Banff Aspen Lodge

first of all a special shoutout to Rodney at desk who made our visit great. we arrived in dark after driving through challenging thunderstorm. he was immediately kind and helpful and later offered excellent suggestions on where to eat, hikes and more. hotel was in a great location and breakfast was much better than most but it was rodney at the front desk they really made the place special Read less

We had a lovely two day stay here and wished we could have stayed longer. Banff is a great place to visit and this hotel is right on the main street, although a little way up from the main shops and restaurants. It is easily walkable though. And there are busses if you don't fancy the walk. We parked our car at the back of the hotel and they were very accommodating about letting us park early before we were able to check-in. We had a room at the front of the hotel with a balcony. Getting up in the mornings and wandering out to check the weather and the views was amazing. The bed was very comfortable and everything was lovely and clean. There was a kettle, which us Brits always appreciate and cutlery, glasses and mugs. So we spent one evening eating in our room with things we'd bought from the supermarket round the corner, and watching TV. The bathroom was also excellent, with two sinks and really good shower. We also had breakfast included. The staff in the breakfast room were friendly and helpful. There was lots of food to choose from. All in all, a great hotel and I would thoroughly recommend. Read less

Super modern hotel in the heart of Banff with excellent comfy rooms and beds offering free parking and breakfast included. Vibrant coffee shop with plaza seating in inside and out near reception and small central courtyard with plunge pool, sauna and seating close to heater for reading, playing cards or just chilling. Staff were extremely friendly and would recommend anyone visiting Banff to stay here. Read less

This hotel is located a few blocks away from the main downtown area. I would say about a 3-5 minute walk. There are no restaurants onsite, but there is a cafe on the ground floor. You do get free breakfast every morning from 6:30am-10am. It's not a very big space, but was not full when we went on Labor Day weekend. You do get free parking with 2 areas to park. There's underground parking, which has about 20 spaces and gate automatically opens when close. Then there's parking available in back, with covered and non-covered spaces. Upon walking in, the lobby is not very big, but there are some seats available for you to sit at and there's an area with a fireplace with seats surrounding it. Check in was pretty quick and informative as they can also book your activities. The building has only 3 floors with a very small elevator. Not the fastest, but since it's only 3 floors, the stairs are an option also. They have a pretty good sized jacuzzi, a small cold plunge pool, dry sauna and a steam room. There are men & women restrooms and an area with clean dry towels. The jacuzzi hours are 9am-10pm. Most of the time, it was empty or maybe 2 people in it. And since this hotel isn't very big, it was never crowded at all. The room that we were booked in was a 2 queen street view. It came with a balcony, which we didn't use, with a couple of chairs outside. I am able to hear the road noise, but luckily, Banff doesn't get. a lot of traffic, it's tolerable. The room is separated in to 2 sections almost like a co-ed dorm room. When you walk in the door, the bed is right there, then you walk past the bathroom/sink area and then get to the other queen bed. The 2nd queen bed area is much larger in space and has a chair and table and a full length mirror. There's a small fridge that was working when we were here, but had an odor of food that's gone bad. Not sure what it was as it was empty when I inspected it. It worked pretty well and kept our drinks cold. There's a safe that's pretty big that you can store a 16" MacBook Pro in it with no issues. The clearance in this thing was probably about 6"-7" high. There's also a Nespresso coffee maker with pods and tea in a draw right below it. A hot water kettle for your teas. They provide you with 2 robes that are pretty hard tbh. There are no microwaves though. The WiFi here is adequate with 25-30mbps down and 15-18mbps up. The breakfast was ok and there are servers that will refill your coffee/drinks. Here are some of the food items: toast, hard boiled eggs, fresh fruit, yogurt, scrambled eggs, tater tots, beef sausage, chicken sausage, oatmeal & cereal. The food is not the best, but good enough to fuel you for the day. Plus it's free. The bathroom here is on the small side and the door pretty much barely clears the toilet when you open it. It's a shower stall. When you open the door, make sure you clear the floor of the floor mat as the door will catch it. The AC in the room doesn't get cold, even when I have it at 64 degrees. It's pretty loud, but works. We really needed it as it was about 75-80 degrees while we were here. Overall, would I stay here again, maybe depending on the price. But you do get a lot here. I just wished the bathrooms were a bit bigger. I don't mind that the 2 beds are in separate areas. I think this actually could be a good thing. Both areas had their own TV's. Read less

Do not stay at this hotel if you value your life. The lock on the bathroom was faulty and would not let you out of the bathroom once you were in it. We immediately reported this to the front desk upon check-in. We advised the front desk we would be out of the room traveling in the area for the day and they could fix the lock. That night, when one of us took a shower and the others were sleeping, the person was locked in the bathroom with no way out. After struggling for 30 minutes trying to get out and in the hopes of not waking up the three other people staying in the room, the person finally had to bang feverously on the door and wall in the hopes of waking up the other hard sleepers. Finally, someone woke up and they too struggled to get the door open but were finally able to open the door. The next morning, this was reported to the front desk and just short of almost laughing, they shrugged it off but did say they would tell maintenance. An hour later, in the hopes of talking to the general manager, the person went to the front desk again and still no manager on site. In reporting it to the next person, they really didn't seem to think it was that big of a deal either. Needless to say, don't stay here. Beyond the door issue, they have a convoluted breakfast system where you must have a one time use card to be admitted into the 'free' breakfast. Additionally, the parking garage has very limited spaces for the size of the hotel and all access to your rooms is open to outside weather. If it's freezing cold or raining, you will be subjected to the weather as you traverse from your room to the lobby or anywhere else. Needless to say, this is not the hotel you want to stay at. They are not responsible when it comes to guest safety, their General manager is never there nor any other member of management. Right beside this hotel on both sides are much nicer places to stay. Heck, there are endless better places to stay in Banff with hotels that surely care about their guest and are responsive to safety concerns. Read less