Buffalo Lodge 8385

The Keystone ski slopes are great, but Buffalo Lodge is a hard pass next time. We paid $2500 for four nights, and it wasn’t worth it. We’d requested two bedrooms with two beds in the guest room, but that note got lost. The third bed was a jackknife in the living room, though we could buy a rollaway for $75 a night. There wasn’t enough bedding for the beds we did have, so we had to use our “1 free resupply” to get what should’ve been there from the start. The master bathroom toilet was broken, and although they fixed it the next day, the shower was only lukewarm at best. Smoke detectors were unplugged or missing, and customer service didn’t seem concerned about our complaints. Lesson learned.

The other employees were attentive, and Garrett was especially kind and helpful on my first snowboarding trip. He really knows his stuff and explained what he was doing step by step.

The location was amazing, and the room itself was fantastic, well equipped, and very clean. The two stars are for the service and broken infrastructure. Both elevators were out for all five days of our stay. One day we ran out of water, and when we called downstairs, we were told, “Pipes are frozen, I do not control the weather.” Customer service at its best.

Paying $250 per night, even at our conference group rate, felt ridiculous for these condos. Check-in was two miles away, there was no staff on site, and the room numbers made no sense. The place is in poor repair: three windows wouldn’t close all the way, two blinds wouldn’t fully shut, the carpet was frayed and lifting by the bathroom door, and repaired drywall in the bathroom hadn’t been painted. The mattress sagged, the power strip beside the bed was broken, the garage elevator was out of service, and there was no air conditioning. I might have put up with these issues during ski season, when staying on the mountain would be worth it, or if this had been an inexpensive hotel. At this rate, the logistics and condition were too frustrating.