Tyler R.
Yelp
These five star reviews need to tone it back a little. I'm not saying the hotel was bad, but five stars for a hotel in Aspen would land you at the St. Regis, spending no less than $600 a night at a very top-notch place.
I spent two weeks here, attending the Aspen Ideas Festival for work. This means I spent two weeks in a hotel room. Repeat: Two Weeks. Hotel Room.
Conclusions:
Expedia's 2.5 star rating is accurate. The overall feel of the hotel is much more motel than anything else. The lobby is disconnected from the rooms, and you always walk outside to get inside, if that makes sense to you.
The hallways leading to the rooms are very dark - so dark that I had trouble finding the key slot in the middle of the day. My room was a good size, but had this weird smell. I went into another room or two, same smell. Kind of a musty-aged-hard to put your finger on smell, but it never left, despite my windows being open a good amount of the time. Not a bad smell - but a smell nonetheless.
The room was clean, the beds were comfortable, water pressure was decent, and linens were nice. The cleaning staff made a habit of drowning the furniture in wood polish nightly, so much so that the wooden surfaces turned into this seemingly frictionless nonsense land in which all items slid around way too much. I ended up wiping a lot of it off with a damp towel so my Mac wouldn't slide off the desk every time I opened it.
The A/C is in the wall, and never really seemed to shut off (It was on auto). I had it set on 68 and it buzzed and hummed all night long. I don't think it was broken, but I never really could tell what temperature it was in the room. Never hot, just never cold enough to get the unit to shut off.
There is a fridge/sink/microwave setup, but the microwave takes up 90% of the main counter. The extra sink was nice to clean a few things (mainly my protein shake bottle) and the microwave came in handy when I got the flu (funnn...) and microwaved some soup from the grocery store a few times.
The pool was nice, heated to what felt like 88 or so degrees every day, so even when the temperature dropped 28 degrees the instant the sun dipped behind the mountains, it was nice to go in. The hot tub was also always on, which was a nice daily relaxation activity after working the festival all day. The hotel staff did a great job of cleaning the pool, as my time in Aspen corresponded with hilarious accuracy to the peak of their "cottonwood is falling from the sky like snow" season, so after a day of "snow" the pool looked like it had cotton balls lining the top. The hot tub was covered most of the time so much of the white allergy balls avoided it completely.
The gym...what?! No gym! They do offer 20% off passes to Jean-Robert's Gym, but Hotel Aspen sadly has no workout facilities on their property. Boo.
Wifi - free, but slow. The fast(er) wifi was $8.95 a night, so I stuck with the slow one.
Speaking of free, the bikes out front are also free. The range of time I could use one depended on who I asked - anywhere from "about an hour" to "bring it back before the sun goes down". I ended up getting a WeCycle pass, so I only used the free ones once or twice but they definitely came in handy.
Breakfast was free, included with the room. It was the same thing every day, but they did provide bagels, toast, deli meats, eggs, bacon/sausage, fruit, coffee, and juice, thus mitigating my need to seek breakfast elsewhere. Good, not amazing - more convenient than anything.
The staff was nice - very nice. I got a good number of packages delivered to me while I was there, and most of the time they made their way to my room while I was working. They were happy to help with my transportation, and the shared shuttle with the Molly Gibson came in handy some mornings.
I was in Aspen for two weeks. I had a roof over my head, running water, conditioned air, and I didn't pay for the room. Should I return next year, this place won't be on the top of my list, but it for what it was and what I needed it for - not bad.