Deer Lodge

Short walk to Lake Louise, very quiet

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Lake Louise at Deer Lodge. We parked at check in and didn’t use our car again until we left 3 days later. Walk a few blocks to the lake for hiking and canoe trip. Buy your Park shuttle to moraine lake in advance - then just walk down to lake Louise and take shuttle to moraine lake and back. We really liked the staff and vibe at deer lodge - very relaxed and fun. We ate all our meals in the restaurant or lounge - servings were large and we just had 2 meals. Disappointment was the hot tub was broken. We booked a double room in the old section - it aligned with expectations, but you could consider spending more on new room.

Great location and close to Lake Louise. Great pricing.

The unit is old and not suitable for people with mobility issues. There are many steps up and down throughout. There are no elevators,the halls are narrow and the parking lot is uneven and unpaved. Despite asking for handicapped space we were given a room on the second floor far from the entrance. The property also advertises being on Lake Louise and it is not.

Not good value for money its over price for what you get cold room one plug socket that doesn't work no heating and a very small room . You can lie on the bed and your hands can touch the wall. The carpet was sticky

It was good but downfall was when checking out, the front desk argued that the stay had not been paid even though it was prepaid. As much as we provide evidence that it had been paid from hotel app, little assistance given to resolve this. We had to provide him with hotel.com number to call to eventually prove that all had been settled. I understand if he is in training but would be much appreciated if he could show some initiatives/ interest to resolve rather than insisting ONLY that we need to make pymt.

The location and service are excellent. The staff was great in both the hotel and the restaurant/bar. You can tell that they really enjoy working together. The facilities are dated and kind of like an old-school lodge which has some charm. Everything was very clean. It felt like ownership is skimping a bit too much on some maintenance. (e.g. ice machine looked very old and did not work, the rooftop hot tub was "permanently out of service.") Would still recommend because of location and restaurant. Food was excellent. Great to be able to walk straight to your hotel room after a day of hiking above Lake Louise! Also great to be able to walk up to the lake at sunset when it wasn't as crowded.

Deer Lodge is a trade off. Not sure we’d stay again, but here’s my honest take. Overall the location was great and limited reliance on driving around the lake but considering you cannot get to Moraine with private vehicles not sure you need more than a night or two here. Pros: 5 min walk from Lake Louise so you don’t have to deal with parking, but that’s where the positives end. Nice bar and bar tender. Bed was comfortable. Not super expensive and breakfast was included. Cons: Cannot emphasize enough how creepy the hallways are - looks like the shining. Very tired hotel in major need of an update. Breakfast was brutal. Never had a full set of clean cutlery, couldn’t get milk for coffee, ran out of eggs or warm food very quickly and did not replenish. We ate when they opened at 7 or later by 8 and still had the same issues. Recommend going to a cafe for fuel for the day. The bathroom in the room was super tight. No robes but towels a good size. Fried my hair dryer on the electricity. No fan in the bathroom - the steam from the shower set off the fire alarm! No one came to check on us! Also, the bedroom locks automatically, but there’s no extra chain or security! Food otherwise: Dinner in the dining room was ok. The chicken was undercooked - very pink! When asked they said they don’t use butter to make it healthy so they undercook it (???) Recommend going into the town for lunch or dinner.

The location is great! We are just walk away from Lake Louise. This is one thing that is very nice booking on nearby hotel so you can go to the lake when the crowd is not yet there. The hotel is rustic and clean. The breakfast is okay, it is the same everyday.

Stayed for one night in a Deluxe Double room with balcony in the “new” part of the hotel, which itself dates roughly from the 1960s and it shows. I don’t give poor ratings lightly, but being by far the most expensive night on our 12-day trip at $432 I feel it appropriate to compare it against other similarly priced hotels, such as the excellent Westin in Whistler. Spoiler alert - it’s not good news! We arrived late and tired after a very long drive (and having lost an hour to MDT) to find the car park, and overflow car park almost completely full. My partner has a disability that prevented her walking a distance over an uneven unmade car park in the dark, but fortunately we were able to use one of the “parking prohibited” bays on querying this with reception. Another thing to note is that even the newer part of the building has no lift access to upper floors, so not ideal for those with limited mobility. Our room was on the third floor, and was a decent size and reasonably comfortable - probably much more so than those in the older part of the building from what I’ve seen. However, at this price point that’s where the compliments end. There was no TV and Wi-Fi next to useless, but you might forgive that due to the remote location. Perhaps that’s why the lights would also flicker occasionally. There was no water in the room, yet there was a sewing kit (does anyone actually use these?). No room service, and no option to get anything to eat if you arrived late as we did. Sliding doors to our balcony were absolutely filthy. Even the peeling hotel logo stickers applied to them didn’t look like they’d been touched since the 1980s. Another curious feature was duvets on beds instead of sheets. Although the room had been modernised in recent years the makeover seemed to be limited to a few items of furniture and fabrics. The building itself was largely unchanged with thin walls, original doors and dated bathrooms. Really, I’d expect better. Breakfast was included in the price but a buffet only, and a very poor offering at that. Better choice at the budget chain hotels we stayed at on the same trip. Although the breakfast room was less than half full it was very difficult to get near the buffet at times - we almost gave up. A really lovely old building of character, and reminiscent of times gone by before the dawn of mass tourism. It’s about as close as you’ll get to the famous lake too unless you can justify $1500+ for the Fairmont. There’s so much potential to turn this building into a memorable place to stay, but it just feels unloved and almost as though it’s current owners are simply trying to capitalise on it’s location in a major tourist hotspot but with the bare minimum outlay. Of course the problem is that there aren’t many options in the local area for the sheer number of visitors coming here, who are faced with paying obscene prices or long drives to the nearest alternatives. I won’t be back.