Welcome to the Stanley Hotel....maybe!

Welcome to the Stanley Hotel

Do your best to enjoy your stay…..it’s up to you, because we won’t be helping.

Monday, August 20, 2018

An Open Letter to the Current Owners of the Stanley Hotel:

My family and I recently stayed at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado.  We planned this trip months in advance, coordinating a family vacation, a concert we wanted to see, and a visit to the notorious inspiration for a work by one of my husband’s favorite authors.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the location, it is in Estes Park, Colorado, a popular tourist destination just on the edge of the Rocky Mountains, approximately 90 minutes north-west of Denver.  It is famous primarily for being the literary inspiration for Stephen King’s, The Shining.  Although the Stanley Kubrick adaptation was not, in fact, filmed on location, the later tv miniseries was.  It is rumored to be haunted, and there are hundreds of reports of paranormal experiences, including some decidedly odd ones revolving around celebrities who have stayed there.  The hotel is actually part of a larger historical district, with multiple buildings, an amphitheatre, a sculpture garden, and several modern structures adding to the available rooms to let.

Imagine my chagrin when, almost immediately upon arriving at the hotel, everything was disorganized, confusing, inconvenient, and frustrating.  Below is a rough timeline of our first night at the hotel, as well as a laundry list (ha…) of other problems.

I.     Arrival at the hotel

a.       We could not figure out where to pull up to offload our luggage and check in.  There were no signs explaining where we were supposed to go.

b.      There was no valet.

c.       We ended up parking in front of the Lodge, a separate structure, and going in there trying to find out where to go. We were directed to another entrance (the awning on the side of the main Hotel)

d.      Once going in this entrance, we were again directed to another location – down the hall, up the steps, turn left, turn right, there’s the registration desk.  I got hopelessly lost.

e.       Once we finally arrived at the registration desk, we had to wait between 15 and 20 minutes just to get someone to talk to us.  Because of the confusion on where to park, where to put our luggage, and so on, I didn’t have my ID on me, so I had to send one of my children back out to the car to get my bag.  I had no idea how to get back to the car at this point.  That led to a further delay, while we waited for her to return.

f.        Once we got our registration taken care of, I asked for a bellman to assist with luggage.  The people at the desk seemed baffled by this idea…and sort of fumbled around.  The young lady who checked us in then made a call to get us assistance.  There was a gentleman behind the desk as well, Kyle, who ended up taking us to our room and helping us figure out how to get our luggage from the car to our room.  Kyle was awesome.  He also seemed a little befuddled, and inefficient, but he was willing and capable and did his best to help us.

g.       At first Kyle was going to lead us to the room just so we could find it.  There were NO SIGNS to direct us where to go.  The young lady behind the registration desk popped out the side-door from registration to interrupt us as we were walking away, to rather snarkily say, “um, someone is coming to help you get your bags,” clearly annoyed that we were walking away.  I had to stand by registration for another 10 to 15 minutes until the bellman arrived…then the bellman didn’t know what to do.  Kyle ended up helping us with our luggage.  The bellman didn’t understand where our car was, or how to get our luggage from the car to our room.

h.      When we arrive at our room, the conditions of it were disappointing. However, I will cover that in a later section dealing with the conditions of the hotel.                 

i.         Upon checking in, I was given 2 photocopied sheets – 1 was a short description of the hotel and what times various things occurred.  The second was a map of the main floor.  Both were on cheap quality paper, and had obviously been photocopied from copies so many times they were nearly illegible.  I felt like I was being handed a mimeograph spelling list circa 1979. 

j.         Bedding – we had booked the Heritage Suite, room 104, because there were 4 of us – 2 adults, 1 - 18 year old, 1 - 11 year old.  When we tried to set up the pull-out, there was no bedding on it.  We searched the room, and found a single pillow, only.  No sheets or blankets. 

                                                               i.      My stepdaughter called down to the front desk to request bedding. The desk staff appear confused, again, and said they were out of blankets (?????) but would see what they could do.  This was around 11:00pm.

                                                             ii.      Around 12:15am, I called down again, saying we still hadn’t received our bedding.  My kids were exhausted and wanted to go to bed.  The person on the desk said she had just come on duty a short while before and was unaware of a request for bedding.  She said she would call them and try to get it for us.

                                                           iii.      Around 12:50am, I walked down to the desk personally, and spoke with the young woman on staff.  She was the same one I had spoken with on the phone at 12:15am, and she again said she wasn’t there when the first call came, and she had already called housekeeping asking for the bedding, and she implied there was nothing more she could do.  I insisted that I needed to know who else to call to get us some bedding. She made another call and said someone was coming.

                                                           iv.      Around 1:10am, someone from maintenance arrived and brought us a stack of 5 or so king size sheets, and a single pillow.  No blanket, no fitted sheet.  The gentleman said he couldn’t find any blankets so he gave us multiple sheets instead. 

                                                             v.      We ended up taking the bed spread off the king size bed and giving it to the girls on the pull-out.  They got to bed around 1:45am.   We lost nearly 3 hours they could have been sleeping.

      II.  Conditions at the Hotel.  Below I will list all of the items in the Stanley Hotel which were sub-par, frightening, dangerous, or just embarrassing.

a.       Heritage Suite, room 104:

                                                               i.      Shower curtain – the bathtub was tiny, and there was a single, cheap vinyl shower curtain on a straight rod.  Whenever you showered, the curtain stuck to your body.

                                                             ii.      Water – in the shower, the water would go hot, then cold, then hot, then cold.

                                                           iii.      Toilet – the toilet would not flush unless you held the handle down.  Then it would run constantly until you manually lifted the handle.

                                                           iv.      Window in the bathroom – there was a small window in the bathroom, with twin shutters to provide privacy. Inside those shutters, the window frame was grimy, and looked as if it had not been scrubbed or painted in years.  It was also the ONLY place in the entire bathroom to set anything down, such as a toothbrush, toothpaste, etc.

                                                             v.      There were enough towels for 2 people only.   I called down for additional towels our first night, and they never arrived.

                                                           vi.      The large “sitting-room” area of the room contained only a small desk, a single chair, a small coffee table, and the pull-out couch.  There is a dark, dead-end hallway leading to a closet.  There was nowhere to sit if you had the couch pulled out into a bed except the single chair at the desk.  There was nowhere to sit down together to eat a meal, despite having a full kitchen with stove, microwave, fridge.

                                                          vii.      The kitchen floor and counters are all horribly off-plumb.  Anything round set down on the counter immediately and violently rolls off and onto the floor, and if running away in terror.

                                                        viii.      The cupboards were filled with an unpredictable variety of glassware, dinnerware, and cutlery.  There was 1 spoon – a serving spoon.  There were no paper towels.  There was NO TRASH CAN anywhere in the kitchen or sitting area.  The closest trash can was a small one right next to the entrance to the suite, and then one other small one in the bathroom, at the opposite end of the suite.  We requested a trash can (and those missing towels) because we had a leak in one or our coolers on the way to Estes Park and had a bunch of spoiled food.  Housekeeping brought us a black trash bag.  I hung it from the washing machine, held up by tucking it under the top lid.

                                                           ix.      The coffee service offered only pre-packaged kits of of powdered creamer, an anemic sugar packet, a thin plastic stirrer straw, and a paper napkin roughly the consistency of gift-bag tissue paper.

                                                             x.      Washer and Dryer in the kitchen area were sitting in open view.  This is minor, but it would be nice to be able to close some louvers or something to hide these away.

                                                           xi.      Windows – all of the very large windows in the suite opened easily.  There were no screens.  We were on the ground floor.  Tours passed just outside our windows through the gazebo – people could easily climb right into our room.  In fact, at one point while we were out walking around, my 11 year old daughter climbed INTO the room from the outside through the window we had left open, in order to scare my husband, who was still in the room.  Later my stepdaughter climbed OUT the window in order to knock on the bathroom window from outside to scare her sister. 

                                                          xii.      Pull-out couch – I don’t even know where to start.  It was old.  It was worn.  It had an approximately 3” vertical cut in the back cushions, clearly made with a knife of some sort.  The edges were frayed, as if it had been there a long time.  The mattress had no mattress pad on it.  The mattress was thin and worn.  The couch was pink. 

                                                        xiii.      Air conditioner –The entire main hotel has no air conditioning.  This is in large part why having no screens is so disturbing.  We were aware of the lack of AC prior to making the reservation.  However, our room (and at least 1 other in our area) had a stand-alone air conditioner, connected to the window through a vent pipe.   The one we had malfunctioned on our 3^rd day in the room, and had to be repaired, and then replaced the following day.  It worked well…but frankly looked very jury-rigged and unprofessional.  In addition, the window the vent went out could not be locked – the vent went through a wooden vent-plate that blocked out the rest of the open window, but there was no block in place to prevent the window from being opened the rest of the way allowing someone access to the room from outside.

b.      The rest of the hotel:

                                                               i.      Fire Escapes:  While wandering the hotel late the first night, my husband and I discovered the door to the front of the hotel on the 3^rd floor open to what appeared to be a balcony.  I was excited to check it out, so went outside.  It wasn’t a balcony, but a fire escape, with no railing around the opening for the ladder/stairs down.  My foot encountered open air, and I caught myself from falling by grabbing the nearby railing.  I almost fell 3 stories through a metal fire escape. 

                                                             ii.      Screens – there appear to be no screens anywhere in the hotel.  I remember looking up while eating on the patio and noticing windows opening on the 4^th floor, and I could clearly see the person inside wave to someone near me on the ground.  Someone could easily fall out those windows and get seriously injured.

                                                           iii.      Housekeeping – Due to our very late night upon check-in when we didn’t have bedding until after 1:00am, we were not up for housekeeping to clean our room the next morning.  They never returned later to do it.  They never come the next day at all.  The third day they came when we were in the room, and we asked them just for towels and washcloths.  They left us 3 towels, 2 washcloths, and a half dozen hand towels.  There were CLEARLY 4 OF US!

1.       No one on the housekeeping staff spoke ANY English. Not any at all.  They were completely unable to communicate with us, and at one point one of the housekeeping staff left to find someone who could translate for them. 

2.       On the other hand, housekeeping appear to be the only people who worked at the hotel who enjoyed their job.

                                                           iv.      Staff –Most of those who worked at the hotel, with the exception of housekeeping and possibly some of the spirit tour guides, appeared to hate their jobs.  They never seemed happy, they never wanted to help you, they always gave you the impression that you were putting them out if you asked for anything.  This included front desk help, wait staff, bartenders.

1.       Added thought – the staff of the café on the lower level were quite friendly.  Of course, for $6 for a 20oz Mocha with an extra shot of espresso, they BETTER act happy.

                                                             v.      The steps that led from the heritage suite corridor to the back of the hotel are rotting.  You can flake the wood off with a fingernail.  They visibly bow when you step on them.

                                                           vi.      Hedge Maze – the hedge maze was an embarrassment.  I understand from speaking with someone on staff that there was a former groundskeeper who planted items which the elk love to eat, and that the new groundskeeper is working to repair it.  I find it amazing that a hotel of this callibre would allow such a disaster to take place, especially after the amount of money that went into creating the maze to begin with.

1.       The initial design for the hedge maze is so tiny.  I felt claustrophobic when I walked through it.  Why on earth did you invest that much money, and block off the front of the hotel, for something so undersized?  It very much feels like someone said “build a hedge maze, but don’t spend too much.”

                                                          vii.      Signage – There are not nearly enough signs around the property directing people where they need to go for particular things.  You just have to wander around to find things, and being a historical structure/site, it is not at all intuitive.

                                                        viii.      Ice Machine – there is one ice machine in the entire hotel, on the 3^rd floor in the one wing.  It’s a long walk, especially with the altitude.

1.       There are NO SIGNS to help you find it.

                                                           ix.      Room number plaques – at least 3 room number plaques were missing, and the room number was written on the torn wallpaper in pencil: 217, 401, and some room on the 3^rd floor. 

                                                             x.      Veranda – the iconic main veranda at the front of the Stanley is obviously a main gathering place.  However, there were a lot of problems with it:

1.       The wicker-esque furniture was often missing cushions.

2.       The “bar” outside was never staffed.

3.       The area was never bussed (There were always empty glasses and cups sitting around).

4.       The ice-water decanter was usually empty.  In 5 days I found it containing water once.

5.       The area was often overrun with spirit tour clients, making it impossible for guests staying at the hotel to enjoy the scenery or just sit and relax.

6.       One of the 2 carriage lights bracketing the front entrance was broken – Again, by talking to some of the staff I discovered that a contractor broke it during the off season, and there was a delay in getting it replaced.  This also appears to be a case of someone not caring to spend the money to expedite the repair.  I know due to the historical nature of the structure there are limitations of materials allowed, manufacturing process allowed, and so on.  However, I would think such a prominent fixture would be a high priority. 

7.       There were clearly openings in the ceiling for 2 smaller chandeliers to hang on the veranda.  The chandeliers are gone, and the holes are sitting there open, with visible wires.

8.       There are hooks to hang planters between the pillars, and no planters hanging there.  I understand not wanting to obstruct the incredible view, but a couple of plants would really make the veranda more welcoming.  Since it’s almost impossible to truly enjoy the view with all of the kerfuffle of spirit tour participants coming and going and taking photos and being generally loud, a few plants can’t hurt the view much.

                                                           xi.      No Coffee Service – there is nowhere in the hotel to just grab a cup of coffee.  I have never been in a high-end hotel before and not had access to coffee service at all times on the main floor near registration.  Usually it includes infused water as well.  There is neither.  I seriously annoyed a waiter in the bar by taking up a table in order to get a cup of coffee.  I tried standing at the bar and got ignored.  I tried standing in the open bar area and flag down a waiter, and they ignored me.  I finally had to take a table in order to be served, and he was clearly annoyed that he wasn’t going to get a solid tip out of the transaction. 

                                                          xii.      No room service – there is no room service at all.  Not even coffee.  I have never, ever, been in a high end hotel, including more than one historical structure, where you couldn’t arrange for coffee to be delivered to the room during normal business hours or at least during routine breakfast hours.

                                                        xiii.      Shuttle into town – when we were offloading our luggage, we saw a white van with lettering on it saying it was some sort of shuttle.  After we spent time in Estes Park the following day, I realized that it made a lot of sense to have a routine shuttle that allows hotel guests to go into Estes Park without taking their cars. However, I never saw that shuttle again, no one mentioned it being available, and I never saw any signs or alerts showing how one could catch it. 

III.    Local Opinions:  While visiting Estes Park, I took the time to talk to some of the locals about the hotel and its operating conditions.  A few facts became clear.  The opinions of the local residents are that:

a.       The current owners are the hotel are extremely wealthy, have no interest in the historical or aesthetic value of the property, and are using it to generate as much revenue as possible as quickly as possible.

b.      It is only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured on the property due to the poor maintenance, unsafe conditions, and general lack of concern for employees’ and guests’ safety.

c.       The owners do not pay a living wage; the cost of living near Estes Park is very high, and those who work at the hotel cannot afford to live nearby.

d.      There are dormitories on-site, but they are unpleasant in some vague way.  No one would say more than, well, there ARE dorms….” In a very uncomfortable tone of voice.  I read this as, they are unpleasant to live in, possibly crowded or dirty?  No air conditioning?  I don’t know.  However, the local opinion is clearly that they are not a nice place to live.

e.       They have a very high turn-over of staff.  Other than spirit tour guides, of those I asked, I didn’t meet a single person who had worked there for more than 3 months. 

f.        It is only a matter of time before the place has a significant fire.  I didn’t find out from this one person I spoke with why she felt that way…but she clearly felt that the place was a firetrap.  I sensed that was one reason she no longer worked there. 

g.       The different departments within the hotel do not get along.  I had instances where hospitality/management had difficulty dealing with housekeeping, the restaurant refused to talk to management, reservations does not communicate with hospitality. 

h.      Cascades, the restaurant, is overpriced, and the food is just bad.  I met 1 particular local who said she’d eaten there on 2 separate occasions, and both were terrible. 

i.         The owners would rather hire immigrants at sub-par wages than shell out the money to allow people to afford to live nearby, or provide adequate housing for nearby residents.

                                                               i.      n.b., the vast majority of the hotel staff I interacted with were non-native English speakers.  This includes hospitality, wait staff, bellmen, and housekeeping. 

What is the point of this long, obnoxious letter, do you ask?  I wish to ask, nay BEG, the current owners:  Sell the place to someone who cares for it.  Stop raping a beautiful, interesting, historical structure for cash.  Shut down one wing of the hotel for an entire season, and upgrade it.  Drop around $20Million to get the entire property upgraded, build decent housing for your staff, hire a crack hotel manager who has ultimate hiring power over all branches of the hotel complex.  Hire a new chef for the restaurant.  Buy only local produce, meat, toiletries, etc, and advertise that.  

Instead of doing constant, disruptive, spirit tours, offer classes in spirituality.  Install a day spa and offer massages, meditation rooms, and a Himalayan salt room.  Build a laundry facility on-site, so that you aren’t farming it out to an outside contractor who may or may not return bedding in a timely manner. 

Go back to the old skeleton keys.  Get rid of the digital ones.    Or, if you must use digital keys, use a skeleton key design.  It will add to the hotel’s cachet.  You WILL lose keys…but include in the reservation a deposit on the key, to be returned only upon the return of the key itself.  

Buy enough bedding to clothe every bed 3 times.  Have spare bedding in every room. 

Install a DVD player in every room and leave a copy of The Shining (both versions) in each room.  Talk to King or Kubrick about getting a version you can put the hotel name on, and leave a note on the box saying it is $20 to keep the movie.  Alternatively, upgrade your digital entertainment system to include streaming video, and have The Shining available to view at all times. 

Provide monogramed robes.  Put a tag on them saying they are Egyptian cotton, locally embroidered, and the guest is welcome to keep it for a charge of $150 per robe.  They will disappear.

Install a falconry.  Have classes. 

Teach archery.  Have hiking guides on-staff, with regular hiking tours.

Offer maps of local areas and local events.  Not ONCE did someone explain to me what was going on in Estes Park the weekend we were there.  I found out later it was a wine festival.

Fire.  Anyone.  Who. Isn’t. Helpful.    Make it EASY to order a drink, not a chore.

Give a good manager the hotel for 2 years, and a budget of $20 – 40 Million, and they will give you a gem that will be the envy of every big resort hotel for generations, and which will make you millions in profits.

On the off chance that he might actually have read this, I ask Mr. King to use whatever influence he might have to urge someone with a solid reputation in the real estate / hospitality industry to rip this property away from its current owners, before it is lost to us forever.   Go read the reviews on Google or Facebook.  The staff hate their jobs, the owners don't care, and a piece of history is being systematically raped to line someone's pockets.