This was about our 3rd or 4th time staying in the Vance Creek part of this Hotel.. Location is excellent - ski in, ski out. Kitchen is well equipped. Bathroom, bedding and kitchen have been updated since our last stay in Vance. I prefer to stay in the Chilcoot Lodge building - We've stayed in Chilcoot 5 or 6 times - Chilcoot is similarly well equipped, but it has a full dining room table which seats 6, whereas the Vance Creek builing units just have a kitchen bar with 3 stools. Chilcoot also has a fireplace - not crucial, but very nice. But for this trip, we booked too late and Chilcoot was completely full for our dates, so we went with Vance Creek. Vance and Chilcoot each have their own outdoor hottubs on the roof- very nice! Staff is great.

Our first time to Silverstar and the Vance Creek. The staff was great and anything I asked for they delivered. If it wasn't them fitting us into another buildings hot tub or storing our luggage while we skied on the last day it was their politeness and aim to please. Made a great trip even more enjoyable and we will definetly come back.

Two of us had a one-bedroom (2-bed) suite for a week at Chilcoot Lodge booked and paid for. We were surprised when we went to the “suite” on arrival to find it was simply a cramped 2-bed bedroom, just a kettle and microwave — no kitchen, no full-sized fridge, no stove, no dining and living areas as promised (and paid for). On returning to the reception, the manager (Stephanie) made it clear she knew exactly what accommodation she had just put us in and said she had no suites available at the Lodge. How, I wonder, did she think we were going to prepare and eat our meals with no kitchen, no cooking and dining things, etc.? Were we just supposed to pitch out all our groceries and head to the restaurants in the village for every meal?

I understand mix-ups and errors happen. But Stephanie took the experience to a new level. There was no apology, no acceptance of responsibility, no “we messed up”! In fact, she tried to somehow turn the blame back on us and our ski club. Initially she said she might be able to find some alternative accommodation on the periphery of the resort, but it would entail a long walk or taking a shuttle back-and-forth to The Village and Chilcoot Lodge where the rest of our group was staying. She then withdrew into her office and kept us waiting in the lobby for 2.5 hours. Through all this, there was no indication she had any thought of rectifying the situation.

After 2.5 hours, she sent her assistant on the reception, James, out with the keys for a suite that while not exactly what we had booked and paid for, at least came a lot closer than the cramped bedroom she had originally expected us to take.

My advice for the people at the top of Vance Creek Property Management who manage the Chilcoot Lodge would be:

--It might help to understand that when you accept a reservation and full payment for a particular accommodation option, it comes with a responsibility to provide it.

--Maybe think about hiring individuals to manage the reservations/reception function whose natural disposition is to honour the responsibilities above and to do so with enthusiasm and a smile.

There was one bright spot in this whole unfortunate experience. The two young assistants on the reception, James and Matt, were very helpful and understanding.

And as a post-script, two days after the check in, Russell Haubrich, the General Manager of Vance Creek, met me to debrief on our experience. He seemed to understand that what we had been put through was not acceptable. And he offered to buy us a dinner in one of their restaurants — a nice gesture, that we appreciated – even though in the end we did not take him up on it.

Let’s hope Vance Creek finds a way to make sure future guests don’t have a similar experience to ours.