DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Breckenridge {US-CO}
 

Looks like this hotel will be opening on December 1. Gives another good choice for skiing. Its a decent use of points especially if you go for 4 nights. The problem is no dates are available for points. Let's hope this changes.

This hotel isn't "opening" December 1; it's the old Great Divide Lodge and it's run by Vail Resorts. They're branding it as a Doubletree.

Two main problems at this hotel are 1)unrenovated rooms - possibly rectified as a condition of the rebranding; and 2)oddball transfer elevators, meaning that in most cases, you must take two separate elevator banks to get from parking or lobby to your room. It's been the bane of this hotel since it opened (originally as a Hilton full service, IIRC).

If the rooms are renovated they could be very nice, as the footprint of the rooms is very large - the property was originally envisioned as a condo hotel so the room size was originally supposed to accommodate full kitchens.

I believe they are renovating the rooms.

If this is where google says it is, I'm willing to take two elevators; presuming I could possibly redeem points here during the season at "standard" rates...

We are taking a quick 4 day visit to the Doubletree Breck. Our review will follow the stay.

We are using points for 3 nights and I will also report back with any upgrades and or amenities that will be thrown in as a Diamond Member....

$20/day parking per the website, but I can't say what the norm is for that area. Just look out for other fees...

beware this used to be the Great Divide Lodge, nothing great about it, other than a Hilton property there is 1000 places better in Breckenridge..I walked through it over Thanksgiving, just updated with some renovations, nothing that really stood out, a typical hotel..esp once I buy my place there the dcsnowwake condo will be the best place to stay.

Most condos have free parking, just the Marriot, Beaver RunResort and Doubletree make you pay for it.

First and foremost I go to Breck to ski, nothing else. I live in Boulder,CO and I'm all about saving pennies when I can on the slopes. For me, with 500,000 unused points laying around I think the Doubletree works ok for me. I don't need nor do I expect to be in a four seasons on the side of a mountain. I spend very little daylight hours in my room.

So here's the scoop.

1) We had 4 people in our room and were upgraded to a double queen plus sleeper sofa room. Plus a bird in a cage, yes the doubletree allows pets.

2) The hotel staff was very pleasant and they did their best to make sure you had everything you need. Not once did I walk by a staff member that didn't greet me and ask me how I was doing. Pretty rare these days on the road.

3) Restaurant... As a diamond member doing it the MyWay way I received breakfast for all four of us for the entire stay. The breakfast area was quite small the first few days, on our last day they opened up a conference room adjacent to the dining area. As for the breakfast bar I would say it's about average, nothing spectacular. We did eat one dinner there primarily because we were beat.

In all honesty if I had to pay for breakfast and or dinners I would have gone into town. The food quality was very average for the amount you would be charged. In Breck there are some excellent dinning choices that are going to be tough for the Doubletree to compete with unless they really step up both quality and value in Breck. Based on how few were actually eating and or drinking there at night I think we aren't the only ones that feel this way. I've often wondered why Hotels don't do a better job at adding value as a goal in restaurants. All you need do is sell good value drinks and people will come.

We enjoy both Mi Casa, a quick walk from the hotel, and Fatty's Pizza which is about a 15 minute walk. Better quality and value at both. There is also a pretty damned good French place next to the post office. :)

4) We were told parking would be $20/day as is all GOOD parking for Breck. That is a major bummer when already paying large coin to ski. However having low friends in high places we do know a few ways to avoid parking fees. But when it came time to leave they had not charged us for our parking. Not sure if that was an oversight or a policy change.

5) Location is perfect. 2 minute walk from the free ski lockers and you are geared up and off. THIS IS WHY WE STAYED THERE.

6) Pool Hot Tubs...adequate and met our needs. My daughter would swim in a Texas stock pond and she loved the pool. Yes it's old, but it still holds warm water and the hot tubs, all 5 of them, were clean and operational. I would go in the morning to loosen up and avoid all the people.

Overall we got exactly what we wanted out of our stay. I have friends that are paying $700/wk maintenance fees to stay at time shares. I would rather blow a few points and stay at the Doubletree. This was really an experiment for us, because we had so many people, we normally stay with friends that live in town.

Finally the snow is hurting up there. ALL the recent storms bypassed Breck. :(

Was able to book a 2 night stay using Q4 certs, transfered the certs to my sons name and booked a room for 4 adults. My son is going up 3 buddies to ski, can't imagine what that room will look like after 2 days, I'll report on how they are treated. Thanks ghostrider for the report.

Ill be going at the end of march, also on free night certificates that I have handy :)

Ill let everybody know how it went.

Does this hotel offer ski storage or you have to store all the equipment off site?

Greg

Just keep it in the room, I have never not kept my stuff in any places that I stayed at Breck

Going next week on an AXON. Figured I'd grab it before this property switches to the premium-only nonsense...

Will report back. Thanks for the reports!

Loved it!!

In a nutshell: This place is about 30 seconds from the base of Peak 9. We rented our gear onsite for reasonable prices, also I got exactly the ski I wanted (K2 Burnin' Luv, for anyone interested). It was literally a walk out the door and across the parking lot before we were headed downhill. The gear lockers are on the ground floor next to the garage; free but you have to put down a $25 key deposit - refunded when you return the key.

There are ways to avoid the two-elevator jaunt. We were on the 7th floor of the Aspen side of the hotel (closer to the ski shop and the slope entrance.) As far as we could tell only those on higher floors had to take another elevator. Since our only real complaint about the place was the slowness of the one small elevator, we took the stairs most of the time anyway. I'd actually recommend this - try to get a lower floor so you're not standing there waiting around.

The rooms weren't nicest I've seen but it was far from a dump. Nice new carpet, very comfortable bed and pillows, nice furniture. We didn't get an upgrade and were in the standard AXON reward room, but it was huge - more than enough room for our ten thousand pair of long underwear, boots etc.

The staff was very friendly; we thought the breakfast bar was great, quite a step up from the frozen fruit compote and (horrible, IMO) Lite 'n Fit or whatever it is they try to pass off for yogurt at the Hampton (I'm a vegetarian so it means a lot to me to have real yogurt, not thin gruel flavored with chemicals. The DB had two kinds, both terrific.)

As someone else mentioned, you're also quite close to town. The DB has a free shuttle that will come pick you up but honestly we never used it, since everything is just a short walk away. If you are any kind of fan of Mexican food at all, do not miss Mi Casa - down the hill from the hotel, their corn chowder had me crying for my mother. It was an hourlong wait to get in on a Saturday night but worth every second.

The parking is indeed $20 per night, but it's very convenient in a heated garage with elevator access direct from our floor (no two-elevator stop needed, and no long walk out to a snow-covered car in the freezing cold).

This is such a small deal I hesitate to mention it, but it's important to me: This is the only major chain hotel I've ever stayed in that provided a full size room fan. Ventilation is a big deal to me, I can't sleep in a hot stuffy room. The heating was on overdrive at the DB but cracking the window a tad and running the fan made it more than bearable.

We will SO be back. ASAP!

Edited to add: There's plenty of snow thanks to recent storms. No bare spots or rocks that we noticed. Had nice fresh powder two days last week.

Stayed here first week of Jan. Not bad, would stay again.

Disliked-

Cold lobby, 13 below air kept rushing in, entrance heater may have been broken.

Elevators- seemed like most people used the stairs, there didn't even seem to be a service elevator. I stayed on the 5th floor, lobby is 3, so 2 quick flts not bad.

small bathroom.

Take it or leave it:

breakfast buffet- decent, long line at omelete/ waffle cook.

Room quality- 6/10, try to get the 2 bed (king or dbl) with a sofa, extended size room.

Liked-

Staff- Super friendly , courteous. People hit that front desk all day long for cookies, never a problem.

Gym- Pretty good for a hotel

Ski storage- easy access, hotel key, then locker key

Valet- easy in/out, very friendly, easy to work with (can't call down, but never was a big deal)

Location - cross street, walk 50 ft through parking lot, strap on skis, ski down to lift/ ticket office

Discounted pt stay- diamond/ 4 nts- reduced to 136k

3 foot fridge in room.

Staff again- up before breakfast opened, but never a problem to snag a cup of coffee from them and just put it on my breakfast tab later

Buffet- they gave me full comps instead of cold bar certs($ 6 more to upgrade). 2 adults/ 2 children so ran out after 2nd day, asked for more, that's when I found out had the "wrong ones", they gave me the cold bar ones going forward, but no concern with that (16 buffett certs for 4 days). 4 people saved close to $100/day.

5th floor hallway opened up to a grassy area on one side, a hill side, view of mountains on the other. This was fantastic as it made it super easy to walk my dog, especially those 4 am breaks. That alone was the coup the grace.

Pet access- not a lot of dogs there, but had no problem hanging out in the lobby with my german shepherd curled up at the fireplace.

Overall:

Would stay again, nice bargain point usage, served its purpose. Not the Waldorf, but didn't need that.

Advice- Get a low room, and there is an elevator on the other side of the lobby, down by the conference rooms, not sure a lot of people were aware.

Any meaningful upgrades here or is being a gold essentially the same as being a diamond?