I stayed here with my boyfriend and a mixed group of six others (22-40yrs) over New Year. We all had a fantastic holiday and loved waking up with a view of the waterfall run outside our window.

The place is very isolated, great for a short break but not a lot of variety if you are staying longer. We did spend a few evenings in Trappers, the bar across from the hotel which is mainly frequented by some of the 200 Sunshine staff that live on-site. Great for a young crowd, a little like a students union (although the drinks are not cheap!).

There was no sign of the advertised (on website) live entertainment and when we asked to borrow some DVDs all they could give us was Ice Age! The concierge gave us a very helpful list of restaurant suggestions in Banff, he wanted to save us from the standard tourist traps.

The menus are pretty good, although don't expect the chef to have read one. We had meals come out countless times with substituted items which we had not asked for or been warned about (breakfasts arriving with fried egg when menu said scrambled, instant mash arriving with a steak instead of a jacket potato) not big issues, but a little annoying when it was happening with every meal. Another complaint we had was the amount of time we had to allow for breakfast. The whole group suffered with jetlag for about a week and a half, so the restaurant opening at 7am for breakfast should have been great. Over New Year (peak season) there was a hot buffet to help yourself to, however if you chose something from the menu you were in for a long wait, even though looking around the place was not busy. Two slices of toast would regularly take 40minutes to arrive. On our second to last morning our server had been setting up from 6:30, our whole group were down early to make the most of our last day on the snow and at 7:15 the chef and supervisor strolled in, had a chat behind the bar and then started work. This perhaps explains why we were having to allow an hour and a half for breakfast in order to make the most of the fresh snow.

Rooms were small with little storage, (especially as we had all packed for a two week stay), but comfortable. Ideal for that shorter break!

Over all, we would recommend the Sunshine Inn, but beware – the whole Village is pretty much operated by young (low paid) snow-seekers, Canadian, British and Australian, wanting as much time as possible out on the snow, customer service does not seem to be a priority. Having said that there were a few individuals that stood out from the majority and really made our stay enjoyable.

We are all sure that we’ll visit Sunshine again, but I could not manage another two week stay up there, when we told other guests and staff that we were staying for a fortnight we got lots of funny looks, now we know why!

I stayed at this hotel with my husband for two nights at the end of December 2007. The hotel was not particularly interested in our having an enjoyable stay. There were a number of incidents which illustrated this (for example, the staff and managers exchange the details of their hangovers within hearing distance of the restaurant patrons, and no one would take our breakfast order because the waitress responsible for our section was a rather lengthy break and no one was covering for her), but I've detailed the two reasons I've given this hotel a "terrible" rating below.

Firstly, they claimed that we had only booked for one night, when we had definitely booked for two. Even after acknowledging that we couldn't possibly have booked for only one night - because there is a two night minimum at that time of year - the hotel never admitted that this was their error or even apologized for the inconvenience. They said that we would have to move rooms on the morning of the second day because the room we were staying in on the first night had already been booked by someone else. No attempt was made to make arrangements for us to stay in the same room on both nights. They did offer that we had the choice not to stay there if we didn't like it. Very helpful.

Secondly, they lost our luggage. When you stay at this hotel, which is on the ski hill, you park your car at the bottom of the mountain and ride a gondola up to the ski hill and hotel area. You leave your luggage with hotel staff at the bottom of the mountain and they send it up to your room so that it is there when you check in after a day of skiing. They say it is "guaranteed" to be there by 4 pm. When we arrived in our room at 4:30 pm, my husband's luggage was not there, although mine was. This meant that he had no swimsuit (so we couldn't use the hottub), no shoes (having only ski boots with us), no toothbrush etc. How they managed this (other than through pure laziness) I'm not sure, because the bags that made it to the room were clearly tagged 1 of 3 and 2 of 3, so the person delivered the bags should have noticed the third bag was missing. Our first three calls over the next 2 hours were essentially ignored - we were told it was "on its way". A call to the front desk at 7:30 finally prompted someone to check a list to see if the bag had ever arrived at the hotel - I still don't understand why this step wasn't taken the first time we called some 2 and a half hours prior - and determined that it didn't. It took two additional calls (both times we were assured certain actions would be taken and we would be called back in 15 minutes, and they never did call back) and two visits to the front desk for the bag to finally be discovered - at 9:30 pm. We still don't know where it was and never received any apology or explanation.

Although Sunshine Village Resort is the only on-hill option, it didn't matter because the hotel is great for hard core skiers and snowboarders that like a bit of luxury.

The hotel was recently renovated with modern amenities. The rooms are small and nicely decorated, but that's okay because you just need the room to sleep right? The real fun is skiing hard all day and apres' at the bar!

One impressive feature was not needing to search for parking when arriving, there's a valet service that will take care of your car. Then you check-in at the base, where you change into your gear in one of the 6-7 private changerooms, hand your bags to a clerk and you're good to go on the hills! At the end of your day, your bags are magically in your room already! Also the hotel has a great "chill out" room with satellite service, plasma TV, big comfy leather seating, etc. (just order food and beer and relax).

I stayed at the Sunshine Inn with two of my sons during the first week of April 2007. I had read the selection of varied reviews with interest and occasional alarm but need not have worried because we had a fantastic trip. We arrived when the snow was falling and the temperature was 22 below. By the end of the week the daytime peak in the sun was some 40 degrees higher but the conditions held up well and every run remained open. The lift pass for the mountain was included with the accommodation and being able to get the first lift up at 8.30 was a real bonus. The lift to the Standish Chair was barely ten paces from the hotel doors - the closest ski-in ski-out you'll ever find. We also enjoyed riding out to the bottom of the gondola at the end of the day and then taking it back up to the Inn while the rest of the mountain was emptying. Our room could sleep three, although we would have preferred a twin bed rather than the double, which was inconvenient for two large brothers. The other bed was a firm pullout single - comfortable enough. The room was clean (and fragrant) and housekeeping was fine. We must have eaten about fourteen meals in the restaurant and enjoyed them all. Staff were matey, helpful and efficient. We had no complaints. There was also the benefit on a couple of nights of an accomplished musical duo who between them played about a dozen instruments and did some terrific covers of Hendrix, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin - great for
an ageing funster. We did not have any problems with noise. Transport
of luggage to and from the base area, by the way, was very efficient.
I would much rather stay on the mountain than commute in from Banff; I would recommend the Inn; and we would love to go back.