Starlight Retreat Yellowstone — Hotel in West Yellowstone

This was truly a once in a lifetime trip for my family. This company stated a pleasant 'glamping' experience, which is not at all what we ended up with. There are major problems right now with this start up. It will be something great in the future, but currently should not even be open in my opinion. And definitely not worth the money we paid. The grounds are currently under construction, which we knew going in, but no idea the scope (photo 5). There are minimally functional bathroom facilities, mud everywhere, no lighting, and nails on the ground. We arrived around midnight and could not find our tent. There is no lighting on the grounds, and only one sign that says welcome. We did end up driving around for about 15 minutes trying to find our teepee. The paths to drive on were muddy with deep ruts. We were worried about getting stuck or causing damage to our vehicle. Once inside the room, you can still clearly hear the traffic noise and road rumble strips. We stayed for 3 nights at this facility. Only one of those days we were able to shower in the 'luxury' shower trailers, and that shower was icy cold. Trailers are shown in the background of photo 5. We were never provided towels so we had to make due with what we had. There are three bathroom trailers and two were broken when we were there. The third trailer didn't have water most of the time, so brushing teeth, or being able to flush the toilet after using, was not available. On the last day we were there toilets were full of waste and no toilet paper, so the ground of one stall had an abundance of paper towels people had used due to lack as toilet paper. It did rain frequently while we were there, especially on our first day. When we arrived back out teepee was wet. Water has leaked in under the large gaps where the teepee meets the wooden base, which you can see in photos 1, 3, and 4. The one power strip available was sitting in after when we came back. Rain had also leaked in from the top of the teepee, leaving us with soaking rugs and wet bedding. We did pay extra for the propane to heat the room, but it did little good. The heater is too small to adequately heat the room. Since there are gaps at where the walls meet the base most of the heat just leaked out. When it's in the 30's at night, and the interior of your room is damp and wet, this is unacceptable. Staff is very rarely seen, so getting these problems addressed is impossible. On our final night our propane tank ran out around 10 pm. There was no one anywhere on sight so we spent the night without heat. It was in the 30's that night so it was pretty uncomfortable. The only saving grace was the bedding is quite warm, and the beds are extremely comfortable. For most of our visit there was mud, which I understand can happen when camping, but this was extreme. We were sliding in the mud in some areas, and getting shoes stuck in other areas where the mud was deep. It's hard to keep the floor in the room at all clean with the mud. There are also cows on the property (photo 2), which was actually quite entertaining. We were woken up one morning because the cows were licking the condensation off the outside of our tent. They do leave their mess behind so watching where you step is important. Also, I stepped on a small strip of three nails on our last day right next to our car. Watch where you walk. We did have a memorable trip, but not the kind we were looking for. This can be a great place in the future, but not now. Paying $250+ per night to not have functional heat, dry facilities, or bathrooms to use is ridiculous. I did reach out to the owner but never...

I am going to just have to give the most honest review of this place as I can. I will say once this place gets up and running to its full potential I think it will be great, but as it sits right now it is not what the website advertises. I do understand that the weather pushed them back and that had a lot to do with the way things were on our stay. Had we known how much construction going on and things that were not available in better detail we would have not stayed with Starlight Retreat as our experience was not great.

The staff however were as nice as they could be and were apologetic about the conditions of the facility. I am not going to rip anyone a new one or bad mouth this place because It is in a beautiful area and will be GRAND once it is finished.

The Tipi itself was good. Just what you would expect in "camping". The tipi being on a raised deck and not on the ground was a great idea and helped add comfort. The beds were amazing and comfortable. Even though we had 40 degree nights under the covers we were snug as bug and warm as can be. Outside of the cover is a different story, but they provided propane heaters which helped greatly.

My only downfall of the place was the restroom/ shower situation. The bathhouses were not completed on our stay and they had a "luxury" bathhouse pulled in and it is pictured below. I am a large person in nature, tall and broad shoulders so I couldn't use the showers at all. Not being able to bath for 2.5 days was a big let down for me. They were not very clean, but I don't expect much from basically a porta-potty on wheels.

I would have loved a bit more transparency on the status of the facility before arrival but we got an email saying there may be some construction and bathrooms not finished but this was not what were expecting.

The website does not depict what the conditions are of this place. I personally would not recommend this to anyone unless it was running at its full capacity and intended vision. I see the vision of the place and it will be awesome when it is finished, it was just not what we thought we were getting.

For the money we paid to stay for a couple of nights, it was a HUGE let down. I wish the owners nothing but the best truthfully I do. It's going to be great when they...

I booked this luxury glamping tent to celebrate my boyfriend's birthday with him over the weekend. He is from the East Coast, so he is not well accustomed to the camping/great outdoors. I thought this tent would be perfect for us to give him that camping experience but without being too out of his comfort limits as a city boy. We were driving in from out of town, and both had to work on the Friday we checked in. We communicated with the staff that we would not be there under after all the staff had left to check in. They had given us a map, but when we got there, we noticed we didn't have our tent number. We drove around the campsite for over a hour, looking into the tents that seemed to be vacant, and none of them were set up for someone to stay. My boyfriend and I got into a big argument about how we should of left earlier, but being that we both had just moved out of state and had not been at our new jobs for more than a month at this point, I tried to explain to him that I didn't want to take the day off since we were only a few hours away. At some point we left after 1am, and were able to get a motel room last minute in West Yellowstone. The next morning my boyfriend called the host and explained the trouble we went through the night before. They were kind enough to give us a refund for the first night, and a discount to come back on the second night. This time we made sure to get there during staffed hours. The staff was very friendly and made sure to get us our tent number this time, as well as through instructions on how to find it. When we got into our tent, it was absolutely lovely, very cozy, and extremely clean. They are obviously in the process of upgrading their bathrooms, but the bathrooms/shower trailers were the best portable restrooms I've ever seen. Our room kept us warm all night, and despite all the mosquitoes outside that are expected during the summer months, we never had a single one get into our tent. Although we had a rough experience the night before, the way they were able to go above and beyond to make it right really redeemed my impression. I would love to book them again in the future and see the new...