COME WITH LOW EXPECTATIONS.

COME WITH LOW EXPECTATIONS.

Three friends and I went up to Avon, CO (from NM) for the Tough Mudder event. We initially booked two rooms online since none of the three-bedroom units were available. I emailed the lodge and asked them to contact me if any large units opened up. I received an email within an hour that they'd accomodate us, which I really appreciated. However- after that it was all down hill.

I was told to call the reservations desk to book the room, and after trying a half-dozen times over three hours (even requesting a manager), I finally got a call back to book the room. The email confirmation was messed up and honestly we weren't even sure we'd have a place to stay when we showed up. Cancelling the initial reservation was equally bad and we figured we'd get charged for both and have to argue with them about the cancellation.

When we arrived, we were told we couldn't check in because their computers crashed. So we went into the sports shop and chatted with a guy who lovingly dubbed his place of employment "The Crusty". We laughed at his comment but we later found out why he gave it that name.

We entered our room to find it over 80 degrees with no AC running. We turned on the one portable unit in the fireplace and called to ask for another and this is what happened - the front desk asked, "do you have an a/c unit in the fireplace area?" - we said yes, and then they hung up on us! The back rooms never dropped below 80 even with the loud box fans running constantly and the sliding door opened in the morning to let the cool air in.

We also requested a relocation since our room was overwhelmed with the smell of the Subway restaurant that we were right above. We figured the room might be that hot because it's above the ovens. The smell of bread got old real quick, so we walked across the street to Walgreens to buy some air fresheners. Three of them didn't even affect the overall smell.

The kitchen was decent, although there weren't any coffee filters in the cabinet. The TV in the back room didn't work. When we checked the plug, the lights in the room began to flicker so we decided to stop touching it so we didn't inadvertantly start a fire or burn up the outlet. The shower heads were terrible, then internal doorway blocked the kitchen, the hot tubs were in a weird location that made you feel like you were "on-display" to everyone walking back and forth from their rooms. The pools were small, the overall layout of the lodge was ridiculous - a plethora of stairways (some that lead to nothing), elevated walkways that didn't have safety rails, walls of doors that were three-stories tall - we joked that David Bowie was going to pop out of a corner somewhere (if you've seen the movie Labyrinth).

There were only a few upsides- the indoor fireplace areas (little social areas) looked inviting, there was ping pong and fooseball, and there was a gas firepit by the outdoor pool. I appreciated having a balcony to get some fresh air too.

When we went to check out, we each wanted to pay our portion of the room but apparently my card was already charged before we checked out, so they had to figure out how to refund part of the room to my card and then charge the other people who shared the room.

If you come in with low expectations, you'll be fine. I assume the nicer lodges in the area are significantly more expensive.