Girdwood is beautiful. One would imagine that staying in a huge resort hotel in this area would be heavenly. And, indeed, the natural setting among glaciers, mountains, and trees in the summertime would permit a guest to forgive the blips, errors, and mis-steps of this montrosity of a hotel. But there is really no excuse for poor service, ill-trained staff, and lack of security. Here is a list of problems we encountered. You, the reader, can decide for yourself whether the gorgeous setting is worth dealing with the glitches.
**Poor security. At the check-in counter, the clerk announced in ear-shot of other guests my husband's name and room number.
**Poor security. at 1 am the first night of our 3-night stay, someone (presumably a guest) was able to open our room door with his card key. Fortunately, we had the security latch in place so the door only opened 1 inch. For some reason, the guest would not leave but kept trying to come in (was he drunk?). I called front desk for security. I was informed that we could get new keys in the morning. Come morning and a changing of the guards, we find that there was no incident report filed. The new front desk staff didn't know what we were talking about. Later, when the manager arrived, we were not charged for that night and upgraded to a suite (near the lobby, at my request, for added security).
**We get another knock on our door on Day 3 - "Room service," the man behind the door announced. I yelled through the closed door that we had not ordered room service. The man moved away from our door. After the first night''s scare, I was wary. Still don't know what that was about.
**No pen or notepad by the telephone, no hangers in the closet, no information in the Guest Directory binder. Of the last item, we were informed that the guest directory was being updated, but what good is that for guests who have no clue what services are available?
**We don't know where the fitness center is. We're told it's on the 3rd floor. But we can't find it. Why not? There is no signage that indicates the closed door leading to the fitness center. 3 other staff people we run into in the halls as we're trying to find the fitness center don't know where it is, either. Or, worse still, that it had closed an hour ago, making the search fruitless from the get.
**The business meeting had breakfast service -but no utensils to eat the meal.
**With few exceptions, the staff were unfriendly, uncaring, simply not interested. One woman staffing the bicycle rentals was on the phone in what seemed to be a personal call. She never made eye contact with me while I waited for her to finish, and she never stopped her phone call to wait on me. Instead, another staff person, who kept peeking over to her to see why she wasn't serving us, finally came over from his position in another room to help me. He was, by the way, very courteous.
**Free Internet service on only the first 3 floors, otherwise, must use ethernet cable. But only a few spots on floors 1 - 3 provide access to www, and there was NO access in our room on the 3rd floor.
GOOD THINGS
**Nice mattress.
**Faucet water tastes good
**Rental bikes were very nice and reasonably priced.
**Restaurant food was good and not outrageously priced.
You can decide.
