Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise

Wow! What an absolutely beautiful hotel in an amazing setting! We were expecting something special from the chateau and we certainly got special! I’m sure every staff member must have been on numerous customer service courses as everyone we asked would always go an extra mile to help eg as we were looking for somewhere to have a coffee while waiting for our room a super friendly lady of Indian origin asked if we were looking for something. She then went out of her way to take us up to the residents lounge , with free drinks and games and jigsaws, although maybe this should have been mentioned during the check in process….. We also received a gorgeous surprise with a lake view room upgrade to mark our 40th wedding anniversary and also a bottle of Prosecco in the room along with a delicious cream cake! The room was absolutely beautiful with a stunning view over the lake and the bed and pillows were sumptuous! Loads of great hikes into the hills from the doorstep and many guided walks if we’d had more time. The only downside to this fantastic hotel is the swimming pool. For a hotel with approximately 400-500 rooms I’m guessing, the pool is very small and one of the days we visited, was completely crowded children and floating toys. This did not detract in any way from our super special experience. Read less

If you are a member of the ACCOR program, and have stayed here in the last 6 months, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND verifying the accuracy of your points posted!!! I hate to have to resort to airing my dirty laundry, but I have received no satisfaction with Accor or CLL hotel management regarding a recent stay and inaccuracy in my points. I stay at this hotel OFTEN. 10 nights this ski season, and 50 lifetime nights. I have stayed at many Fairmont properties, but this one can NOT get my loyalty points right. 4 out of the last 6 stays have been inaccurate, of course posting LESS points than earned. One of these stays in particular, I emailed Accor who verified with the hotel that the points are correct, despite them not being able to give me a breakdown of points earned (dining, hotel, spa, etc). I emailed the hotel front desk prior to my next stay, asking them to forward my concern to the general manager, but I heard nothing. I then stayed at the hotel after this error and Maain (front office manager) apologized profusely and promised to look into the error. More than a week later and I have received no communication from CLL, and my points remain uncorrected. Exhibit A Spend: room 270, room 270, dinner 250, dinner 170, breakfast 35, massage 229, massage 229, Basin 100, Basin 100. Total $1653. None of this is taxes, resort fees, tips/gratuities. Exhibit B Accor app: 1870 status points, 3291 reward points Exhibit C Accor online calculator, platinum status: 2580 status points, 4540 reward points Read less

Excellent hotel, clean and well maintained, lovely staff, very helpful and friendly. Great views of Lake Louise. Very good amenities, shops and a good variety of restaurants. We ate in Alpine Social, the food was tasty and well cooked, reasonable prices and really lovely staff! Shout out to Kieran and the two English girls (sorry didn't catch your names) who gave good service and were really friendly. Read less

My family stayed at the Fairmont Lake Louise during my daughter's spring break this past week. It's a beautiful hotel perfectly situated on the edges of a gorgeous Lake Louise. Our family was also blown away by the top-notch, enthusiastic service from the service team at the hotel. We've met friendly staff members at lots of hotels before, but at the Fairmont Lake Louise, the number of super helpful, exuberant staff members is so way beyond the norm. To us, this amazing team just reset the bar for luxury hotels. We want to give props to these folks: * Fern, who was at the Fairmont Gold Reception when we checked in. Fern is like a friendly energizer bunny! * Enrique - our shuttle driver who would take us back and forth to Lake Louise Ski Resort. Enrique's enthusiasm for living in Banff and for working for the Fairmont Lake Louise where he loves to interact with its hotel guests made us realize that this hotel does a great job of making their employees feel like family. Enrique is a good guy! * Revinder - at Gold Reception. Revinder helped me book a table at Lakeview Lounge, and followed through on a special request I had for nabbing a particular table there (in front of a historic window). Revinder followed up with me to make sure it happened. It's all about the little details and Revinder delivered! * Romeo - the omelette chef in the Fairmont Gold lounge. OMG, this guy is like Enrique... he loves what he does, he loves Banff, he loves delivering A+ services to his guests at the Fairmont. * Joe - our waiter at the Lakeview Lounge, super friendly and attentive! * Mark - our waiter at Basin, super friendly! * Devin - my masseuse - If you need deep tissue massage with really strong pressure, Devin's your guy. Plus, he gave me lots of tips on good restaurants and things to do around Banff. In short, kudos to the GM at Fairmont Lake Louise, because you have established a culture that has developed a friendly, attentive team, and our family really felt special and seen whenever we saw a staff member. We highly recommend the hotel to everyone, as our family just had a memorable vacation we'll remember for years. Read less

This resort is very nice with updated rooms and common areas. The location is also very scenic and relaxing. The food was generally good and there is a nice choice of onsite restaurants to suit various tastes and levels of formality. There is a 24h coffee shop which is convenient and appreciated. The gym and pool are disappointing. They are small and outdated and not adequate for this calibre of establishment. The hotel seems to have spent a lot of money on the “Basin Glacial Water” spa experience which costs $275 per person for three hours. I imagine most guests would prefer a nice, regular pool with a view (maybe indoor/outdoor as is done at other mountain resorts). The primary shortcoming of this resort is the variable level of service. Some staff were extremely helpful and pleasant such as the waitstaff at breakfast. Other times, there were multiple misses. For example, when we checked-in, we were told that despite reserving and paying the fee to guarantee connecting rooms, this was not available until the next day so we had to move our stuff from one room after the first night. They offer a text service to communicate with the hotel staff but I estimate I never received a response 25% of the time. The ski valet does not work well. They store equipment in two different places, one of which is often not attended to by staff. Walking back and forth between these two locations in ski boots is annoying. Also, there is no room where guests can put on their boots and store shoes to avoid having to walk in ski boots from their room, which can be a long way. At the Fairmont in Banff, guests’ boots and skis are kept in a large room - you arrive and are given your boots, skis, and poles and leave your regular shoes. The exit to the ski shuttle is directly outside this room. I wish they could replicate this at the Lake Louise property. On one occasion, I asked the concierge for some information and was handed a pamphlet and told to “check the website” without any further offer of assistance. I’m quite sure I got food poisoning from a room service dinner. You can never know for sure but I’m a physician so I’m quite sure that’s what happened. I let the hotel know what occurred and what I ate (via text), not expecting any type compensation but as a courtesy to the kitchen and other guests. No response was received. While checking out I called for our car to be brought from the valet parking. We waited about 30 minutes and when it hadn’t arrived, the valet staff told me “sorry, we forgot”. It also took 30 minutes for bell staff to collect our bags. I was only sent the invoice for one room, necessitating a follow-up email to get the second one. Overall, the checkout process took an hour. Lastly, I asked for a late checkout and was told it was not possible. I am a Platinum ALL member and booked via an Accor STEP/preferred partner which is supposed to provide priority for late checkouts. I know late checkouts are not guaranteed (except through Amex FHR) but I think extending checkout by at least an hour would not have been too much to accommodate. Overall, the resort could be great but with the issues above, it barely meets a “good” rating. Read less