Stay Report: Old Faithful Snow Lodge (Yellowstone - September 2020)

Stay Report: Old Faithful Snow Lodge 

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My family and I planned a trip to Yellowstone. We were flying into Bozeman on Alaskan (flight review here) and then were going to drive into Yellowstone.  We spent the first night outside of Yellowstone at The Adventure Inn in West Yellowstone (check out review here) and our first night in Yellowstone was spent at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge.  When planning the trip, I knew I wanted to stay near Old Faithful and use that as a base to view the surrounding area.  Due to the pandemic, many of the hotel and services were shut but in July the park released some rooms and I was able to book a night at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge.  The Lodge is operated by Xantera, as are most of the hotels within national parks, and they usually have high prices for basic/standard rooms.  My first experience with Xantera was in Grand Canyon and that room was updated and very nice, but after Old Faithful we went to Mammoth Hot Springs and that was average (review here).  

Even though check-in time is not until the late afternoon, we were able to check-in and receive our

room when we arrived early.  The customer service at the check-in desk was very nice - they had lots of maps, provided great explanations of the services that were available, timings, and overall provided great information about the parks; it was a good start to the stay.  We took our key and proceeded to the elevator to our room on the 2nd floor.  When you entered into the room, on the left was the bathroom which contained the sink and the shower - the shower had refillable shampoo/conditioner and bodywash and there were towels as well above the toilet.  Across from the bathroom, in the hallway, was an open sink with refillable soap and lotion (although the lotion had not been refilled) and another soap carved into a bear.  Further into the room, on the left were the two double beds with a nightstand in the middle.  On either side of the beds were also two narrow but tall closets (more like shelves with doors as there was not a lot of space).  The beds were somewhat comfortable, not extremely comfortable but not too bad either - it was fine for one night but not sure it would be comfortable for many nights.  Across from the bed was a desk with a chair, a fridge in the corner with an ice bucket on tip, and a garbage/compost/recycling stand.  The room felt like it had been designed with the basic amenities plus a bit more but that's about it; there was no AC in the room and no wifi in the room either.  For the hotels in the national parks, you pay for location but you pay a lot and what you get in return is only a basic room so the cost seems to outweigh the benefits.

Due to the pandemic, only a limited number of shops and restaurants were open.  There was a restaurant in the hotel that was open but it was to-go only, so you could order inside through one window, pick-up at another window, and then either eat outside or in your room.  For lunch we ate outside but for dinner we ate in the room.  The dinner menu was more extensive and the flavor was better, and the costs for the food was reasonable for the dinner portion.  As I said, complimentary wifi was not available in the rooms but was available in the lobby; at check-in you received a code that you can enter to access complimentary wifi.  The wifi was only available in certain pockets of the lobby, was extremely slow, and only worked for basic email and communication (there was also little to no cell service in any part of the park except for inside the hotel).

Overall, the service was great at the hotel but high price did not justify the basic standard of the room.  I understand that you are paying for the benefit of staying in the national park and for the convenience of being closer to the attractions, but the benefit should equal the costs and you are paying 5+star prices and are getting a 2-star room.  The environmentally friendly details are nice, with refillable water stations, refillable toiletries, composting, and recycling containers.