We were a family of five, including two children, 10 months and 7 years old.
This is not a hotel for children, no lounge to relax in, and the dining room too small. Meals in two sittings.
There is no menu for children, and definately not for babies. The menu is varied. No famous Canadian breakfast and the sausage sandwich for one morning was a little strange.
On the cleanliness side this hotel scores a big fat NIL.
In our 14 day stay,the carpet in our room was not hoovered once and even at requests were told that it was not hotel policy to hoover rooms, even though we could hear the corridors outside our room being hoovered daily??
The staff are friendly and do what they can but on Mondays they all take the day off and you fend for yourselves. Not what I wanted to hear with a baby in tow.
Would we stay there again?..........That's a definate....NO!!!!!!!!!!!
Would we recommend?.................Again a definate.....NO!!!!!!!!!!

We were a family of 5 staying at the Banff Avenue Inn over New Year. Our experience was mixed. We found the rooms spacious and they had everything we needed - chairs, table, TV etc. and the beds were very comfortable (although we agree with others it could do much better on the cleanliness side!), the food was of a good quality and the menu selections varied. Breakfast was very basic by Canadian standards. It was disappointing though that the dinner times changed - sometimes 6 pm (too early after a day on the slopes) to 8.30 (verging on being too late). On two occassions we were unable to get our menu choice as the food had run out despite having ordered in in the morning. The staff were young and pleasant enough, one girl in particular offered advice and shared ideas. The bar doubled as the dining room and the tables were very close together - not the most comforatble place to relax for a drink in the evenings. The place was friendly and had a relaxed approach - maybe too relaxed on the cleanliness front. All in all we had a comfortable stay although I feel this place has the potential to be much better and could be a real gem with a little more effort.

I read the reviews for the Banff Avenue Inn and was a little dubious to be booking this place.

The bad reviews relate to things that are petty in my opinion.

Yeah .... this place is run by a bunch of young people who are there for a life experience, paid little but get great perks like free meals, accomodation and ski passes.

Yeah, the room could have been a little cleaner since found previous occupiers stuff under the beds.

Yeah, you only get fresh towels half way through the week and you only get complimentary soap and shampoo, etc on the first day.

Let's GET A GRIP NOW !

The rooms had beds to sleep in (most comfortable at that), TV's to watch (tons of channels), hot water and were clean !

The hotel staff were brilliant. Couldn't help you enough and so friendly and considerate.

The food ...... well ...... Dan the Chef ! What can I say but FANTASTIC.

You get a choice in the morning of the evening meal and it was every day faultless.

Plus free wine while you are eating you meal (not at breakfast as that would be just wrong ... !)

The location is perfect, right on Banff ave, a small strole to shops, restaurants and bars ...... 5 mins tops.

BOOK THIS if you are considering it .... you will not be dissapointed !

Thanks Banff Avenue Inn staff for an unforgettable stay ..... I'll be back !

Hope this help !

We stayed here over Christmas and New Year 07/08, and I was pretty concerned over what we might have let ourselves in for given some of the reviews on here. But we had a brilliant time. The staff were charming, always ready to help - they all came from the ski operator company and were all of university age or so. They were lovely and couldn't have made our stay easier. The food was outstanding - really top notch, what I would expect from a good restaurant - and the wine was free-flowing and not bad given it was included in the price! Maybe there has been a change of management since the other reviews were written. They gave us all Molton Brown presents on Christmas Day, and the atmosphere in the Inn the whole time was very friendly and relaxed. Of course not everything was perfect, but then if you want somewhere faultless to stay then you're unlikely to stay in a catered chalet in the first place! Having the food and wine inlcluded meant we could splash out on other things. They did a brilliant job and I thoroughly recommend staying there.