On 4/13 we booked our stay through Travelocity. When we checked out of the Stanley Hotel we were charged again, though $40 less because the original reservation did not show up in the records. Anyhow, it was promptly resolved by the hotel staff on Monday.
From the very beginning we had tried to get a room directly through the hotel reservation but they said they couldn't 'beat the Travelocity price'....wonder why that had to happen?

AND WE HAD A BLAST!!!! Our friends had checked in the night before and we arrived at noon on 4/19. Perfect weekend weather and we explored the main street and their interesting shops.

We checked in at 16:50 and ended up on the second floor in the Hotel instead of the Manor house as was previously booked through Travelocity. We loved the room with a king size bed, jacuzzi tub, beautiful decor, view of the waterfall (the back side). The room looked renovated and not at all much like the door jambs on the fourth floor where you can actually fit your fingers through the top part on several rooms. Our friends stayed on the fourth floor and the one room had a spooky mirror - when fogged up our eyes were black holes with a white halo ring around them, just like the pictures on the wall between the bathrooms in the lowest level of the hotel (top row, second from the right - now THAT was eerie, especially after seeing the pictures AFTER looking into the mirror). No camera was necessary for this one and all but one of six middle-aged hard working adults saw it. That mirror is definitely something else altoghether!!!
Our room provided us with orbs and one interesting display of a standing up shoe lace....hard to explain but very visible on the digital photo. We experienced no scary moments at all and we slept great!!! Very comfortable bed!!!
The hotel staff did not mention a complimentary breakfast to us so we checked out and opted for the very delicious 'The other side' champagne brunch. The 'Egg +I ' were both recommended by the staff also and our friends had enjoyed their menu on Saturday.
We missed the tour because we did not sign up at the check-in but since we had enough unexplainable moments we were not too worried about it. Someday we might even take the tour.

This is a very interesting hotel in a beautiful setting and we will cherish the memories.

Enjoy the stay :-)

Fulfilling our dream to stay at such a historic and intriguing hotel, we stayed for one night. We knew what to expect from the reviews but were so hoping that they were all wrong. They were not! I don't know how this hotel continues to draw any clientele. The staff is nice sometimes and other times, just not interested. I'm sure that the management has a lot to do with that. Wouldn't know, since the "management" was never around. Our room was okay. Definitely very warm and with the temperature below freezing at night, we still had to open a window. No electricity in the bathroom, no window coverings in the bathroom, hence, no shower was able to be taken. We got an apology at checkout which was not good enough so after asking that they "compensate a portion of the bill", they gave us 10% which basically paid some of the taxes. Again, they were not authorized to give any more than that because "the manager was not around".

I will say that on the evening we arrived, we had some food at the bar that was wonderful. We were really surprised at the taste and the presentation, so that conflicts with some other posts, but those posts were referring to the restaurant which we did not eat in. I would imagine that it all comes from the same kitchen though. I guess we were just lucky and had a good experience. The bartender was good too - attentive but not intrusive.

The one surprising detail of the family suite room was that there was a very large LG flat screen television. Out of character with the rest of the decor, poor picture quality, but nice.

If you come to Estes Park, take the ghost tour at the Stanley but stay somewhere else! The reason that all of the postings for this hotel are mainly negative is that not one room here is "cheap". You just don't get what you paid for. Maybe one day.... the reviews will match the incredible history of this hotel.

First of all let me start out by saying that I noticed that the manager of the hotel responds to the good posts but not to the ones where people were dissatisfied. I am very curious to see if I get a response to my post or my e-mail comment card i sent to them. The fact that he only responds to those that are happy with their stay and not to those that had a lack-luster experience, is a red flag in itself. To me that means he doesnt care unless he knows that you are going to return and spend more of your money. As of right now, I doubt i shall be returning to the Stanley but I hope to some day return to Estes Park since that was my trips saving grace.

My husband and I went to the Stanley as part of our honeymoon. When we made the reservation the reservationist was nice and pleasant and helpful. However, this we were to learn was not the norm of the staff. We arrived early and our room was not yet ready so we decided to eat lunch in their dining room. The atmposohere was pleasant which is more than I can say of the service or the dried out, over priced food that they served. I ordered a trio appetizer that came with 3 types of meat and 3 sauces. I asked my snooty, rude waiter what the sauces were and he didnt know nor did he offer to find out for me. We asked him to suggest a sandwich for us and all he could say was "i like mozzeralla". Which later we realized showed his overall intelligence level. It took forever to get our drinks and even longer for us to get our food. When our food did arrive it was dried out, and tasted like it had been sitting under a heat lamp for at least 15 minutes. We had planned on eating dinner here but after the disastourous lunch we ate in town instead. They had already wasted enough of our money.

We were in room 216 which is in the main part of the hotel. We opened the door to the room and were immediately blasted by a wave of heat. It was about 65 outside so it wasnt coming from outside. I checked the thermostat and it was set for 60 but read 85 and the heat was still running. I called down to the front desk and was rudely told to open a window and that there was a fan in the closet that i could turn on. I tried to plug in the fan only to find out that half of my room did not have electricity. So i called the front desk again and she sent up a maintenace man. He was very nice and fixed the electricty. I then asked if he could fix the heat and he had it fixed in no time. Which made me wonder if it was fixable why was i told to open a window instead of having someone fix it? The room decor was nice overall. Its not a big room but its an old hotel I wasnt expecting a big room.

Overall, the hotel is beautiful but they need to seriously consider changing their front desk staff from rude cute girls, to people that actually understand what customer service is. I have worked in customer service as an upper level manager for over 10 years and if I EVER saw one of my employees treating my guests the way I was treated they would no longer be employed by me.

Please dont get myewrong, my husband and I are not that hard to please. We stayed in lower rated hotels on our trip that were 10 times better than our experiences here. Its so sad, since it is such a nice hotel and a wonderful town, i wonder what will happen to it when people forget about "The Shining"? The only reason they probably have ghosts is because former guests are still angry with how much they paid and have come back to haunt them.

Matthew Kryjack, we would love to understand why you have a beautiful hotel but cant seem to do the simplest things like baggage service, or just simpley providing GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE.

We went to the Stanley Hotel as part of a group function. Upon arrival, we were greeted at the front desk by an extremely rude clerk, who was actually eating a sandwich as we checked in. Asked if we were interrupting her lunch, she actually said "yes, you are". She proceeded to toss our room keys on the counter and walked away. The room keys given, were to an occupied room - we went back to the desk and requested alternative keys to an unoccupied room. The clerk was so incredibly rude, she again tossed another set of keys our way. We proceeded (the second time) to check into a filthy room, had not been cleaned for some time. We went back to the desk and the response was that the entire housekeeping staff had all been fired a week prior and we should be happy with a room that has a working television. We were dumbfounded. Our room had garbage, pizza boxes, dirty linens and towels all over the floor. W e conceded, took the room (our conference started that night) and asked it to be cleaned while we were at our meeting, It was never cleaned in the enitre 3 days we stayed there. We ordered rooms service 2 times - never came. the only responses ever given to by staff was "we have no one working here - everyone has been fired". We asked for the Hotel Manager 7 times during our stay to seek restitution and he never botherered to call us or apologize. Such a great Hotel from the outside. We were so excited to be a part of this meeting and to stay at the Shining Hotel. What a waste. The staff and management were such a disapointment. We still havent heard from the Hotel Manager - 30 days later. And we called 10 times.
No response.

Sad Patron of The Stanley Hotel.