Just spent 5 nights here. Award, 70k each x 4 with 5th night “free”. Order of magnitude improved from previous years, overall 4.5 stars.
Entire mountain open, excellent snow coverage, I only encountered 1 or 2 bare spots across all the lower mountain peaks ski areas. As expected, being a non-holiday week, the lifts were almost empty. Unfortunately there were still plenty of rude and inconsiderate snowboarders and a few rude and inconsiderate skiers, only witnessed 1 argument between skier and boarder 😉.
Physical hotel renovation is outstanding. Decor is modern and open and well-lit, rooms are (still) significantly larger than average hotel room. Relatively large bar in the main lobby, smaller bar in the large restaurant. Fitness center is well equipped, no (more) swimming pool, two hot tubs in entirely new location. No business center, no computer workstation. Lobby coffee shop serves a few breakfast items.
New elevator in the middle of the lobby to and from middle of long hallways on the 4th/5th/6th floors. Ski valet next to Breck Sports rental and retail shop underneath the restaurant. My personal preference is a room on the 4th floor near the North Tower elevator and the side exit to the driveway between the Beaver Run building and the hotel, put my ski boots on in the room and walk out that side exit and across the street and parking lot to the trail 100 yards above the Quicksilver lift.
Did not notice any signs prohibiting ski boots in the lobby. While waiting for airport shuttle van after check-out, approximately 11am, did notice a person walk into lobby in their ski boots and the Front Desk Manager immediately said “can I get you a pair of slippers, we prefer no ski boots in the lobby”.
Rooms include a mini-fridge and in-room safe and small open “closet”. Uncommon light switches. Hint: to turn on all the bathroom lights, press the bathroom light switch
twice (took me a few minutes to figure that one out 😉
. Plenty of fancy hooks on wall (e.g. for ski clothing layers), 4-5 in foyer and another 4-5 in a bathroom open area behind the bathroom door.
Entirely new management, I didn’t recognize any managers or assistant managers from the past two years. Management seemed to be attentive and caring and responsive. The reason I overheard the Front Desk Manager (FDM) mentioned above is because when I called from the room for a bellperson to help me bring my luggage down, the FDM arrived in 4 minutes with a luggage cart. I said “you’re not a bellman”, he said “they’re a little busy right now and I didn’t want you to wait”.
Entire staff gracious and attentive. Seasonal staff all spoke English well, 1 housekeeper did not speak English.
I did not eat dinner in the restaurant, did have 5 breakfasts and looked at dinner menu. Both breakfast and dinner are reasonably priced, particularly considering it’s a popular destination ski resort hotel. Unfortunately, they do not have a breakfast buffet and service at breakfast, even though I was usually one of 2 or 3 occupied tables, was unnecessarily slow and inefficient. Slow for order to be taken, slow for food to be brought to the table, often with items neglected. And of course, after telling the server that I wanted to finish breakfast as quickly as possible, they brought both courses (fruit bowl, entree/sides) at the exact same time. Service overall annoying for me as when skiing I want breakfast to be as quick as possible because I like to be on a lift within a few minutes of lift opening. (Ordered Cinnamon Bun once, unfortunately it was not the “gooey, sweet, dripping with both cinnamon and sugary icing, not-at-all-fattening” cinnamon bun of the past, maybe the only thing in addition to the breakfast buffet, good about DT Breck of the past few years 😉.)
Restaurant opens at 7:00, I went each day at about 7:05, often the first person to be seated for breakfast. I ate quickly each day, managed to walk out of hotel at approximately 8:20 and be on a lift within a few minutes of 8:30 opening time.
Hilton Diamond (Aspire for me) $15 F&B daily credit. Even though I was not charged the Resort Fee my folio included the $10 Resort Fee F&B daily credit. Breakfast each day was $26-$32 plus a $5 tip. At checkout my balance was $53 which was perfect because I planned to use a Biz Plat card to get the $50 Hilton quarterly credit.
Most treacherous part of this ski trip was walking up the 4 steps to the small parking lot across the street from the hotel. With no new snow for the previous week or so, those steps were covered with very densely packed snow basically creating a very slippery ramp. It would serve this hotel very well if they had a staff member clear those steps, would only take about 5 or 10 minutes and would dramatically improve the satisfaction of the large number of guests who undoubtedly use those steps to get to the lifts.
