We had a nice stay at the Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge. Here is our rundown...

Rooms: The rooms were sufficient -- comfortable enough and supplied with all necessary amenities. Beds were comfortable and views (especially rooms looking out onto the river) were very nice. No problems in terms of noise in the hallways at night or anything. Overall the rooms were nothing spectacular, but being in Alaska itself is amazing and we found ourselves spending little time in the rooms anyway.

Hotel Features: The hotel has a snack bar in the lobby with muffins and bagels in the morning for a quick breakfast-to-go if you are signed up for a tour. There is also an outdoor cafe and two nicer restaurants. Overall the food was pretty good. There is a business center downstairs with two computers and internet access at no additional charge. One of our favorite features was the Northern Lights Call List. Upon check-in (or at any point during your stay), you can call the front desk and ask to be put on the list of rooms that will be called in the event that the famous Northern Lights are visible during the night. The list gives you the ability to sleep through the night and not have to worry about missing the lights; if they are out, you will receive a call and can go outside to see the lights if you want. There are also a number of games available at the Front Desk (Uno, Yahtzee, Scrabble, etc.) that you can sign out, and there is a fitness center with several treadmills and bikes.

Location: The hotel is not in downtown Fairbanks but is located very close to the airport (and the hotel has shuttles back and forth from the airport when there are departing/arriving flights). There are also shuttles to downtown Fairbanks. There isn't too much to do in downtown - there are a few shops to check out, a good fudge store, and a couple of hotels with restaurants. Almost all of the excursions that are popular with tourists are not in the downtown area, so you aren't missing that much by not staying there.

Other tips: We went to Pikes Waterfront Lodge one night and had a great dinner. The hotel is about a 7 minute walk from the Princess Riverside Lodge and the restaurant in the hotel is very nice. Great fish!

Overall, we'd recommend the Princess Riverside Lodge and would probably return if in Fairbanks again.

We arrived here after a *really* long day of traveling. It was 11:30pm and the sun was shining! Also, it was 80 degrees! In Alaska! Now that was a pleasant surprise.

I really liked this hotel. It's right on the river, and away from Fairbanks, so it's quiet and serene. Our room had a great view of the river and was spotlessly clean. The public areas are lovely, well decorated, and the restaurants are very good. Service throughout the hotel is friendly, with every request cheerfully granted.

You can sit on the deck overlooking the river while having a good meal with a cold Alaskan beer (or wine), watching the sun go down - if you can stay awake that long. It was 3am when it finally set (in July).

Not a luxury hotel, but lovely nonetheless.

We spent two nights here while waiting for rooms to open up at the Pike Lodge next door. It was the beginning of a marvelous land/cruise tour of Alaska with our two twelve year-old grandchildren. Their reaction best describes our accommodations when they commented that it "looks just like The Great Wolf Lodge, only the real thing". It was a nicely decorated and very comfortable typical woodsy Alaskan lodge. Our rooms were adequate, but not luxurious, the beds were comfortable, and the towels plentiful. The staff was extremely helpful and friendly, eager to educate us about themselves and their beautiful state. We ate all of our meals in the hotel and found them to be very good. There was a great gift shop off the lobby with many beautiful native Alaskan handicrafts, as well as any forgotten items from home. We were able to buy our grnddaughter a nice waterproof jacket at a fairly reasonable price. The even numbered rooms all overlook the Chena River and are well worth requesting. We did not have one and didn't realize until the day we left how much nicer the view would have been. All in all, we were very happy with the Princess and felt that it represented a fairly typical Alaskan lodge.

We stayed only one night, with arrangements made by a local friend. Probably in a small minority of guests who were not part of a cruise or other tour package.
The room was fine, your typical up-to-date mid-range hotel room. It was clean. There was a nice view of the river (even numbered rooms). Did not attempt internet access or anything like that.
One annoyance was that housekeeping knocked on the door at 8:30 Sunday morning to see if we were out yet.
Registration staff was fine.
In the morning we just bought coffee & muffins from a cart in the lobby to eat by the river. Another annoyance was that they were unable to charge the cost to our room, so we had to pay cash. This seemed strange for a big hotel.