I choose this hotel as I was familiar with it and knew it was a cheap price. My thought was I was in beautiful Banff so the only thing I was going to be doing in the room was sleeping. It was located very close to downtown so I could leave my car and walk basically everywhere. The room was old, looked old and smelled old, but it was clean. I was a former Housekeeping Supervisor so I am very picky when it comes to cleanliness and I will say they did a great job with this room. Normally their would be lots of noise coming from the street and other rooms, but during my stay it was very quiet. The feather bed was fabulous and I had a great sleep. In fact I had to get up at 4 am to catch a flight in Calgary and it was very hard to leave the bed, that`s how comfortable it was.

I did have a bad experience though. On my first morning I went to the Ptarmigan Hotel restaurant for breakfast. The Ptarmigan is where you check in for the Driftwood and is the sister hotel. Guests at the Ptarmigan have breakfast included in their room rate, which I was aware of. I went to the restaurant for a coffee and some toast. I walked up to the server station, a very pleasant lady approached me and said "Good morning, Sir". I said "Good Morning" and she asked which room I was in. I told her Room 151 at the Driftwood Inn. Well her whole demeanor changed and she told me in a completely different tone, "Breakfast is $15". I felt I was not very important because I was staying at the Driftwood Inn. Her tone made it seem as if I needed to pay up front, because I was a low class guest of the Driftwood. I said I was just looking for some toast and coffee if that was possible. She said, "I can give you some coffee and you can go sit in the lobby". At this point I was so shocked at what I was hearing I just agreed and took my coffee, in a takeout cup, and went back to my room. The coffee was given to me complimentary. For the rest of my stay in Banff, if I needed to say where I was staying, I would say I was staying at the Ptarmigan. I really enjoyed the Banff Lodging Company as a hotel chain, but I will NOT be staying at the Driftwood for any future visits.

We had booked our reservation on line through Travelocity and then notified the Motel by phone that we would be bringing a small dog per the instructions on the website. Somewhere along the line wires had been crossed so that when one of the over-zealous cleaners saw our dog in the corridor we were immediately questioned about whether we had paid for the dog. There were hasty walky talky conversations with the front desk while my wife and dog were held under house arrest!

Talk about over-reaction! We checked our Visa statement and low and behold the dog premium had been paid!

Just a note on noise - we have stayed here before and on all three occasions we have been woken at 2 - 3 am by drunken revellers yelling in the back street - often for more than half an hour.

We will not be treated like criminals and will be paying a "premium" for a hotel that offers more than a student's basement.

I'm seeing all of these negative reviews and it somewhat upsets me. I happen to love this hotel. The rooms were clean, and very cozy, the staff was so sweet, and the scenery was fantastic!! I'd love to come back here again soon some time! :)

Yes, its cheaper than the Ptarmigan. And, yes, that costs you something. For $150 I expected a lot more than just a decent bed. The place looks beat up. The ceilings are low. The rooms are a bit dank. There is no breakfast (vs. Ptarmigan). It does have some sketch-balls lurking in the parking lot.

It is fairly clean.

The reservations desk steered us to this hotel due to our pet. Maybe that's the explanation for why the place is so run down. We'll certainly look elsewhere--esp. for $150--when we stay in Banff again.