Old Faithful Inn — Hotel in West Yellowstone

DO NOT STAY HERE!! INFESTED WITH MICE! Originally, I had booked a room with 2 queen beds which was a little over $600 for 1 night. Due to a cancelled flight we had to rearrange our entire trip and had to change the date of our stay. When I did, the only room left available was a suite which was around $1,200 for 1 night before taxes and fees. Although that was way more than we wanted to pay, we felt it would be worth it to have a nice suite and still be able to stay in the park at a great location as planned. We arrived to check in around 8pm that night after a full day in Yellowstone. We were exhausted but excited to stay at what we thought was an amazing property. The suite was a bit dated but very spacious and we were thrilled with the space and little extras provided in the room such as snacks, drinks, and a bottle of wine. We had dinner reservations at 8:45pm at the Old Faithful Inn dining room. As soon as we sat down, we noticed all of our silverware was dirty, along with the napkins it was on. Our server brought new and we dismissed it because we understand it is a very busy time for the restaurant and we did have a late reservation. Our experience continued to go downhill from here. The food was not good, the service from our waitress was terrible, and one person in our party had to wait 30 minutes after everyone else got their food before he got his. After dinner we went back to our room and as we were unpacking for the night we suddenly saw a mouse run across the room. We went to the front desk to ask to be moved to another room. They explained they were sold out and could not move us but offered a trap to try to catch the mouse. This was not a trap to kill the mouse, but one to catch it and then release it. After going back to the room to decide if we were comfortable with that solution, 2 other members of our party had remained in the room and while we were gone to talk with the front desk, saw 2 additional mice run out. And this was with the light on and lots of noise. I can only imagine how many there were when the lights went out and it was quiet! Back to the front desk I went to explain our room was full of mice and we needed to be moved to another property in Yellowstone. The employee did check but said nothing was available in that section of the park, that I could try West Yellowstone which was 45 min away. I asked her to call one of those properties and she said she could not but that I could go to the building next door to get on the WiFi and look for myself. She also explained that they were fully aware of the mice problem but there wasn't much they could do about it. I understand I was in a national park with nature, however, a hotel and restaurant should be free from mice and rodents no matter where it is, especially when the room costs over $1,300 for 1 night after taxes and fees. At 11:30 at night we had to leave and make a 3 hour drive all the way through the park to Jackson Hole to stay for the night. It was either that or sleep in the room infested with mice and take our chances on getting sick. If they are like that in the rooms, I can only imagine what they are like in the kitchen where food is prepared. I actually spoke with an ex-Yellowstone employee and they said when they would sweep out the coolers in the restaurants it would be full of mice droppings. I love Yellowstone but cannot believe they are operating their facilities like this or how it passes the health department codes. Maybe it was just the Old Faithful area but we will never stay or eat in Yellowstone again! They did give me a full refund for the room, however, the employee never apologized for the issue and did not offer much help at all with a resolution other than, "We know the mice are an issue and all we can...

My wife and I stayed at the historic Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone National Park from July 1 to July 4 2025. I highly recommend staying elsewhere when visiting the park. At $500+ a night, the Inn is massively overpriced, for a whole host of reasons.

While the Inn is certainly historic and the lobby is beautiful, the guest wings are showing their age, with bare walls and worn carpets.

The room provided to us was tiny, just big enough to accommodate the queen size bed. Other furnishings in the room included a single night table, a desk, chair and wardrobe that looked like they came from IKEA, and a large "recycling center" occupying space that would have been better used for other purposes, for instance, perhaps, a chest of drawers. I will admit that the queen size bed was comfortable.

There was a single luggage stand, which felt like it would collapse under the weight of a standard suitcase. There was no room for a second full size suitcase, which we had to store fully packed in the wardrobe, taking up much needed space, and preventing us from closing the wardrobe's doors, rendering the room even smaller.

The bathroom was also tiny, and the shower stall walls were moldy (see the photos). The sink was not in the bathroom, it was in the bedroom.

The room was not cleaned during our stay - the trash was not emptied, nor was the bed made. Amenities such as the rather awful steeped coffee bags provided were not replaced, nor were the provided coffee cups replaced or washed.

The room was not equipped with a mini-fridge, nor are mini-fridges even available (except for medical purposes). This was an issue, as seeing the awesome park almost requires taking some food with you, which you will not be able to store (unless you have a cooler, in which case good luck finding space to store that in the room).

The room did not have air-conditioning - ok, it's an old hotel - but still, at $500+/night, the old noisy fan provided seemed like more of an afterthought than anything else. In early July it was already quite warm (above 80 degrees during the day) - I can't imagine what that room would be like in early August's heat.

Cell service at the Inn and throughout the park is spotty, which is fully understandable and acceptable. However, there is no WiFi service available at the hotel either, which is really difficult to understand at this point. WiFi is pretty much a standard offering at even low cost hotels, even if it's provided at additional cost.

The food at the much vaunted dining room (we chose the "signature" buffet from the menu) was barely cafeteria quality, not at all what I expected, considering the cost.

In order to see the sights in the park, one is constantly given the very good advice to start very early to beat the crowds. In my experience, at even budget hotels, coffee is generally available in the lobby to guests (often "for free"), but that is not the case at the Inn, leaving guests to resort to the electric tea kettle in the room and the aforementioned lousy steeped coffee bags. Want milk with your bad coffee? Sorry, there is nowhere to store that, because of the mini-fridge issue. The snack bar in the lobby doesn't open until 6:30.

About the only good things that I can say about the Old Faithful Inn is that the staff are very nice, and yes, it is really directly adjacent to the geyser, which can be viewed from a lovely terrace. But if you want value for your vacation dollars, look elsewhere. We ate at the historic Lake Yellowstone Hotel on our last night at the park - while we didn't see the guest rooms, the hotel lobby and dining room are elegant, lovely and have a stunning view of the lake. And our dinners were delicious, and less expensive than the buffet at the Old...

We will not stay here again. If an issue arises, do not expect it to be addressed promptly - even if you escalate to the manager on duty. As a historical inn, the rooms are small - think cruise ship small, where the bathroom is just a tiny toilet and a small shower stall. It doesn't fit the sink - the sink is in the room. Towels are minimal (2 sets + shower mat). That's ok, but these are not low flow toilets and if the toilet overflows, it becomes an in-room geyser mess as there's more water flowing out than the limited towels can hold. And it's not clean water....

So without a shower, and the maintenance man saying he'd get Housecleaning to help clean up (after tracking dirty water through the carpeted room), we came back at lunch time to take our shower, only to find out no one came to clean the bathroom (FYI -- there is no housecleaning during your stay. I heard one guest loudly complaining that they asked for it after 3 days and while his room had 2 beds, only one was made.)

We went to the front desk, advised that there was dirty standing water in the bathroom, and they said they'd send someone right away to clean the bathroom....So a few hours later, we went to the room, and only the wet, soaking towels were gone - the bathroom floor was a dirty mess, and the carpet wasn't cleaned from the maintenance man walking through.

We then asked to talk to the manager. We were introduced to Dimitri, who said he'd send someone right away, see if we could change rooms, discuss accommodation later in the evening.

We returned to our room a few hours later, only to see a dirty bathroom floor again, but now our trash was emptied and we had new towels - bed wasn't made, so it was odd to take out the trash. We found a housekeeper supervisor (?) who knew what to do and said she'd take care of it. She fortunately followed up.

We tried to find Dimitri again, but he appeared to be in hiding. No effort was made to contact us despite trying to get ahold of him by asking staff to find him.

In the end, we got nothing for our inconvenience. We don't begrudge the toilet overflowing, but we do begrudge the number of times to follow up to have it handled and not being able to take a shower until evening.

We also begrudge that in the meantime, we needed to use the hotel's public restrooms. That, too, was a disaster with most (based on complaints and mine which I didn't check before!) women stalls being out of toilet paper (yes, I told the hotel staff). Each time, used paper towels overflowed the bins. McDonalds takes better care of their restrooms.

For the dining room and bar, staff grouped and talked to other staff on topics loudly and animatedly of why they were unhappy working there (apparently there was going to be a meeting the following Friday to discuss issues) - during this time they ignored filing water glasses or getting additional drinks. Perhaps this explains the slow meal dishes coming out. Griping, stressed employees who aren't in a mood for providing customer support also detracted from the experience.

All in all, for an average of $597 a night - it was not a luxe experience due to abysmal customer service. The historical and beauty of the building is worth a tour (which occurs 4x a day) - but it's no worth staying overnight nor eating or drinking at. FYI, the closest internet is at the Snow Lodge, which also has a more interesting dinner menu.

There is an utility fee on top of lodging and sales taxes. No one else in Montana or Wyoming charges this, but both the hotel and dining room charged it (we didn't buy anything in the gift store). Another...