The Viking Lodge - Downtown Winter Park Colorado

We loved this place in a lot of ways. It was very friendly. The location is smack in the center of the very walkable little town of Winter Park. Winter Park, I would put in here is a town largely unmolested by big corporations. All the corporate touristy crap is up at the ski area, so the town itself is great. The lodge building is kind of cool. It’s got big wooden beams holding up the ceilings, and terrible ‘70s paneling, plus, in our room anyhow, really great over the top ‘70s furniture. Did I mention friendly. Oh yeah, and cheap. That’s what got me there in the first place. Now, I will say that we could not get the sauna to heat up to anything past, sort of, warm room temp, and that was up toward the ceiling. (It was butt cold when we were there) And the hot tub steps were caked in ice, so that’s not so appealing. Didn’t really care. The shower was great. My son and I felt good about supporting a quirky, family business competing against the fat cats up at the ski area.

I picked this place because it looked like a quant mountain lodge in a great location. Unfortunately it seems to be owned and operated by delusional owners. This place is the epitimy of unconcerned, lazy, and out of touch owners. The place has unimaginable potential. It could be the most sought after retreat in the entire area. But with the lack of concern, vision, and obvious ignorance in terms of hotel management, it's amazing this place can stay above water. I travel six months out of the year nationally and internationally. I have never found hair in my bed and on my pillows in 20+ years of traveling. They obviously never changed our sheets prior to our arrival. The carpet was dirty, half the light fixtures in a he room didn't work, the TV remote didn't work properly, the bathroom was gross, and the noise from all the surrounding rooms was unbelievable! They changed our sheets and said," sorry about that"no comp or discount on our room rate. Then my 13 year old son watched" the owner" change the pillow case and saw a huge disgusting stain on the pillow and he flipped it over and put a new case on it. I then spoke to the owner about the stained pillow and he said he never saw the stain. My son saw him look at the stain and flip the pillow over. Not a responsible thing to do!!!! The property in general is in great disrepair and needs a few million in remodeling to get this place up to par. I would never recommend anyone pay to stay there. I've stayed in places for half as much that have been 1,000 times nicer. Never stay at the " Viking Lodge" in Winter Park! It's a joke of a hotel and business.

We loved this place! Quaint lodge style. Everyone that worked there was outrageously friendly and helpful. The location is fantastic - shuttle, rental, pub, restaurant & shops all within easy walking range (literally just a few steps away). The lounge area is very nice - we enjoyed the pod coffee-maker and used the microwave to make cereal (that we brought) in the mornings - and we played games at the table in front of the gas fire (operated by remote control, that is left out for the guests to control). We had one of the double queen rooms, that was fantastic, and a king room that was 'just' normal. Even the other guests were friendly. Thanks for having us. PS: You can rent ski gear along with the reservation, and collect it from the rental place over the street (not the rental place that appears to be part of the lodge building)