Rundle Mountain Lodge

Can only be described as minimal. Property is very tired and in need of serious TLC. But it is inexpensive for the area

We arrived late and just needed a place to sleep after a long drive. The staff were friendly. and it was priced well. The rooms are small and features out dated but I would stay here again for the price. The shower was also low pressure. It was cozy!

I won a contest that included two passes to the Canmore Folk Fest and two nights at the Rundle Mountain Lodge. Or so I thought.
Once I found out where I was staying I looked up some reviews online. #13 of 14 in Canmore on Trip Advisor? 53% satisfaction rating? I would never book a place based on that if I were the one booking. But ok, it’s free, so it’s cool! I phoned the morning of my stay before leaving Edmonton to confirm my reservation. The phone rang about 30 times before someone answered. The girl on the other end hurriedly confirmed my reservation while profusely interrupting me and hung up.
I got to the hotel and they did indeed have my reservation. However, the person from the company that I won the contest through (lets call them FS) only put a hold on the room with a credit card but did not authorize the payment. Now, of course, this is no fault of the hotel staff. I was dealing with the manager and he was pretty blindsided by it. He had no idea that this contest even existed until I showed up. I could go into the whole long ordeal, but I won’t. Instead I’ll just say I spent part of my long weekend e-​mailing back and forth with the guy from FS and running back to talk to the manager. Basically the guy from FS was trying to screw both of us over. Neither I nor the hotel manager were very happy about this situation at all. However, I believe that if you choose to work in the hospitality industry, you should have some modicum of respect and courtesy towards your customers. Manager seemed totally annoyed and rude every. single. time I spoke with him. Again, I get that this FS guy was putting Manager in a tough spot, but that was not my fault and it was not the managers fault. I travel fairly frequently and have stayed in dozens of hotels around the world, and I have never dealt with someone at a hotel as rude as him. So unfortunate. I could go into a lot more details, but I won’t bother. He was very much pissed off at what was happening to him and not concerned about us as the customers at all. At one point when we considered leaving, he even said «You can cancel, it doesn’t matter to me. It’s the long weekend». Not appropriate in my books.
As for the lodge itself: It’s more of a motel style, with all the doors on the outside type of setup. I was in room 212, which must be one of the older rooms. It shows. The room was pretty big, with two queen sized beds, table, mini-​fridge, counter, shower with tub, coffee maker, the usual. Everything just looked old, well worn. Maybe not dirty, but not sparkling clean. It wasn’t a terrible room, but it wasn’t exactly super comfortable. I had a bath one night and the water was constantly draining, so that kind of killed the relaxation. The water pressure in the shower was very weak. Me and my dad woke up in the middle of the night on the first night thinking we were going to die because it was so unbelievably hot. We had the ceiling fan (weak) and two fans that were already in the room going. We cracked the window a bit and it helped. We learned our lesson for the next night, and left the door wide open for a while before we went to sleep. I usually don’t like to leave the window wide open when I’m in a hotel where someone could potentially get in, but there was no other option here.
There is free wifi that is quite spotty. More often than not it was fairly slow or didn’t connect at all, but we were able to find spots in the room where it worked and use it.
We ended up having to pay for the room ($ 109/​night) and getting reimbursed. If I were going to Canmore in low-​mid-​season, I would not even consider this place. If it’s a long weekend or high season and you absolutely must be in Canmore and everywhere else is booked, go for it. Like I said, the hotel itself is ok, just an old motel in the mountains that desperately needs air conditioning, but the level (or lack of) customer service I received was not acceptable.

Calling it a lodge is a stretch but it is a nice hotel. The bathrooms are a bit small but overall we liked it. The pool area was very nice and not crowded.