Reindeerflame

Recently stayed 3 nights at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge. I was asked whether I was President's Club, and then was immediately given a key, without any check-in formalities.

However, despite reserving a room with 2 twins 8 months in advance of arrival and despite PC membership, I was assigned a room with only one (queen) bed. It took an hour for them to determine that they had no other room for Night 1. They found a proper room for Nights 2 and 3. The desk apologized, offered to send a rollaway, and suggested I order "a nice bottle of wine" at dinner (I asked the waiter at Edith Cavell to suggest an appropriate selection, moderately priced, without revealing that it would be free...he selected a $70 Spanish Tinto, which was very good, and it was removed from my bill at the end of the meal).

However, the rollaway never arrived, and my guest chose to sleep on the sofa.

Why do hotels insist on making changes like this? They viewed it as an upgrade, while I viewed it as substandard customer service, especially since they didn't mention the change at any point.

I commented on it on the customer service card.

CanuckFlyHigh

Just spent a wonderful weekend at The Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge.

We were upgraded to a Junior Fireplace Suite. It was aboslutely fantastic. A seperate living room with a wood fireplace, sitting area, small entrance area and a TV (small size, but who cares when you are in Jasper!).

A seperate room with a HUGE master bedroom with a wall of windows (dont worry, good blinds). It also had a table/sitting area as well as a TV and coffee area. Large closet and small bathroom.

It was -30 Celcius all weekend, so we cooped up in our room and sat by the fire, enjoying wine and p laying cards. We did venture into the lodge for an evening. As usual, it is decorated absolutely stunningly. The lodge/lobby is so very beautiful. Be warned, drinks arent cheap (Cocktails $14, Martinis $14-$17, Glass of wine $12-40), but they are very good, and the atmosphere makes it more than worth it.

We didn't eat at any of the restaurants, as Andy's in town is one of my favorite restaurants of all time.

Overall, an amazing JPL experience (as usual)

Jasper2009

Just came back from my holiday in the Rockies and must say my stays couldn�t have been more enjoyable:

Spent four days at Jasper Park Lodge and was given a nice deluxe room (around 350 sq ft) on the 2nd floor of the main buildung with a large patio which had a great view over Lake Beauvert and Mt. Whistler, very much enjoyed sitting out there in the evenings, having dinner and watching the sun go down.
Even when the hotel is booked out, it doesn�t appear to be that busy as the resort is very large and the couple of hundred cabins are located thhroughout the property.
All staff I encountered, from the front desk to housekeeping, were very friendly and helpful, I really had the impression the employees very much enjoy working at JPL which, in my opinion, really does make a difference.
Activities I can recommend in/around Jasper are going up to Mt. Whistler, whitewater rafting, Athabasca Falls, Maligne Lake & Canyon.

When driving from Jasper to Lake Louise or Banff, I can highly recommend taking the Icefields Parkway, IMO the most scenic highway in the world.
Make sure to stop at the Columbia Icefields and Peyto Lake (one of the most fascinating lakes around).

Spent the next two days at the Chateau Lake Louise and really had an incredible stay. Was upgraded from a Gold room Lakeview to a very spacious 500 sq ft Gold Jr. Suite Lakeview (sitting area, minibar, large flat TV, desk and a fantastic view over the lake). While the hotel was terribly busy (fully booked + loads of tourists), staying on the Gold floor (located on the 7th floor) really was a most enjoyable and relaxing experiencce. +
The staff also couldn�t have been more friendly and helpful, both during my stay and in arranging my activities beforehand.

Overall I can highly recommend both hotels and will definitely come back.

300rwhp

Hello,

I am going skiing in Jasper March 19-21. I have booked a NFAF room and plan to use my room upgrade. While a lakeview would be nice I would like to upgrade to the deluxe with sitting area room. Is this possible using a room upgrade cert from a fairmont room?


Any suggestions for a upgrade plan?

thanks,

Jasper2009

If that room type is available (there aren�t that many Deluxe rooms with a sitting area), you should be able to get it.
Generally you can upgrade to any room available using a room upgrade cert (unlike suite upgrade certs where many suites are excluded/have to be negotiated)

Just give them a call or send JPL an e-mail.

300rwhp

gave JPL a call and was told the deluxe room with sitting area is a higher category so I would have to pay the difference. $30 bucks a night extra.

Jasper2009

That�s very odd. Never heard anything like that and it�s not good news .

A room upgrade cert should upgrade you to the highest room category available regardless of how many room categories there are.

CanuckFlyHigh

Cotact JPL on Twitter. Always super helpful.

Ancien Maestro

I haven't checked the cert rules in awhile (because I never use the room upgrades since becoming FPC member). My understanding is that the room upgrade certificates entitle you to a guaranteed upgrade at time of reservation to the level of paid room. So for example, fairmont mountain view, to fairmont lakeview at LL.. or fairmont mountain view, to fairmont valleyview at BSH. So it must be that at JPL, the level of room that want to book, is preceded by the level of room that is $30 more than you originally booked (if FPC did indeed redeem you room upgrade cert). Apply room upgrade cert, and you get the Deluxe Room with Sitting Area.

Management often grant upgrades at check-in to higher categories.. its' just not guaranteed at time of reservation unless you pay for it.

300rwhp

Took canuckflyhigh's advice and was found what I was looking for. But I suspect Ancien is correct. I think members of FPC plat should be upgraded upon arrival to best available within reason. Not presidential or similar but if a suite is not being used why not give it to a FPC plat.

Also thanks to FairmontJPL on twitter.

CanuckFlyHigh

Quite possibly the best/most responsive Fairmont twitter! (I THINK that it is the GM that manages the twitter account, unlike other hotels).

Ancien Maestro

I've checked out Twitter, and still figuring out how to use this thing. I type in search Jasper Park Lodge (tried Fairmont in front of it too).. and pops up search findings.. How do you request the hotel to comp?

quank

Had an amazing stay on Feb28/2010 at the JPL. Stayed in a double-double Lakefront Suite using a plat cert upgrade. My wife and brother-in-law went skiing both on Sat and Sun at Marmot, while I went for a hike around the lake with some friends and did some skating. Room was extremely spacious and perfect for families as the pullout couch would easily hold mom/dad/baby and two doubles give you room for adults/big kids. I always like reading on the balcony as I find the mountains and lake in the background very peaceful.

One special thing to note is that the JPL had set up their Great Hall (lobby) to show the Olympic games on a big screen and moved all the couches around so it would be easy for people to watch, eat, drink. The atmosphere was fun and full of Canadian pride. On the Sunday where Canada played US in the hockey gold medal game, the Great Hall go full so fast that they sent the overflow downstairs to the Tent City bar. People, including myself, quickly set up chairs in front of the TV there and we had a great time. Servers were great although apologetic that service was a bit slow due to volume but that was totally understandable and I didn't even notice considering I was fully engaged in the hockey game. In the end, Canada won which made the weekend!

Would go back in a heartbeat. I will try to post my future stays here as I think it's an amazing property in both winter and summer.

Ancien Maestro

Maybe they just forgot to send the cott up.. The brain fart in service often happens, probably because of just innocent human error. I would have called and asked what was going on at the front desk, and followed it up from there.

The room that you booked two twins.. were you upgraded at check-in? At times the hotel would upgrade a check in and not check the details at registration, therefore another innocent human error?

quank

AM - It appears that the post was originally from 2007 - hahaha! We should all look out for 'recent reviews' since a few kind FT'ers were so good to filter that massive thread into each property. It might appear new but there is some really old stuff here.