it was laundry night which resulted in us hanging clothes all over the room to dry as the hotel's dryer were all occupied. Next morning, we are leaving the hotel with our tour group and was stopped by the same desk clerk from the night before. He told us we had to move out of the room we were in! I quickly summoned our tour coordinator who tried to help me convince him there would be no moving rooms again. Before we left we placed the "DO NOT DISTURB" sign on the doorknob and emphasized with the front desk that NO ONE should touch our belongings. However, on our return that evening around 7-7:30 we found we could not enter our room with the key. Immediately went to the front desk (a different staff member this time) and was told we had been "MOVED" to a different room. My wife burst into tears thinking someone had handled her personal belongings. Of course I was irate, the manager was nowhere on the property(it was a Sunday) and the staff wasn't willing to divulge his phone number. Some other tour members were urging us to call the police department, but after we checked our belongings we found nothing was missing. This all led to calling the Best Western Customer Service number where we initiated a complaint file and was asked to wait 7 days for a response from the hotel manager (this was after they attempted to reach someone at the hotel with no answer). We did receive an e-mail from the manager at the end of our tour when were in another state, attempting to explain the "move" on their accounting practices. He offered us a one night stay in an off property condo for our troubles, which was very convenient for him as we were on our way home to East Tennessee. Have replied to the e-mail with a counter offer (no reply, file was closed). Called and referenced the file number to have it reopened and I am waiting as of this writing for a response. This hotel's manager is in the WRONG business! Welllll.....I did receive a response to this post from Mr. Horshak on Aug. 23 which stated, "You know the circumstances of your move, and you know why. Security and safety of the hotel must be respected by guests. You were contacted and offered our off property condo for prices that you would never be able to find elsewhere in town, even for a simple small room to sleep in. Our condo is 3 stories and has its own private backyard and grilling area + deck and a balcony. You didn't like that offer, which was far more than fair given the circumstances, and wanted to negotiate a offer that was not at all appropriate. This matter is closed. -WH" ... Seems he chose to disregard the facts about our situation when he attempted to use "safety and security" as the issues surrounding our move. His e-mail clearly states it was due to "accounting practices". Which is it Mr. Horshak? Also, received an e-mail from Mr. Horshak on the 23rd. notifying me of being placed on the BEST WESTERN "NO RENT" list....the plot thickens! UPDATE 8-28-18...Contacted BW concerning the "no-rent" list and, of course the Customer Service Rep was unaware of any such thing. Either way...Best Western gave my wife and I 10,000 BEST WESTERN REWARDS points for our troubles.Thank you BW, for valuing our business...I wish I could say the same for...

In summary: Decent room, but customer experience tainted by rude, unprofessional, and unhelpful front desk staff and management upon check-in

—— Long version: I stayed in Jackson Hole last week and my mom and I decided to book a night at this hotel so we could have an extra day to explore Yellowstone.

When we were about 15 minutes from our home base in Jackson Hole on the way into the park, I realized I left my ID at the house. It was no big deal as I had everything else I needed, but I remembered I might need it to check into the hotel. We didn’t want to backtrack and add 30 min to the drive if it wasn’t necessary, so I decided I’d call the hotel just to see if they would accept a detailed photo of the ID instead of physical ID. I called the morning of our check-in on July 29th at 9:23 AM and talked to a girl who told me that would be completely fine if I used a photo of my ID, and that I wouldn’t have a problem checking in.

With that information, we went ahead and kept driving and did not go back to get the ID since it wasn’t needed. We spent a whole day at the park and had a really long day of driving and hiking. After the day, we were quite tired and excited to take a shower and have a chill night at the hotel. We arrived at the hotel at about 7PM.

When I arrived I told the young lady at the front desk that I needed to check in, and I didn’t have my ID (basically explained the situation that I called in and they said it was fine). Her reaction was MUCH different than the person I talked to that morning. She stated (rudely) that they absolutely can not accept check-in without the physical ID. I asked her if she could get an exception since I was given wrong info by one of their associates, and she went back and texted the manager and she came back out and told me said the manager said the same thing…(even more rude this time) that “you absolutely need an ID to check in”. I again explained the situation and asked that I speak to the manager directly. She finally sighed and went back and I guess called the manager and said the manager was on their way over. When I asked for an ETA for when the manager would be here, she said “she’ll get here when she gets here” and stormed off. I think this person is the rudest and least helpful customer service person I’ve ever worked with. I’m not sure what her name was but she had brown curly hair with purple ends and was working front desk at 7pm on July 29th 2022.

Finally, after waiting probably 30 minutes, the manager showed up. My mom had to deal with the manager because I was so angry from my encounter with the other rude employee. The manager came in and first complained that she had to come in on her day off (lol). The manager never apologized, was actually pretty rude too, but at least was able to work with my mom to get her ID/credit card on file so we could stay using my booked points.

We went up to the hotel room and it actually was a decent hotel (clean room, nothing to write home about but it was about what I expected for a best western). However, the horrible check in experience put such a sour taste in my mouth that I can only remember that.

I feel like the only way best western would be able to make this right would be to give me some sort of refund or credit. I would maybe consider staying at a a Best Western again but only if they do something else to make this right because the service at the front desk I received was...

We stayed in 4 different Best Western hotels 4 nights in a row in 4 different towns. This one gets our lowest rating of all of them. We are Best Western elite members and stay in Best Western hotels frequently, so we have a lot to compare this one to.

It is overpriced. West Yellowstone is a premium area and since Desert Inn is right outside the park, rates will be high. We understand that. We don't mind paying higher rates for convenience, but we still expect the hotel to live up to Best Western standards. This one fell way short.

We rode the elevator up to our room. As we got out of the elevator, housekeeping was located right next to the elevator. The door was open, and what looked like blood was smeared on the floor. My husband stepped just inside the door to see that no one was hurt--there was that much blood. Seeing no one, we went to our room. (The blood remained on the floor the next day)

Our room wasn't as nice as comparable rooms in other Best Western hotels. The lighting fixtures , pictures on the wall, and furniture looked like they came from a secondhand store. There were several cigarette burns in the carpet. The coffee provided in the room was undrinkable.

We should have been paid to eat the free breakfast thenext morning. The coffee wasn't the usual high quality coffee served from a carafe like every other Best Western we have ever stayed in. It was vending machine coffee, served from a machine. Scrambled eggs were watery, sausage was the lowest quality made from pressed meat, and the bacon was paper thin. Everything was borderline inedible.

To add insult to injury, the breakfast area itself was much smaller than other Best Western hotels. Ridiculous, considering this is a high-traffic hotel. Small tables were crammed together so tightly that guests could barely get through to the back room where the food was located. We were here during the beginning of off-season and had to wait for a table to open up. Can't imagine what it's like during the height of tourist season.

After reading other reviews, and based on our experience, it is obvious that William Horshak believes he can charge high prices because West Yellowstone is a resort town. He cuts corners and provides sub-standard accommodations because he knows most guests are just passing through and won't be back. If we would have known this, we would have driven miles out of our way to stay somewhere else. Highway robbery at its worst,...