Johnston Canyon Lodge & Bungalows — Local services in Alberta

My 5 year old daughter and I stayed here for 5 days 4 nights. I wasn’t entirely sure where to stay having never been to Banff before and my husband and his son were going to be in the backcountry while my daughter and I were here. I did know I wanted something as conveniently located as possible and that didn’t break the bank that also had good reviews. This place fit my price range and seemed to be located well enough, but the myriad mixed reviews left me wondering if it would end up being a mistake. It was not. I loved this place. We booked a red cottage and they upgraded us to the slightly larger brown one with a queen bed. Bungalows are nestled in the woods up on the hill above the front office/restaurant/trailheads so you are away from the bustle and the area up there is so nice as you drive through the small gravel drive weaving around the cottages to get to yours. The cottages are not luxury but they were good. The bed was clean and comfortable, loved the hardwood flooring. There was a nice size mini fridge for food and the bathroom looked updated but basic. Shower was great. The cottage was a little cold and the propane gas stove did not really heat it adequately (there were barely any flames and no way to adjust) so we ran the provided electric heater and it kept the room warm. Housekeeping was upon request and we had them come once to empty trash and sweep. Wifi was great and never went out, not even once which was great because cellular signal in the Banff area goes in and out depending on where you are. Location is fabulous. It’s about halfway between downtown Banff (about 1/2 drive) and Lake Louise (22 mins). It’s about 6 km off the Trans Canada highway. It was the perfect jumping off point to the myriad of places my daughter and I went and perfect for picking up Dad and brother from Paint Pots Trailhead (20 mins) at the end of their back country extravaganza. The front desk staff were so kind and helpful all week. The little cafe was great to grab coffee and a few snacks. The bistro food was decent. As others mentioned yes both are expensive but I actually found the prices comparable to Lake Louise Village. We ate at several places there as well. There is no where to eat really outside of downtown Banff except for Lake Louise Village and the Bungalow Bistro so expect to pay premium for both and plan your excursions accordingly. We would end a day near town and go there for dinner or we would end a day near Lake Louise and go to one of the village restaurants the seemed slightly more affordable. Portions everywhere were large and filling. The Canyon trails were fun and totally doable for a 5 year old (we did not manage Ink Pots). All in all we loved out stay here and had a great week. Not sure why there are some bad reviews for this place. It was everything I wanted and more than I expected. For reference, I am a frequent world traveler and have stayed many many places all over the world including luxury and very basic budget accommodation and I can say nothing bad about this place. Maybe it’s different during peak season but our stay was truly great and I will definitely be...

They goofed up a very important 20 year anniversary surprise for us. I booked here and told them that I did not want them to charge my credit card yet as I don't want my partner to see the booking on my card. I also told them that as far as a cancellation is concerned I'd be happy to pay 100% of the booking if I end up cancelling - but I had no intentions of cancelling. The girl I talked to agreed understood and made note of everything, they were supposed to charge me the week of my stay.... They GOOFED and charge my credit card that same day and ruined my entire 4 day long surprise that I had been planning for about three months.

They accepted that they made the error, and their initial solution was to give me a bottle of wine and flowers. Then they offed upgrade grade our room and then they also offered me a $100 towards food. (I told them I would need to think about it as I was very upset) When I called back to accept their upgrade and food credit, they renagged and offered me a semi private instead of my fully private cabin (but did not tell me it was a semi private) and they only gave me a $50 towards food (it really wasn't a upgrade) (they moved me from a private cabin to a duplex cabin and we had noisy neighbours) but of course they made it sound like they were doing me a huge favour by giving me this upgrade.

Then to boot our room was NOT clean, there was still remnants of some kind of food or rice in the icebucket (see pic), and there was still a used bar soap in the shower. When I brought this to the attention of the front desk they seem to be interested to know that it happened but did not really justify or rationalize anything, nor did they offer to clan it. Then they had the nerve to charge me $5 to rent a DVD (which I though were complimentary to borrow) which you can buy at Walmart for $4.99.

The girls on the phone and at the front were enough and kind enough. No issues there. The food restaurant and the service was good in fact the chef was awesome he brought ice route to our cabin for us.

Had they actually stepped up and actually took ownership of their errors, I would have left a decent review - but them renagging and then giving me an unclean room was unacceptable. Their error ruined my surprise in kananaskis, our dinner reservations in Banff, our adventure reservations in lake Louise and in Canmore... Strongly...

If I could give the cabins a negative rating I absolutely would.

My partner and I checked into our cabin on Saturday and planned to check out Monday. On Saturday evening we killed (without exaggerating) 16 massive spiders inside our cabin. We were frantically trying to find where they were coming from as all the windows and the door was closed. We finally found TWO different spider nests beside our bed. One was in the light fixture by the bedside table and the other in the bottom corner of the room beside the bed. We wrapped one in toilet paper and flushed it, and could not see any spiders (only eggs) in the other so we left it and tried to calm down. We kept on saying “it’s camping, it’s normal for there to be some bugs indoors” but not like that. Finally my partner woke up to a spider crawling on him in our bed and when he threw it off we discovered two more in the bathroom. These were about the size of a toonie. We then packed all of our things and left for the night with the intentions of going in the morning for a refund.

Instead of being met with understanding and empathy, he was called a liar as they claimed to have checked the room and found nothing (I guess they didn’t see all the dead spiders and the nest we told them about) and then proceeded to say they would not issue a refund, but would buy him lunch. We were told “well. If it were mice that would be a different story”. We were appalled by the lack of customer service and care in their room. As we explained further that the room has clearly not been cleaned thoroughly which was made clear by the spiders nests we were told that the owner was out of country and after hearing the managers side of the story (while we were told we could not speak to him ourselves) and he would not issue us a refund. After half an hour of explaining how disgusted we were in that cabin, we finally received HALF our money back.

We have now contacted Alberta Health Services and urge people not to stay in...