Lake Lodge Cabins — Local services in West Yellowstone

We stayed for only one night, arriving late after spending the day up in the Old Faithful area. We were a party of three senior adults, relatively experienced with US and world travel and mid-scale facilities.

Cabin/lodging: The first cabin we were assigned had a balky lock. After we returned to the desk a second time and got the key reprogrammed, and then fiddled with the lock for a while more to get in, the room seemed fine, but the toilet plumbing was clogged so the toilet was unflushable. How could that have gotten by the room cleaner?

The second cabin we were assigned had a working toilet, but several half-burned-out (very dim) light bulbs. Also, the heater had no graduations on the thermostat, which made it very clumsy to use without over- or under-heating the room. And, the two-bed room had only one spare blanket even though the three of us needed both beds; and, the beds had no bedspreads that we could utilize as top-blankets.

Dining: we ate dinner over at the Yellowstone Hotel, so that review is there. We ate breakfast in the Lodge, in the cafe off the lobby.

Two of us ordered oatmeal with fresh blueberries. Very good taste and texture, really excellent presentation. One of us ordered "breakfast bowl" plus scrambled eggs and cheddar cheese. The order was given to us before the scrambled eggs were ready, but they were provided soon after we began eating. Impressively excessive amount of food, odd flavor to the peppers, hash browns were tough as if cooked a long time before (or maybe purchased already mostly cooked), the cheddar cheese was a broken-up, unmelted sandwich-slice and so mild as to be unflavored, but the combination was nice looking on the plate when it first arrived. A biscuit might as well have been called hardtack. It was inedible, even after cutting it up with a sawtooth plastic knife and trying to soak it in milk. A bagel had been grilled to brown it, instead of toasting...but not recently. So it was room temperature, and a bit stale. I ate it anyway with (processed) cream cheese. The cream cheese was the best part. The eggs were fresh and hot, but the rest of the "hot" breakfast bowl arrived at room temperature, including the hash browns, even though they came from a table-basin that should have been holding them at serving temperature. A request at the counter to warm the food involved several minutes of language difficulty as I tried to mime warming of food for the two personnel who had minimal English vocabulary and didn't know what "microwave" and "warming" meant, before a likely-manager took over, took the plate elsewhere (maybe to a staff break room or an office where there was a microwave?), and came back with it warmed. Initially there were no metal spoons at the self-service counter, and the small plastic spoons were inadequate for eating oatmeal. It was difficult to get the counter staff to understand what a spoon was, and what we were asking for. Once they caught on, they were quite assertive that we all should have a metal spoon. The staff interactions felt even more negative because of the constant flow of other diners coming to the counter to ask for problem solutions, i.e. potato patty served straight from the fridge, more room temperature hash browns, missing items, compounded by the constant language difficulties behind the counter. The counter-staff individuals, when not being bothered by a customer, turned their backs toward the dining room and conversed animatedly with each other in their first language. They seemed to be surprised, rather than irritated, to have customers trying to get their attention. When they would turn toward us, it was with puzzled looks on their faces, as if we had rudely interrupted them. The cook, on the other hand, was working his tail off. He was just overloaded, trying to direct other personnel at what needed doing next while keeping up with...

Xanterra is what happens when a monopoly is allowed to exist !!!

Worst experience EVER !!!

Made reservations 11 months in advance and verified said reservations one month prior to arrival. Everything was fine. Got there and our reservation was no where to be found. The best they could do for us was have us move every day into a new room. This was totally unacceptable so they found us a room for the 4 nights in F-loop. When we were shown a map and told where the room was, it wasn't even on the map. They had to draw a box and said, it is about here. I told me wife it is either a new unit or one that was so old it should not be rented. It was the later and man did it stink. It made you want to vomit when you opened the door. The only way we could stay in the room was to have the windows open and a fan blowing continuously, even during the coldest of nights and it does get cold in Yellowstone. Then, after only being there for 30 minutes there was a knock on the door. Low and behold, a young couple was at the door. Xanterra had now rented the room twice. The young couple understood and returned to the office to receive a new room assignment. Later that day we found out that the rooms we were in were only used for the employees and were actually slated for demolition later that year or early the next. After seeing them it is understandable, they are terrible. As far as the room goes, everything went OK until the end of the third day. After returning to the room, from our longest and most exhausting day of our vacation in Yellowstone - a 13 hours day, we entered our room to discover that room service had failed to even enter the room that day. Garbage needed to be emptied, bath towels needed to replaced and though not a big deal, the beds were also not made. For $150 a day, I expect general maintenance to be performed, DAILY. Since there are no phones in the rooms, I had to drive to the office and request housekeeper remedy the situation. After speaking to the management some concessions were made by Xanterra and the manager promised to email me with a letter to assist me with my next stay at Yellowstone. That too has been a bust as it has now been two weeks and there has been no communication from the manager, Mr. Sean Kerepka. With the exception of the manager, everyone of the employees of Xanterra did an outstanding job when speaking directly to or handling any issues that a customer might have. Kudos to the vast majority of the employees.

Next, THE FOOD ! Wow, I would not have fed that slop to a POW ! The dinner was awful, the cafeteria was worse. The breakfast buffet was almost passable as a meal.

Again, with a monopoly, you get inferior products. With the prices they charge, all the facilities should have been 4 or 5 start resorts. I can not even recommend a single star for Xanterra, though I had to give it a single star in the rating format. That star is for the employees. If not for the hard working courteous employees, Xanterra would be a...

First off I want to note that the Lake Yellowstone Hotel and Cabins and the Yellowstone Lake Lodge Cabins are two separate properties in Yellowstone by the lake. The Lake Yellowstone Hotel and Cabins features a large yellow hotel and yellow cabins. I thought I was booking the yellow cabins, as that is what is pictured here as the Lake Lodge, but those cabins are at the hotel.

There are a few different types of cabins at the lodge and we stayed in both the Western Cabin and the Frontier Cabin. In my opinion, the Frontier Cabins were more rustic and charming cabins and what I picture when I think about venturing out into the great outdoors. While the Western Cabins are nicely appointed on the inside, the outside was not much to look at. The Western Cabins were attached in a series of 4 cabins. The Frontier Cabins were attached in a series of 5 or 6 cabins. (by comparison, the yellow cabins at the hotel have 2 cabins attached together). I would recommend the Frontier Cabins, but in my opinion the Western Cabins, while nice, were not worth the cost. If your family or group can sleep on two doubles instead of 2 queen beds, I would go with the Frontier Cabins.

The first night at the lodge, we hung out on the porch of the lodge and watched bison mosey on by. We had several encounters with bison while in the Frontier Cabin as well. We found that they liked to move slowly through the area, at times very close to our cabin door. We were also lucky enough to see a brown black bear that ran through the Lake Lodge area as well. The bear was reported as a grizzly by another lodge guest, so we ended up talking with a ranger that came by to check out the bear sighting. I have no pictures of the bear, but it was one of the animals I was hoping to see in Yellowstone.

As a side note, my teenagers did not seem too happy that there was no cell service in most of the park (we have AT&T). They both paid around $5 for 1 hour of wi-fi access the first night, but were able to do without it for the rest of our time at the lodge.

I also needed to receive and send e-mails to get a combination for our next cabin stay, so I used the business office at the Lake Hotel for emails and the front desk fax service to send back the forms I needed to submit. The front desk was having difficulties getting the fax to go through, but they kept trying and were eventually successful. They didn't give up and I appreciated their efforts to help me out! The front desk staff was always accommodating and friendly. I then finally received the email on my phone, with the comination numbers somewhere in Hayden Valley where I was able to get spotty cell phone reception. If you are relying on cell phone or internet for any important business, I suggest ...