Yellowstone Gateway Inn and Suites — Hotel in West Yellowstone

We have been staying at Yellowstone Gateway Inn for the last 8 years 1-2x per year…we have even turned our families on this hotel and spoken very highly of it to our friends when talking about the hot springs. We have always had a wonderful time and we’re so excited to come back this last weekend for some wedding anniversary R&R before an upcoming surgery.

We live 2.5 hours away and had showed up to the hotel on a Saturday around 3:30pm after receiving a text message stating our room was ready and providing information on how to access. When pulling into the parking lot we had waved at a women walking by who continued to stare…no smile or acknowledgment of the gesture, we brushed it off as another guest and went on our way.

Upon walking into our room (after unloading the car) we noticed how dirty the floor was, it looked like it hadn’t been swept or mopped in a good time. We found a broom/dustpan in the closet and attempted to clean it up. This was frustrating as this should had been done prior to our arrival so my husband went into the office and asked the women in there for a broom/dust pan…..much to his surprise the women who we waved at 15 mins earlier was the one handing him the cleaning supplies. He came back to the room and cleaned up the messy floor. The dustpan was partially full from just the entry area of the room. Instead of dumping the pan in the room, he took it back to show the women. When he showed the women the partially filled dustpan he told her that he didn’t know why the room we were paying to stay had to be cleaned us. She had nothing to say but a scowl and so he handed her the supplies back and left.

My husband and I spoke when he came back to the room and we realized it was not fair that we were paying to stay in a room that was obviously not ready for guests. He went back to the office and spoke with the women again about wanting to speak with a manager about what was going on and she had replied don’t you have a dog? He ignored her the first time and walked off then she repeated herself as he was walking off. After this he replied what does it matter if we have a dog. This comment of hers came across as because we have a dog we aren’t worthy of a clean room.

My husband had asked to speak with the manager and the women had found the “manager” who turns out was in fact not correct. When my husband had explained the situation to him he came right out apologetic but stated he in fact was not the manager, but the maintenance guy, who had only been with the hotel for a couple weeks. Fast forward a little bit and my husband was put into contact with the real manager, Miranda. Miranda explained to us that this women we had been dealing with had been with the company for 10 years! Miranda had told us that we could do a full refund if we chose to leave or get 50% off if we chose to stay and we could move to a different room. We decided that we did love this hotel so many times before and we had already wasted a good hour of what was supposed to be a mini getaway to this “dirty issue” that we decided to stay with 50% off. We let Miranda know of our decision and had been put into a new room, a cleaner one.

Later into the evening we had received an email apologizing for the situation that had taken place earlier in the day and stated that the hotel had apologized for not cleaning beneath the bed and that they were so busy with late check ins that sometimes things get missed. Wait, what?! We never once said anything about underneath the bed being dirty, we didn’t even look there. We also never rushed anyone to check in. We were just rolling into town when we had received an email stating that our room was ready. Not quite sure where the lines got crossed or who was lying but this email was not even close to what had really happened. At this point we were over the whole thing and decided to TRY and get some sleep.

We checked out at 8:00am Sunday and have decided although our previous stays have always been wonderful this last one was truly terrible and we will...

The location of this motel is convenient to the park & there is a small grocery store across the street. We had room 103 - take a look at the photos I am attaching & you'll see the issue. It is noted as a "one king micro-fridge unit" and our rate was about $250/night. We had visits from the local elk right away - fun to watch them go for the apples on the tree out front.|I'm sure other rooms in the facility were nice but this one was so snug - absolutely no place to store your luggage. The bedroom area could have used a refresh as the carpeting was pretty worn & gross to walk barefoot on. The sheets on the bed were rough (250 count thread I would guess) & there was a stain on the bedspread. |The bathroom was nicely updated, had lovely thick towels but again, very snug. They did provide a coffee pot, basic utensils & dishes, dish soap, sponge, paper towels and even a roll of aluminum foil which was handy in wrapping up leftovers. All of this equaled what I would consider an adequate stay.|What was NOT okay was the fact that people mistook our room for the office (see photo). There was a sign on our room door saying "OFFICE" with an arrow pointing down the adjacent hallway. Unfortunately - people don't pay close enough attention and we had people enter our room not once, but twice thinking they were walking into the office!! Then - at 9:00 at night, we get a loud rap at the door. It was an Amazon delivery!!! Several packages were left on our doorstep for the office! We delivered them the next morning explaining that the delivery was made to our room. | This must happen all the time as we didn't even receive an apology. Seriously - I think we had the worst possible room in the place. By the way - I made our reservation over 1 year in advance. We should have been given a better location. At the very least this motel needs to change that signage and keep future customers from dealing with the "mistaken for the...

I'd love to give Gateway five stars and rave about it. The room was spacious and generally clean. It appeared to have been remodeled somewhat recently. The grounds (frequented by deer and elk) are pleasant. The pricing is fair. We were able to reserve a pet-friendly room. There were two issues, only one of which is under the inn's control. ||We had an end unit; immediately adjacent to us was a large fifth-wheel RV that we were told was occupied by the maintenance manager. On the first night, we heard loud noises (thumping, as if cupboard doors were being slammed shut) through the wall of our bedroom -- all night. We mentioned this to the manager, and the sounds ceased on the second night. However, they came back with a vengeance the third night. Needless to say, we did not have a restful sleep. We have no idea what caused the noise.||The second issue is the "town" of Gardiner itself. It's actually an unincorporated part of the county, and it shows. Once you get off the main highway that runs through town, the streets are either gravel or filled with potholes that would swallow a small car. Also, we were here at the end of the season, and some restaurants were closed while the remainder were so short-staffed that they really couldn't keep up with even normal business (and the staff were clearly hassled and unhappy). One night we had a frozen pizza we bought at the grocery store. The other two nights we settled for food that was, OK after not being able to get into the best-rated restaurants. ||Late September or early October is the best time to visit YNP -- we live 90 minutes from the west entrance and visit several times a year. The weater is still beautiful and the crowds are down. This was our first stay in Gardiner, and it will be our last -- it's back to Jackson and West...