Yellowstone Park / West Gate KOA Holiday — Hotel in West Yellowstone

This is a review mostly for a cabin (we stayed in 319). I apologize for this long rant in advance, but it has some noteworthy information.

I had booked a cabin that was supposed to have bunk beds. We were traveling with our older teen boys. When we entered our cabin, we had a pullout couch. I called the front desk and informed them I had booked a cabin with bunk beds, and that the couch would not accommodate my boys. They said that they switched our cabin a few days prior and said that I should have received a phone call. I told them I did not receive a phone call, and if I had, I would have told them that a couch wouldn't work and that this setup was unacceptable. He started getting testy and said there was nothing he could do. He told me he could give me a cabin with bunk beds, but no kitchen or bathroom. I said no, that I had booked the deluxe cabin with bunkbeds and that's what I needed. I asked for a change in my rate because I didn't get what I booked. He said no and asked if I wanted to cancel my reservation. It was already 8pm on a Saturday night...where would we go???? Luckily, because I read reviews on how uncomfortable the beds were, I had brought a couple of air mattresses and my kids ended up on the floor the whole week.

I also called two days prior to our arrival and asked if we needed to bring everything they listed on the website because I had heard that they were now providing towels, bedding, kitchen stuff, etc. The woman I spoke to was very pleasant. She checked with housekeeping and maintenance and then she told me they weren't doing that and to bring everything. We had to rent a large SUV to get everything into a car (especially the bedding). But when we got there, there was everything we were told we had to bring. The bed in the bedroom was super comfortable with the sheets and bedding provided (more comfortable than my bed at home!). There were towels, soap and shampoo in the bathroom, dishes, pots, pans and utensils in the kitchen. They only things we would have needed to bring was dish soap, dish towels and dish cloths, and paper towels.

We never received any housekeeping services when we were there. We had requested more towels but they didn't show up (we ended up using the ones we brought from home). We did flag an employee down as they were driving by to get more toilet paper.

We didn't really use any of the amenities other than the laundry room as we were out exploring most of the time, so I can't really comment on those.

Pros: The campground and cabin were very clean. Super comfortable bed, towels, bedding for bedroom, pots, pans, dishes, utensils, etc. provided. VERY close to the entrance of Yellowstone. Beautiful surroundings. There is a nice picnic table and chairs along with the fire pit so you don't need to bring any chairs for around the campfire.They are very strict about quiet hours. Laundry room is very clean - the washer is $3 and dryer is $.50. Also, cabins received brand new propane Weber grills while we were there (propane tanks were provided).

Cons: Housekeeping is non-existent. You may get front desk staff that are rude (not all but they do exist). Cabin may not be what you booked, and don't expect them to make any accommodations for you.

It is a nice campground, and if I had my own trailer, I might stay here again, but I won't stay in the cabins again with kids because I don't trust we'll get what we booked...

Nice KOA just 15-20 minutes from Yellowstone's West entrance. Upon arrival we were welcomed by very kind staff AND they escort you to your site via golf cart! It's nice to not get lost in a KOA, though this one was very easy to navigate and follow the map. They assist you getting in your spot if needed (we pulled in without any issues but saw others being helped by the escorts- lots of newbies and RV renters while we were here). The golf cart guys were super friendly, always waved, and even complimented our site once we got all set up (it appears most of our neighbors were either new to camping or didn't care to set anything up outside). The hookups, patio (we went deluxe for this site as it was several days), and grounds were beautifully maintained. The store is nice and super friendly staff. The lady selling fudge will pull you in with her kindness. Not a huge selection in the "store" but a few essentials and snacks. The laundry facility is their only downfall. For such a large ground, there is only one laundry facility and it is too small and crowded. We wanted to do a quick load of the kids clothes and towels before moving onto our next campground, but every washer was full. We went back 30 minutes later after getting laundry together and there was a line 6 people long waiting for a washer 😳. Thats ridiculous. There were still people waiting when we gave up and went to be (as we were getting up at 4am to leave). When I walked by at 6am there was laundry just sitting in washers. Ways to fix laundry issue: 1 if someone leaves their laundry unattended they need to be charged. I could understand running back to your camper for a few minutes but some people put in their laundry and are leaving it there extended times which is not fair to everyone else waiting. 2 if there are always lines, they need to make a list for people waiting like a line at a restaurant. First come first wash! It would make it fair for everyone to have some kind of system set up since it's a single laundry facility and based on past reviews there is always a line or no avaliable washers. Also families with multiple loads probably need to do one load then get back in line or something. We had three loads we wanted to do, but were only going to do the one we absolutely needed based on the line to be fair and respectful to others (not everyone has that respectful mentality though). Overall it was a nice stay! We had a neighbor that was loud well after quiet hours on our last night, but we were inside and not bothered except when we tried to get to sleep. A huge negative for us on our specific site was there was a random street light next to us. It drew in lots of mosquitoes and made it impossible to see the stars at night. Not sure why the light is there, but seems the spots around it should know in advance that they are getting a spot you can't view the stars at night. It's one of the kids favorite things to do...

Hope you don’t have an emergency while staying here. We stayed at the West Yellowstone KOA for 14 days. The second part of this review explains my low review. KOA is located just 8 miles from the entrance of Yellowstone which seems to be the justification for the cost and is surrounded on 3 sides with cows and pasture. Located just off US 20, you will get some road noise, especially if you back up to the highway (we did not). The park is like a small town given the number of rv, tent and cabins and the abundance of workers throughout the park. And if you have kids, there seems to be quite a lot of activities for them, including the large indoor pool.

We were warmly greeted when we arrived and proceeded to our site without escort. We were on the deluxe pull through sites that were terraced on a slight slope. As a result, the leveling of the sites was not great and the best I could find was a 2.5 degree pitch to the drivers side and then had significant leveling to do. The facilities were crowded in the morning and evening (laundry and bathroom) but adequate as were the utilities. They also had a small dog park – the only place with a dog waste station. WiFi was the exception as it was basically useless - was explained to us at check in given the number of people accessing it. There is decent T-Mobile and Verizon signal. I would rate this park a 3.0 comparing it to the dozens of parks we have stayed in during the past year.

Why a one star review? Three days before arriving at the park, my wife had an incident requiring surgery and left her unable to drive the vehicle (which is not towable). Not going into great detail (already provided feedback to the park and corporate), absolutely no compassion was shown for us when asking for a small 48 hour accommodation for our vehicle. And a side note, the overflow lot was basically empty the day we left.

Although I would like to call him out in this review, I won’t but his response was simply this “Make other arrangements (for the car) or stay else where.” Seriously? Obviously did not grasp how difficult this is when dealing with a shattered ankle. Like we planned this to happen, or it is a good thing to move someone with recent surgery, or we have the flexibility during the 4th of July week to pack up and find a new place. So my plan will be to never stay here again in the future and let others know of our experience here. Be sure to read other reviews which have similar negative ratings. They don’t care about the people.

I should have been prepared for this treatment since another customer was in the office indicating he was “demeaned and belittled” by one of the employees for an honest mistake on the check out time. Stayed in a KOA the night before and mixed it up but the employee was aggressive in his verbal beat down. Sad this KOA treats people who stay regularly at...